ive them a healthy confidence in
their ability to take care of themselves. Beatrice had a pistol, and she
could shoot it like a man. She loved the solitude of the forest, but she
also knew it was good to hear the sound of a human voice when journeying
the lonely trails.

The frontier had also taught her to judge men. Here foregathered many
types, strong-thewed frontiersmen whose reverence for women surpassed,
perhaps, that of any other class of men on earth, as well as the most
villainous renegades, brutish offspring of the wilds, but she knew them
apart. She realized from the first that this tall woodsman would have
only kindness and respect for her; and that he was to be trusted even in
those lonely forest depths beyond Spruce Pass.

Ben knew the wild beasts of the field better than he knew women, so her
actual reception of the plan was lost to him. He felt that she was not
displeased: in reality the delight and anticipation she felt were beyond
any power of hers to tell. She had been tremendously thrilled and
impressed by his dominance over the wolf. She liked his bright, steady,
friendly eyes; because she was a woods girl her heart leaped at the
sight of his upright, powerful body; but most of all she felt that he
was very near indeed to an ideal come true, a man of terrific strength
and prowess yet not without those traits that women love best in
men,--courage and character and gentleness.

"I'm surely glad I'm going to have a companion," he told her. "I won't
miss Ez--"

But just then remembrance came to him, cutting the word off short. The
letter he carried in his pocket contained certain advice in regard to
silence, and perhaps now was a good time to follow it. There was no need
to tell the people of Snowy Gulch about Ezram and the claim. He
remembered that he had been warned of the danger of claim jumpers.

For an instant his mind seemed to hover at the edge of a more elusive
memory; but he could not quite seize upon it. He only knew that it
concerned the matter in hand, and that it left him vaguely troubled.

"You were saying," the girl prompted him.

"Nothing very important--except how glad I am you are going my way. The
woods are certainly lonesome by yourself. I suppose you'll be willing to
make an early start."

"The earlier the better. I've got a long way to go."

They made their plans, and soon they parted to complete preparations for
the journey. The girl went into her house: Ben took the rifl