afraid. I feel certain he is Arthur
Northrup Denton."

Seizing Ruth's hand, she led her, unresisting, to meet a tail,
broad-shouldered, smooth-faced man, whose piercing gray eyes constantly
scanned the various persons scattered along the platform. His brown hair
was touched with gray at the temples, and his keen, resolute face
bespoke unfaltering purpose and power.

With Grace to think was to act. She took an impulsive step toward the
tall stranger, confronting him with, "I am Grace Harlowe. I am sure you
are Mr. Denton."

"Yes, I am Arthur Denton, and----"

"This is your daughter, Ruth," declared Grace hurriedly, pushing Ruth
gently forward. An instant later the few persons lingering on the
station platform saw the tall stranger fold the slender figure of Ruth
in a long embrace.

"I was sure you were Ruth's father," declared Grace as, a little later,
they were speeding through the streets of Overton in the taxicab Mr.
Denton had engaged at the station. "The moment I saw you I felt that you
could be no one else."

Ruth sat with her hand in her father's, an expression of ineffable
tenderness on her small face. She was content to listen to him and Grace
without joining in the conversation. Her greatest wish had been
fulfilled and she was experiencing a joy too deep for words. Mr. Denton
explained to them that his long silence had been due to a series of
misadventures that had befallen him on his way from Alaska to San
Francisco. He had received only one letter from Grace and none from
Ruth, as he had left Nome directly after receiving Grace's letter. The
others had evidently reached Nome after his departure and had not been
forwarded to him. The boat on which he had taken passage had been
wrecked and he had barely escaped drowning. He had been rescued by an
Indian fisherman from the icy waters of Bering Sea, and taken to his
hut, where for days he had lain ill from exposure to the elements.

At the earliest possible moment he had embarked for San Francisco, then
journeyed east. He had purposely refrained from telegraphing until
within a day's journey from Overton, fearing that something might occur
to delay his meeting with his daughter.

Ruth, who had already planned to remain in Overton during the summer and
work at dressmaking, smiled in rapture as she heard her father plan a
long sight-seeing trip through the west which would last until time for
her return to college in the fall. They drove with Grace to Way