life, and you have tried to do almost as much in a
different way since then," he went on. "It is probably easier to bring
a sick man back to health than it is to make him realize his
obligations and to imbue him with the courage to face them when it's
evident that he doesn't possess it. Still, you can't do things of that
kind without results, and I think you ought to know that I belong to
you."

There was a trace of colour in Laura Waynefleet's face, and she
quivered a little under his grasp, but she looked at him steadily, and
read his mind in his eyes. The man was stirred by sudden, evanescent
passion and exaggerated gratitude, while pity for her had, she
fancied, also its effect on him; but that was the last thing she
desired, and, with a swift movement, she shook off his hand.

"Ah!" she said; "don't spoil things."

Her tone was quiet, but it was decisive, and Nasmyth, whose face
flushed darkly, let his hand fall back to his side. Then she rose, and
turned to him.

"If we are to be friends, this must never happen again," she added.

Then they went down the hillside and back to the settlement, where
Nasmyth harnessed the team, which the rancher who lived near
occasionally placed at Waynefleet's disposal, to a dilapidated waggon.
When she gathered the reins up, Laura smiled down on him.

"After all," she reminded him, "you will remember that I expect you to
do me credit."

She drove away, and Nasmyth walked back to his camp beside the dam,
where the men were awaiting the six o'clock supper. He leaned upon a
pine-stump, looking at them gravely, when he had called them
together.

"Boys," he said, "the river, as you know, has wiped out most of the
dam. Now, it was a tight fit for me to finance the thing, and I
don't get any further payment until the stone-work's graded to a
certain level. Well, if you leave me now, I've just enough money in
hand to square off with each of you. You see, if you go you're sure of
your pay. If you stay, most of the money will go to settle the
storekeeper's and the powder bills, and should we fail again, you'll
have thrown your time away. I'd like you to understand the thing;
but whether you stay or not, I'm holding on."

There was silence for half a minute, and then the men, gathering into
little groups, whispered to one another, until Mattawa stood forward.

"All you have to do is to go straight ahead. We're coming along with
you solid--every blame one of us," he said.

A re