d flush crept into Nasmyth's face.

"Thank you, boys. After that I've got to put this contract through,"
he answered.

CHAPTER VII

LAURA MAKES A DRESS

The frost had grown keener as darkness crept over the forest, and the
towering pines about the clearing rose in great black spires into the
nipping air, but it was almost unpleasantly hot in the little general
room of Waynefleet's ranch. Waynefleet, who was fond of physical
comfort, had gorged the snapping stove, and the smell of hot iron
filled the log-walled room. There was also a dryness in its atmosphere
which would probably have had an unpleasant effect upon anyone not
used to it. The rancher, however, did not appear to feel it. He lay
drowsily in a big hide chair, and his old velvet jacket and evening
shoes were strangely out of harmony with his surroundings. Waynefleet
made it a rule to dress for the six o'clock meal, which he persisted
in calling dinner.

He had disposed of a quantity of potatoes and apples at the settlement
of late, and had now a really excellent cigar in his hand, while a
little cup of the Mocha coffee, brought from Victoria for his especial
use, stood on the table beside him. Waynefleet had cultivated tastes,
and invariably gratified them, when it was possible, while it had not
occurred to him that there was anything significant in the fact that
his daughter confined herself to the acrid green tea provided by the
settlement store. He never did notice a point of that kind, and, if
anyone had ventured to call his attention to it, he would probably
have been indignant as well as astonished. As a rule, however, nobody
endeavours to impress unpleasant facts upon men of Waynefleet's
character. In their case it is clearly not worth while.

"Do you intend to go on with that dressmaking much longer?" he asked
petulantly. "The click of your scissors has an irritating effect on
me, and, as you may have noticed, I cannot spread my paper on the
table. It cramps one's arms to hold it up."

Laura swept part of the litter of fabric off the table, and it was
only natural that she did it a trifle abruptly. She had been busy with
rough tasks, from most of which her father might have relieved her had
he possessed a less fastidious temperament, until supper, and there
were reasons why she desired an hour or two to herself.

"I will not be longer than I can help," she said.

Waynefleet lifted his eyebrows sardonically as he glanced at the
scatt