he was more than a little
perplexed, for she fancied that the lace she was wearing must have
cost a good deal more than fifteen dollars. Still, she had no wish to
make it evident that he had been extravagant; and, while she
considered the matter, a man appeared in the doorway.

"I guess you two have got to come right out," he said. "What d'you
figure you were asked here for?"

Nasmyth held his arm out, but when Laura would have laid her hand
upon it, the man broke in with a grin.

"No, sir," he said severely, "Miss Waynefleet's going right round. Now
you're coming along with me, and we'll show them how to waltz."

Laura smiled good-humouredly, and he swept her into the dance, while
Nasmyth was seized upon by a girl, who drove him through it much as
she did her brother's steers in the Bush.

"A bump or two don't count for much. What you want to do is to hump
yourself and make things hum," said Nasmyth's partner, when another
couple jostled them.

Nasmyth expressed his concurrence in a gasp, and contrived to save her
from another crash, but when the dance was over, he felt limp, and was
conscious that his partner was by no means satisfied with him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Still, I really think I did what I could."

The girl regarded him half compassionately. "Well," she said, "it
wasn't very much, but I guess you played yourself out building that
blamed dam."

CHAPTER VIII

BY COMBAT

Nasmyth's partner condescended, as she said, to give him another show,
but he escaped from that dance with only a few abrasions, and, though
he failed to obtain another with Laura, he contrived to enjoy himself.
All his Bush friends were not primitive. Some of them had once played
their parts in much more brilliant functions. They had cultivated
tastes, and he had learned to recognize the strong points of those who
had not. After all, kindly hearts count for much, and it was not
unnatural that, like other exiles who have plodded up and down that
rugged land, he should think highly of the hard-handed men and patient
women who willingly offer a night's shelter and a share of their dried
apples, salt pork, and grindstone bread to the penniless wanderer.

What was more to the purpose, a number of the guests at the dance had
swung the axe by his side, and fought the river with him when the
valley was filled with the roar of water.

They had done their work gallantly, when it seemed out of the question
that they would ever