re in the town strike twelve and then one, while he still lay
staring up at the dusky ceiling. But his thoughts had taken a
pleasanter road. He had turned over the pages of his life history,
scanned them with a gloomy and critical eye, and cast them with
decisive finality into the waste basket. He was about to begin a new
book, the book of the future. It was pleasant to contemplate what he
and Doris Cleveland together would write on those blank pages. To hope
much, to be no longer downcast, to be able to look forward with
eagerness. There was a glow in that like good wine.

And upon that he slept.

Morning brought him no qualms or indecisions. But it did bring him to
a consideration of very practical matters, which yesterday's emotional
crisis had overshadowed. That is to say, Hollister began to take stock
of the means whereby they two should live. It was not an immediately
pressing matter, since he had a few hundred dollars in hand, but he
was not short-sighted and he knew it would ultimately become so.
Hence, naturally, his mind turned once more to that asset which had
been one factor in bringing him back to British Columbia, the timber
limit he owned in the Toba Valley.

He began to consider that seriously. Its value had shrunk appreciably
under his examination. He had certainly been tricked in its purchase
and he did not know if he had any recourse. He rather thought there
should be some way of getting money back from people who obtained it
under false pretenses. The limit, he was quite sure, contained less
than half the timber Lewis and Company had solemnly represented it to
carry. He grew uneasy thinking of that. All his eggs were in that
wooden basket.

He found himself anxious to know what he could expect, what he could
do. There was a considerable amount of good cedar there. It should
bring five or six thousand dollars, even if he had to accept the fraud
and make the best of it. When he reflected upon what a difference the
possession or lack of money might mean to himself and Doris, before
long, all his acquired and cultivated knowledge of business affairs
began to spur him to some action. As soon as he finished his breakfast
he set off for the office of the "Timber Specialist." He already had a
plan mapped out. It might work and it might not, but it was worth
trying.

As he walked down the street, Hollister felt keenly, for the first
time in his thirty-one years of existence, how vastly important mere
b