an count on that," replied Agatha with a smile, as she
rose to rejoin Mrs. Hastings.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE LANDING

The ice among the inlets on the American side of the North Pacific broke
up unusually early when spring came round again, and several weeks
before Wyllard had expected it the _Selache_ floated clear. The crew had
suffered little during the bitter winter, for Dampier had kept the men
busy splicing gear and patching sails, and they had fitted the schooner
with a new mainmast hewn out of a small cedar. None of the sailors had
been trained as carpenters, but men who keep the sea for months in small
vessels are necessarily handy at repairs, and they had all used ax and
saw to some purpose in their time.

Wyllard was satisfied when they thrashed the _Selache_ out of the inlet
under whole mainsail in a fresh breeze, and when evening came he sat
smoking near the wheel. He was in a contemplative mood as the climbing
forests and snow-clad heights dropped back astern. He wondered what his
friends were doing upon the prairie, and whether Agatha had married
Gregory yet. It seemed to him that it was, at least, possible that
Agatha was married, for she was one to keep a promise, and it was
difficult to believe that Gregory would fail to press his claim.
Wyllard's face grew grim as he thought of it, though this was a thing he
had done more or less constantly during the winter. He fancied that he
might have ousted Gregory if he had remained at the Range, for perhaps
unconsciously Agatha had shown him that she was not quite indifferent to
him; but that would have been to involve her in a breach of faith which
she would probably always have looked back on with regret. In any case
he could not have stayed to press his suit. He knew that he would never
forget her, but it was not impossible that she might forget him. He
realized also, though this was not by comparison a matter of great
consequence, that the Range was scarcely likely to prosper under
Gregory's management, but that could not be helped, and after all he
owed Gregory something. It never occurred to him that he was doing an
extravagant thing in setting out upon the search that he had undertaken.
He felt that the obligation was laid upon him, and, being what he was,
he could not shrink from it.

A puff of spray that blew into his face disturbed his meditations, and
when a little tumbling sea splashed in over the weather bow, he helped
the others to haul do