terested in our old history as to
be wasting precious time out here in the snow, Mr. Sternford."

The challenge was full of pleasant, even delighted greeting. And Bull
snatched his cigar from his lips and bared his head.

It was the voice he had longed to hear for many days. And it rang with
an added charm in his delighted ears. He had turned on the instant, and
stood smiling down into eyes that had never ceased from their haunting.

He shook his head.

"If you'll believe me I wasn't wasting time," he said. "I came out here
for a very definite purpose. I've done the thing I hoped. Do you know I
guessed I'd have to sail to-morrow without seeing you again?"

Nancy's eyes sobered. And without their smile Bull thought he detected a
cloud of trouble in them.

"I didn't know you were sailing to-morrow," she said. "It's just a
chance I couldn't help that let me meet you now."

"You mean you avoided me--deliberately?"

Bull's smile had passed. But there was no umbrage in his manner. The
girl's appeal for him was never so great as at that moment. She had
never been more beautiful to him. He had first seen her in that same
long fur coat, and had gazed into her pretty eyes under the same fur
cap. He was glad she was so clad now. To his mind no other costume could
have so much charm for him.

"Yes."

The simple downrightness of the admission might have disconcerted
another. But its honesty and lack of subterfuge only pleased the man.

"That's what I thought. It's this business standing between your folk
and me?"

Nancy nodded.

"Yes. We are enemies."

"That's so," Bull agreed. "That's the pity of it. If you were on my
side--"

"But I'm not. No." Nancy's denial was almost sharp. It certainly was
hurried. "I'm kind of glad I've seen you, though," she went on. "I've
had it in mind I wanted to say things to you." A smile came back to her
eyes. "You see, there are enemies and enemies. There's the enemy you can
regard well. There's the enemy you can hate and despise. Well, I just
want to say we're enemies who don't need to hate and despise--yet. I
don't know how things'll be later. Maybe you'll learn to hate me good
before we're through. But that's as maybe. I'm going to do my work for
all I know for my folks. I'm going to be in this fight right up to my
neck. I've been warned that way. Well, that being so, I'm going to fight
without looking for quarter, and I shall give none. That sounds tough,
doesn't it? But I mean