a
greater debt than you ever owed me. You risked your life for me--yes,
for me. You have given up everything to do it. I can't pay you the great
difference. No, never!"

"Yes--yes, you can, if you will, Jen. It's as aisy! If you'll say what I
say, I'll give you quit of that difference, as you call it, forever and
ever."

"First, tell me. Is Val quite, quite safe?"

"Yes, he's safe over the border by this time; and to tell you the truth,
the Riders of the Plains wouldn't be dyin' to arrest him again if he
was in Canada, which he isn't. It's little they wanted to fire at us, I
know, when we were crossin' the river, but it had to be done, you see,
and us within sight. Will you say what I ask you, Jen?"

She did not speak, but pressed his hand ever so slightly.

"Tom Gellatly, I promise," he said.

"Tom Gellatly, I promise--"

"To give you as much--"

"To give you as much--"

"Love--"

There was a pause, and then she falteringly said, "Love--"

"As you give to me-"

"As you give to me--"

"And I'll take you poor as you are--"

"And I'll take you poor as you are--"

"To be my husband as long as you live--"

"To be my husband as long as you live--"

"So help me, God."

"So help me, God."

She stooped with dropping tears, and he kissed her once. Then what
was girl in her timidly drew back, while what was woman in her, and
therefore maternal, yearned over the sufferer.

They had not seen the figure of an old man at the door. They did not
hear him enter. They only knew of Peter Galbraith's presence when he
said: "Mebbe--mebbe I might say Amen!"

THREE OUTLAWS

The missionary at Fort Anne of the H. B. C. was violently in earnest.
Before he piously followed the latest and most amply endowed batch of
settlers, who had in turn preceded the new railway to the Fort, the word
scandal had no place in the vocabulary of the citizens. The H. B. C. had
never imported it into the Chinook language, the common meeting-ground
of all the tribes of the North; and the British men and native-born, who
made the Fort their home, or place of sojourn, had never found need for
its use. Justice was so quickly distributed, men were so open in their
conduct, good and bad, that none looked askance, nor put their actions
in ambush, nor studied innuendo. But this was not according to the new
dispensation--that is, the dispensation which shrewdly followed the
settlers, who as shrewdly preceded the railway. And, the dispensa