filled with a sense of triumphant mastery--the mastery
of ageless experience. And down the great piles there blew a wind of
stirring life, of the composure of great strength, and touched the four,
and the man that mounted now was turned to go. A quick good-bye from him
to all; a God-speed-you from the Honourable; a wave of the hand between
the rider and Shon, and Sir Duke Lawless was gone.

"You had better cook the last of that bear this morning, Pierre," said
the Honourable. And their life went on.

........................

It was eight months after that, sitting in their hut after a day's
successful mining, the Honourable handed Shon a newspaper to read. A
paragraph was marked. It concerned the marriage of Miss Emily Dorset and
Sir Duke Lawless.

And while Shon read, the Honourable called into the tent: "Have you any
lemons for the whisky, Pierre?"

A satisfactory reply being returned, the Honourable proceeded: "We'll
begin with the bottle of Pommery, which I've been saving months for
this."

The royal-flush toast of the evening belonged to Shon.

"God bless him! To the day when we see him again!"

And all of them saw that day.

PERE CHAMPAGNE

"Is it that we stand at the top of the hill and the end of the travel
has come, Pierre? Why don't you spake?"

"We stand at the top of the hill, and it is the end."

"And Lonely Valley is at our feet and Whiteface Mountain beyond?"

"One at our feet, and the other beyond, Shon McGann."

"It's the sight of my eyes I wish I had in the light of the sun this
mornin'. Tell me, what is't you see?"

"I see the trees on the foot-hills, and all the branches shine with
frost. There is a path--so wide!--between two groves of pines. On
Whiteface Mountain lies a glacier-field... and all is still."...

"The voice of you is far-away-like, Pierre--it shivers as a hawk cries.
It's the wind, the wind, maybe."

"There's not a breath of life from hill or valley."

"But I feel it in my face."

"It is not the breath of life you feel."

"Did you not hear voices coming athwart the wind?... Can you see the
people at the mines?"

"I have told you what I see."

"You told me of the pine-trees, and the glacier, and the snow--"

"And that is all."

"But in the Valley, in the Valley, where all the miners are?"

"I cannot see them."

"For love of heaven, don't tell me that the dark is fallin' on your eyes
too."

"No, Shon, I am not growing blind."

"Will yo