hilip
lay awake, wondering at the strangeness of this thing that had happened
to him. It was Her hair that he had seen shining this night under the
old spruce, lustrous and soft, and coiled in its simple glory, as he
had seen it last on the night when Chesbro had broken in on them at the
ball. It was very easy for him to imagine that it had been Her face,
with soul and heart and love added to its beauty. More than ever he
knew what had been missing for him now, and blessed Chesbro for his
blundering, and fell asleep to dream of the new face, and to awaken
hours later to the unpleasant realization that his visions were but
dream-fabric after all, and that the woman was the wife of Colonel
Becker.

Chapter III. A Skull And A Flirtation

It was late afternoon when they came into Lac Bain, and as soon as
Philip had turned over the colonel and his wife to Breed, he hurried to
his own cabin. At the door he encountered Buck Nome. The two men had
not met since a month before at Nelson House, and "there was but little
cordiality in Steele to say howdy to 'em," explained Nome, pausing for a
moment. "Deuce of a good joke on you, Steele! How do you like the job
of bringing in an old colonel's frozen wife, or a frozen colonel's old
wife, eh?"

Every fiber in Steele's body grew tense at the banter in the other's
voice. He whirled upon Nome, who had partly turned away.

"You remember--you lied down there at Nelson to get just such a 'job' as
this," he reminded. "Have you forgotten what happened--after that?"

"Don't get miffed about it, man," returned Nome with an irritating
laugh. "All's fair in love and war. That was love down there, 'pon my
word of honor it was, and this is about as near the other thing as I
want to come."

There was something in his laugh that drew Steele's lips in a tight line
as he entered the cabin. It was not the first time that he had listened
to Nome's gloating chuckle at the mention of certain women. It was this
more than anything else that made him hate the man.

Physically, Nome was a magnificent specimen, beyond doubt the handsomest
man in the service north of Winnipeg; so that while other men despised
him for what they knew, women admired and loved him--until, now and then
too late for their own salvation, they discovered that his moral code
was rotten to the core.

Such a thing had happened at Nelson House, and Philip felt himself
burning with a desire to choke the life out of Nome as he