edly.

Miss Thompson dropped the spoon. "What impudence!"

"Oh, let him go on--don't mind him," said Estelle. "Let's desert him; I
guess that will make him sorry."

Upon the word they all withdrew, and Rivers smiled. "Good riddance,"
said he.

Miss Baker presently opened the door, and, shaking a letter, said,
"Don't you wish you knew?"

He pretended to hurl a biscuit at her, and she shut the door with a
shriek of laughter.

Mrs. Burke slipped in. Her voice was low and timid, her face sombre.

"I cooked the supper, Jim."

"You did? Well, it's good. The biscuits are delicious." He looked at her
as only a husband should look--intimate, unwaveringly, secure. "You're
looking fine!"

She flushed with pleasure. As she passed him with the tea, he put his
arm about her waist.

"Be careful, Jim," she said, gently, and with a revealing, familiar, sad
cadence in her voice.

He smiled at her boyishly. He was beautiful to her in this mood. "I was
hoping you'd come over and stew something up for me. Hello, there's the
thunder! It's going to rain!"

Another sudden boom, like a cannon-shot, silenced the noise inside for
an instant, and then a sudden movement took place, the movement of feet
passing hurriedly about, and at last only one or two persons could be
heard. When Rivers re-entered the store Bailey was alone, standing in
the door, intently watching the coming storm. It was growing dusk on the
plain, and the lightning was beginning to play rapidly, low down toward
the horizon.

"We're in for it!" Bailey remarked, very quietly. "Cyclone!"

"Think so?" said Rivers, carelessly.

"Sure of it, Jim. That cloud's too wide in the wings to miss us this
time."

A peculiar, branching flash of lightning lay along the sky, like a vast
elm-tree, followed by a crashing roar.

Blanche cried out in alarm.

"Now, don't be scared. It's only a shower and will soon be over," said
Bailey. "Here's a letter for you."

She took the letter and read it hastily, looking often at the coming
storm. She seemed pale and distraught.

"Do you s'pose I've got time to get home now?" she asked, as she
finished reading.

"No," said Rivers, so decidedly that Bailey looked up in surprise.

"Can't you take me home?"

Rivers looked out of the door. "By the time we get this wagon unloaded
and the team hitched up, the storm will be upon us. No. I guess you're
safest right here."

There was a peculiar tone, a note of authority, in his voice