of the presence of her man
before she came--through Joan.

For a moment he was disappointed.

But it was only for a moment. He quickly brightened up. A new idea had
occurred to him which narrowed his field of possibilities. This woman
was educated, she belonged to a class he had once known himself. She
would know nothing of the riffraff of this camp. It must be somebody
of the same class, or near it, somebody of education----He drew a
sharp breath, and his wicked eyes lit.

The wildest, the most impossible thought had occurred to him. He
pondered long upon the passage of the trail from Crowsfoot to the
farm. He remembered how she did not desire the "gossip" to
travel--especially to the hills.

Suddenly he hailed his Chinese cook and flung his knife and fork down
upon his plate. In his elation he forgot the heat, the sticky flies.
He forgot his usual custom of abstention during the day. He poured
himself out a long drink of really good whisky, which he gulped down,
smacking his lips with appreciation before flinging his customary
curse at the head of his Mongolian servitor.

He had never had such a morning in his life.

Two of the boys came in for a drink. Such was his mood that he upset
their whole focus of things by insisting that they have it at his
expense. And when a third came along with a small parcel of gold dust
he bought it at its full value.

These were significant signs. Beasley Melford was in a generous mood.
And such a mood in such a man required a lot of inspiration.

But it was not likely to continue for long. And surely enough it
quickly reached its limit, and resolved itself into his every-day
attitude, plus a desire to make up, at the first opportunity, the
losses incurred by his moments of weak generosity.

The heat of the day soon afforded him his desire, for the limp and
sweating miners straggled back into camp long before their usual
working day was ended. And what is more, they came to seek solace and
refreshment under his willing roof.

By the middle of the afternoon the bar was fairly well filled. The
place was little better than a furnace of humid heat. But under the
influence of heartening spirits the temperature passed almost
unnoticed, or at least uncared. Here at least the weary creatures were
called upon for no greater effort than to deal cards, or raise a glass
to their lips and hold it there until drained. They could stand any
heat in the pursuit of such pastimes.

Beasley