the manner in which man wrests the coveted treasure from
Nature, the whole process of mining, the powerful electric drills, the
ponderous machinery, the ore deposits in the hard granite. He pointed
out the miners' cabins on the mountainsides, replicas of the rough log
huts in Alaska in which he, himself, had lived. It was all very
interesting and so novel that for the first time in her life Laura felt
the delightful sensation of seeing something new. Time had no longer
any significance to her. The days and weeks sped by so pleasantly that
she gave no thought to returning East. Sometimes she even forgot to
write her weekly letter to Mr. Brockton. She marveled herself that she
could be so happy and contented far away from the alluring glitter of
the Great White Way.

Then all at once the truth dawned upon her, and the revelation came
with the suddenness and force of an unexpected blow. She was in love
with this man. All these weeks, unknown to herself, quite
unconsciously, she had been slowly falling desperately, madly, honestly
and decently in love. The man she left behind in New York, the man to
whom she owed everything, did not exist any more. John Madison was the
man she loved.

At first she tried to laugh it off as being too absurd. She, Laura
Murdock, with her ripe experience of the world and many adventures with
men--to fall in love like a silly, sentimental schoolgirl! It was too
ridiculous. How the Rialto would laugh if they knew. Of course, they
never would know, for there was nothing in it. The Westerner probably
did not care two straws for her. He liked her, of course, or he would
not bother to waste his time with her, but, no doubt, he thought of her
only as a friend, a lively companion who kept him amused. No doubt,
too, he knew her record and secretly despised her. Even if he did not
care for her and told her so--even if he were willing to marry her,
what then? She would be a fool to listen to him. What kind of a life
could he, a penniless scribbler, give her compared with the comforts
and gifts which Willard Brockton was able to shower upon her?

Above all else, Laura had sought to be practical in life. She often
declared that it was one of the secrets of her success. It was late in
the day, therefore, to make a mistake of which only an unsophisticated
beginner could be guilty. Yet, much as she tried to laugh it off and
reassure herself, the matter worried her. When, mentally, she compared
the two men,