was faintly shown by a quick
glance, but it was so furtive that the subject of her wariness did not
know his face was being scrutinized; and she was quickly convinced that
she was not the cause of his remaining, for he said: "I'll tell you why
I'm anxious about the telegram, and in a hurry to get it."

Gerald Heath had been lazily leaning against the makeshift desk of the
telegrapher, as he waited, and for pastime had whittled the smooth birch
sapling that formed its outer edge. He had chipped and shaved, after the
manner of those to whom a sharp pocket knife and a piece of wood provide
a solace. There had been no conversation, except a few words concerning
the messages. But now he heightened himself to six feet by standing
erect, and took on the outlines of a magnificent physique. His
proportions had not been realized before by the girl at the other side
of the counter. She comprehended, too, that if his somewhat unkempt
condition were changed to one which included a face cleaned of stubbed
beard, a suit of modish clothes to replace the half-worn corduroys, and
the shine of a silk hat and polished boots at his now dusty extremities,
he would become a young gentleman whose disregard might be an
appreciable slight. That was the conclusion which she reached without
any visible sign that her careless eyes were conveying any sort of
impression to her mind. As it was, he looked an unusually burly specimen
of the men to whom isolation from city life had imparted an aspect of
barbarians. Before he had uttered another word she realized that he was
wholly engrossed in the matter of his telegrams, and had no thought of
the individuality of the listener. Not only was she not the thing that
made him wait, but she might as well have been old, ugly, or a man, if
only she had ears to hear.

It was a summer afternoon, and the clear, balmy weather was seasonable.
The removal of protective canvas had left the structure an open shed,
over the front of which hung the boughs of the two trees against whose
massive trunks it leaned. Gerald Heath reached up with both hands and
held the foliage aside.

"Do you get an unobstructed view?" he said. "Now, I've helped lay out
railroads through many a place, where it was a shame to let trains go
faster than a mile a day. I've surveyed routes that ought to provide
special trains for passengers with eyes in their heads--trains with
speed graduated between sixty miles an hour and sixty hours a mile. I