them, and insisted on
being installed as sole nurse forthwith.

Twenty other men would willingly have broken an arm for such a reward;
and the recklessness displayed during the next few days was something
awful. But she saw that too,--little escaped those big blue eyes,--and,
ascribing it to drink, gave a pretty strong lecture on the bibulous
habits of Big Stone Hole, at her next concert.

There was an earnest meeting in the American Bar that night, at which
the following motion was put and carried unanimously: "On and after this
date, any drunken man is liable to be shot at sight, unless his friends
can prove that he has dug over three carats of diamonds during the day."
And then, like other reformers, they went on to more sweeping measures:
"Only knife-fighting to take place in the camp. All disputes with
pistols, unless of a very pressing nature, to be settled out of earshot
of Dan's house." There were even some hints of appointing a closing-time
for the saloon--"it would make the place so much more like home." But
the promoter eventually withdrew his suggestion, as it was justly felt
that such a motion would interfere with the liberty of the subject too
much. But a storm of cheers burst forth when it was proposed to
transfer the diamond-safe from Werstein's keeping to a corner of the new
goddess's shrine.

Even Satan, the cat, joined in the general adoration, and, more favoured
than the rest, enjoyed at times a chaste salute from Miss Musgrave's
ripe-red lips.

Never, in so short a space of time, had a community been more changed
for the better than was that of Big Stone Hole. Never had woman's
humanising influence made itself more clearly felt. The azure cloud
of blasphemy that hung over the workings and the rest of the camp was
replaced again by the normal dust. Each man tried to beautify the inside
of his shanty to the best of his means and ideas, for there was no
knowing when the only "she" would take it into her pretty, capricious
head to pay a call. In this latter line the Scholar had a decided pull.
Education had taught him taste; necessity, handiness; and by aid of
the two he transformed his rude dwelling into something approaching the
rooms in which he used to dawdle away the happy hours, time ago. It was
partly drawing-room, partly curiosity-shop. Cups, saucers, and spoons
appeared as if by magicians' call, and one blazing afternoon the news
flashed round the diamond-pits that Miss Musgrave was "taking