nging into a monster trough. When Alan suggested, 'We've seen, and
now maybe we had better be going,' she rose without a word or backward
glance and went with him. But Howard, looking over his shoulder, saw
still other men coming. He himself began to wonder whence they had
come: by now, it seemed to him, both Big Run and San Ramon must have
emptied themselves like bags of wheat slashed with a knife.

They walked swiftly until the din of the gold-seekers was lost to their
ears. Then slowly they strolled on, silence enwrapping them, Helen's
eyes wandering away to the glory of the stars, Howard's contented with
the girl's face. After a while Helen, feeling the intentness of his
look, turned toward him with a strange little smile which came and went
fleetingly. She stopped a moment, still looking at him.

'Your country has done something to me,' she said thoughtfully, 'even
though I have been out here only a few weeks. For one thing, when I
first came I thought that I knew all about men and that they were
pretty much all alike. I am finding out that they are not at all alike
and that I don't understand them.'

'No, they are not all alike, and some men are hard to make out, I
suppose,' he said when she paused.

'Men are more violent than I thought men were nowadays,' she added.
'They are stronger; they are fiercer. I used to think that a girl was
a wretched little coward to be afraid of any man. Now I would be
afraid of many of them I have seen in this land that you like to call
your country.'

He understood that in her brain had formed a vision of his fight with
Devine and Ed True, and that, blurring that image, she was still seeing
the picture of the dark forms rushing down into the gulch. She began
to move on again, and he went at her side making no reply and communing
with his own thoughts. She did not stop again until they came close to
the canvas-walled cabin and saw the light shining wanly through and the
shadows of the men inside. Then she lifted her face so that it was
clear to him in the starlight and said to him slowly:

'I am going in and see if I can help with the wounded men now. I
should have gone at first, I suppose. Maybe there is something I can
do. You wouldn't want them to die, would you?'

'No,' he returned, 'I would not want them to die.'

In the silence which followed he could see that she was seeking to read
his face and that she was very, very thoughtful.

'Tell me something