othing. I'm done for, either way it goes."

Dan Anderson turned a drawn face. "What shall I do?" he asked at
length again.

For once Learned Counsel was wise. "In this sort of crisis," said he,
"one does not consult a lawyer. He decides for himself, and he lives
or dies, succeeds or fails, wins or loses forever, for himself and by
himself, without aid of counsel or benefit of clergy." He stood and
watched the iron go home into the soul of a game man. Dan Anderson was
white, but his reply came sharp and stern.

"You're right! Leave me alone. I'll take the case now myself."

They shook hands and separated, not to meet again for days; for Dan
Anderson shut himself up in his cabin and denied himself to all. Gloom
and uncertainty reigned among his friends. That a crisis of some sort
was imminent now became generally understood. At length the crisis
came.

There arrived in town, obedient to the summons of Heart's Desire, the
dusty buckboard driven by Willie the sheepherder. Upon the front seat
with him was Mr. Ellsworth; on the back seat sat Porter Barkley and
Constance. The chief actors in the impending drama were now upon the
stage, and all Heart's Desire knew that action of some sort must
presently follow.

With due decorum, however, all Heart's Desire stood apart, while the
three travellers, dusty and weary, buried themselves in the privacy of
Uncle Jim Brothers's best spare rooms. Then Heart's Desire sought out
Willie the sheepherder.

"Now, Willie," said Doc Tomlinson, "look here--you tell us the truth
for once. There's a heap of trouble goin' on here, and we want to get
at the bottom of it. Maybe you heard something. Now, say, is this
here railroad figurin' on comin' in here, or not?"

"Shore it'll come," said Willie, sagely. "Them folks has got money to
do just what they want. Railroad'll be here in a few days if they feel
like it."

"Maybe _we_ don't feel like it," said Doc Tomlinson, grimly. "We'll
see about that to-night."

"The girl, she's the one," said Willie, vaguely.

"What's that you mean?" commanded Doc Tomlinson.

"The funniest thing," said Willie, "is how things is mixed. Lord John,
he rides on the front seat; and Lord Peter Berkeley,--that's the lawyer
for the railroad,--he rides on the back seat with her, and he sues for
her hand, he does, all the way up from the Sacramentos. Says he to
Lord John, says he, 'Gimme the hand of this fair daughter of thine, and
the treas