d that the Girl uttered, the iron had entered deeper into
Johnson's soul. Up to the present time he had tried to regard his
profession, if he looked at it at all, from the point of view which he
inherited from his father. It was not, in all truthfulness, what he
would have chosen; it was something that, at times, he lamented; but,
nevertheless, he had practised it and had despoiled the miners with but
few moments of remorse. But now, he was beginning to look upon things
differently. In a brief space of time a woman had impelled him to see
his actions in their true light; new ambitions and desires awakened, and
he looked downward as if it were impossible to meet her honest eye.

"An' that's what aches you," the Girl was now saying. "There ain't one
o' them men workin' for themselves alone--the Lord never put it into no
man's heart to make a beast or a pack-horse o' himself, except for some
woman or some child." She halted a moment, and throwing up her hands
impulsively, she cried: "Ain't it wonderful--ain't it wonderful that
instinct? Ain't it wonderful what a man'll do when it comes to a
woman--ain't it wonderful?" Once more she waited as if expecting him to
corroborate her words; but he remained strangely silent. A moment later
when he raised his troubled eyes, he saw that hers were dry and
twinkling.

"Well, the boys use me as a--a sort of lady bank," presently she said;
and then added with another quick change of expression, and in a voice
that showed great determination: "You bet I'll drop down dead before
anyone'll get a dollar o' theirs outer The Polka!"

Impulsively the road agent's hand went out to her, and with it went a
mental resolution that so far as he was concerned no hard-working miner
of Cloudy Mountain need fear for his gold!

"That's right," was what he said. "I'm with you--I'd like to see anyone
get that." He dropped her hand and laid his on the keg; then with a
voice charged with much feeling, he added: "Girl, I wish to Heaven I
could talk more with you, but I can't. By daybreak I must be a long ways
off. I'm sorry--I should have liked to have called at your cabin."

The Girl shot him a furtive glance.

"Must you be a-movin' so soon?" she asked.

"Yes; I'm only waiting till the posse gets back and you're safe." And
even as he spoke his trained ear caught the sound of horses hoofs. "Why,
they're coming now!" he exclaimed with suppressed excitement, and his
eyes immediately fastened themselves o