d at the New Westminster landing.

"The boss didn't know," said Coley, approaching the colonel with some
degree of care, "whether you would like to go to the hotel or to his
rooms; you can take your choice. The hotel is not of the best, and he
thought perhaps you could put up with his rooms."

"All right," said the colonel; "I guess they'll suit me."

The colonel made no mistake in deciding for Ranald's quarters. They
consisted of two rooms that formed one corner of a long, wooden,
single-story building in the shape of an L. One of these rooms Ranald
made his dining-room and bedroom, the other was his office. The rest
of the building was divided into three sections, and constituted a
dining-room, reading-room, and bunk-room for the men. The walls of these
rooms were decorated not inartistically with a few colored prints
and with cuts from illustrated papers, many and divers. The furniture
throughout was home-made, with the single exception of a cabinet organ
which stood in one corner of the reading-room. On the windows of the
dining-room and bunk-room were green roller blinds, but those of the
reading-room were draped with curtains of flowered muslin. Indeed the
reading-room was distinguished from the others by a more artistic and
elaborate decoration, and by a greater variety of furniture. The room
was evidently the pride of the company's heart. In Ranald's private room
the same simplicity in furniture and decoration was apparent, but when
the colonel was ushered into the bedroom his eye fell at once upon two
photographs, beautifully framed, hung on each side of the mirror.

"Hello, guess I ought to know this," he said, looking at one of them.

Coley beamed. "You do, eh? Well, then, she's worth knowin' and there's
only one of her kind."

"Don't know about that, young man," said the colonel, looking at the
other photograph; "here's one that ought to go in her class."

"Perhaps," said Coley, doubtfully, "the boss thinks so, I guess, from
the way he looks at it."

"Young man, what sort of a fellow's your boss?" said the colonel,
suddenly facing Coley.

"What sort?" Coley thought a moment. "Well, 'twould need a good
eddication to tell, but there's only one in his class, I tell you."

"Then he owes it to this little woman," pointing to one of the
photographs, "and she," pointing to the other, "said so."

"Then you may bet it's true."

"I don't bet on a sure thing," said the colonel, his annoyance vanishing
in