Sir,--We have received the sum of one thousand dollars, from a
correspondent whose identity we are not at liberty to reveal, to
place to your credit. If you prefer, you may regard this amount as an
unsecured loan and repay it with current interest on opportunity.
Otherwise it is unconditionally at your disposal, and we will have
pleasure in honoring your drafts to that extent.

-------- --------
Agent for the Bank of Montreal."

"You are a lucky man," said Harry. "What will you do with it?" And I
answered with some hesitation:

"I don't exactly know. Tell them to send it back, most likely. We can both
take care of ourselves without depending on other people's charity like
remittance men. And what right has any unknown person to send money to me?
My friends in England have apparently cast me off utterly, and in no case
would I accept a favor from them. Still, I should like to discover who
sent it."

"It's some one who knows your little--we'll say peculiarities," answered
Harry dryly. "I sometimes wonder, Ralph, what makes you so confoundedly
proud of yourself. Can't you take it in the spirit it's evidently meant,
and be thankful? You are not overburdened with worldly riches at present,
anyway."

To this I made no answer. We needed money badly enough--that at least was
certain; and after our frugal repast I marched up and down the line,
thinking it over, and then, chiefly for Harry's sake, I decided to accept
the sum as a loan. It would materially help to lighten that other crushing
load of debt; and though growing more and more puzzled, I felt, as Harry
did, there was yet a great kindness behind it.

CHAPTER XII

THE UNEXPECTED

On the first opportunity we paid off the most pressing of our creditors,
and continued our labor with greater cheerfulness, working double tides
when there was moonlight, scooping out the line along the sides of the
coulee, though we lost more than I cared to calculate on every yard of it.
As we did so the days grew shorter and shorter, and often in the mornings
there was a keen frost in the air. It was a losing game, but we had given
our bond and played it out stubbornly, while Johnston, who worked as hard
as either now, cheered us with witty anecdote and quaint philosophy after
each especially disappointing day. Then one evening when the surveyor sat
with us, as he did occasionally,