m. The big fellow didn't spoil your picture, then? Ah, Jim, it
was fine! fine! fine! It maddened me with delight to see you beating him.
You--you sprig of a fighting devil, I love you for it!'

Jim's heart took fire at hers. He strained her to him, and his lips sank
upon her handsome, eager mouth in a long kiss that transported him.

'Dearest, you have kissed my heart,' she whispered. 'You fought him for
the love of me, didn't you?'

Only twice in his life had he kissed a woman, and as if greedy from long
fasting he kissed her now, lips, cheeks, eyes, and neck. His lips
searched the deep corners of her mouth.

'But you don't say you love me, ma bouchal!' Aurora murmured, and her
arms tightened about his neck.

'You are beautiful! You are beautiful!' he said fiercely.

'But you don't say you love me!'

'I love you! I love you! I love you!' There was not now in the young
man's mind any self-questioning; there was no probing for logical
reasons, no doubting, no examining emotions in a suspicious, pessimistic
spirit. Done abandon himself to the delicious intoxication of the moment,
and Aurora was transfigured under his caresses her aggressiveness, her
bonhomie, her bold independence of spirit, were all gone; she developed a
clinging and almost infantile tenderness, and breathed about him a cloud
of ecstasy.

When Burton returned in two hours' time, Done said nothing about Aurora's
visit, but Mike did not fail to mark his mate's demeanour, which was
unusually thoughtful.

'Not feelin' too bright, old man?' asked Mike

'Nonsense, Mike; I'm all right.'

'Thought p'r'aps those rib-benders o' Quigley's were pullin' you up.'

'Not a bit of it. I haven't a thought to spare for Quigley.'

Burton understood better later in the evening, when he saw Jim and Aurora
sitting together at Kyley's in the dim corner furthest from the wide
fireplace, and the Geordie touched him on the arm and jerked his thumb in
their direction.

'She was down to your tent to see after her champion this mornin',' he
said.

'Spoils to the victor!' said the Prodigal.

Mike's eyes drifted towards Jim and Aurora several times during the
evening, and he thumbed his chin in a troubled way. He had been thinking
it was almost time to try fresh fields; but it was not going to be so
easy a matter to shift as he had imagined.

A few nights later, seizing the opportunity when he was alone in the
tent, Jim cut the stitches that secured the locket cont