epper, and the stake on
his part was one-sixth portion of that Virginian territory which is his
freehold. I won, and my lord conveyed the grant to me in a deed
properly attested by the attorneys. We call the place the Northern
Neck, and 'tis all the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac as
far west as the sunset. It is undivided, but my lord stipulated that my
portion should lie from the mountains westward. What good is such an
estate to an aging bachelor like me, who can never visit it? But 'tis a
fine inheritance for youth, and I propose to convey it to Dulcinea as a
birthday gift. Some day, I doubt not, 'twill be the Eden of America."

At this there was a great crying out and some laughter, which died away
when it appeared that the Governor spoke in all seriousness.

"I make one condition," he went on. "Twenty years back there was an old
hunter, called Studd, who penetrated the mountains. He travelled to the
head-waters of the Rapidan, and pierced the hills by a pass which he
christened Clearwater Gap. He climbed the highest mountain in those
parts, and built a cairn on the summit, in which he hid a powder-horn
with a writing within. He was the first to make the journey, and none
have followed him. The man is dead now, but he told me the tale, and I
will pledge my honour that it is true. It is for Dulcinea to choose a
champion to follow Studd's path and bring back his powder-horn. On the
day I receive it she takes sasine of her heritage. Which of you
gallants offers for the venture?"

To this day I do not know what were Francis Nicholson's motives. He
wished the mountains crossed, but he cannot have expected to meet a
pathfinder among the youth of the Tidewater. I think it was the whim of
the moment. He would endow Elspeth, and at the same time test her
cavaliers. To the ordinary man it seemed the craziest folly. Studd had
been a wild fellow, half Indian in blood and wholly Indian in habits,
and for another to travel fifty miles into the heart of the desert was
to embrace destruction. The company sat very silent. Elspeth, with a
blushing cheek, turned troubled eyes on the speaker.

As for me, I had found the chance I wanted. I was on my feet in a
second. "I will go," I said; and I had hardly spoken when Grey was
beside me, crying, "And I."

Still the company sat silent. 'Twas as if the shadow of a sterner life
had come over their young gaiety. Elspeth did not look at me, but sat
with cast-down eyes, pluc