bit of an optimist, but it looks as if he were right
this time. Anyway, I'm plunging on his scheme."

"You mean you will stake all you have on it?"

"Yes," Blake answered with a humorous twinkle. "It's true that what I
have doesn't amount to much, but I'm throwing in what I should like to
get--and that's a great deal."

Millicent noticed his expression suddenly grow serious.

"Tell me about your adventures up in that wilderness," she begged.

"Oh," he protested, "they're really not interesting."

"Let me judge. Is it nothing to have gone where other men seldom
venture?"

He began rather awkwardly, but she prompted him with tactful questions,
and he saw that she wished to hear his story. By degrees he lost
himself in his subject, and, being gifted with keen imagination, she
followed his journey into the wilds. It was not his wish to represent
himself as a hero, and now and then he spoke with deprecatory humor,
but he betrayed something of his character in doing justice to his
theme. Millicent's eyes sparkled as she listened, for she found the
story moving; he was the man she had thought him, capable of grim
endurance, determined action, and steadfast loyalty.

"So you carried your crippled comrade when you were exhausted and
starving," she exclaimed, when he came to their search for the factory.
"One likes to hear of such things as that! But what would you have
done if you hadn't found the post?"

"I can't answer," he said soberly. "We didn't dare think, of it: a
starving man's will gets weak." Then his expression grew whimsical.
"Besides, if one must be accurate, we dragged him."

"Still," said Millicent softly, "I can't think you would have left him."

Something in her voice made Blake catch his breath. She looked very
alluring as she sat there with the last of the sunshine sprinkling gold
over her hair and her face and her light gown. He leaned forward
quickly; and then he remembered his disgrace.

"I'm flattered, Miss Graham," he said; "but you really haven't very
strong grounds for your confidence in me."

"Please go on with your story," Millicent begged, disregarding his
remark. "How long did you stay at the factory?"

Blake told of their journey back, of the days when starvation faced
them, and of the blizzard, though he made no reference to Clarke's
treachery; and Millicent listened with close attention. It grew dark
but they forgot to ring for lights; neither of them heard the door