m her dress a small stiletto which she wore as an ornament,
and drew it back.

"Let go, or I'll drive it into you," she said, with fire darting from
her eyes; and Wickersham let go amid the laughter and jeers of those
about them, who were egging the girl on and calling to her to "give
it to him."

Wickersham after this tried to make his peace, but without avail. Though
he did not know it, Terpsichore had in her heart a feeling of hate which
was relentless. It was his description that had set the sheriff's posse
on the track of her dissipated lover, and though she had "washed her
hands of Bill Bluffy," as she said, she could not forgive the man who
had injured him.

Then Wickersham, having committed one error, committed another. He tried
to get revenge, and the man who sets out to get revenge on a woman
starts on a sad journey. At least, it was so with Wickersham.

He attributed the snubbing he had received to the girl's liking for
Keith, and he began to meditate how he should get even with them. The
chance presented itself, as he thought, when one night he attended a
ball at the Windsor. It was a gay occasion, for the Wickershams had
opened their first mine, and Gumbolt's future was assured. The whole of
Gumbolt was there--at least, all of those who did not side with Mr.
Drummond, the Methodist preacher. Terpsichore was there, and Keith, who
danced with her. She was the handsomest-dressed woman in the throng,
and, to Wickersham's surprise, she was dressed with some taste, and her
manners were quiet and subdued.

Toward morning the scene became hilarious, and a call was made for
Terpsichore to give a Spanish dance. The girl held back, but her
admirers were in no mood for refusal, and the call became insistent.
Keith had gone to his room, but Wickersham was still there, and his
champagne had flowed freely. At length the girl yielded, and, after a
few words with the host of the Windsor, she stepped forward and began
to dance.

She danced in such a way that the applause made the brass chandeliers
ring. Even Wickersham, though he hated her, could not but admire her.

Keith, who had found it useless to try to sleep even in a remote corner
of the hotel, returned just then, and whether it was that Terpsichore
caught sight of him as she glanced his way, or that she caught sight of
Wickersham's hostile face, she faltered and stopped suddenly.

Wickersham thought she had broken down, and, under the influence of the
champ