tried to burn
it. After that, I think, they began to see I might be something. Keith,
do you remember what old Rawson said to us once about marrying?"

Keith had been thinking of it all the evening.

"Keith, I was not born for this; I was born to _do_ something. But for
giving up I might have been like Stevenson or Eads or your man Maury,
whom they are all belittling because he did it all himself instead of
getting others to do it. By George! I hope to live till I build one more
big bridge or run one more long tunnel. Jove! to stand once more up on
the big girders, so high that the trees look small below you, and see
the bridge growing under your eyes where the old croakers had said
nothing would stand!"

Keith's eyes sparkled, and he reached out his hand; and the other
grasped it.

When Keith returned home, he was already in sight of victory.

The money had all been subscribed. His own interest in the venture was
enough to make him rich, and he was to be general superintendent of the
new company, with Matheson as his manager of the mines. All that was
needed now was to complete the details of the transfer of the
properties, perfect his organization, and set to work. This for a time
required his presence more or less continuously in New York, and he
opened an office in one of the office buildings down in the city, and
took an apartment in a pleasant up-town hotel.

* * * * *

When Keith returned to New York that Autumn, it was no longer as a young
man with eyes aflame with hope and expectation and face alight with
enthusiasm. The eager recruit had changed to the veteran. He had had
experience of a world where men lived and died for the most sordid of
all rewards--money, mere money.

The fight had left its mark upon him. The mouth had lost something of
the smile that once lurked about its corners, but had gained in
strength. The eyes, always direct and steady, had more depth. The
shoulders had a squarer set, as though they had been braced against
adversity. Experience of life had sobered him.

Sometimes it had come to him that he might be caught by the current and
might drift into the same spirit, but self-examination up to this time
had reassured him. He knew that he had other motives: the trust reposed
in him by his friends, the responsibility laid upon him, the resolve to
justify that confidence, were still there, beside his eager desire
for success.

He called immediately t