and the skirts she had
gathered up hastily, as she cried, "O Jack! Jack! I never loved anybody
like him! I never knew what love was! I never knew a man like him
before! There never WAS one before!"

To this large, comprehensive, and passionate statement Mr. Jack Hamlin
made no reply. An audacity so supreme had conquered his. He walked to
the window, looked out upon the dark, rain-filmed pane that, however,
reflected no equal change in his own dark eyes, and then returned and
walked round the kitchen table. When he was at her back, without looking
at her, he reached out his hand, took her passive one that lay on the
table in his, grasped it heartily for a single moment, laid it gently
down, and returned around the table, where he again confronted her
cheerfully face to face.

"You'll make the riffle yet," he said quietly. "Just now I don't see
what I could do, or where I could chip in your little game; but if I DO,
or you do, count me in and let me know. You know where to write,--my old
address at Sacramento." He walked to the corner, took up his still wet
serape, threw it over his shoulders, and picked up his broad-brimmed
riding-hat.

"You're not going, Jack?" she said hesitatingly, as she rubbed her wet
eyes into a consciousness of his movements. "You'll wait to see HIM?
He'll be here in an hour."

"I've been here too long already," said Jack. "And the less you say
about my calling, even accidentally, the better. Nobody will believe
it,--YOU didn't yourself. In fact, unless you see how I can help you,
the sooner you consider us all dead and buried, the sooner your luck
will change. Tell your girl I've found my own horse so much better that
I have pushed on with him, and give her that."

He threw a gold coin on the table.

"But your horse is still lame," she said wonderingly. "What will you do
in this storm?"

"Get into the cover of the next wood and camp out. I've done it before."

"But, Jack!"

He suddenly made a slight gesture of warning. His quick ear had caught
the approach of footsteps along the wet gravel outside. A mischievous
light slid into his dark eyes as he coolly moved backward to the door
and, holding it open, said, in a remarkably clear and distinct voice:--

"Yes, as you say, society is becoming very mixed and frivolous
everywhere, and you'd scarcely know San Francisco now. So delighted,
however, to have made your acquaintance, and regret my business prevents
my waiting to see your good hu