ll get Hastings to witness it in a
minute or two. In the meanwhile there's a thing I have to ask you.
How do you stand in regard to Miss Ismay?"

Hawtrey pushed his chair back noisily. "That," he said, "is a subject
on which I'm naturally not disposed to give you any information. How
does it concern you?

"In this way. Believing that your engagement must be broken off I
asked Miss Ismay to marry me."

Hawtrey was clearly startled, but in a moment or two he smiled.

"Of course," he said, "she wouldn't. As a matter of fact, our
engagement isn't broken off. It's merely extended."

They looked at each other in silence for a moment or two, and there was
a curious hardness in Wyllard's eyes. Then Hawtrey spoke again.

"In view of what you have just told me why did you want to put me of
all people in charge of the Range?" he said.

"I'll be candid," said Wyllard. "For one thing, you held on when I was
slipping off the trestle that day in British Columbia. For another,
you'll make nothing of your own holding, and if you run the Range as it
ought to be run it will put a good many dollars into your pocket,
besides relieving me of a big anxiety. If you're to marry Miss Ismay,
I'd sooner she was made reasonably comfortable."

Hawtrey looked up with a flush in his face.

"Harry," he said, "this is extravagantly generous."

"Wait," said Wyllard; "there's a little more to be said. I can't be
back before the frost, and I may be away eighteen months. While I am
away you will have a clear field--and you must make the most of it. If
you are not married when I come back I shall ask Miss Ismay again.
Now"--and he glanced at his comrade steadily--"does this stand in the
way of your going on with the arrangement we have arrived at?"

There was a rather tense silence for a moment or two, and then Hawtrey
broke it.

"No," he said; "after all, there is no reason why it should do so. It
has no practical bearing upon the other question."

Wyllard rose. "Well," he said, "if you will call Allen Hastings in
we'll get this thing fixed up."

The document was duly signed, and a few minutes later Wyllard drove
away; but Mrs. Hastings contrived to have a few words with Hawtrey
before he did the same.

"I've no doubt that Harry took you into his confidence on a certain
point," she said.

"Yes," admitted Hawtrey; "he did. I was a little astonished, besides
feeling rather sorry for him. There is, however, reason to believ