This place isn't fit for
her, and I couldn't even go across for some time yet, but her father's
folks have died off, and there's nothing to be expected from her
mother's relatives. Any way, she can't be left to face the blow alone.
It's unthinkable. Well, there's only one course open to me, and that's
to raise as many dollars on a mortgage as I can, fit the place out with
fixings brought from Winnipeg, and sow a double acreage with borrowed
capital. I'll send for her as soon as I can get the house made a
little more comfortable."

Wyllard sat silent a moment or two, and then leaned forward in his
chair.

"No," he said, "there are two other and wiser courses. Tell the girl
what things are like here, and just how you stand. She'd face it
bravely. There's no doubt of that."

Hawtrey looked at him sharply. "I believe she would, but considering
that you have never seen her, I don't quite know why you should be sure
of it."

Wyllard smiled. "The girl who wrote that letter wouldn't flinch."

"Well," said Hawtrey, "you can mention the second course."

"I'll let you have $1,000 at bank interest--which is less than any
land-broker would charge you--without a mortgage."

Again Hawtrey showed a certain embarrassment. "No," he said, "I'm
afraid it can't be done. I'd a kind of claim upon my people, though it
must be admitted that I've worked it off, but I can't quite bring
myself to borrow money from my friends."

Wyllard, who saw that he meant it, made a gesture of resignation.
"Then you must let the girl make the most of it, but keep out of the
hands of the mortgage man. By the way, I haven't told you that I've
decided to make a trip to the Old Country. We'd a bonanza crop last
season, and Martial could run the range for a month or two. After all,
my father was born yonder, and I can't help feeling now and then that I
should have made an effort to trace up that young Englishman's
relatives, and tell them what became of him."

"The one you struck in British Columbia? You have mentioned him, but,
so far as I remember, you never gave me any particulars about the
thing."

Wyllard seemed to hesitate, which was not a habit of his. "There is,"
he said, "not much to tell. I struck the lad sitting down, played out,
upon a trail that led over a big divide. It was clear that he couldn't
get any further, and there wasn't a settlement within a good many
leagues of the spot. We were up in the ranges prospecting t