esponsible. I want
to throttle the something somewhere to blame."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. If I had expected for an
instant--"

"Don't, please!" It was supplication from one accustomed to command.
"Talk about human beings being pawns in the game or straws before the
whirlwind!" Again the curt repression by pure force of will, and the
inevitable pause with the digression complete following. "I haven't heard
your report of yourself yet, Elice. It's due me, overdue. I promised you
not to write, and kept my word, you know."

The girl looked at him with eyes that tried to smile.

"Ask me anything else and I'll answer," she said. "This I can't answer,
because there's nothing to be said. I've merely been waiting."

"As you were to-night, when I startled you?"

The girl's lips tightened, but they relaxed. She was in command now.

"Yes," she said.

It was the second step; and for the second time the man approached no
nearer--then.

"Won't you let me ask you questions instead," countered the girl, "as a
favor?"

"Certainly, if you prefer."

"'If I prefer.'" She mouthed the words deliberately. "Very well, then.
What have you been doing since I saw you last?"

Roberts gave her an odd look.

"Getting older mostly," he said.

"I might have chronicled that fact myself," echoed the girl.

"Very fast," added the man, evenly. "Did you notice my hair?"

"It is grayer--a bit," reluctantly.

"Grayer!" Roberts laughed. "I made a microscopical examination recently
for one hair of the original color to preserve as a relic. It was too
late. Do you care to volunteer in the search?"

The girl ignored the invitation.

"What else did you do?" she asked.

"Worked some." Roberts held up his great hands, calloused heavily over
the palms. "I've learned several things by actual experience: drilling,
dynamiting, sharpening steel, mucking ore, assaying--everything."

"And what else?" relentlessly.

"Prospected a little. Ran out of provisions and went two days without a
bite to eat. Returned to find a strike on at the mine--and the strikers
in possession." He halted reminiscently. "I knocked a man down that day:
the leader. He dared me and there were a dozen others backing him up. It
was him or me and it couldn't be avoided. In the affair I hurt my hand;
while it was healing I went to 'Frisco and took in the theatres." He held
up the member indicated, reversed this time for inspection. A white
jagged scar ran dia