The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl From Keller's, by Harold Bindloss

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Title: The Girl From Keller's
Sadie's Conquest

Author: Harold Bindloss

Release Date: April 11, 2006 [EBook #3663]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRL FROM KELLER'S ***

Produced by Dagny;John Bickers

THE GIRL FROM KELLER'S

By Harold Bindloss

ORIGINAL PREPARER'S NOTE

This text was prepared from an edition, published by Frederick A. Stokes
Company, New York, 1917. It was published in England under the title
"Sadie's Conquest."

THE GIRL FROM KELLER'S

CHAPTER I

THE PORTRAIT

It was getting dark when Festing stopped at the edge of a ravine on the
Saskatchewan prairie. The trail that led up through the leafless
birches was steep, and he had walked fast since he left his work at
the half-finished railroad bridge. Besides, he felt thoughtful, for
something had happened during the visit of a Montreal superintendent
engineer that had given him a hint. It was not exactly disturbing,
because Festing had, to some extent, foreseen the line the
superintendent would take; but a post to which he thought he had a claim
had been offered to somebody else. The post was not remarkably
well paid, but since he was passed over now, he would, no doubt, be
disappointed when he applied for the next, and it was significant that
as he stood at the top of the ravine he first looked back and then
ahead.

In the distance, a dull red glow marked the bridge, where the glare of
the throbbing blast-lamps flickered across a muddy river, swollen by
melting snow. He heard the ring of the riveters' hammers and the clang
of flung-down rails. The whistle of a gravel train came faintly across
the grass, and he knew that for a long distance gangs of men were
smoothing the roughly graded track.

In front, everything was quiet. The pale-green sky was streaked along
the horizon by a band of smoky red, and the gray prairie rolled into the
foreground, checkered by clumps of birches and patches of melting snow.
In one place, the figures of a man and horses moved slowly across the
fading light; but except for t