the few women he had known well dull and
commonplace, and even his sister, whom till now he had held as the
perfection of all things feminine, suffered by comparison with this
maiden of the frontier.

He was steeped in this sweet, grave melancholy, when a knock came at
his door, and he arose to find Necia herself there, excited and
radiant. She came in without sign of embarrassment or slightest
consciousness of the possible impropriety of her act.

"The most wonderful thing has happened," she began at once, when she
found they were alone. "You'll faint for joy."

"What is it?"

"Nobody knows except father and Poleon and the two new men--"

"What is it?"

"I teased the news out of mother, and then came right here."

He laughed. "But what--may I ask--"

"Lee has made a strike--a wonderful strike--richer than the Klondike."

"So? The old man's luck has changed. I'm right glad of that," said the
soldier.

"I came as fast as I could, because to-morrow everybody will know about
it, and it will be too late."

"Too late for what?"

"For us to get in on it, of course. Oh, but won't there be a stampede!
Why, all the people bound for Dawson on the next boat will pile off
here, then the news will go up-river and down-river, and thousands of
others will come pouring in from everywhere, and this will be a city.
Then we will stake our town lots and sell them for ever so much money,
and go around with our noses in the air, and they will say to each
other:

"'Who is that beautiful lady with the fine clothes?' and somebody will
answer:

"'Why, that is Miss Necia Gale, the mine-owner.' And then you will come
along, and they will say:

"'That is Lieutenant Burrell, the millionaire, and--'"

"Hold on! hold on!" said the soldier, stopping her breathless patter.
"Tell me all about this."

"Well, 'No Creek' came in this morning to tell dad and Poleon. Then the
boat arrived with an old friend of Lee's, a Mr. Stark, so Lee told him,
too, and now they've all gone back to his creek to stake more claims.
They slipped away quietly to prevent suspicion, but I knew there was
something up from the way Poleon acted, so I made Alluna tell me all
about it. They haven't more than two hours start of us, and we can
overtake them easily."

"We! Why, we are not going?"

"Yes, we are," she insisted, impatiently--"you and I. That's why I
came, so you can get a mine for yourself and be a rich man, and so you
can help me get one. I know