s from the boys of this valley when they were drunk, but for a
sober, educated man, I think you've made the funniest proposal that
any one ever listened to. Oh, Bill, Bill, you've done a foolish thing.
I'm a shameless man-hunter. I came out west to find a husband, and
I've found one. I wanted to marry you all along. I meant to marry
you."

Bill's laugh rang out in a great guffaw.

"Bully!" he cried. "What's the use of marrying a girl who doesn't want
to marry you?"

"But she ought to pretend--at first."

"Not on your life. No pretense for me, Hel. Give me the girl who's
honest enough to love me, and let me know it."

"Bill! How--dare you? How dare you say I loved you and told you so?
I've--I've a good mind not to marry----Say, Bill, you are a--joke.
Now, sit right down, and tell me all about those--those other things
worrying you."

In a moment a shadow crossed the man's cheerful face. But he
obediently resumed his seat, and somehow, when Helen sat down, their
chairs were as close together as their manufacturer had made possible.

"It's Charlie--Charlie, and the police," said Bill, in a despondent
tone. "And Kate, too. I don't know. Say, Hel, what's--what's going to
happen? Fyles is hot after Charlie. Charlie don't care a curse. But
there's something scaring him that bad he's nearly crazy. Then there's
Kate. He saw Kate talking to Fyles, and he got madder than--hell. And
now he's gone off to O'Brien's, and it don't even take any thinking to
guess what for. I tell you he's so queer I can't do a thing with him.
I'm not smart enough. I could just break him in my two hands if I took
hold of him to keep him home and out of trouble, but what's the use?
He's crazy about Kate, he's crazy about drink, he's crazy about
everything, but keeping clear of the law. That's what I came to tell
you about--that, and to fix up about getting married."

The man's words left a momentary dilemma in the girl's mind. For a
moment she was at a loss how to answer him. It seemed impossible to
accept seriously his tale of anxiety and worry, and yet----. The same
tale from any other would have seemed different. But coming from Bill,
and just when she was so full of an almost childish happiness at the
thought that this great creature loved her, and wanted to marry her,
it took her some moments to reduce herself to a condition of judicial
calm, sufficient to obtain the full significance of his anxious
complaint.

When at last she spoke her