at headwaters had been hours of torture. He had gone to sleep
dreaming of the girl instead of putting his attention on the problems of
the morrow--and the details of the drive that spring needed all sorts of
judgment and foresight.

While he was in that state of mind, trying to excuse defection, he told
himself, as he trudged to and fro, that he was not a fit man for Flagg.
Nevertheless he cursed himself for being so weak. He had read stories of
woman's subjugation of the famous and the strong and had wondered what
sort of lunacy had overtaken such men. Here he was making an invalid's
tantrums an excuse to give up his work and dangle at the skirts of an
unknown girl; and he knew it was because of the mystery of her real
identity and because his jealousy was afire on account of an uncertainty
which was now aggravated by her refusal to marry him.

Latisan had not been in the village ten minutes that afternoon before
Gossip Dempsey had giggled and told him he'd better keep sharp watch on
his girl, because the jewelry man was everlastingly after her like a
puppy chasing the butcher's cart; the simile was not nice, but Latisan
was impressed by its suggestion of assiduity.

In the tumult of his thought, grudgingly conscious that he was ashamed
of the real reason for giving up his work, Latisan evasively decided
that the thing was now up to Echford Flagg. He had warned Flagg man
fashion. He had given his word to Flagg as to what would happen if Flagg
persisted in treating him like a lackey. Flagg had persisted. Latisan
had kept his word. He could not retreat from that stand; he could not
crawl back to Flagg and still maintain the self-respect that a drive
master must have in the fight that was ahead.

Therefore, Latisan decided to stay in Adonia and let Flagg make
overtures; for their future relations the drive master would be able to
lay down some rules to govern Flagg's language and conduct. Under that
decision persisted the nagging consciousness that he wanted to be with
the girl instead of on the drive and he was more and more ashamed of the
new weakness in his character. And he was also ashamed of the feeling
that he wanted to find out more about her. In the past his manliness had
despised prying and peering. He had been able to bluster loyally to old
Dick; he was more truthful to himself. What was she, anyway? He would
not admit that he had been so completely tipped upside down in all his
hale resolves, aims, and obj