the long swells doesn't
seem to be Casey Dunne. And yet I can smell the wet sand and the clean
lake breezes now. These are the things that keep our hearts young. You
were born in the West, Sheila, and I in the East; but the roots of our
beings fed on the clean things of the earth that mothered us some
thousands of miles apart, and the taste will never be forgotten. In the
years to come we will think of the years here as to-night we think of
our childhood."

She held out her hand. Gauntlet met gauntlet in the hard grip of
comradeship.

"Good-bye, Casey. It's not likely we'll ever talk of these things
again. I'm glad you've been a part of my life."

"Good luck to you always, Sheila."

"They've left us behind," she said. "Come on! One last good run,
Casey!"

Clyde and Farwell, riding decorously at an easy jog trot, heard the
thunder of hoofs behind them, and turned to see the bay and the
buckskin sweep past, encouraged by voice and heel.

"She'll kill herself some day," Farwell ejaculated, and he scolded her
roundly when they rode up to where she and Casey had finally halted
their blown steeds.

"Listen to him!" cried Sheila, in derision. "As if I didn't savvy a
horse! All right, my lord, I won't do it again till next time. And now,
Casey, you and Clyde must not come any farther. It will be dark before
you get back."

"If you want to be rid of us----" he suggested.

"You've been sorry for yourself for the last hour, and you needn't deny
it," she retorted.

Clyde and Casey rode slowly homeward through the falling dusk. For the
first time since his return they were really alone together. She made
him tell her all that had occurred, down to the minutest detail.

"But now there will be no more trouble of any kind," she predicted.

"Thanks to you."

"Thanks to Uncle Jim."

"Both of you. He's a big man--a nation builder--but if his niece hadn't
had the good taste to fall in love with me his interest would have been
less personal. He wouldn't have got around to a little matter like this
for months. Anyway, we bracket you together. Do you know that some of
the kids are being taught to pray for you?"

"Not really?"

"Fact. Doctor Swift told me. 'God bless pa, and ma, and Mister Jim
Hess, and Miss Burnaby.' That's the formula. Swift predicts that the
next batch of christenings will include a 'Yim Hess' Swanson and a
'Clyde Burnaby' Brule. Such is fame! Think you can stand the dizzy
popularity?"

"Lovely!" c