ars. Then he was persuaded to put his money
in an old, low-grade gold mine. The company made improvements, built a
flume thirty miles long to bring water to the property for development,
but it was hardly finished when a State law was passed prohibiting
hydraulic mining. It practically ruined him. He had nothing to depend on
then but a small annuity."

"Meantime," supplemented Tisdale, "he had married his Spanish senorita and
her inheritance, the old rancheria, was sunk with his own in the gold
mine. Then he began to play fast and loose with his annuity at the San
Francisco stock exchange."

"He hoped to make good quickly. He was getting past his prime, with his
daughter's future to be secured. But it got to be a habit and, after the
death of his wife, a passion. His figure was well known on the street; he
was called a plunger. Some days he made fortunes; the next lost them.
Still he was the same distinguished, courteous gentleman to the end."

"And that came on the stock exchange, after a prolonged strain. David
Weatherbee found him and took him home." Tisdale paused, then went on,
still regarding Foster with that upward look from under his forbidding
brows. "It fell to Weatherbee to break the news to the daughter, and ten
days later, on the eve of his sailing north to Seattle, that marriage was
hurried through."

There was a silent moment, then Foster said: "Weatherbee loved her, and he
was going to Alaska; it was uncertain when he could return; married, he
might send for her when conditions were fit. And her father's affairs were
a complete wreck; even the annuity stopped at his death, and there wasn't
an acre of her mother's inheritance left. Not a relative to take her in."

"I know; that is why she married Weatherbee." Tisdale set his lips grimly;
he swung around and strode across the floor. "You see, you can't tell me
anything," he said. "I know all about it. Wait. Listen. I am going over
the mountains and look up that land of Weatherbee's, and I shall probably
buy it, but I want you to understand clearly it is only because I hope to
carry his project through. Now go north, Foster; take a new grip on
things; get to work and let your investments alone."

After that, when Foster had gone, Tisdale spent a long interval tramping
the floor of his breezy room. The furrows still divided his brows, his
mouth was set, and a dark color burned and glowed through his tan. But
deeper than his angry solicitude for Foster r