now there were earnestness and kindness in
the eyes that gazed up at the man, "it's no use for us to talk this
way," she cried. "I began it, and I ought to be sorry--real sorry.
But I'm not. I wouldn't have acted that way under ordinary
circumstances. But it's different now, and it was your own talk made
me. You sneered at that ten thousand dollars, which seems to be a
fortune to me. Ten thousand dollars!" she breathed. "And we haven't
ten dollars between us in this--house. Bob, it makes me mad when I
think of it. You don't care. You don't worry. All yon care for is to
get away from it all--from me--and spend your time among the boys in
Orrville. You've been away ever since dinner to-day, and now it's past
midnight. Why? Why, when there's a hundred and one things to do
around this wretched shanty? No--you undertake this thing, and
then--spend every moment you can steal--yes, that's the word--steal,
hanging around Ju Penrose's saloon. I'm left to fix things right
here--to do the work which you have undertaken. Then you sneer when I
see a fortune in that ten thousand dollars reward."

The girl's swift heat was not without effect. She had not intended to
accuse in so straight a fashion. It was the result of long pent-up
bitterness, which never needs more than a careless word to hurl into
active expression. Bob's mild expression of contempt looked to be
about to cost him dear.

A moody look not untouched with some sort of fear had crept into the
man's eyes. Now he tried to smooth the threat of storm he saw looming.
Furthermore, an uncomfortable feeling of his own guilt was possessing
him.

"But what if it can be called a fortune, Effie?" he demanded swiftly.
"It don't concern us. I don't guess it's liable to come our way."

"Why not?"

The girl's challenge came short and sharp, and her beautiful eyes were
turned upon him full of cold regard.

The man was startled. He was even shocked.

"How?" he demanded. "I don't get you."

The girl sprang from her chair in a movement of sup-pressed excitement.
She came toward him, her eyes shining. A glorious ruddy tint shone
through the tanning of her fair cheeks. She was good to look at, and
Bob felt the influence of her beauty at that moment just as he had felt
it when, for her, he had first flung every worldly consideration to the
four winds.

"Will you listen, Bob? Will you listen to me while I tell you all
that's been churning around in my head