d his heart to beat rapidly. If to others she had
been cool, to him she had been ardent, and this warmth had been the one
thing needful to make her physically captivating. Only when some vital
cause impends is a young man likely to distinguish between the impulses
of his body and the cravings of his soul, and no such vital exigency had
as yet appeared in Wade's life. He wondered if she was as beautiful as
ever, and began to reproach himself for lack of ardor in his recent
letters to her, lest he should now be repaid in kind. He wanted to be
received upon the old, delicious footing, with her in his arms, and her
lips trembling beneath his.

There were dozens of men in Washington and New York who would almost
have bartered their souls for such privilege, and Gordon Wade need not
be decried for his moment of passionate yearning. He was enough of a man
to put the thought aside, pending his interview with the Senator, which
was his first purpose. He felt sure that if Senator Rexhill could be
moved to interest in Crawling Water affairs, his influence would be
potent enough to secure redress for the cattlemen, and Wade meant to
pull every string that could bear upon so happy a result. He was glad
that Mrs. Rexhill had not made the journey, for he was conscious of her
hostility to him, and he felt that his chances of moving her husband
were better without her.

When he inquired at the hotel, he was told that the Rexhills were in,
and he presently found himself shaking hands with the Senator, who
greeted him with effusive warmth.

"Helen is changing her gown and will be in shortly," the big man
explained. "I'm mighty glad to see you, Gordon. Only this morning we
were talking of looking you up. How are you? Sit down, my boy, sit
down!"

"Senator," Wade began, after they had exchanged commonplaces for a few
moments. "Glad as I am to see you, on my own account, I am more than
glad in behalf of my friends, who have not yet had the pleasure of
meeting you. Your arrival in Crawling Water could not possibly have been
more opportune. You have come just in time to save us, most likely, from
an internecine strife which might have ruined us all. I was more glad
than I can tell you to learn that you were here."

"Indeed, Gordon? I--I am much interested. Perhaps, you will...."

While Wade succinctly sketched the situation, the Senator nervously
toyed with his eyeglasses, now and then lifting his double chin from the
confinement of his