"Do you think they will fight?" said Nora.

"No, I think not. There's Switzer riding off now. What fools they are."

"And Jack Romayne is so quiet and gentlemanly," said Nora.

"Quiet, yes, and gentlemanly, yes too. But I guess he'd be what Sam
calls a 'bad actor' in a fight. Oh, these men make me tired who can't
have a difference of opinion but they must think of fighting."

"Oh, Larry, I don't understand you a bit," cried Nora. "Of course they
want to fight when they get full of rage. I would myself."

"I believe you," said Larry. "You are a real Irish terrier. You are like
father. I am a Quaker, or perhaps there's another word for it. I only
hope I shall never be called on to prove just what I am. Come on, let's
go in."

For a half hour they swam leisurely to and fro in the moonlit water. But
before they parted for the night Nora returned to the subject which they
had been discussing.

"Larry, I don't believe you are a coward. I could not believe that of
you," she said passionately; "I think I would rather die."

"Well, don't believe it then. I hope to God I am not, but then one can
never tell. I cannot see myself hitting a man on the bare face, and
as for killing a fellow being, I would much rather die myself. Is that
being a coward?"

"But if that man," breathed Nora hurriedly, for the household were
asleep, "if that man mad with lust and rage were about to injure your
mother or your sisters--"

"Ah," said Larry, drawing in his breath quickly, "that would be
different, eh?"

"Good-night, you dear goose," said his sister, kissing him quickly. "I
am not afraid for you."

CHAPTER XII

MEN AND A MINE

It was early in July that Mr. Gwynne met his family with a proposition
which had been elaborated by Ernest Switzer to form a company for the
working of Nora's mine. With characteristic energy and thoroughness
Switzer had studied the proposition from every point of view, and the
results of his study he had set down in a document which Mr. Gwynne laid
before his wife and children for consideration. It appeared that the
mine itself had been investigated by expert friends of Switzer's from
the Lethbridge and Crows' Nest mines. The reports of these experts were
favourable to a degree unusual with practical mining men, both as to
the quality and quantity of coal and as to the cost of operation. The
quality was assured by the fact that the ranchers in the neighbourhood
for years had been using the coal