ohnson, excitement in his eyes. He heard
Fergus' last words.

"He'll see Orion rising if he sits up nights," Gow Johnson said. "The game
is with Terry--at last."

Then he called to the dispersing, gossiping crowd: "Hold on--hold on, you
people! I've got news for you. Folks, this is O'Ryan's night. It's his in
the starry firmament. Look at him shine!" he cried, stretching out his arm
toward the heavens, where the glittering galaxy hung near the zenith.
"Terry O'Ryan--our O'Ryan--he's struck oil--on his ranch it's been struck.
Old Vigon found it. Terry's got his own at last. O'Ryan's in it--in it
alone. Now, let's hear the prairie-whisper!" he shouted, in a great,
raucous voice. "Let's hear the prairie-whisper! What is it?"

The crowd responded in a hoarse shout for O'Ryan and his fortune. Even the
women shouted--all except Molly Mackinder. She was wondering if O'Ryan
risen would be the same to her as O'Ryan rising. She got into her carriage
with a sigh, though she said to the few friends with her:

"If it's true, it's splendid. He deserves it, too. Oh, I'm glad--I'm so
glad!" She laughed; but the laugh was a little hysterical.

She was both glad and sorry. Yet as she drove home over the prairie she
was silent. Far off in the east was a bright light. It was a bonfire built
on O'Ryan's ranch, near where he had struck oil--struck it rich. The light
grew and grew, and the prairie was alive with people hurrying toward it.
La Touche should have had the news hours earlier, but the half-breed
French-Canadian, Vigon, who had made the discovery, and had started for La
Touche with the news, went suddenly off his head with excitement, and had
ridden away into the prairie fiercely shouting his joy to an invisible
world. The news had been brought in later by a farm-hand.

* * * * *

Terry O'Ryan had really struck oil, and his ranch was a scene of decent
revelry, of which Gow Johnson was master. But the central figure of it
all, the man who had, in truth, risen like a star, had become to La Touche
all at once its notoriety as well as its favorite, its great man as well
as its friend, he was nowhere to be found. He had been seen riding full
speed into the prairie toward the Kourmash Wood, and the starlit night had
swallowed him. Constantine Jopp had also disappeared; but at first no one
gave that thought or consideration.

As the night went on, however, a feeling began to stir which it i