d the piece of quartz, slid down the slide, and started up the
trail, running heavily. At the edge of the clearing he eased down and
almost crept to a point of vantage whence he could peer out, himself
unseen. She was feeding the chickens, tossing to them handfuls of
grain and laughing at their antics.

The sight of her seemed to relieve the panic fear into which he had
been flung, and he turned and ran back down the trail. Again he
climbed the slide, but this time he climbed higher, carrying the pick
and shovel with him. And again he toiled frenziedly, but this time
with a different purpose. He worked artfully, loosing slide after
slide of the red soil and sending it streaming down and covering up all
he had uncovered, hiding from the light of day the treasure he had
discovered. He even went into the woods and scooped armfuls of last
year's fallen leaves which he scattered over the slide. But this he
gave up as a vain task; and he sent more slides of soil down upon the
scene of his labor, until no sign remained of the out-jutting walls of
the vein.

Next he repaired the broken pipe, gathered his tools together, and
started up the trail. He walked slowly, feeling a great weariness, as
of a man who had passed through a frightful crisis.

He put the tools away, took a great drink of the water that again
flowed through the pipes, and sat down on the bench by the open kitchen
door. Dede was inside, preparing supper, and the sound of her
footsteps gave him a vast content.

He breathed the balmy mountain air in great gulps, like a diver
fresh-risen from the sea. And, as he drank in the air, he gazed with
all his eyes at the clouds and sky and valley, as if he were drinking
in that, too, along with the air.

Dede did not know he had come back, and at times he turned his head and
stole glances in at her--at her efficient hands, at the bronze of her
brown hair that smouldered with fire when she crossed the path of
sunshine that streamed through the window, at the promise of her figure
that shot through him a pang most strangely sweet and sweetly dear. He
heard her approaching the door, and kept his head turned resolutely
toward the valley. And next, he thrilled, as he had always thrilled,
when he felt the caressing gentleness of her fingers through his hair.

"I didn't know you were back," she said. "Was it serious?"

"Pretty bad, that slide," he answered, still gazing away and thrilling
to her touch. "More