'm not that kind of a man. You and I were built for each other--I
felt that on that first ride. I guess it's up to me to take you out of
this." He broke off his emotional utterance and grew keen and alert.

"I've been planning to go, and I'm almost ready--in fact, I could leave
now without much loss, but I didn't come prepared for anything so
sudden. My office furniture don't amount to much, and this team is
Bailey's"--he mused a moment. "_Come!_" he said, with sudden resolution,
"it's go now--we'll never have a better chance."

She turned white with dread--now that she neared the actual deed.

"Oh, Jim! I _wish_ there was some other way."

He was a little rough. Her feminine hesitation he could not sympathize
with.

"Well, there isn't. We've got to get right out of this. Hurry on your
things. The wind is rising, and we must make Wheatland by five o'clock.
I came out to hold down my claim, but it ain't worth it. I reckon I've
squeezed all the juice out of this lemon. This climate is a little
boisterous for me."

He brought in a blanket and warmed it at the fire while she wrapped
herself in cloak and shawl.

"I'd better write a little note to--him."

"What for? I've got nothing against him, except that he saw you first.
But I guess he's out of the running now. It's you and me from this day
on."

"I hate to go without saying good-bye," she said, tremulously. "He's
always been good to me," she added, smitten with sudden realization of
her husband's kindness.

He perceived that she was in earnest. "All right--only it does no good,
and delays us. Every minute is valuable now. The outlook is owly."

The plain was getting gray as they came out of the door, and the woman
shrank and shivered with an instant chill, but Rivers tenderly tucked
the robe about her and leaped into the sleigh.

"Now boys, git!" he shouted to the humped and wind-ruffled team, and
they sprang away into the currents of powdered snow, which were running
along the ground in streams as smooth as oil and almost as silent.

The sleigh rose and fell over the ridges like a ship. Off in the west
the sun was shining through a peculiar smoky cloud, gray-white, vapory,
with glittering edges where it lay against the cold, yellow sky. Every
sign was ominous, and the long drive seemed a desperate venture to the
woman, but she trusted her lover as a child depends upon a father. She
nestled close down under his left arm, clothed in its shaggy
buffalo-skin