omething
infinitely more alluring to him at the house on the dumps than the
gold which held the miners--an inducement which he had neither wish
nor intention to resist. He reveled in the joy and excitement of
pursuing this wife of another man, and had the camp bristled with an
army of fighting men, and had the chances been a thousand to one
against him, with him the call of the blood would just as surely have
been obeyed. This was the man, savage, crude, of indomitable courage
and passionate recklessness.

And Jessie was dazzled, even blinded. She was just a weak, erring
woman, thrilling with strong youthful life, and his dominating nature
played upon her vanity with an ease that was quite pitiful. She was
only too ready to believe his denials of the accusations against him.
She was only too ready to--love. The humility, devotion, the goodness
of Scipio meant nothing to her. They were barren virtues, too
unexciting and uninteresting to make any appeal. Her passionate heart
demanded something more stimulating. And the stimulant she found in
the savage wooing of his unscrupulous rival.

Now the man's eyes contemplated the girl's ripe beauty, while he
struggled for that composure necessary to carry out all that was in
his mind. He checked a further rising impulse, and his voice sounded
almost harsh as he put a sharp question.

"Where's Zip?" he demanded.

The girl's eyelids slowly lifted. The warm glow of her eyes made them
limpid and melting.

"Gone out to his claim," she said in a low voice.

The other nodded appreciatively.

"Good."

He turned to the window. Out across the refuse-heaps the rest of the
camp was huddled together, a squalid collection of huts, uninspiring,
unpicturesque. His glance satisfied him. There was not a living soul
in view; not a sound except the prattle of the children who were
still playing outside the hut. But the latter carried no meaning to
him. In the heat of the moment even their mother was dead to the
appeal of their piping voices.

"You're coming away now, Jess," the man went on, making a movement
towards her.

But the girl drew back. The directness of his challenge was startling,
and roused in her a belated defensiveness. Going away? It sounded
suddenly terrible to her, and thrilled her with a rush of fear which
set her shivering. And yet she knew that all along this--this was the
end towards which she had been drifting. The rich color faded from her
cheeks and her lips tr