I did, Alan. I cursed terrible. Swore at the Government for building
such a road, swore at the rain, an' I swore at myself for not bringin'
along grub. I said my belly was as empty as a shot-off cartridge, and I
said it good an' loud. I was mad. Then a big flash of lightning lit up
the coach. Alan, it was _her_ sittin' there with a box in her lap,
facing me, drippin' wet, her eyes shining--and she was smiling at me!
Yessir, _smiling_."

Stampede paused to let the shock sink in. He was not disappointed.

Alan stared at him in amazement. "The fourth night--after--" He caught
himself. "Go on, Stampede!"

"I began hunting for the latch on the door, Alan. I was goin' to sneak
out, drop in the mud, disappear before the lightnin' come again. But it
caught me. An' there she was, undoing the box, and I heard her saying
she had plenty of good stuff to eat. An' she called me Stampede, like
she'd known me all her life, and with that coach rolling an' rocking and
the thunder an' lightning an' rain piling up against each other like
sin, she came over and sat down beside me and began to feed me. She did
that, Alan--_fed_ me. When the lightning fired up, I could see her eyes
shining and her lips smilin' as if all that hell about us made her
happy, and I thought she was plumb crazy. Before I knew it she was
telling me how you pointed me out to her in the smoking-room, and how
happy she was that I was goin' her way. _Her_ way, mind you, Alan, not
_mine._ And that's just the way she's kept me goin' up to the minute you
hove in sight back there in the cottonwoods!"

He lighted his pipe again. "Alan, how the devil did she know I was
hitting the trail for your place?"

"She didn't," replied Alan.

"But she did. She said that meeting with me in the coach was the
happiest moment of her life, because _she_ was on her way up to your
range, and I'd be such jolly good company for her. 'Jolly good'--them
were the words she used! When I asked her if you knew she was coming up,
she said no, of course not, and that it was going to be a grand
surprise. Said it was possible she'd buy your range, and she wanted to
look it over before you arrived. An' it seems queer I can't remember
anything more about the thunder and lightning between there and Chitina.
When we took the train again, she began askin' a million questions about
you and the Range and Alaska. Soak me if you want to, Alan--but
everything I knew she got out of me between Chitina and Fair