ot.
You are always asking for dollars. What do you want them for?"

"Mr. Seaforth has packed our stores in for a long while, and we have
paid him nothing," said the girl, while a little colour crept into her
face.

Townshead made a gesture of weariness. "The young man seems willing to
do it out of friendship for us, and I see no reason why we should not
allow him, unless he presumes upon the trifling service," he said. "To
do him justice, however, he and his comrade have always shown
commendable taste."

The girl smiled a little, for considering their relative positions in a
country where a man takes his station according to his usefulness the
word "presume" appeared incongruous. "Still, I should prefer not to be
in their debt," she said.

"Then we will free ourselves of the obligation with the next remittance
Jack sends in," said Townshead impatiently.

The girl's face grew troubled. "I am afraid that will not be for some
little time," she said. "Poor Jack. You surely remember he is lying
ill?"

"It is especially inconvenient just now," said Townshead querulously.
"It has also been a sore point with me that a son of mine should hire
himself out as a labourer. I am sorry I let him go, the more so
because the work upon the ranch is getting too much for me."

Nellie Townshead said nothing, though she sighed as she pictured the
young lad, who had been stricken by rheumatic fever as a result of
toiling waist-deep in icy, water, lying uncared for in the mining camp
amidst the snows of Caribou. She did not, however, remind her father
that it was she who had in the meanwhile done most of the indispensable
work upon the ranch, and Townshead would not in any case have believed
her, for he had a fine capacity for deceiving himself.

In place of it she spread out some masculine garments about the stove
and coloured a trifle when her father glanced at her inquiringly. "The
creek must be running high and Mr. Alton and his partner will be very
wet," she said. "I am warming a few of Jack's old things for them.
They cannot go back to Somasco to-night, you know."

"I confess that it did not occur to me," said Townshead languidly.
"No, I suppose one could scarcely expect them to, and we shall have to
endure their company."

A faint sparkle that had nothing to do with laughter crept into the
girl's eyes, for there were times when her father tried her patience.
"I wonder if it occurred to you that we shall probably