, and no doubt her own treatment of him had
roused his ire and all the lower instincts of his malignant nature;
but she also knew that he loved money--needed money. His greed for
gold was a gluttonous madness which he was incapable of resisting, and
he would sacrifice any personal feeling provided the inducement were
sufficiently large. She meant that the inducement should be as large
as even he could wish, and she knew that in this direction his ideas
were extensive. Her one trouble, the one thought which alarmed her,
was the question of time. If the office were closed when she arrived,
her journey would have been in vain, for the operator lived in Ainsley
and would have gone home; Hervey would have arrived in Winnipeg, and,
by the time the office opened the following morning, the mischief
would have been done.

She flicked her mare with the end of her reins and touched her flank
with her heel. Kitty responded with a forward bound. The increased
speed was all too slow for the rapid thought and deadly anxiety of the
girl, but she was too good a horsewoman to press the willing beast
beyond a rational gait.

The hardy mare "propped" jerkily as she passed down the sharp side of
a dried-out slough. She plunged through a thicket of long grass, and a
grey cloud of mosquitoes rose and enveloped horse and rider. The
vicious insects settled like a grey cloth upon the heated mare, and
Prudence's soft flesh was punctured by hundreds of venomous needles at
once. The girl swept the insects from neck and face, heedless of the
torturing stings. The mare fretted and raced up the opposite slope,
while the girl leant forward in her saddle and sought to relieve the
staunch little creature's agony by sweeping the poisonous insects from
her steaming coat.

The mare pressed on. Suddenly she threw up her head and snorted
violently. Prudence was startled. Something had distracted Kitty's
attention, and her wide-set ears were cocked in alarm. Her nose was
held high, and again and again she snorted. In consequence her pace
was slackened and became awkward. She no longer kept a straight line
along the trail, but moved from side to side in evident agitation.
Prudence was puzzled and endeavoured to steady the creature. But Kitty
was not to be easily appeased. She rattled her bit and mouthed it
determinedly, grabbing at the side-bar with an evident desire to
secure it in her teeth. The girl kept a tight rein and attempted to
soothe her with the