im and Belle, though they took their
happiness in very different moods. There never was a grown man more
incapable of thought for the morrow than Hartigan; he was alive right
now, he would right now enjoy his life and Belle should be the crown.
But in her eyes even his imperception discovered a cloud.

"What is it, Belle? Why do you get that far-off troubled look?"

"Oh, Jim, you big, blind, childish giant; do you never think? You are
only a probationer with one year's leave. That year is up on the first
of May."

"Why, Belle darling, that's five weeks off. A world of things may happen
before that."

"Yes, if we make them happen, and I'm going to try."

"Well, Belle, this thing I know; if you set your mind to it I'd bet--if
I weren't a preacher--I'd bet there's not a thing could stand against
you."

"I like your faith, Jim; but 'faith without works is dead'; and that
means we must get up and rustle."

"What do you suggest?"

"Well, I have been rustling this long while back. I've been working Dr.
Jebb and Mrs. Jebb and anybody else I could get hold of, to have your
probation extended for another year. And the best news we have so far is
the possibility of another six months. After that, you must go back to
college to complete your course."

COLLEGE! Jim was thunderstruck. How many a man has all his dream of
bliss summed up in that one word--college? "Oh, if only I had money
enough to go to college!" is the cry of hundreds who hunger for the
things that college means; and yet, to Jim, it was like a doom of death.
College, with all the horror of the classroom ten times worse since
knowing the better things. College in the far-off East--deadly,
lifeless, crushing thing; college that meant good-bye to Belle, to life,
and red blood on the plains. Yes, he knew it was coming, if ever he gave
the horrid thing a thought; but now that it was close at hand the idea
was maddening. College was simply another name for hell. The effect of
the sudden thought on his wild, impulsive nature was one great surging
tide of rebellion.

"_I won't go!_" he thundered. "Belle, do you suppose God brought me out
here to meet you, and have you save me from ruin and help me to know the
best things on earth, just to chuck it all and go back to a lot of
useless rot about the number of wives the kings of Judah used to have,
or how some two-faced Hebrew woman laid traps for some wine-soaked
Philistine brute, and stuck the rotten loafer in the