was
social work in its best form--that was all. The work of which he
dreamed, and to which he had consecrated his life was the preaching of
the Gospel, and, as the months passed, an unrest--the like of which he
had hardly known--took possession of him. These last weeks of Belle's
absence had brought on one of his periodic soul-searchings and the gloom
of it was as thick as a fog when the mail brought word of Belle's
return. As he sat with her letter in his hand his mind went back to the
hills and the free days and he longed to go back--to get away from the
ponderous stolidity of this pavement world.

He met her at the station and her joyousness was as a shock to him. And
yet, how hungry he was for every least word of that lost life.

"Oh, Jim, it was glorious to ride again, to smell the leather and the
sagebrush. I just loved the alkali and the very ticks on the sagebrush.
I didn't know how they could stir one's heart."

His eye glowed, his breath came fast, his nostrils dilated and, as Belle
looked, it seemed to her that her simple words had struck far deeper
than she meant.

"And the horses, which did you ride?" he queried. "How is Blazing Star?
Are they going to race at Fort Ryan this year? And the Bylow boys, and
the Mountain? Thank God, men may come and go, but Cedar Mountain will
stand forever." He talked as one who has long kept still--as one whose
thoughts long pent have dared at length to break forth.

And Belle, as she listened, saw a light. "He is far from forgetting the
life of the Hills," she said to herself as she watched him. "He is
keener than ever. All this steadfast devotion to club work is the
devotion of duty. Now I know the meaning of those long vigils, those
walks by the lake in the rain--of his preoccupation. His heart is in
Cedar Mountain." And she honoured him all the more for that he had never
spoken a word of the secret longing.

CHAPTER LVI

The Defection of Squeaks

Michael Shay had come to the club in person once or twice, but did not
desire to be conspicuous. It was clear now that the club was not to be
the political weapon at first suspected. The boss had another
organization through which to hold and make felt his power; but the fact
that it pleased a number of his voters was enough to insure his support.

Squeaks, however, was quite conspicuous and present on all important
occasions; it was generally supposed that he was there in the interests
of Shay, but that was n