tant his eyes fairly blazed; they were bright with triumph.

"Just the thing! I'll go for the horses. I'll ride over with you and get
right back here."

"But----"

But already, excusing himself hurriedly, Gratton was off for the horses.

_Chapter XII_

It was mid-afternoon when Gloria and Gratton came to the log house in
the woods. Jim Spalding, coming to take their horses away to the stable,
though a man of no wild flights of imagination and given to minding his
own business, was plainly curious.

"We rode on ahead, Jim," Gloria told him, and Jim detected no false
note in her gaiety. "Mamma is coming."

Spalding gave them a key and they went to the house. It was Gloria who
unlocked the door; Gratton, his white face looking more than ever
bloodless, saw her hand tremble. She hurried in, excused herself, and
ran upstairs. She knew that the time had come when she would have to
listen to what Gratton was going to say; she knew what the burden of his
plea would be--she knew everything, she thought wildly, except what her
answer would be.

She heard Gratton stirring restlessly downstairs. He walked up and down,
snapping his fingers incessantly, a habit which in the man bespoke
nervousness. He sat at the piano and the keys jangled under his touch;
he got up and walked again. He was waiting for her to come down; he was
shaping in mind the words which would greet her before she had come
fairly to the bottom of the stairs.

Gloria turned into her own room, locking the door behind her. She looked
at herself in her glass; she was pale, her eyes looked unnaturally big
and brilliant. She bit her lips and turned away. From her blouse she
brought out the parcel her father had entrusted to her, slipping it
under her mattress, smoothing the counterpane when she had done. Then,
with but one clear thought in the world, that of getting into immediate
touch with her mother, she went to the telephone.

On this floor, in a cosy little room opening upon the upstairs
sun-porch, was an extension telephone, installed for the convenience of
Gloria and her mother. Gloria went tiptoeing to it rather than go down
where Gratton was. She rang the necessary bell for the operator in
Truckee and put in her long-distance call in low tones which demanded a
repetition before the operator got it right. Then she sat with the
instrument in her hand, waiting. Once she heard Gratton's step close to
the stairs and jumped to her feet, thinking t