and if it will do you any good to know that
your reproaches have done more than anything else to cause me to
begin all over again, and live a different life, I want you to
have that satisfaction. And this shall be my only good-by.

LILY MEREDITH.

For a long time Joan stood holding the letter in her hands, and then,
as if fathoming its cry of loneliness, clutched it tightly to her
breast.

"He will find her!" she said. "I know it! He must! It wouldn't be kind
of heaven to keep her from him. And he loved her all the time!"

Far across the peaks of the Blue Mountains the last rays of the sunset
went out, as an extinguished torch. A bird near by cheeped sleepily,
and the new night was coming to its own. Throbbing, rumbling, and
grinding in a melody softened by distance, the roar of the Rattler's
mills became audible, as it brought the yellow gold, glistening and
beautiful, from its sordid setting of earth. In the camp of the Croix
d'Or a chorus was wafted faintly up as men sitting in the dusk sang:
"Hearts that are brave and true, my lads, hearts that are brave and
true!"

Silently, arm in arm, they gave a last lingering look at the shaft,
the peak above, and turned down the trail to the camp which seemed all
aglow with rosy light.

THE END

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