cover of the restaurant, it would be dead easy to run in a little
whiskey over the Berry Mountain trail, and make a pot of money. Fifty
cents a drink, by Gad!"

Rina drew away from him. "I will not help you do that, 'Erbe't," she
said quietly.

"You'll do what I tell you to do," he said coolly.

Rina remained silent. Her breast heaved and trembled with terror at her
own temerity in defying her husband--but there were both firmness and
reproach in her attitude. It was more than the weak Mabyn could bear for
long in silence.

"Good God!" he burst out. "Have I married a breed to tell me what I
ought to do, and ought not to do? Better learn once for all, my girl,
that I'm the head of this outfit, and I mean to do whatever I damned
please!"

Rina sat gripping her hands together in her lap to control their
trembling. Her head was bowed. "I am only a breed girl," she said. "You
are my 'osban', and you can beat me, and you can kill me, but I would
not cry out, or think bad of you. But you cannot mak' me help you to
mak' a pig of you again. I will mak' you to have good credit, an' to be
a rich and strong man, an' you can go back and spit on the poor breeds
that mock you before. I will not help you trade in whiskey; whiskey mak'
you poor, an' sick, an' crazy!"

Mabyn got up. "God! Women are all alike, white or brown!" he muttered
indifferently. "Come on in."

But he had yielded the point. The regeneration of Herbert Mabyn had been
undertaken.

XIV

THE LAST STAGE

The hours of the afternoon that followed their encounter with
Tom Lillywhite were long and heavy ones for Natalie and Garth. A
haggard misunderstanding rode between them on the trail. Denied the
all-explaining, all-healing touch of hands--or lips, the unreasonable
despair of lovers seized on each; and the sunny way was plunged in murk.
They rode, and camped, and ate their supper in silence; and in silence
they turned in for the night. But there was little sleep for either; they
lay apart, each nursing a burden of unhappiness; unable to say now what
it was all about, only dreadfully conscious that they were divided.

As soon as it was light enough to see, a pale and heavy-lidded Natalie
crept noiselessly out of her tent. In front of the door she saw Garth
on his knees preparing to build a fire; but the hand that held the
hatchet-helve had dropped nervelessly to the ground; and his eyes, fixed
and staring in the torpor of miserableness, had forgott