nd him, more
power to you."

"I wouldn't stand in your way," said Miss Andrews, coldly, "and I don't
intend that you shall stand in mine."

"Is that the only way you look at it?" Barclay wore an ugly frown that
seemed genuine. She met it with a mere shrug, causing him to exclaim,
hotly, "If you don't care any more than that, I won't interfere." He
turned and walked away.

Those were wonderful days for McGill. Instead of hurrying back to his
work he loitered. With a splendid disregard of convention he followed
the girl about hourly and was too drunk with her smiles to hear the
comment his actions evoked. He had moments of despair when he saw
himself as a great, awkward bear, more aptly designed to frighten than
to woo a woman, but these periods of depression gave way to the keenest
delight at some word of encouragement from Alice Andrews. He did not
fully realize that he had asked her to marry him until it was all over,
but she seemed to understand so fully what was in his heart that she had
drawn it from him before he really knew what he was saying. And then the
joy of her acceptance! It stunned him. When he had finally torn himself
away from her side he went out and stood bareheaded under the northern
lights to let it sink in. There were no words in his vocabulary, no
thoughts in his mind, capable of expressing the marvel of it. The
gorgeous colors that leaped from horizon to zenith were no more glorious
than the riot that flamed within his soul. She loved him, Dan McGill,
and she was a white woman! When he thought how beautiful and young she
was his heart overflowed with a gentle tenderness which rivaled that of
any mother.

Still in a dream, he related the miracle to the steamboat captain, who
took the announcement in silence. This old man had wintered inside the
circle and knew something of the woman-hunger that comes to strong men
in solitude. He was observant, moreover, and had seen good girls made
bad by the fires of the frontier, as well as bad women made good by
marriage.

There being no priest nearer than Nulato, it was, perforce, a contract
marriage. A lawyer in the party attended to the papers, and it pleased
the woman to have Barclay sign as a witness. Then she and McGill set out
for Ophir, a trip he never forgot. The sled was laden with things to
make a bride comfortable, so they were forced to walk, but they might
have been flying, for all he knew. Alice was very ignorant of northern
ways, childish