r husband withered beneath her words; his whole big frame sagged
together as if the life had ebbed out of it; he felt weary and sick and
burned out. His brain held but one thought--Alice did not love him,
because he was old.

"Don't go on this way," he said, finally, to check her. "I suppose it's
true, but I've felt like a daddy and a mother to you, along with the
other feeling, and I hoped you wouldn't notice it. I don't reckon any
young man could care for you like that. You see, it's all the loves of
my whole life wrapped up together, and I don't see, I don't see what we
can do about it. We're married!" It was characteristic of him that he
could devise no way out of the difficulty. A calamity had befallen them,
and they must adjust themselves to it as best they could. In his eyes
marriage was a holy thing, an institution of God, with which no human
hands might trifle.

"No," he continued, "you're my wife, and so we've got to get along the
best way we can. I know you couldn't do anything wrong--you ain't that
kind." His eyes roved over the homely little nest and the evidences of
their married intimacy. "No, you couldn't do that."

"Then you won't make it any harder for me than you can help?"

"No." He rose stiffly. "You're entitled to a fair show at anything you
want. I don't like Barclay, but if you want him around, I won't object.
Try to be as happy as you can, Alice; maybe it'll all come out right.
Only--I wish you'd known it wasn't love before you married me." He put
on his cap and went out into the cold.

During the ensuing week or two he devoted himself to his work, spending
every daylight hour on his claim, in this way more than satisfying
Barclay and the woman, who felt that a great menace had been removed.
But Hopper determined that his friend should know all and not part of
the truth, for good men are rare and weak women in the way, so he put on
his parka and walked out to the place where McGill was working, and
there, under a bleak March sky, with the snow-flurries wrapping their
legs about, he told what he had learned. Hopper was a little man, but he
had courage.

"I've heard it from half a dozen fellers," he concluded, "and they'd
ought to know, because they come up on the same boat with them. Anyhow,
you can satisfy yourself easy enough."

McGill moistened his lips and, thanking his informant, said, "Now you'd
better hustle back to camp; we're due for a storm."

It was still early afternoon when