re a similar force In
her; she would make him admire the physical perfection of her. She was
a woman, she was amply endowed with brain and instinct and beauty. And
she was far too shrewd to overlook a single weapon which lay at her
hand.

The eternal looms were weaving, the warp of her being, the woof of his
being were drawn into the intricate pattern of human destiny. Smiles
and tears, hopes and fears, emotions of which a man is unconscious,
ambitions and failures, achievements--all go into the invisible fabric.
Already Sledge Hume and Helga Strawn had come to find something to
admire in each other. The short sight of a clever man and a clever
woman could not discern what lay at the end. And the end was rushing
upon them with tremendous speed.

CHAPTER XXIV

UNDER THE SURFACE

Early in January there arrived in El Toyon a gentleman with a scrubbing
brush moustache, a pleasant, portly personality, a pair of twinkling
black eyes, a seemingly limitless amount of leisure, discriminating
taste for liquors and cigars, a fountain pen and a check book. The
name he wrote upon the hotel register was Edward Kinsell. He disabused
the mind of the proprietor, Charlie Granger, by assuring him that he
was not a drummer. In his genial way he was quite ready to tell all
about himself. He was an old bachelor, counting upon becoming the
husband of a great little woman just as soon as the courts had disposed
of the present incumbent. He had been rolling down the rocky trail at
a pretty swift gait in town, and his doctor had warned him that the
lady In question would have been set free and would no doubt have
chosen and elected another life partner before Mr. Kinsell found his
way to the church unless he took up the simple life.

So Mr. Kinsell, having availed himself for a week or two of Charlie
Granger's hospitality, found at last a vine twined cottage not too far
from the hotel kitchen and barroom, and leased it forthwith. He played
many games of poker, apparently possessed of a rare ability to play
good hands badly and poor hands well so that while he generally lost he
lost but little; he took up sleighing with great delight, usually
taking a small boy along with him to drive; he amused himself writing
daily letters or picture postcards to the great little woman; he became
a friend of all the dogs in town; he bought drinks for the village
vagabonds; altogether he disported himself harmlessly and pleasantly
quite a