t than ever.

In the course of an hour he sauntered down to the office to meet
Houston, and a little later the two sat in the porch of the low,
wide-spreading house, partly frame and partly of logs, the roof of the
porch supported by the trunks of slender trees, unhewn, from which
even the bark had not been removed.

From the porch there was a view of the lake, and in the distance the
gleaming cascades, while just opposite, the gulch road followed its
winding course and disappeared among the mountains.

Presently there came up the winding road three men, apparently father
and sons,--low-browed, heavy-eyed, brutal looking creatures,--who
followed the foot path up toward the house, and glaring sullenly at
the young men, shuffled around to the back door.

"Evidently mine host and his sons," remarked Houston.

"Well," replied Rutherford, "I think if I see a few more such
specimens as those, I'll take the first train out. Say though, I
haven't seen a sign of that school teacher, I begin to think she is a
myth."

"Sh!" said Houston quickly, under his breath, "see what you think of
this!"

Rutherford turned in the direction Houston was facing, and had two
beings just then descended from the mythical regions, he could not
have been more astonished than at sight of the pair approaching from
the lake. The first was a young girl, apparently about sixteen, but
tall and well developed, the scant garments that she wore revealing
the beautifully rounded outlines of her form, her carriage free and
every movement full of grace. Her face was exquisitely beautiful, the
features refined and perfect as though chiseled in marble; her eyes
shone with a star-like brilliancy, and her hair fell about her
shoulders like a mass of burnished gold.

Beside her was a woman several years her senior, equally beautiful,
but an altogether different type of beauty; more mature, more perfect
and more rare. Tall and splendidly developed, she moved with a queenly
grace. Her face was classical in its contours, the profile resembling
that of some of the old Grecians, while its beauty was so refined, so
subtile, it could not be easily described. Perhaps the eyes were its
chief attraction; large and dark, and of Madonna-like depth and
tenderness; soulful eyes that reflected every emotion of the pure,
womanly nature, as the calm lake mirrors the sunlit sky or the
lowering storm-cloud, the silvery moon or the lightning's flash. The
wavy, auburn hair, ti