rry we can't bring a
charge of whisky-running against you, but another time be careful who
you hire your wagon to."

Then there was a rapid drumming of hoofs as two troopers went off at a
gallop, while when the rest turned back towards the outpost. Stimson
rode with them quietly content.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE REVELATION

Winston's harvesting prospered as his sowing had done, for by day the
bright sunshine shone down on standing wheat and lengthening rows of
sheaves. It was in the bracing cold of sunrise the work began, and the
first pale stars were out before the tired men and jaded horses dragged
themselves home again. Not infrequently it happened that the men wore
out the teams and machines, but there was no stoppage then, for fresh
horses were led out from the corral or a new binder was ready. Every
minute was worth a dollar, and Winston, who had apparently foreseen and
provided for everything, wasted none.

Then, for wheat is seldom stacked in that country, as the days grew
shorter and the evenings cool, the smoke of the big thrasher streaked
the harvest field, and the wagons went jolting between humming
separator and granary, until the later was gorged to repletion and the
wheat was stored within a willow framing beneath the chaff and straw
that streamed from the chute of the great machine. Winston had around
him the best men that dollars could hire, and toiled tirelessly with
the grimy host in the whirling dust of the thrasher and amid the
sheaves, wherever another pair of hands, or the quick decision that
would save an hour's delay, was needed most.

As compared with the practice of insular Britain, there were not half
enough of them, but wages are high in that country, and the crew of the
thrasher paid by the bushel, while the rest had long worked for their
own hand on the levels of Manitoba and in the bush of Ontario, and knew
that the sooner their toil was over the sooner they would go home again
with well-lined pockets. So, generously fed, splendid human muscle
kept pace with clinking steel under a stress that is seldom borne
outside the sun-bleached prairie at harvest time, and Winston forgot
everything save the constant need for the utmost effort of body and
brain. It was even of little import to him that prices moved steadily
upward as he toiled.

At last it was finished, and only knee-high stubble covered his land
and that of Maud Barrington, while, for he was one who could venture
fe