remember--sometimes."

His eyes suddenly swam and he turned his head away.

"Good-bye!" she murmured, and held his hand.

"All aboard!" yelled the voice again.

A man began to move the gangway. The hand in Jim's suddenly clung on.

"I gotta go," he moaned; "they're pulling in the plank."

The steamer "honked" and began to move. He looked at her appealingly and
she placed something into the palm of his hand.

"It's something I forgot to give you," she said softly.

He opened his hand and saw--a steamboat ticket.

"But----"

"I bought two," she said. "One for you and one for me; and most of your
clothes are in those bags. Didn't you miss them?"

CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION

It was past midnight, and they were sitting in the stern of the _Topeka_
listening to the chopchop of the water under her flat bottom. Save for an
occasional guffaw and curse, evidence of some nocturnal card-party,
silence reigned aboard.

A full moon flooded the landscape, under which the lofty banks, and the
great mountains beyond, shimmered in fantastic manner; wherein the river,
mighty as it was, seemed dwarfed like unto a silver serpent, winding and
turning down to the sea.

Since morning Jim had lived in some wonderful paradise, which even now
seemed unstable, fugitive, and dreamlike.

"Angela, tell me it isn't a dream."

"It's no dream, dear."

"Ah!"

He nestled closer to her and found the soft small hand beneath the rug
spread over their knees. There was no attempt on her part to withdraw it.
Instead, she gripped the big muscular fingers caressingly.

"I can't get it straight yet," he muttered. "It was only this morning I
was in hell. You're sure this ain't some game that'll land me back in the
mud?"

She laughed merrily and pulled his arm round her waist.

"You dear, doubting man! If it's me you want I'm here with you. I'm
substantial enough to be felt, aren't I?"

"But some things seem too good, and this is one of them. I had a hunch I'd
never quite reach out over that pride of yours."

"I've no pride now, Jim, save pride of possession." Her eyes shone in the
moonlight. "Back there in the wilderness I dreamed of this day, but it
seemed so far away."

He nodded his head slowly.

"And yet you ran away?"

"It was on that last occasion that I found myself. When I uttered that
appalling, shameful lie, I thought I hated you for your tyranny. It was
only when I had spent a night on the trail alone that I saw