did him several services--you can tell him that it will not
be for long."

So when we reached the station Harry volunteered to find the best doctor
in the timber city--for hewn stone had only begun to replace sawn lumber
then--and arrange for transit to Wilson's house; because he said that it
was my particular duty to tell Colonel Carrington and Grace. An hour
passed before I traced them, and then I found them at a function given to
celebrate the starting of some new public enterprise, and it was with
hesitation that, followed by Calvert, I entered the vestibule of the
brilliantly lighted hall. We gave a message to a bland Chinese attendant,
and waited until returning he beckoned us through a crimson curtain, which
swung to behind, and I found myself standing bewildered under a blaze of
light in a ball-room.

There was a crash of music, a swishing of colored dresses, and then, as
the orchestra ceased, we stood before the astonished assembly just as we
had left the bush, in tattered fur wrappings and torn deerskin, with the
stains of leagues of travel on our leggings, while I recollect that a
creeper-spike on my heel made holes in the polished marquetry. All eyes
were turned toward us.

"This is considerably more than I bargained for," growled Calvert. "I feel
guiltily like the man who brought the news to Edinburgh after Flodden.
What did you play this confounded trick upon us for, John?"

"John savvy Miss Callington," said the unblushing Mongolian; and Calvert
added savagely:

"Then hide us somewhere, and tell her, before I twist your heathen neck
for you."

I noticed Martin Lorimer moving toward me; but before he reached us Grace
came up, a dazzling vision of beauty.

"I am thankful to see you back safe, Ralph, and hear you have news for
me," she said. "Lawrence Calvert, the same applies to you."

It was bravely done, for few women would have cared to link themselves
publicly with such a gaunt and tattered scarecrow as I undoubtedly was
then; but Grace was born with high courage and a manner which made all she
did appear right. When Calvert said that he would send for Colonel
Carrington, she calmly placed her hand within my arm, and added:

"We will find quietness yonder in the empty supper-room. You have made me
anxious."

Then, doubtless to the wonder of many citizens' daughters and wives, we
passed together, a sufficiently striking couple, across the hall; and when
at length we escaped the curious eyes,