and what a wolf could eat would feed men who were by no means
fastidious.

Seeing nothing that alarmed him, Blake resumed his musing. Their
search for the gum had proved useless. He pitied Harding, who had
staked his future upon its success. The man had not complained much;
but Blake knew what he must feel; and he thought with compassion of the
lonely woman who had bravely sent her husband out and was now waiting
for him in the mean discomfort of a cheap tenement. It was not
difficult to imagine her anxiety and suspense.

Next he began to ponder his own affairs, which were not encouraging,
though he did not think he really regretted the self-sacrificing course
he had taken. His father had died involved in debt, and Blake
suspected that it had cost Colonel Challoner something to redeem the
share of his mother's property which brought him in a small income.
That it had been carefully tied up was not, he thought, enough to guard
it from the Blake extravagance and ingenuity in raising money.
Afterward the Colonel had brought him up and sent him into the army,
doing so with a generous affection which was very different from cold
charity, and which demanded some return. Then, Bertram had never been
jealous of the favor shown his cousin, but had given him warm
friendship; and Blake, who was much the stronger, had now and then
stood between the lad and harm. He had done so again in Bertram's
greatest need, and now he must not grumble at the consequences.

Of late they had seemed heavier than formerly, for in tempting him
Clarke had made a telling suggestion--suppose he married? This
appeared improbable: for one thing, no girl that he was likely to care
for would look with favor on a man with his reputation; but he had
thought a good deal about Millicent Graham during the long, weary
march. He imagined that she had inherited enough of her father's
reckless character to make her willing to take a risk. She would not
have a man betray his friend for an advantage that he might gain; she
had a courage that would help her, for love's sake, to tread a
difficult path. Still, there was no reason to believe that she had any
love for him; or, indeed, that she thought of him except as a stranger
to whom she had, perhaps, some reason to be grateful.

Resolutely breaking off this train of thought, he threw fresh wood on
the fire, and sat shivering and making plans for the march to the
factory, until Benson relieved him. When