derstand,
and I am desirous of a more formal presentation."

The minister drew in his breath sharply, but the clasp of his extended
hand was not devoid of warmth. "I will have a card of invitation sent
you at the camp. The committee will be very glad of your presence;
only I warn you frankly regarding the lady, that competition will be
strong."

"Oh, so far as that is concerned I have not yet entered the running,"
laughed Brant, in affected carelessness, "although I must confess my
sporting proclivities are somewhat aroused."

He watched the minister walking rapidly away, a short, erect figure,
appearing slender in his severely cut black cloth. "Poor little chap,"
he muttered, regretfully. "He's hard hit. Still, they say all's fair
in love and war."

CHAPTER V

IN HONOR OF MISS SPENCER

Mr. Jack Moffat, president of the Bachelor Miners' Pleasure Club, had
embraced the idea of a reception for Miss Spencer with unbounded
enthusiasm. Indeed, the earliest conception of such an event found
birth within his fertile brain, and from the first he determined upon
making it the most notable social function ever known in that portion
of the Territory.

Heretofore the pastime of the Bachelors' Club had been largely
bibulous, and the members thereof had exhibited small inclination to
seek the ordinary methods of social relaxation as practised in
Glencaid. Pink teas, or indeed teas of any conceivable color, had
never proved sufficiently attractive to wean the members from the
chaste precincts of the Occidental or the Miners' Retreat, while the
mysterious pleasure of "Hunt the Slipper" and "Spat in and Spat out"
had likewise utterly failed to inveigle them from retirement. But Mr.
Moffat's example wrought an immediate miracle, so that, long before the
fateful hour arrived, every registered bachelor was laboring
industriously to make good the proud boast of their enthusiastic
president, that this was going to be "the swellest affair ever pulled
off west of the Missouri."

The large space above the Occidental was secured for the occasion, the
obstructing subdivisions knocked away, an entrance constructed with an
outside stairway leading up from a vacant lot, and the passage
connecting the saloon boarded up. Incidentally, Mr. Moffat took
occasion to announce that if "any snoozer got drunk and came up them
stairs" he would be thrown bodily out of a window. Mr. McNeil, who was
observing the preliminary proceeding