tle a thing
like that, and there's only one says it's got to be settled. Maybe it
takes more than two--or three--to settle a thing like that." Now she
laughed mirthlessly.

The man started, and his face flushed with anger; then he put a hand on
himself, drew a step back, and watched her.

"One can settle a thing, if there's a dozen in it. You see, Nance,
you and Bantry's got to close out. He's fixing it up to-night over at
Dingan's Drive, and you can't go it alone when you quit this place. Now,
it's this way: you can go West with Bantry, or you can go North with
me. Away North there's buffalo and deer, and game aplenty, up along the
Saskatchewan, and farther up on the Peace River. It's going to be all
right up there for half a lifetime, and we can have it in our own way
yet. There'll be no smuggling, but there'll be trading, and land to get;
and, mebbe, there'd be no need of smuggling, for we can make it, I know
how--good white whiskey--and we'll still have this free life for our
own. I can't make up my mind to settle down to a clean collar and going
to church on Sundays, and all that. And the West's in your bones too.
You look like the West--"

The girl's face brightened with pleasure, and she gazed at him steadily.

"You got its beauty and its freshness, and you got its heat and cold--"

She saw the tobacco-juice stain at the corners of his mouth, she became
conscious of the slight odour of spirits in the air, and the light in
her face lowered in intensity.

"You got the ways of the deer in your walk, the song o' the birds in
your voice; and you're going North with me, Nance, for I bin talkin'
to you stiddy four years. It's a long time to wait on the chance, for
there's always women to be got, same as others have done--men like
Dingan with Injun girls, and men like Tobey with half-breeds. But I
ain't bin lookin' that way. I bin lookin' only towards you." He laughed
eagerly, and lifted a tin cup of whiskey standing on a table near. "I'm
lookin' towards you now, Nance. Your health and mine together. It's got
to be settled now. You got to go to the 'Cific Coast with Bantry, or
North with me."

The girl jerked a shoulder and frowned a little. He seemed so sure of
himself.

"Or South with Nick Pringle, or East with someone else," she said
quizzically. "There's always four quarters to the compass, even when Abe
Hawley thinks he owns the world and has a mortgage on eternity. I'm not
going West with Bantry, but ther