es to make me Agatha's puppet and a sharer in her
more than questionable dissipations; had forgotten that by every step I
had taken with Agatha Geddis I had increased the distance separating me
from Mary Everton.

Perhaps it is only a characteristic of human nature to minimize evils
past, and evils to come, at the miraculous removal of a great and
pressing evil present; even so, one may suffer loss. I was hastening
back to take up the dropped thread of my relations with Phineas Everton
and his daughter, and I should have gone softly, as one who, knowing
himself the chief of sinners yet ventures to tread upon holy ground.
But by the time the train was slowing into the great gold camp at the
back of Pike's Peak, these, and all other chastening thoughts, were
crowded aside to make room for the one jubilant fact: I was free and I
was going back to Polly.

Barrett was the first man I met upon reaching our offices. If he were
surprised at seeing me in Cripple Creek when I should have been well on
my way to the Pacific Coast, he was quite as evidently disappointed.

"I thought you had started for California," he said in his evenest
tones.

"I thought so, too; but it was only a false start." Then I had it out
with him. "You and I both know, Barrett, why you thought I ought to
go, and the reason wasn't even remotely connected with the shipping of
the car-load of test-ore. If you have seen the morning papers, you
probably know why it is no longer necessary for me to leave Colorado."

He turned to stare absently out of the office window. When he faced
about again there was a frown of friendly concern wrinkling between his
straight-browed level eyes.

"How the devil did you ever come to get mixed up with the Geddis woman,
Jimmie?" he demanded.

I evaded the direct question. "It is a long story, and some day I may
be able to tell you all of it. But I can't do it now. You must take
my word for it, Bob, that I haven't done a single thing that I didn't
believe, at the time, I was compelled to do. That sounds idiotic, I
know; but it is the simple truth."

Again he turned to the window and was silent for a full minute. I knew
that I had in no uncertain measure forfeited his good opinion--that, I
had earned the forfeiture: also, I knew perfectly well what he was
doing; he was leaving me entirely out of the question and was weighing
the hazards for Polly. When he turned it was to put a hand upon my
shoulder.

"I'm t