mind. Then he resumed his waiting, his head buried in his hands. At
last, when he could endure the silence no longer, he rose and walked the
floor, backward, forward, pausing breathless to listen for the patter of
the dog's feet in the hall. But no sound came; he stole to the door and
listened, then stepped into the hall. The light still burned in her
room, streaming out through the transom.

She would never send another message to him by His Highness; he
understood that now. How he cursed himself for his momentary delusion!
how he scorned himself for reading anything but friendly kindness in her
message! how he burned with self-contempt for his raw, brutal reply,
crude as the blurted offer of a yokel!

That settled the matter. If he had any decency left, he must
never offend her eyes again. How could he have hoped? How could
he have done it? Here, too!--here in this place so sanctified to
her by associations--here, whither she had come upon her pious
pilgrimage--here, where at least he might have left her to her
dead!

Suddenly, as he stood there, her door opened. She saw him standing
there. For a full minute they faced each other. Presently His Highness
emerged from behind his mistress and trotted out into the hall.

Behind His Highness came his mistress, slowly, more slowly. The dog
carefully held a letter between his teeth, and when Langham saw it he
sprang forward eagerly.

"No, no!" she said. "I did not mean--I cannot--I cannot-- Give me back
the letter!"

He had the letter in his hand; her hand fell over it; the color surged
into her face and neck. The letter dropped from her yielding hand; the
thrill from their interlocked fingers made her faint, and she swayed
forward towards him, so close that their lips touched, then clung,
crushed in their first kiss....

Meanwhile His Highness picked up the letter and stood politely waiting.

THE SHINING BAND

I

Before the members of the Sagamore Fish and Game Association had erected
their handsome club-house, and before they had begun to purchase those
thousands of acres of forest, mountain, and stream which now belonged to
them, a speculative lumberman with no capital, named O'Hara, built the
white house across the river on a few acres of inherited property,
settled himself comfortably with his wife and child, and prepared to
acquire all the timber in sight at a few dollars an acre ... on credit.
For thus, thought he, is the beginning of all millio