e heard that you asked to be recalled to the East, and I
honor you for it."

"Are you sorry that my request was refused?" asked Harley.

She did not falter, although the red in her cheeks flushed deeper.

"No, I am not sorry; I am glad," she replied. "Why should I tell an
untruth about what is so great a matter to both of us? But it cannot
change anything."

Harley felt that this was, indeed, a maid well worth winning, and his
hope yet to find a way, which had been weakened somewhat lately, grew
high again. That night wild resolves ran through his mind. He would
sacrifice his pride, hitherto an unthinkable thing--he would see "King"
Plummer and tell him that Sylvia and he loved each other, that neither
of them could possibly be happy unless they were wedded, then he would
appeal to the older man's generosity; he would tell him how Sylvia
loyally meant to keep her word and pay her debt of gratitude with
herself, then he would ask him to release her from the promise. But he
gave up the idea as one that required too much; he could never humiliate
himself so far, and even then it would be a humiliation without result.

If Harley had undertaken to carry out such a wild idea, he would have
found it difficult, because no one in the party then knew where "King"
Plummer was; they were hearing of him all over the West, and the Denver,
Salt Lake, and smaller newspapers were filled with accounts of his
doings, all colored highly. His bolt, they said, was now an accomplished
fact; he showed the deepest hostility to the candidate, and he was also
in constant correspondence with a powerful and dissatisfied wing in the
East.

Mr. Grayson never said a word, he never spoke of Mr. Plummer in any of
his speeches, and Harley believed there was only sadness in his mind,
not anger, whenever he thought of the "King."

But there could be no doubt of the effect of all these events upon the
campaign; to the public Jimmy Grayson seemed as one lost in the
wilderness, and only in the mountains, where the people were far from
the great centres of information, did they yet cherish a hope of his
election. Churchill wrote to the _Monitor_ that Jimmy Grayson himself
had abandoned hope.

Ominous rumblings were coming from the East, too. Goodnight, Crayon, and
their friends had found a pretext upon which to take drastic action, and
they were about to take it.

XX

THE GREAT PHILIPSBURG CONFERENCE

If ever you go to Philipsburg, which