ad now joined the group
of loungers and were cheering her on. He had already satisfied himself
that she had not a trace of fear. In another moment or two, however,
he forgot his slight sense of disconcertion, for Sally, sitting tense
and strung up on the driving seat with a glow in her cheeks and a snap
in her eyes, was wholly admirable. There was lithe grace, virility,
and resolution in every line of her fur-wrapped figure. It is possible
that her appearance would have been less effective in a drawing room,
but in the waggon she was in her place and in harmony with her
surroundings. Lowering sky, gleaming snow, fur-clad men, and even the
big, dingy locomotive, all fitted curiously into the scene, and she
made an imposing central figure as she contended with the half-tamed
team. Hawtrey was conscious of a stirring of his physical nature as he
watched her.

The struggle lasted for several minutes during which the horses plunged
and kicked again, until Sally stood boldly erect a moment while the
waggon rocked to and fro, a tall, straight figure with a tress of
loosened hair streaming out beneath her fur cap, as she swung the
stinging whip. Then it seemed that the team had had enough, for as she
dropped lightly back into the seat they broke into a gallop, and in
another moment the waggon, jolting horribly as it bounced across the
track, vanished behind the locomotive. Gregory heard a shout of
acclamation as he turned and hurried after it.

Sally, however, drove right through the settlement and back outside it
before she could check the horses, and she had just pulled them up in
front of the wooden hotel when Hawtrey reached it. He stood beside the
waggon holding up his hand to her, and Sally, who laughed, dropped
bodily into his arms, which was, as he recognised, a thing that Agatha
certainly would not have done. He set her down upon the sidewalk, and
when a man came out to take the team they went into the hotel together.

"It was the locomotive that did it," she explained. "They were most
too scared for anything, but I hate to be beaten by a team. Ours know
too much to try, but I got Haslem to drive me in. I dropped him at
Norton's, who'll bring him on."

"He oughtn't to have left you with them," said Hawtrey severely.

Sally laughed. "Well," she said, "I'd quit driving if I couldn't
handle any team you or Haslem could put the harness on."

In a general way, the hotels in the smaller prairie settlement