; the shoulder under John's gentle hand was quivering.

"Yes, because I admire you from the depths of my soul," was the reply.
"Your wife is not for me. My mother is not for me. Your children are
theirs and yours. My mother is making a gift to you-- I am not doing it.
I shouldn't say _gift_. She is trying to pay a debt that she owes you."

A sob broke from Joel. He caught John's hand and stared into his eyes.
"I now know why Tilly still loves you," he gulped. "She loves you
because you are more of God than man. I don't know what to say to you
further, but I will say this--and as the Almighty is my witness I mean
it. I'll do my duty as the father of my children, as the husband _before
the law_ of my wife, and as the manager of your mother's property, but
I'll never try to win my wife's heart from you."

John's arm slid around the neck of the bowed and broken man. He started
to speak, but his voice clogged with a pain that was delicious. It was
as if both he and his companion somehow had stood aside from their
bodies and were floating among the trees in the dim starlight.

Presently, and without a word, Joel turned and walked away. He plunged
again into the wood as if to avoid contact with any one from the streets
of the town. On he went, his face turned homeward. There was a hill to
ascend, a vale to cross. He reached the top of the hill. His step had
become sluggish. He groaned aloud. He folded his arms and stood staring
into the moonlight.

"It is incomplete--unfinished, not rounded out," he muttered. "It cannot
remain as it is. I haven't the strength to put it through. I know where
I'd fail. I'd continue to suffer, and so would he. He is noble to the
core of his being. He is doing his best to help me and her, but he is
giving more than he is getting, and that isn't fair. After all, after
all, _there is one thing that I can do for him that he could not do for
me_!"

THE END

BOOKS BY
ZANE GREY

* * * * *

_THE U. P. TRAIL_
_THE DESERT OF WHEAT_
_WILDFIRE_
_THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT_
_RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE_
_DESERT GOLD_
_THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS_
_THE LONE STAR RANGER_
_THE RAINBOW TRAIL_
_THE BORDER LEGION_
_KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE_
_THE YOUNG LION HUNTER_
_THE YOUNG FORESTER_
_THE YOUNG PITCHER_

BOOKS BY
BASIL KING

* * * * *

_THE CITY OF COMRADES_
_ABRAHAM'S BOSOM_
_THE HIG