e
adventure's going on."

"That's true," Festing agreed. "Still you feel sorry if, as we say, you
are unable to put the thing over."

Helen gave him a sympathetic smile. "Yes; one feels that."

"It depends upon one's temperament," Miss Jardine objected. "I know my
limits, though Helen does not know hers. When I can't get what I'm out
for, I'm satisfied with less. One can't always have the best."

"It's worth trying for, anyway," Festing replied.

He was afraid this sounded priggish. Miss Jardine got up.

"Well, I'm not much of a philosopher and had better put out some of the
clothes you brought to dry, although it was thoughtful of you to throw
your bag into the bog instead of mine."

"That was an accident," Festing declared. "I meant to throw them both
across."

Miss Jardine picked up the sack. "There's nobody else here and a wet
evening's dreary. I hope you won't go before I come back."

"I won't," said Festing. "They have only a deaf tourist and two tired
climbers, who seem sleepy and bad-tempered, at the hotel."

Miss Jardine's eyes twinkled. "Well," she said as she went out, "I
suppose it's a fair retort."

Festing colored and looked at Helen apologetically. "You see, I have
lived in the woods."

"I expect that has some advantages," said Helen, who liked his frank
embarrassment. "However, it was lucky I met you to-day. You didn't come
back to see us, and there is something----" She hesitated and then
gave him a steady glance. "You are not so much a stranger to us as you
imagine."

Festing wondered what she meant and whether she knew about the portrait,
but she resumed: "As a matter of fact, my mother and I felt that we knew
you rather well."

"I don't understand."

"Some time since, you found a young Englishmen in a Western mining town.
He had been ill and things had gone against him."

"Ah," said Festing sharply. "Of course! I ought to have known----He
looked like you. I mean I ought to have known the name. Was he a
relative?"

"My brother," Helen replied.

She was silent for a moment or two, and then went on in a tone that made
Festing's heart beat: "You gave him work and helped him to make a new
start. He was too proud to tell us about his difficulties."

"It cost me nothing; there was a job waiting. Afterwards he got on by
his own merits. I had nothing to do with that."

"But you gave him his chance. We can't forget this. George was younger
than me. I have no other brother, and was ve