along?" she inquired, coldly, after he had remained
silent for a time.

"I'm sorry I have made you angry. I don't know how to go at a thing like
this one I'm tackling," he said contritely. "But I feel that talking out
straight and man fashion is the only way. Will you marry me?"

"Certainly not, sir!"

He did not attempt to stay her when she walked on. He trod humbly by her
side.

"I was afraid you wouldn't. But I couldn't keep back the asking any more
than I can push back that flood you can hear down in the gorge. It just
had to pour along, that asking!"

"Mr. Latisan, you astonish me. You desert your employer on account of a
mere whim----"

"Don't you call my standing up for you any whim, if you please!" The
change in his tone from humility to stern and masterful command caused
her to catch her breath. She was not accustomed to dominance by men.

"At any rate, sir, you have proposed marriage to a stranger, a mere
come-by-chance into this place, not knowing who or what I am. I have a
right to be astonished."

"Probably! But you aren't any more so than I was in New York when I
realized what had happened to me."

"So, now you can forget all about me and go back to your work on the
drive!"

"You have said I did not know much about you. It's plain you don't know
me! I have told Eck Flagg I am done. And I am! You don't understand. I'm
a Latisan and----" he faltered then; it sounded like boyish boasting and
he was a bit ashamed.

"Somehow that helpless old man has stirred all my sympathy. Why won't
you do as I ask?"

"Because a girl who throws a man down as you have hasn't any right to
ask him to do this or that."

They were near the tavern before either spoke again.

"I'm not saying that I'm not sorry for Eck Flagg," the drive master
stated. "I don't want you to leave me to-night with the idea that I'm a
quitter or a coward or a sneak about what's my duty. I'll be honest with
you. You think I'm a fool because I've fallen in love with you so
suddenly. A man who has tussled with drives and log jams for as many
years as I have needs to think quickly, make up his mind about what it's
right to do, and then stick to it. I'm not going to sacrifice myself for
Flagg--a man with the hard heart that's in him." He caught his breath
and plunged on: "You say to-night that you won't marry me. I'm going to
stay close by and see if you won't change your mind. A roaring fire is
in me right now!" His demeanor terrified her.