onded. "Anywhere else I wouldn't hesitate, but here, I
draw the line."

The prospector was holding the draught to her lips, and she took a swallow
and pushed away the cup. It was brandy, raw, scalding, and it brought the
color back to her face. "Thank you," she said, and forced a smile. "It is
bracing; my tensions are all screwed. I feel like climbing on to--Mars."

Frederic laughed again. "You go on, Banks," he said, relieving him of the
cup; "she's all right. You hurry ahead before one of those girls walks
over a precipice."

He could not persuade her to take more of the liquor, so he himself drank
the bracer, after which he put the cup and the flask, which Banks had
left, away in his own pockets. She was up, whipping down her fear. "Come,"
she said, "we must hurry to overtake them."

Her steps, unsteady at first, grew sure and determined; she drew longer,
deeper breaths; the pink of a wild rose flushed her cheeks. But Frederic,
plodding abreast, laid his hand on her arm.

"See here," he said, "you can't keep this up; stop a minute. They've got
to wait for us. George, that ambition of yours can spur you to the pace.
Never saw so much spirit done up in a small package. Go off, sometime,
like Fourth o' July fireworks." He chuckled, looking down at her with
admiration in his round eyes. "Like you for it, though. George, it's just
that has made you worth waiting for."

She gave him a quick glance and, setting her alpenstock, sprang from his
detaining hand.

"See, they have reached the summit," she called. "They are waiting already
for us. And see!" she exclaimed tensely, as he struggled after her. "It is
going to be grand."

A vast company of peaks began to lift, tier on tier like an amphitheater,
above the rim of the dome, while far eastward, as they cross-cut the
rounding incline, stretched those tawny mountains that had the appearance
of strange and watchful beasts, guarding the levels of the desert, bare of
snow. Glimpses there were of the blue Columbia, the racy Wenatchee, but
Weatherbee's pocket was closed. Then, presently, as they gained the
summit, it was no longer an amphitheater into which they looked, but a
billowing sea of cloud, out of which rose steep and inhospitable shores.
Then, everywhere, far and away, shone opal-shaded islands of mystery.

"Oh," she said, with a little, sighing breath, "these are the Isles of the
Blest. We have come through the Everlasting Door into the better country."

She