can take me right into the
interior, in that cranky red car. And I don't know but what I am ready to
risk it; there are places I'd like to see--where he was caught his first
winter in a blizzard, and where he picked up the nuggets for my necklace.
You remember it--don't you?--Mrs. Daniels. I wore it that night in Seattle
we went to hear Carmen."

"I certainly do remember. It was the most wonderful thing in the theater
that night, and fit for an empress." Involuntarily Geraldine glanced down
at her own solitary jewel. It flashed a lovely blue light as she moved her
hand.

Annabel followed the glance. "Your ring is a beauty," she said. "Not many
young men, just starting in business for themselves, would have thought
they could afford a diamond like that."

Geraldine laughed, flushing a little. "It seems the finest in the world to
me," she replied almost shyly. "And it ought to show higher light and
color than any other; the way it was bought was so splendid."

"Do you mean the way the money was earned to buy it?" inquired Annabel.

Geraldine nodded. "It was the price, exactly, of his first magazine story.
Perhaps you read it. It was published in the March issue of _Sampson's_,
and the editors liked it so well they asked to see more of his work."

Jimmie looked at his wife in mingled protest and surprise. He had believed
she, as well as himself, had wished to have that story quickly forgotten.
"It is an Indian story," she pursued; "about a poor little papoose that
was accidentally killed. It was a personal experience of Mr. Tisdale's."

Mrs. Banks had not read it, but the prospector pushed aside his sherbet
glass and, laying his arms on the table, leaned towards Geraldine. "Was
that papoose cached under a log?" he asked softly. "And was its mother
berrying with a bunch of squaws up the ridge?"

"Yes," smiled Geraldine. "I see you have read it."

"No, but I heard a couple of men size it up aboard the train coming from
Scenic Hot Springs. And once," he went on with gathering tenseness, "clear
up the Tanana, I heard Dave and Hollis talking it over. My, yes, it seems
like I can see them now; they was the huskiest, cleanest-cut,
openest-faced team that ever mushed a trail. It was one of those nights
when the stars come close and friendly, and the camp-fire blazes and
crackles straight to heaven and sets a man thinking; and Tisdale started
it by saying if he could cut one record out of his past he guessed the rest
co