She cannot bear to--to be an obstacle."

"An obstacle? Good Lord!" Northrup jammed a log to its place and so
relieved his feelings.

"Well, my dearest, you must see the position I was placed in?"

"Yes, Kathryn, I do. You're a brick, my dear, but--how did you know
where I was, if you did not go to Manly?"

Kathryn looked up, and all the childlike confidence and sweetness she
could summon lay in her lovely eyes.

"Dearest, I remembered the address on the letter you sent to your
mother. Because I wanted to keep this secret about our fear from
her--I came alone and I knew that people here could direct me if you
had gone away. I was prepared to follow you--anywhere!"--Kathryn
suddenly recalled her small hand-bag upstairs--"Brace, I was
frightened, bearing it alone. I _had_ to have you. Oh! Brace."

Northrup found the girl in his arms. His face was against hers--her
tears were falling and she was sobbing helplessly. The net, it was a
purse net now, drew close.

"Brace, Brace, we must make her happy, together. I will share
everything with you--I have been so heedless; so selfish--but my life
is now yours and--hers!"

Guilt filled the aroused soul of Northrup. As far as in him lay
he--surrendered! With characteristic swiftness and thoroughness he
closed his eyes and made his dash!

"Kathryn, you mean you will marry me; you will--do this for me and
her?"

"Yes."

Just then Aunt Polly came into the room. Her quick, keen eye took in
the scene and her gentle heart throbbed in sympathy. She came over to
the two and hovered near them, patting Northrup's shoulder and
Kathryn's head indiscriminately. She crooned over them and finally got
them to the dining-room and the evening meal.

An early start for the morrow was planned, and by nine o'clock Kathryn
went to her room.

Northrup was restless and nervous. There was much to be done before he
left. He must see Rivers and finish that business--it might have to be
hurried, but he felt confident that by raising Larry's price he could
secure his ends. And then, because of the finality in the turn of
events, Northrup desperately decided upon a compromise with his
conscience. Strange as it now seemed he had, before his talk with
Kathryn, believed that he was done forever with his experience, but he
realized, as he reconsidered the matter, that hope, a strange, blind
hope, had fluttered earlier but that now it was dead; dead!

Since that was the case, he would do for a dea