“They caught him,” Stella said.  “The constables took him down the lake to-night.  I saw him on their launch as they passed the Waterbug.”

“Yes?” Fyfe said.  “Quick work.  I didn’t even know about the shooting till I came in here to-night about dark.  Well,” he snapped his fingers, “exit Monohan.  He’s a dead issue, far as we’re concerned.  Wouldn’t you like something to eat, Stella?  I’m hungry, and I was dog-tired when I landed here.  Say, you can’t guess what I was thinking about, lady, standing there when you came in.”

She shook her head.

“I had a crazy notion of touching a match to the house,” he said soberly, “letting it go up in smoke with the rest.  Yes, that’s what I was thinking I would do.  Then I’d take the Panther and what gear I have on the scows and pull off Roaring Lake.  It didn’t seem as if I could stay.  I’d laid the foundation of a fortune here and tried to make a home—­and lost it all, everything that was worth having.  And then all at once there you were, like a vision in the door.  Miracles do happen!”

Her arms tightened involuntarily about him.

“Oh,” she cried breathlessly.  “Our little, white house!”

“Without you,” he replied softly, “it was just an empty shell of boards and plaster, something to make me ache with loneliness.”

“But not now,” she murmured.  “It’s home, now.”

“Yes,” he agreed, smiling.

“Ah, but it isn’t quite.”  She choked down a lump in her throat.  “Not when I think of those little feet that used to patter on the floor.  Oh, Jack—­when I think of my baby boy!  My dear, my dear, why did all this have to be, I wonder?”

Fyfe stroked her glossy coils of hair.

“We get nothing of value without a price,” he said quietly.  “Except by rare accident, nothing that’s worth having comes cheap and easy.  We’ve paid the price, and we’re square with the world and with each other.  That’s everything.”

“Are you completely ruined, Jack?” she asked after an interval.  “Charlie said you were.”

“Well,” he answered reflectively, “I haven’t had time to balance accounts, but I guess I will be.  The timber’s gone.  I’ve saved most of the logging gear.  But if I realized on everything that’s left, and squared up everything, I guess I’d be pretty near strapped.”

“Will you take me in as a business partner, Jack?” she asked eagerly.  “That’s what I had in mind when I came up here.  I made up my mind to propose that, after I’d heard you were ruined.  Oh, it seems silly now, but I wanted to make amends that way; at least, I tried to tell myself that.  Listen.  When my father died, he left some supposedly worthless oil stock.  But it proved to have a market value.  I got my share of it the other day.  It’ll help us to make a fresh start—­together.”

She had the envelope and the check tucked inside her waist.  She took it out now and pressed the green slip into his hand.