“You come with me.”

“No, thank you,” said Pat, with vigour.

“I thought you wouldn’t,” said Lee.

He took Carrigan’s suggestion, however, and went down through the bitter cold to see the banker.  But the visit was fruitless.  The bank could not make the loan, and money being tight because of first of the year settlements, McDonnell was not in shape to make it personally, nor would be in time to render any assistance.  He was perfectly willing, he said, to gamble another twenty thousand on Bryant’s ability to win through, but he did not have the cash.  Then he went on to say that Imogene had been suffering from a slight cold, and that Ruth Gardner was visiting at present with other friends in Kennard.

Lee had had a telephone call from each of them the morning after Christmas, thanking him for his gift, and later a letter from Imogene again expressing her appreciation, with a line that a change in Mrs. McDonnell’s plans had prevented having him with them on Christmas.

Nothing from either since.  He now asked the banker to convey to Imogene his wishes for a quick recovery, then set out for camp.  Ruth—­he did not even know where in town to look for Ruth, had he been so inclined.  Engaged!  The thing would have been amusing if it was not so horrible.

“No luck,” he said to Pat, briefly, when in his shack warming his chilled body at the fire.  “Your system may work in summer, but all the money is froze up at this time of year, like everything else.”

At the end of the week the winter’s frigid grip on the earth relaxed and a period of mild, almost balmy days followed.  Under the noon-day sun the top ground even softened a little.  The camps awoke, the rested men and horses fell upon their task with new spirit, and excavation went ahead steadily.  If there had been a full force, as Carrigan pointed out, he could have moved at the rate of a mile in six days instead of in eight.  Still the canal was being built, yard by yard, rod by rod, until by the middle of January another mile of the total was finished.  The two camps were now easily within sight of each other, the larger in the south, the smaller in the north, and but three miles apart across the sagebrush.  Moreover, the last stones of the dam had been laid; it stood completed; and the men who had been engaged there moved down to add their strength to the north camp.

One day toward noon Lee entered his office and to his amazement found Ruth seated there, glancing over an old magazine and toasting her feet at the stove.  The furs he had given her reposed on his desk, where she had laid them aside.  At his entrance she sprang up, uttered a delighted exclamation, and rushing forward clasped her arms about his neck and kissed him.

“Lee, how good it seems to see you!” she said.  “After so long!  And I can’t thank you enough for those darling furs!  I’ve thought of you so much, working up here in the cold and alone with just men.  My, your face is like ice!  Come to the fire.  Poor thing, you look so thin and tired!  I hope that soon you’ll be able to rest; I’ll make it a point to see that you do take a long vacation and rest, for you need it.”  She concluded with a hug and another kiss.