“You mean that, Bob?”

“I do.  Give me a chance to prove it.”

Sadie got up, and putting her hands on his shoulders, kissed him.  “Very well.  You shall have all the money you want.”

Then she went back to her chair and turned her head.  She had borne with her husband’s follies and fought hard for him, sometimes with hope and sometimes in desperation, but always with unflinching courage.  Now it looked as if she had won.  Victory was insecure yet, and there was a risk that it might turn to defeat, but Sadie never shrank from a daring venture.  For a moment she could not speak; her heart was full.

“Hallo!” said Charnock, who got up and came towards her.  “Crying, Sadie?  Will you miss me as much as that?”

Sadie hastily wiped her eyes.  “Yes, Bob; I’ll miss you all the time.  But if you’ll come back the man you are now, I’ll wait as long as you like.”

“I’ll try,” said Charnock simply.  “I’m not going to protest, but you deserve a much better husband than you’ve got.  If I can’t come back better fit to live with you, I won’t come back at all.”

“I wouldn’t like that,” Sadie answered, smiling uncertainly.  “But I guess I know what you mean.  I’ll wait, dear, because I know you are going to make good.”

Then, feeling that she had said enough, she began to make plans.  Something might be saved from the ruined crop and she had better keep a heavy team, but Charnock could have the other horses if they were required.  She could carry on whatever work was possible after the frost set in, and would pay off one of the hired men.  Charnock approved, and after a time Sadie leaned back in her chair.

“It’s all fixed, but perhaps we mayn’t need these plans,” she said.  “Remember you’re really going there to bring Festing home.”

“That’s understood.  However, I don’t think he’ll come, and if so, it will be Helen’s money that prevents him.  If he’s foolish enough to doubt her, I can put him right, which will be something.”

“Yes,” said Sadie, with a sigh.  “Well, if he won’t come, you must stop and do the best you can.”

In the meantime, Festing reached the railroad camp.  It was raining when the construction train rolled noisily through a mountain gorge, and he stood at the door of the caboose, looking out.  Three or four hundred feet below, a green river, streaked with muddy foam, brawled among the rocks, for the track had been dug out of a steep hillside.  Festing knew this was difficult work; one could deal with rock, although it cost much to cut, but it was another matter to bed the rails in treacherous gravel, and the fan-shaped mounds of shale and soil that ran down to the water’s edge showed how loose the ground was and the abruptness of the slope.  Above, the silver mist drifted about the black firs that clung to the side of the mountain, and in the distance there was a gleam of snow.  Some of the trees had fallen, and it was significant that, for the most part, they