“It knows only one tune—­’I Won’t Go Home until Morning,’” Dan declared.

McKay, however, promptly disproved this assertion by seating himself at the keyboard and rattling off some popular melodies.  With music and laughter the long twilight fled, for O’Neil’s “boys” flung themselves into the task of entertaining his guests with whole-souled enthusiasm.

So successful were their efforts that even “Happy Tom” appeared to derive a mild enjoyment from them, which was a testimonial indeed.  His pleasure was made evident by no word of praise, nor faintest smile, but rather by the lightened gloom in which he chewed his gum and by the fact that he complained of nothing.  In truth, he was not only entertained by the general gaiety, but he was supremely interested in Miss Appleton, who resembled no creature he had ever seen.  He had met many girls like Natalie, and feared them, but Eliza, with her straightforward airs and her masculine mannerisms, was different.  She affected him in a way at once pleasant and disagreeable.  He felt no diffidence in speaking to her, for instance—­a phenomenon which was in itself a ground for suspicion.  Then, too, her clothes—­he could not take his eyes off her clothes—­were almost like Dan’s.  That seemed to show common sense, but was probably only the sign of an eccentric, domineering nature.  On the other hand, the few words she addressed to him were gracious, and her eyes had a merry twinkle which warmed his heart.  She must be all right, he reluctantly concluded, being Dan’s sister and O’Neil’s friend.  But deep down in his mind he cherished a doubt.

At her first opportunity Eliza undertook to make that confession the thought of which had troubled her all the afternoon.  Drawing O’Neil aside, she began with some trepidation, “Have you any idea why I’m here?”

“I supposed either you or Dan had achieved your pet ambition.”

“Far from it.  I have a fell purpose, and when you learn what it is I expect you to move the piano out—­that’s what always happens in the play when the heroine is dispossessed.  Well, then, I’ve been sent by The Review to bare all the disgraceful secrets of your life!”

“I’m delighted to learn you’ll be here so long.  You can’t possibly finish that task before next spring.”  His manner, though quizzical, was genuinely hearty.

“Don’t laugh!” said the girl.  “There’s nothing funny about it.  I came north as a spy.”

“Then you’re a Northern Spy!”

“Apples!” she cried.  “You remembered, didn’t you?  I never supposed men like you could be flippant.  Well, here goes for the worst.”  She outlined her conversation with the editor of her paper.

“So you think I’m trying to steal Alaska,” he said when she had concluded.

“That seems to be the general idea.”

“It’s a pretty big job.”

“Whoever controls transportation will have the country by the throat.”

“Yet somebody must build railroads, since the Government won’t.  Did it ever occur to you that there is a great risk involved in a thing of this sort, and that capital must see a profit before it enters a new field?  I wonder if you know how badly this country needs an outlet and how much greater the benefit in dollars and cents will be to the men in the interior than to those who finance the road.  But I perceive that you are a conservationist.”