The Heart of Canyon Pass

by Thomas K. Holmes

  CHAPTER XXIX--HIS LAST CARD

  Hunt lingered in his sister's room after Joe Hurley had left them. Theywere talking when Maria came up to take away the tea things. The Mexicanwoman was greatly excited.

  "Those bad men! She get it now--in the neck you say, si? My goodness,yes! He no run you out of town lak' he say, Senor Hunt."

  "Who is this who wants to run me out?" asked Hunt good-naturedly. "Imust be getting awfully unpopular in some quarters."

  "Those bad man at Tolley's Grub Stake. Ah, yes, Senor! She hate you--mygoodness, yes!"

  Betty began to be troubled--as she always was when she heard herbrother's peace threatened.

  "Have you heard something new, Maria?" she asked the woman.

  "Cholo, he hear. He come just now from the sheriff. A man come to townand he say he want those bad man."

  "What bad man? Not my brother?" cried Betty.

  "_Madre de Dios!_ Is the Senor Hunt bad?" gasped Maria. "Why, it is Dickthe Deevil I say."

  "Ah-ha!" muttered Hunt, with more interest than surprise. He did notlook at Betty. "This man has something against Dick Beckworth?"

  "Cholo whisper to me, jus' now, before I come up here, that the sheriffweel arres' Dick the Deevil. For robbery and swindle, you say. Si!"

  "This is news!" ejaculated Hunt, putting on his coat and hat. "I must godown and get the particulars."

  "Oh, Ford!"

  What Betty might have said--how much she might have betrayed of hersecret to her brother at that moment--will never be known. Before hecould turn to look at her anguished face the house shook, and anatmospheric tremor seemed to pass over the town. An "airquake" was thebetter term for it! And with it they heard a continuous thundering roarthat seemed to mingle with, yet almost drown, the chorus of the riverswhich had been a monotone in their ears all day.

  Maria screamed and flew out of the room. Hunt exclaimed:

  "Something's blown up at one of the mines, perhaps. But Joe is allright. He could not have got far away from the hotel."

  It was not until he ran down and reached the street that he learned thetruth. Nell had pulled in her wet and exhausted pony before the hoteland was surrounded by the excited populace. Joe was with her, and Hunt,seeing both safe, was relieved.

  The parson listened to her story with amazement and some of the dreadthat the older inhabitants of Canyon Pass felt. Something like this hadhappened twenty years before. She had seen a great landslide--a largepart of the Overhang she thought--fall into the canyon. Already therivers were backing up. Filled as they were by the recent unseasonablerains, the flood, if the canyon bed was really closed by the landslide,would soon rise into the town.

  Hunt and Hurley joined a party that launched a big batteau to go downthe Runaway to the first turn in the canyon wall to see just what thedanger was. Most of the other inhabitants of Canyon Pass were crowdinginto Main Street. It might be that all would have to get back to theheadlands where the mines were in order to escape the flood.

  Betty, alone in her room in the hotel, saw the people milling aboutbelow and could only guess what it meant. She did not dare go down toask about the catastrophe, and Maria did not return. But as she satthere, trembling not altogether from fear of what might happen to thetown, she saw the knob of her door turn slowly. There was somebody inthe hall--somebody coming in!

  In her terror--terror of she knew not what--the girl could not move. Shecould only watch the frail door sag slowly open. She saw a hand with asparkling diamond upon it. But it was a man's hand. A shoulder appearedas the door was thrust farther inward.

  Then she saw the face of the intruder.

  "Andy Wilkenson!"

  Betty did not know that her voice was audible. But as the man slid inwith the sleekness of a cat and closed the door behind him, hewhispered:

  "So you know me all right, do you? Then that makes it easier. You've gotto hide me, Betty. They are after me. I got out of the Grub Stakethrough a window--just in time."

  He laughed. There was a reckless gayety in his manner that was forced;but it seemed to Betty more terrible than if he had shown fear.

  "You wouldn't want them to get your husband, would you, honey?" he wenton, his back against the door, his eyes glittering. "And there's goingto be high water. I can't get away at once. I've got to hide. You'llhave to keep me here." He chuckled. "A girl wouldn't give her hubby upto the sheriff, would she? I----"

  "Go away!" she gasped.

  "Not a chance!" exclaimed Dick lightly. "That sheriff will comb thetown. But he will never come into your bedroom, honey. And I'm going tostay here till the flurry is over."

  He took a step into the room. Betty shrank from him. Her eyes were nowaflame--and there was something besides fear in them.

  "I will give you time to get out, Andy Wilkenson," she said hoarsely."But no more. All I have to do is to raise this window and scream----"

  "Dare to!" he snapped. "I'll stay right here. You're my wife----"

  "Nobody will believe that if I deny it!" she exclaimed.

  "So you think I can't prove it?" He laughed again. "I know that youwould deny it if you could. I know that you even tore up the marriagecertificate that old minister gave you. But I went back to him and got acopy. And I have got a copy of the license record, and all. Think I'm afool? You may have fooled me about your aunt's money; but one neverknows when such a moment as this may come. If you give me up to thesheriff, I'll tell 'em all just who and what you are. Mrs. AndyWilkenson! Sounds good, don't it? And 'Andy Wilkenson' is DickBeckworth. Being married under an assumed name don't make the tie anyless binding, Betty. You are married to me hard and fast, and I'm goingto turn the fact to good account. Don't doubt it!"

  "I--I'll call my brother," said Betty weakly.

  "I bet he doesn't know, either. Nor that Joe Hurley you've been chummingaround with," and Dick chuckled hugely. "Oh, I've got you, my girl. Youhad the chance to call me, and call me good, that time. But it's my turnnow. You are going to hide me here, and then help me get away. I knowyour breed. You'd die rather than let the story of our marriage get tothe people of Canyon Pass."

  The girl sat huddled in the chair by the window. She stared at him withan intensity of horror that seemed to have paralyzed her whole body. Andwhat he said--his final declaration--she knew was true.

  She would much rather die than have it revealed to all Canyon Pass thatDick the Devil was the discarded husband of the Reverend Willett FordHunt's sister!

  The smile with which Dick watched the agonized girl marked the crueltythat was the underlying trait of his whole character. He knew shesuffered. He knew how she suffered now. And he exulted in it.

  But he was, too, fearful for his own safety. The crime he had committedmiles away across the sheep range, and which had set the sheriff on histrack, was a most despicable one. It was, too, in this community a crimethat might easily excite the passions of the rougher element. Men hadbeen lynched for much less than Dick Beckworth's crime!

  With night coming on, the waters about the town rising, and no means forquick egress before morning at least, Dick the Devil realized that hisonly hope lay with this tortured girl. Aside from the satisfaction itgave him to make her shield him, he was quite aware that no better placethan Betty Hunt's room could be imagined in which he might hide from theofficers.

  "There's a closet," he said finally, seeing the small door in thepartition. "Put me in that. You can let your brother in if you like--orJoe Hurley." He sneered at her. "They'll never believe the proper BettyHunt has a man hidden in her room. What's that?"

  He hissed the question, grabbing the handle of the closet door, andlooked back at the one opening from the hall. There was a light stepoutside; the door-knob rattled.

  "Quick!" breathed Dick. "Don't say a word----"

  He tried to open the closet door. Although it was a spring latch, it waslikewise locked. All Betty's little valuables were in the closet, andshe had the key.

  "The key!" shrilled the man. "You fool! Do you want me to give the t
hingaway? As sure as you are alive I'll tell them you're my wife. Quick!"

  Betty did not move. She shook her head. The door-knob was again rattled.A muffled voice cried:

  "Betty!"

  The knob turned--as it had before, slowly, hesitatingly. The door waspushed inward. Dick the Devil snatched a pistol from its sling under hisleft armpit, with the motion of a rattlesnake about to strike.

  Nell Blossom stepped into the room and closed the door swiftly behindher. She had seen Betty. Her cry of "Betty! what's happened?" wasanswered by a sigh from Dick of such relief that it seemed like a sob.

  Alert as she could be, Nell wheeled to look at the man. Although therewas no light in the room and the evening was drawing on, the singer knewthat half-crouching figure at first glance. She saw, too, the flash ofthe weapon in the gambler's hand.

  "Dick Beckworth! I might have known you'd come sneaking to a girl's roomto hide," said Nell, her voice quite unshaken. "Put away that gun. I'mnot the sheriff."

  Dick was silent. But he had the grace to put away his gun. Nell said toBetty:

  "Has he scared you, honey? Don't you mind. Dick the Devil has got hiscomeupance this time, I reckon. The minute he steps out of this housethey'll nab him. Somebody saw him sneak in by the back way. But nobodythought of his daring to come into your room. Come on, you, get out!Take your miserable carcass off to some other part of the house."

  "Oh, Nell!" breathed Betty.

  "Don't you be afraid, honey," said the cabaret singer again. "Thisrascal knows me, I reckon. It's too bad he wasn't killed--like I thoughthe was--back last spring when I was fool enough to be caught by his sleekways and talk. Oh, yes! I played the fool. And I come pretty nearbelieving since that time that there wasn't any decent men in the world.All because of that whelp."

  For once Dick Beckworth had nothing to say. At another time he mighthave flouted the girl. But the moment was not propitious. He stood andglared from Nell to Betty, and back again; but said nothing.

  "Come! Beat it!" said Nell harshly. "Don't you hear me?"

  "I am going to remain here," Dick said in a low voice. "Right here."

  "Not much!" Nell wheeled to open the door. "I'll call 'em up. They arewatching for you below."

  "Nell!" gasped Betty.

  "You better speak for me," sneered Dick. "I don't reckon that you twogirls will turn me over to the sheriff. Don't forget, Nellie, that onceI was your honey-boy."

  The mining-camp girl's whole person seemed to fire under this spur. Herface blazed. She was tense with wrath--wrath that she could not for themoment audibly express.

  But when she did speak her voice was as hard as ice and her accents ascold:

  "Dick Beckworth, you get out of here! March!"

  "Not much."

  Nell had been riding. She never went abroad on horseback without wearingher belt and gun. The latter flashed into her hand too quickly for Dickto have again produced his weapon, had he so desired.

  "Put 'em up!" was Nell's concise command. "Don't flutter a finger wrong.I been thinking for months that I saw you go over that cliff to yourdeath. Maybe I worried some over being the possible cause of your takingthat drop. But I feel a whole lot different about you now, DickBeckworth. Keep your hands up and march out of this room."

  The man, sneering, his countenance torn with emotion, his eyes asglittering as those of an angered serpent, came forward into the middleof the room again. He was staring at Betty rather than at Nell. He saidto the former:

  "You going to let me go out, Betty?"

  "Oh! Oh! I----"

  "Don't mind even to answer him--the dog!" Nell muttered. "I swear, afterthis, I would not lift a hand to stop the boys from stringing him up."

  "Is that so?" queried Dick, turning to her again. "You think you've gotthings your own way, don't you? I'll show you. Betty! tell this girlwhat and who I am and why I am not going to leave this room. Tell her,my dear, why you can't bear to see me given up to the sheriff."

  "You dog!" ejaculated Nell.

  "Tell her, Betty," commanded Dick, but without raising his voice.

  The parson's sister, fairly writhing in her chair, put up her claspedhands to Nell. She whispered brokenly:

  "Don't--don't send him out. Don't tell, Nell. I--I couldn't bear it!"

  "In the name of common sense," queried the singer, "what do you mean?This fellow's frightened you out of your wits."

  "No, no! For my sake----"

  "You're crazy. He can't hurt you. I have him under my gun. If he makes amove----"

  "Betty!" shot in Dick.

  "For Ford's sake let him stay!" begged Betty, and sank back in her chairagain, almost at the point of collapse.

  CHAPTER XXX--CLEARING SKIES

  Betty Hunt had, after all, retained her self-possession in aconsiderable degree throughout this trying interview. Dick Beckworth'sappearance had startled her; but already she had schooled her mind toexpecting an interview with him.

  Really, the coming of Nell Blossom and what had followed her entrancehad disturbed Betty more than Dick's appearance. But now she had got aclutch again upon her mental processes and at this moment, when Dick wasabout to reveal to the cabaret singer the fact that Betty was his wife,the Eastern girl apprehended and seized upon the plea she believedwould, more than any other, cause Nell to let the villain remain withoutquestion.

  For, with the hotel surrounded and the officers searching for Dick, itwas probable that the moment he stepped out of the room he would becaught. So Betty cried:

  "For Ford's sake let him stay!"

  It was, after all, a shot in the dark. Betty had not been sure up tothis moment that Nell really felt toward the parson as his sister knewHunt felt toward Nell. But she was in a desperate plight. Betty couldnot bear to have even her girl friend know of her relation to DickBeckworth, not as Dick would tell it! And if the villain spread the taleas he promised, Betty knew that her brother's work might be greatlyinjured even in such a community as Canyon Pass.

  For after all, although the mining town was not like Ditson Corners,human nature is about the same everywhere. Betty had done nothingdisgraceful in marrying Dick Beckworth and leaving him so abruptly. Butfor hiding the unfortunate alliance and posing here as an unmarriedgirl, the tongue of gossip would undoubtedly drag both her own name andFord's through the mire of half-truths and suppositions.

  If Nell loved Ford and thought that Dick might reveal something thatwould injure the parson, Betty hoped the singer would relent. Afterwardshe could in her own way explain to Nell.

  The latter stared now at Betty; but Dick was quite in the line of hergun and her hand did not tremble.

  "You--you mean he's got something on the parson?" she asked.

  Dick grinned. Betty tried to speak. Before another word could be said,however, there was a sudden outbreak of sound from below and loud voiceson the stair.

  "Betty!" shouted Joe Hurley's voice.

  "Is Nell Blossom there?" called Hunt.

  Both young men were tramping up to this very room. They would be here inthirty seconds.

  Betty came to her feet as though galvanized by an electric shock. Shefumbled in her bosom and drew forth the key of the closet door. Sheextended it to Dick.

  "Let him--let him hide!" she gasped.

  Nell lowered her gun. Dick grabbed the key, the grin on his facedemoniac, and leaped across the floor on the balls of his feet. In aflash he had the door open, was inside, the door closed and the springlock snapped. Nell thrust the gun back into its holster. Came athunderous knock upon the door.

  "Girls!" shouted Hunt, "may we come in?"

  Betty and Nell looked at each other. The latter sat down on the bed.Betty dropped back into her chair.

  "Of course you may come in, Ford," she said in a voice that, if notunshaken, seemed calm to the ears of the men.

  Hunt and Hurley, both splashed with mud, appeared at the open door.

  "Pack a bag, Betty," said her brother. "The water is backing up into thetown, and although we don't
believe it will rise high, it may come inover the lower floor. It won't be pleasant here to-night. Joe suggeststhat we take you both up to his office at the Great Hope. That can bemade comfortable for you until we see just how bad a time Canyon Pass isin for."

  "If you say so," said Betty in a low voice. "Will you go, Nell?"

  "Sure," declared the other girl.

  She thought that probably anything was better for Betty than to remainhere. In ten minutes they set forth, hurrying down and out of the hotel.Sheriff Blaney, and a red-faced man whom Betty remembered having seenbefore on the Hoskins trail hunting a fugitive, was on the porch.

  "Derned funny where that Dick Beckworth has holed up," Blaney wassaying. "But he can't get out of town to-night, that's sure."

  That was a night scarcely to be forgotten in the annals of Canyon Pass.The people streamed up the muddy roads on to the highlands all nightlong while the waters rose higher and higher. They could hear towardmorning the crashing of undermined buildings, but not until dawn did thefugitives learn all the damage of the flood.

  Then, just before sunrise, there sounded several tremendous explosionsfrom below, in the canyon. Joe Hurley and a gang of engineers had beendown there all night, and the several charges of dynamite they put in atthe barrier across the river brought the relief that had been hoped. Inan hour a way was burst through the wall of fallen debris and the madwaters tore a passage to freedom.

  The flood began to recede, and by the time the expedition got back fromthe canyon in the batteau, the mud hole of Main Street could be seenagain from the site of the Great Hope. Joe Hurley looked grave, however,when he rejoined his friends in the little shack of an office.

  "It's done a sight of damage," the mining man said. "A lot of folks willhave to double up till new shacks can be built. The church--Tolley's oldplace--is standing, Willie."

  "I see it is," returned the parson. "But I miss some buildings----"

  "You miss one in particular," said his friend quickly. "I don't know butyou and Betty are chief among the flood sufferers."

  "What do you mean, Joe?" Betty asked quickly.

  "The hotel. It was undermined and is in ruins; looks like it had beenrammed. Oh!" as he saw Betty pale, "nobody was hurt. Cholo Sam and Mariaare safe. Fact is, not a life lost as far as we know. It might have beena whole lot worse. We had great luck."

  "Great luck!" murmured Betty, looking at Nell, whose face likewiseshowed a strange anxiety.

  "Talking about luck," added Hurley suddenly. "What do you know about oldSteve and Andy? They've been out all night."

  "What do you mean?" asked Hunt. "They haven't gone back to the desert?"

  "Not on your life. They've been prospecting where they prospected twentyyears ago. Or that's what I figger. Just at dawn, after we let off thoseshots that started the dam-busting, I spied 'em prowling around up thereon the side of the canyon. Reckless as kids, those old tykes are. Mightanother slip come 'most any time."

  "Oh!" said Betty, "I hope you did not leave them in danger, Joe."

  "If they were, I couldn't help 'em," Hurley replied. "You can'tinfluence those old desert rats any more than you could lead an ironhorse to drink. No, sir! Steve and Andy were up there on a shelf thatwas uncovered by the last slip, a-holding hands and ghost-dancing like acouple of Piute Injuns. Acted plumb crazy.

  "They must have swum the West Fork to get there. And I bet they didn'tgo together. But when they got up there and saw the way open----"

  "To what?" interrupted Nell. "You haven't told us what they found."

  "That's so," chuckled Joe. "They've found something all right. I reckonSteve and Andy can't be fooled when it comes to 'color.' They certainlyhave made a ten-strike. Steve shouted down to me that the slip haduncovered the mother lode. Of course, they are claiming everything insight. Got their claims staked out, and if it's really a sure-enoughfind I expect there will be a small stampede to that side of the canyon.There's gold all through those cliffs. This is a gold country. Some daythey'll find out how to work the Topaz Desert as a paying proposition.The wash from these headlands and the canyon sides has been carried outinto the desert by the Runaway for a couple of million years--more orless."

  "Anyway," said Nell, her eyes sparkling, "the old-timers are going to berich at last? How fine!"

  "It may only be a pocket--or a broken lead. But I wish 'em bothmillionaires. Me, I'll stick to the Great Hope a while longer." Helooked at Betty. "I am a great feller for sticking to a thing."

  Betty blushed and looked away. Hunt said thoughtfully:

  "If the slide has only caused Siebert and McCann to be friends again, ithas brought about something good--something very good indeed."

  "Well, you talk to Judson about that. His stock is pretty near ruined.And see Tolley. He's almost weeping. And Colorado Brown. To say nothingof Cholo Sam, who has lost his hotel."

  The girls again looked at each other. There was the same thought intheir minds. What had become of Dick Beckworth if the hotel hadcollapsed? Of course there had been plenty of time for him to haveescaped from the building before it went down. None of the structureshad fallen much before daybreak. Yet thought of him continued to troublethe girls.

  Joe Hurley got Betty off to one side. There was no work being done atany of the mines, so the owner of the Great Hope had nothing to do atthis hour. Having been at work all night it might be supposed that hewould need sleep; but when he looked on Betty Hunt his gaze was anythingbut somnolent.

  "There's a whole lot been happening in a few short hours, Betty," hesaid to the parson's sister. "It come on us so quick and it happened sofast that it put out of my head for the time being something I had tosay to you."

  "Something--Nothing you shouldn't say, Joe?" she stammered, looking athim with pleading eyes.

  "I get you, Betty," said the mining man. "I get you--sure. You arewarning me off the grass. I don't blame you. You think I am kind ofdense, I expect----"

  "Oh, never that, Joe," she murmured. "You are kind and thoughtful only."

  "I hope you will believe so," said Joe bluntly, "when I tell you I knowwhat your trouble is--and I know there ain't no chance for me now. But Iam going to be your friend just as you said I could."

  "Oh! Joe, do you know?"

  "I got wind of a story Dick Beckworth's been telling--about your beingalready married. It's so, isn't it?"

  Betty, her face working pitifully, nodded.

  "All right. We won't say no more about it. He's a low dog for tellingabout it. I don't want to know no more--not even who the feller is whomarried you. But you can bank on me, Betty, every time! I'm yourfriend."

  "I know you are, Joe," she whispered, and the look she gave him paid JoeHurley for a good deal.

  But he was by no means satisfied to consider that Betty Hunt's marriageclosed the door of paradise in his face. He was just as determined toget her as ever he had been. He had learned the great thing that he haddesired to know. Betty loved him. He had seen it in her look! He couldwait, and be patient, and let things take their course. She could bewedded to another man as hard and fast as all the laws could make it.But Joe Hurley felt a glory in his soul that expanded from theheaven-born belief that time would change all that!

  They started down into the town, the girls shod with rubber boots thatJoe supplied. The people of Canyon Pass were running about like muddyants seeking their flooded hills. Mother Tubbs and Sam were high and dryin the loft of the stamp mill. The old woman had made Sam lug up thereher one good feather-bed--and it was dry. But as she said, she expectedto find all her other possessions "as wet as a frog's hind leg."

  Bill Judson lounged in the doorway of the Three Star and hailed themwith some cheerfulness.

  "There's one sure thing, Parson Hunt," he said. "What I got in cansain't water-soaked--much. And the cat and six kittens ain't drowned. Iexpect I can keep shop with what I got left for a while. But Smithy'slost all his clo'es that's fit to wear, dad burn it! I can't have himwaitin' on lady customers in a gunny-sack and a pair of rid
in' boots."

  A little group surrounded Sheriff Blaney on the street as the quartettestrolled along. Joe was interested.

  "Find him, Blaney?" he asked the officer.

  "Not any. And it beats my time. I don't see where that Dick Beckworthcould have holed up. He sure didn't get out of town, for the Forks areboth plumb impassable for man or beast."

  The two girls exchanged glances again. What had happened to DickBeckworth? Surely he must have got out of the closet--out of the hotel----

  Suddenly Betty seized Nell's arm with an hysterical grip.

  "Nell! Nell!" she whispered.

  "Don't give way. Of course he's all right--though he ought not to be!"

  "That closet door! It shut with a spring lock. It could not be openedfrom inside!"

  "Oh, he could smash down the door."

  The two young men did not notice the girls' perturbation. They werestriding ahead. A crowd was running toward the fallen hotel. Somethingof moment was happening there. But before they reached the place CholoSam saw them, and started toward the parson and Joe.

  "Senor Hunt! Senor Joe! Keep the senoritas back. It is not for them tosee."

  "What's the matter, Sam?" asked Hurley.

  "That Dick the Deevil! He ees found--my goodness, yes! They haf justpulled him out of the ruins of my Wild Rose--drowned like one rat!"

  * * * * *

  Fortunately for Canyon Pass and its flood-harassed inhabitants, frostand snow held off that winter until remarkably late. The mild seasongave ample opportunity for new homes to be built and for the necessaryrepairs to be made upon the structures that had withstood the risingwaters.

  The supply wagons brought in quantities of necessary goods from CrescentCity and the railroads. The mines and washings shut down while allturned to the work of rebuilding. Tolley's Grub Stake and ColoradoBrown's place, both swept by the water, were the last buildings to beremodeled. The gamblers and dance-hall girls and other employees ofthose places left town, for it promised to be a lean winter for theirilk at Canyon Pass.

  In fact, Boss Tolley sold out and got out himself among the very firstto desert the town. His departure and the sale of all his propertyopened the way for Parson Hunt's supporters to buy from the purchaser ofTolley's property the building which had been used for church servicesand the lot on which it stood.

  They could not begin the building of a proper church until spring, ofcourse; but the money was pledged for an edifice that would cost all JoeHurley had planned.

  Hurley himself was able to subscribe a much larger sum than at first,for the Great Hope had proved to be as valuable a mine as he had toldBetty and the parson he believed it would. But it was from anothersource that the church building fund gained its largest contribution.

  Old Steve Siebert and Andy McCann had "struck it rich." The romance ofthe uncovering of a rich vein of gold in the west wall of the canyon istold to-day to every tourist who comes to Canyon Pass.

  How, at a time in the camp's early history, two partners who hadprospected the Topaz Range and the desert adjoining fruitlessly foryears had found traces of gold high up on the canyon wall behind asheltering ledge and had "locked horns" in their first quarrel over howthe lode was to be got at.

  At the height of their argument a landslip had buried the hollow wherethe rich find was located and, rather than that either should profit bythe joint find, the two old fellows had never tried to open the claimuntil nature, by another freak, uncovered it for them.

  "I says to Andy, and Andy says to me," Steve Siebert was wont to recall,"when we seen how rich that lode was, a part of our profits oughter goto the parson and his church."

  "You're mighty right we did," agreed Andy. Agreeing was now Andy'sstrongest trait. "We-all got to pull together in this world. And ifwe-all pull together yere in Canyon Pass we can have as good a church asany camp needs. We sure got the best parson."

  "You're right, Andy," Steve said. "I certainly do despise folks that arealways fighting each other and pullin' contrary. No sense in it--no sensea-tall."

  In fact the two old fellows became joint treasurers of the churchbuilding fund. They took it upon themselves, too, to pass thecontribution plates at service. The only friction Andy McCann and SteveSiebert were ever known to display thereafter was a mild rivalry as tothe amount of money collected from the congregation seated on theirparticular sides of the house. It was suspected that each swelled hiscollection considerably on Sunday mornings so that his half of the housewould make the best showing when the offering was counted!

  "Dad burn it!" muttered Bill Judson, "let 'em alone. That's a mildmatter for disagreement. They ain't likely to pull no guns on each otherover that."

  Indeed Canyon Pass was on its good behavior that winter. The exigenciesof the flood which had driven out a good deal of the worst element ofthe town gave the better people a chance to take hold of its governmentwith a firmer hand--and a hand that Hunt and his associates weredetermined should not again lose its grip. Even Slickpenny Norris intime came to see that religious progress was not actually synonymouswith bankruptcy.

  To the parson's standard flocked many of those who had before been butlukewarm. Not least of his new helpers was the erstwhile cabaret singer.Nell Blossom proved her value in the work to be quite all that Hunt hadhoped.

  This busy time, when Joe Hurley and Betty really were so wrapped up ineach other that they could scarcely be expected to be of value toanybody but themselves, the parson found in Nell Blossom a willing andefficient aid. They were both earnest in the cause, and so earnest thatit seemed they had little thought for extraneous matters. Yet on oneoccasion when they were looking over the blueprints of the proposedchurch edifice, Nell slipped an extra sheet of plans into sight frombeneath those of the church.

  "Why, what is this, Ford?" she asked.

  "Oh, yes! I wanted to show you that, Nell. And get your approval."

  "My approval?"

  "Er--yes. You see, I've bought the lot right next to the church site.Now, this cottage--er---- Here! Let me show you. We can have the mill workfor it shipped in with the church stuff. The same gang that builds thechurch can run the house up. There's the front elevation. Say, Nell, howdo you like it?"

  "Why, it's lovely!" she cried.

  "Do you think it's nice enough for a parson's wife to live in?"

  "Ford! Mr. Hunt! I----"

  "Better let the 'Mr. Hunt' stuff slide, Nell Blossom," he said, gettinghold of her hand. "Even a minister's wife is supposed to call herhusband by his first name--at least, in private."

  "Oh, Ford!"

  "That's better."

  "But--but I am not fit to be a parson's wife, Ford," she cried,trembling.

  "Do you know, sometimes I've half believed I wasn't fit to be a parson?But it's my job and I'm going to do the best I can with it. And--I needyour help, Nell Blossom."

  "I came out here to try to win the heart of Canyon Pass. I foundit--almost as soon as I arrived. But I thought for a long time that itnever would be mine. I am bold enough now, Nell, to believe that I maywin it."

  He smiled at her with such affection in his gaze, such a warmth ofcomprehension as well as desire, that Nell Blossom, tearful, trembling,half fearful, swayed toward him and felt again his strong arms abouther.

  "If--if I can only be worthy of you, Ford. If I don't disgrace you," shesobbed. "Just think! A singer all my life in those ugly cabarets----"

  "Ah, yes," said the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt quietly. "And only for adifference in environment I might have been a part of the most recklessaudience you ever had to sing to. We will let the past bury the past,Nell. We have only to deal with the future."

  And he held her to him close.

  THE END

  Popular Copyright Novels

  AT MODERATE PRICES

  Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List ofA. L. Burt Company's Popular Copyright Fiction

  Adventures of Jimmie Dale, The. By Frank
L. Packard. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. By A. Conan Doyle. Affinities, and Other Stories. By Mary Roberts Rinehart. After House, The. By Mary Roberts Rinehart. Against the Winds. By Kate Jordan. Ailsa Paige. By Robert W. Chambers. Also Ran. By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. Amateur Gentleman, The. By Jeffery Farnol. Anderson Crow, Detective. By George Barr McCutcheon. Anna, the Adventuress. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Anne's House of Dreams. By L. M. Montgomery. Anybody But Anne. By Carolyn Wells. Are All Men Alike, and The Lost Titian. By Arthur Stringer. Around Old Chester. By Margaret Deland. Ashton-Kirk, Criminologist. By John T. McIntyre. Ashton-Kirk, Investigator. By John T. McIntyre. Ashton-Kirk, Secret Agent. By John T. McIntyre. Ashton-Kirk, Special Detective. By John T. McIntyre. Athalie. By Robert W. Chambers. At the Mercy of Tiberius. By Augusta Evans Wilson. Auction Block, The. By Rex Beach. Aunt Jane of Kentucky. By Eliza C. Hall. Awakening of Helena Richie. By Margaret Deland.

  Bab: a Sub-Deb. By Mary Roberts Rinehart. Bambi. By Marjorie Benton Cooke. Barbarians. By Robert W. Chambers. Bar 20. By Clarence E. Mulford. Bar 20 Days. By Clarence E. Mulford. Barrier, The. By Rex Beach. Bars of Iron, The. By Ethel M. Dell. Beasts of Tarzan, The. By Edgar Rice Burroughs. Beckoning Roads. By Jeanne Judson. Belonging. By Olive Wadsley. Beloved Traitor, The. By Frank L. Packard. Beloved Vagabond, The. By Wm. J. Locke. Beltane the Smith. By Jeffery Farnol. Betrayal, The. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Beulah. (Ill. Ed.) By Augusta J. Evans.

  Popular Copyright Novels

  AT MODERATE PRICES

  Ask Your Dealer for a Complete List ofA. L. Burt Company's Popular Copyright Fiction

  Beyond the Frontier. By Randall Parrish. Big Timber. By Bertrand W. Sinclair. Black Bartlemy's Treasure. By Jeffery Farnol. Black Is White. By George Barr McCutcheon. Blacksheep! Blacksheep!. By Meredith Nicholson. Blind Man's Eyes, The. By Wm. Mac Harg and Edwin Balmer. Boardwalk, The. By Margaret Widdemer. Bob Hampton of Placer. By Randall Parrish. Bob, Son of Battle. By Alfred Olivant. Box With Broken Seals, The. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Boy With Wings, The. By Berta Ruck. Brandon of the Engineers. By Harold Bindloss. Bridge of Kisses, The. By Berta Ruck. Broad Highway, The. By Jeffery Farnol. Broadway Bab. By Johnston McCulley. Brown Study, The. By Grace S. Richmond. Bruce of the Circle A. By Harold Titus. Buccaneer Farmer, The. By Harold Bindloss. Buck Peters, Ranchman. By Clarence E. Mulford. Builders, The. By Ellen Glasgow. Business of Life, The. By Robert W. Chambers.

  Cab of the Sleeping Horse, The. By John Reed Scott. Cabbage and Kings. By O. Henry. Cabin Fever. By B. M. Bower. Calling of Dan Matthews, The. By Harold Bell Wright. Cape Cod Stories. By Joseph C. Lincoln. Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper. By James A. Cooper. Cap'n Dan's Daughter. By Joseph C. Lincoln. Cap'n Erl. By Joseph C. Lincoln. Cap'n Jonah's Fortune. By James A. Cooper. Cap'n Warren's Wards. By Joseph C. Lincoln. Chinese Label, The. By J. Frank Davis. Christine of the Young Heart. By Louise Breintenbach Clancy. Cinderella Jane. By Marjorie B. Cooke. Cinema Murder, The. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. City of Masks, The. By George Barr McCutcheon. Cleek of Scotland Yard. By T. W. Hanshew.