impressed with the possibilities when the speed bug got him. He could
have trimmed a little here and there at home and put the money to work.
Ten thousand dollars would have done the trick, given me a working
outfit along with what I've got that would have put us both on Easy
Street. However, the poor old chap didn't get around to it. I suppose,
like lots of other business men, when he stopped, everything ran down.
According to Lander's figures, there won't be a thing left when all
accounts are squared."

"Don't talk about it, Charlie," she begged. "It's too near, and I was
through it all."

"I would have been there too," Benton said. "But, as I told you, I was
out of reach of your wire, and by the time I got it, it was all over. I
couldn't have done any good, anyway. There's no use mourning. One way
and another we've all got to come to it some day."

Stella looked out over the placid, shimmering surface of Roaring Lake
for a minute. Her grief was dimming with time and distance, and she had
all her own young life before her. She found herself drifting from
painful memories of her father's sudden death to a consideration of
things present and personal. She found herself wondering critically if
this strange, rude land would work as many changes in her as were patent
in this bronzed and burly brother.

He had left home a slim, cocksure youngster, who had proved more than a
handful for his family before he was half through college, which
educational finishing process had come to an abrupt stop before it was
complete. He had been a problem that her father and mother had discussed
in guarded tones. Sending him West had been a hopeful experiment, and in