comin' back now, as this is vacation time."

"But what happened to her, do you suppose, after the dance that night?"
Reynolds asked. "She disappeared as if by magic, and I believe the big
Indian had something to do with it."

"How d'ye know she disappeared?" was the sudden and somewhat
embarrassing question.

Reynolds laughed, and his face flushed. He knew that he had betrayed
himself, and that the prospector noted his confusion.

"Oh, I didn't notice her in town," he explained, "and I saw by the
register that she had left the hotel."

"So you're interested in her, too, are ye, young man?"

"I certainly am," was the candid confession. "From the moment that I
first saw her at a street crossing in Vancouver she has been hardly out
of my mind. I never saw any girl who affected me so much, and she is
the reason why I am here now."

"Ye don't tell!" Samson tapped the ashes out of his pipe, and then
stretched himself full length upon the ground. "Make a clean breast of
it, young man," he encouraged. "I'm an old hardened chap meself, but I
do like to hear a real interestin' heart-story once in a while. I git
sick an' disgusted listenin' to brutes on two legs, callin' themselves
men when they talk about women. But when it comes to a clean young
feller, sich as I take you to be, tellin' of his heart-stroke, then
it's different, an' I'm allus pleased to listen."