Part 22 (1/2)

Aldous nodded, and in the say Blackton's invitation The old hunter chuckled exultantly He stopped his horse, and Aldous halted

”It's workin' out fine, Johnny!” he exclaioin' any further We understand each other, and there ain't nothin' for you to do at the corral Juo back If I want you I'll come to the Blacktons' 'r send word, and if you want me I'll be at the corral or the caing Aldous disain, and MacDonald drove on ahead of him the saddled horses and the pack And as Aldous turned back toward the bungalow old Donald was ain, ”God ha' mercy on me, but I'm doin' it for her an' Johnny--for her an' Johnny!”

CHAPTER XVII

Half an hour later Blackton had shown Aldous to his room and bath It was four o'clock when he rejoined the contractor in the lower rooe of clothes He had not seen Joanne, but half a dozen ti in Mrs Blackton's big room at the head of the stairs, and he heard thears Blackton was filled with enthusiasm over the accomplishment of his latest work, and Aldous tried hard not to betray the fact that theslowness while he waited for Joanne He wanted to see her His heart was beating like an excited boy's He could hear her footsteps over his head, and he distinguished her soft laughter, and her sweet voice when she spoke

There was so in her nearness and the fact that she did not once show herself at the top of the stair Blackton was still talking about ”coyotes” and dynaave a big, glad juolden-haired vision of happiness, was already half a dozen steps down the stairs At the top Joanne, for an instant, had paused Through that space, before the contractor had turned, her eyesHer eyes were shi+ning at hiht, and never had she seemed such a perfect vision of loveliness She was dressed in a soft, clinging so with a flutter of white lace at her throat, and as she caed her hair in a marvellous way Soft little curls half hid themselves in the shi+mmer of rich coils she had wreathed upon her head, and adorable little tendrils caressed the lovely flush in her cheeks, and clung to the snohiteness of her neck

For a y Blackton went to her husband, he stood very close to Joanne, and into his eyes she was slowing, the last trace of their old suspense and fear vanished in a new and wondrous beauty He would not have said she enty-eight now He would have sworn she enty

”Joanne,” he whispered, ”you are wonderful Your hair is glorious!”

”Always--my hair,” she replied, so low that he alone heard ”Can you never see beyond my hair, John Aldous?”

”I stop there,” he said ”And I ain!” And up from her white throat there rose a richer, sweeter colour

”If you say that again now, John Aldous, I shall neveras I live!”

”Forwith joy But she had left hi her husband where he had ht her eyes, turned swiftly to hi at him, and there came a sudden pretty upturn to her chin as he continued to stare, and he saw again the colour deepening in her face When Peggy Blackton led her husband to the stair, and drove him up to shave off the stubbly patch, Joanne found the opportunity to whisper to him:

”You are rude, John Aldous! You must not stare at me like that!”

And as she spoke the rebellious colour was still in her face, in spite of the tantalizing curve of her red lips and the sparkle in her eyes

”I can't help it,” he pleaded ”You are--glorious!”

During the next hour, and while they were at supper, he could see that she was purposely avoiding his eyes, and that she spoke oftener to Paul Blackton than she did to hi the keenest interest in his friend's enthusiastic descriptions of the y Blackton never see to her husband, he was forced to content hi at Joanneher s behind the western y and Joanne, hurried most incontinently by Blackton, who had looked at his watch, left the table to prepare theet you there before dusk,” he explained ”So please hurry!”

They were back in five ray coat, and with a veil that trailed a yard down her back she had covered her head

Not a curl or a tress of her hair had she left out of its filleam of triumph in her eyes when she looked at Aldous

A moment later, when they went ahead of Blackton and his wife to where the buckboard aiting for theray?”