"What's he got to do with it?" said the one-eyed miner, jealously.
"Can't you and me bring her back?"

"He'll marry her! God, won't there never be a boat!"

For the hundredth time that morning he went to the door of the post
and strained his eyes down-stream.

"Well, well! Them two goin' to be married," said Lee. "Stark licked,
and Necia goin' to be married--all at once. I hate to see it, John;
he ain't good enough; she could 'a' done a heap better. There's a
lot of reg'lar men around here, and she could 'a' had her pick. Of
course, always bein' broke like a dog myself, I 'ain't kept up my
personal appearance like I'd ought, but I've got some new clothes
now, and you wouldn't know me. I bought 'em off a tenderfoot with
cold feet, but they're the goods, and you'd see a big improvement in
me."

"He's a good man," said Gale. "Better than you or me, and he's all
torn up over this. I never saw a man act so. When he learned about
it I thought he'd go mad--he's haunted the river-bank ever since,
raging about for some means of following her, and if I hadn't fairly
held him he'd have set out single-handed."

"I'm still strong in the belief that Necia could have bettered her
hand by stayin' out awhile longer," declared Lee, stubbornly; "but
if she wants a soldier, why, we'll get one for her, only I'd rather
have got her somethin' real good and pronounced in the military
line--like an agitant-gen'ral or a walkin' delegate."