"Darling! It's all yours. You'll marry me now?"

"Sir! Do you take me for a fortune-hunter? I marry you for your
gold? Never!"

"Joan!"

"I've promised," she said.

"I won't go away now. I'll work my claim," he began, excitedly. And
he went on so rapidly that Joan could not keep track of his words.
He was not so cautious as formerly. She remonstrated with him, all
to no purpose. Not only was he carried away by possession of gold
and assurance of more, but he had become masterful, obstinate, and
illogical. He was indeed hopeless to-night--the gold had gotten into
his blood. Joan grew afraid he would betray their secret and
realized there had come still greater need for a woman's wit. So she
resorted to a never-failing means of silencing him, of controlling
him--her lips on his.




15

For several nights these stolen interviews were apparently the safer
because of Joan's tender blinding of her lover. But it seemed that
in Jim's condition of mind this yielding of her lips and her
whispers of love had really been a mistake. Not only had she made
the situation perilously sweet for herself, but in Jim's case she