[Illustration] Ridgway of Montana A story of to-day, in which the hero is also the villain by William Macleod Raine To JEAN AND THAT KINGDOM “Where you and I through this world’s weather Work, and give praise and thanks together.” CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Two Men and a Woman CHAPTER II. The Freebooter CHAPTER III. One to One CHAPTER IV. Fort Salvation CHAPTER V. Enter Simon Harley CHAPTER VI. On the Snow-trail CHAPTER VII. Back from Arcadia CHAPTER VIII. The Honorable Thomas B. Pelton CHAPTER IX. An Evening Call CHAPTER X. Harley Makes a Proposition CHAPTER XI. Virginia Intervenes CHAPTER XII. Aline Makes a Discovery CHAPTER XIII. First Blood CHAPTER XIV. A Conspiracy CHAPTER XV. Laska Opens a Door CHAPTER XVI. An Explosion in the Taurus CHAPTER XVII. The Election CHAPTER XVIII. Further Developments CHAPTER XIX. One Million Dollars CHAPTER XX. A Little Lunch at Alphonse’s CHAPTER XXI. Harley Scores CHAPTER XXII. “Not Guilty”—“Guilty” CHAPTER XXIII. Aline Turns a Corner CHAPTER XXIV. A Good Samaritan CHAPTER XXV. Friendly Enemies CHAPTER XXVI. Breaks One and Makes Another Engagement CHAPTER I. TWO MEN AND A WOMAN “Mr. Ridgway, ma’am.” The young woman who was giving the last touches to the very effective picture framed in her long looking-glass nodded almost imperceptibly. She had come to the parting of the ways, and she knew it, with a shrewd suspicion as to which she would choose. She had asked for a week to decide, and her heart-searching had told her nothing new. It was characteristic of Virginia Balfour that she did not attempt to deceive herself. If she married Waring Ridgway it would be for what she considered good and sufficient reasons, but love would not be one of them. He was going to be a great man, for one thing, and probably a very rich one, which counted, though it would not be a determining factor. This she could find only in the man himself, in the masterful force that made him what he was. The sandstings of life did not disturb his confidence in his victorious star, nor did he let fine-spun moral obligations hamper his predatory career. He had a genius for success in whatever he undertook, pushing his way to his end with a shrewd, direct energy that never faltered. She sometimes wondered whether she, too, like the men he used as tools, was merely a pawn in his game, and her consent an empty formality conceded to convention. Perhaps he would marry her even if she did not want to, she told herself, with the sudden illuminating smile that was one of her chief charms.