He laid his hand, bracing himself a little, on the bole of the fir, and turned his own face away, looking off once more down the canyon. Myers, coming back to the edge of the windfall, called, but neither of them answered. Presently she reached and broke a sprig from a lower bough and began slowly to strip it of its needles. "But I see—I see—how much I’ve been to blame," she said. "I can’t forgive myself, ever. I never thought of you—in—that way, Paul. You never seemed—like other men. And I see—I see—I shouldn’t have spoken, as I did just now, about Colonel." "Why, it’s all right." He swung around and looked at her. "It’s all right. Don’t let it trouble you; don’t give it another thought. And, of course, you will keep Colonel." She shook her head. "How can I?" "Don’t make me feel you hold him in the light of a bribe. Understand, it’s just a favor to me. I think a good deal of my horse; it means a lot to me to be able to leave him with some one I can trust." Her lip trembled; she brushed her hand across her eyes. "You are the best—the noblest man in the world," she said. Eben called again and Forrest answered with a clear "Hello." He began to walk back towards the windfall. Presently he stopped to pick up a small, morocco-bound book which she had lost from her pocket in crossing a boulder on the way out to the cliff. He slipped the volume into his own pocket and turned to help her over the rock. "See here," he said, "I want you to know that I’m glad to be that best friend, the one you depend on. You needn’t be afraid of me; you’ve given me a character that I’ve got to live up to." "You mean—" the light came back to her face—"you do mean you are not going to let it make any difference between us." "Of course. Why should it? Only—tell me this—" the rock was smooth and difficult; he watched her footing—"is there some one else?" "No, there is no one else—yet." She paused on the word, for suddenly, lifting her glance beyond Forrest’s shoulder, she saw the stranger she had met at the creek on the school trail. He stopped a few yards from the boulder, and, dismounting, took the chestnut’s halter, and, making it fast to a sapling, stood waiting. Forrest gave him a straight look and slight nod, and would have passed directly on, but the man smiled and held out his hand. "I hope you have not forgotten me," he said. "I am Stratton, lately of Victoria. I met you with the Kingsleys, when you came over to see the new mills at Seattle." Forrest gave him another look from under slightly knotted brows. "I remember. You were going on a cruise with the Captain in the _Phantom_. I’ve heard, too, of you through my friend Bates, of the Customs Service."