Bailey laughed at his innocence. "Jim Rivers has located about seventy-five claims out here this spring. I guess he won't lose his bearings." "I'm afraid Blanche'll get nervous." "Oh, Jim will take care of her. She won't be lonesome, either. He's a great favorite with the women, always gassin'--Well, this won't feed the baby," he ended, leaping to his feet. They were about to start on when a swift team came into sight. The carriage was a platform-spring wagon, with a man and woman in the front seat, and in the rear a couple of alert young fellows sat holding rifles in their hands and eyeing the plain for game. "Hello!" said the driver, in a pleasant shout. "How you getting on?" "Pretty well," replied Bailey. "Should say you were. I didn't know but we'd fail to overhaul you." Burke went up to the wagon. "Well, Blanche, what do you think of it--far's you've got?" "Not very much," replied his wife, candidly. She was a handsome woman, but looked tired and a little cross, at the moment. "I guess I'll get out and ride with you," she added. "Why, no! What for?" asked Rivers, hastily. "Why not go right along out to the store with us?" "Why, yes; that's the thing to do, Blanche. We'll be along soon," said Burke. "Stay where you are." She sat down again, as if ashamed to give her reason for not going on with these strange men. "I was just in the middle of a story, too," added Rivers, humorously. "Well, so long." And, cracking his whip, he started on. "We'll have supper ready when you arrive!" he shouted back. Burke could not forget the look in his wife's eyes. She was right. It would have been pleasanter if she had stayed with him. They had been married several years, but his love for her had not grown less. Perhaps for the reason that she dominated him. She was a fine, powerful girl, while he was a plain man, slightly stooping, with thin face and prominent larynx. She had brought a little property to him, which was unusual enough to give her a sense of importance in all business transactions of the firm. She had consented to the sale of their farm in Illinois with great reluctance, and, as Burke rode along on his load of furniture, he recalled it all very vividly, and it made him anxious to know her impression of his claim. As he took her position for a moment, he got a sudden sense of the loneliness and rawness of this new land which he had not felt before. The woman's point of view was so different from that of the adventurous man. Twice they were forced to partly unload in order to cross ravines where the frost had fallen out, and it was growing dark as they rose over the low swell, from which they could see a dim, red star, which Burke guessed to be the shanty light, even before Bailey called, exultantly: "There she blows!"