"The very first day I reached St. Marys, almost the first hour." He was wondering inwardly why he should talk thus to any one. "I'm so glad," she answered contentedly, "because they must have told you to do many things, and you've done them. But I can't half answer what they say to me." Clark studied her silently. Her face was not only beautiful but supremely intelligent, and had, moreover, the signet of imagination. She was, he concluded, utterly truthful and courageous. "I wonder you get time to come here at all," she hazarded after a thoughtful pause. "It is time well spent." He pointed to the heaped crests in midstream. "The solution of many a problem lies out there; I've got one to think of now." Had Elsie been an ordinary girl she would have disappeared forthwith, but between them sped something that convinced her that he wanted her to stay. "Am I allowed to know what it is?" "It's this." Clark took a fragment of rock from his pocket and laid it in her palm. "What is it?" she said curiously. "Gold!" "Oh!" The color flew to her cheeks and her eyes became very bright. "Where did it come from and who found it?" "About sixty miles from here, and Fisette found it--he's one of my prospectors." "He's the man who discovered iron for you?" "Yes." "How very extraordinary," she said under her breath. "Why should it be?" "The last time we talked you had just found iron, and now it's gold. This is even more wonderful, isn't it?" He shook his head. "It's pretty--but not nearly so important." Something in the girl's manner attracted him strangely and he went on talking as he seldom talked. Her eyes never left his face. "Yes," she said presently, "I'm glad to understand. But the strange thing to me is that all these people," here she pointed towards the works, "are doing things they would not have done if you hadn't come. Why is that?" "Some people think that the most successful man is the one who gets others to work the hardest for him," said Clark, smiling. She shook her head. "That doesn't suit. I know what it is." "Do you?" "It's vision." There was a thrill in her low voice. Then she added, very swiftly, "You haven't many friends, have you, Mr. Clark?" He stared at her in surprise, and in the next instant decided that she was right. "Why do you ask that?" "Because you must see past most people, don't you, to what is ahead? It is hard to put just what I mean into words." He nodded gravely. "It is quite true that I haven't any very close personal friends, I've moved about too quickly to make them. As for my employees, I see them chiefly through their work." "Then you don't really know them," she announced. "Possibly,--but I know their results. It sounds a little inhuman, doesn't it?" "I think I understand." Elsie was tempted to probe this gray-eyed man about Belding, but presently gave it up. She was conscious that while she was talking to Clark the figure of the engineer faded into the background.