Presently they left the table, and, to the astonishment of the waiters who removed the cloth, common brier-wood pipes, thoughtfully provided by Barker in commemoration of the Past, were lit, and they ranged themselves in armchairs before the fire quite unconsciously in their old attitudes.

The two windows on either side of the hearth gave them the same view that the open door of the old cabin had made familiar to them, the league-long valley below the shadowy bulk of the Black Spur rising in the distance, and, still more remote, the pallid snow-line that soared even beyond its crest.
As in the old time, they were for many moments silent; and then, as in the old time, it was the irrepressible Barker who broke the silence.
"But Stacy does not tell you anything about his friend, the beautiful Mrs.Horncastle.You know he's the guardian of one of the finest women in California--a woman as noble and generous as she is handsome.

And think of it! He's protecting her from her brute of a husband, and looking after her property.

Isn't it good and chivalrous of him ?" The irrepressible laughter of the two men brought only wonder and reproachful indignation into the widely opened eyes of Barker.

HE was perfectly sincere.