OheJUMPING-OFF 
 
 PLACE Ethel Shackeljbrd 
 
BERKElIf 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY Of 
 CM1FOBJ41A 
 
\ . 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 ETHEL SHACKELFORD 
 
THE 
 JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 BY 
 
 ETHEL SHACKELFORD 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF ME 
 
 NEW YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
LOAN STAO8 
 
 Copyright, 1918 
 BY GEORGE H. DOBAN COMPANY 
 
PS 55 57 
 
 TO 
 MY FRIEND 
 
 BELLE M. WALKER 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TpHERE were a great many reasons why some- 
 * thing had to be done with her. 
 
 You ve simply got to take a better hold on life! " 
 her physician fairly stormed at her. " You can t allow 
 yourself to be the victim of every shadow that comes 
 within miles of you, and then expect me to be respon 
 sible for your health. It is asking too much of any 
 doctor. Everybody has to deal with the tragedies of 
 existence everybody s sense of humour runs down 
 now and then. But one would suppose you had a 
 monopoly on trouble ! " 
 
 The " case " sank quietly into the chair beside the 
 doctor s desk. She did not volunteer any comment 
 upon the half-severe, half-indulgent lecture that was 
 being hurled at her. Its truth was the doctor s last re 
 sort. Medicine would do nothing. Hers was a case 
 of nerves, resulting from the fact that life had put too 
 much stress on a frail constitution. The " case " her 
 self was serious and young, with pathetic brown eyes 
 and a sort of droopy attitude, both physically and 
 mentally. She took no interest in herself, little interest 
 in her physician, and no interest at all in life in general. 
 
 "Say something, will you?" demanded the doctor, 
 with an heroic attempt to give the impression that she 
 
 9 
 
io THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 filled him with a mild form of contempt which she 
 did not, incidentally. 
 
 " What shall I say?" she asked, gently, looking at 
 his framed sheepskin on the wall, but not seeing it. 
 
 " Well," the doctor suggested, " let me hear what 
 you think of travelling for a while. I know you will 
 not consider Europe." 
 
 " Never Europe," she said. " Europe is full of 
 Americans in black who have no idea what they want 
 to do, or where they want to go. I shall never join 
 them." 
 
 " I understand this, perfectly," her physician ac 
 knowledged. " But how about seeing something of 
 this country? Have you ever been West? " 
 
 " N-no," she replied, indifferently. 
 
 11 Why don t you go? " he went on. 
 
 " Well, Doctor LeRoy, if I bestirred myself suffi 
 ciently to have any reason at all, I should say it is be 
 cause the West sounds rather far away from you." 
 And there was the very faintest smile in the world 
 somewhere about her, though it would have been im 
 possible to say whether it lurked about her eyes or her 
 mouth. 
 
 The doctor jumped to his feet, and laid a good, 
 strong fist on his desk so that it made the inkwell 
 bounce. " Now see here ! " he announced, " you ve 
 got to stop this ! Besides being the most trying patient 
 I ever had, you are an unconscionable coquette. The 
 worst of you is that you are insidious, too." 
 
 " So? " she smiled. " But let me reassure you, Doc 
 tor physicians are supposed to be immune to all 
 contagious things." 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 11 
 
 " They are not, just the same. But let us be se 
 rious," he said, sitting down again. " Now why don t 
 you decide upon some place quite different from any 
 thing you have ever seen; and just see if a complete 
 change of climate, locality and faces won t help you to 
 get out of yourself? How about that Montana mining 
 camp I once told you of the place where I visited 
 my friend Burns when he was chief geologist of the 
 mines out there? Burns had a pretty little bungalow 
 which he wrote me had been boarded up since he left, 
 because being on the edge of town it was not readily 
 rented or sold. Perhaps we can get it for you. It 
 is furnished, I understand, and the things as I recall 
 them, were simple and in good taste. There was a 
 grand piano; and if you put up some fresh curtains 
 and take out some good rugs and a few pictures, and tie 
 a few pink satin bows all over things " 
 
 " Pink satin bows?" the lady broke in, scornfully. 
 " Do I look like the type of woman who would tie a 
 pink satin bow on the wood basket and another around 
 the neck of a plaster cast of the Venus de Milo? 
 Horrors! Pretty soon you will be tactfully suggest 
 ing the cosiness of geranium slips ! " 
 
 The doctor smiled, for this was the first sign of 
 vitality the " case " had shown in weeks. He hurried 
 on in his endeavour to carry his point. " I wish you 
 might see the picture in my mind of an autumn day in 
 that huge living room of Burns . A dancing wood fire, 
 a magazine and through the low, leaded windows, 
 the mountains great, snow-capped mountains, with 
 the foothills in shadow in the foreground. They are 
 all ruggedness and rocks, for the timber has all been 
 
12 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 cut long since to be used in the mines. Those moun 
 tains make these wretched New York streets seem like 
 a prison. You could ride, by way of amusement, and 
 have the people you like in to dinner. It would all 
 do you an infinity of good, believe me. Your sense of 
 proportion would readjust itself out there where every 
 thing is foreign to you. Half the trouble with you 
 now, is nothing more nor less than the artificial atmos 
 phere in which you live." 
 
 The lady patiently listened. 
 
 " Strangers regard the Camp as a sort of jumping- 
 off place, at first but it isn t half bad. I ll give you 
 a letter to a young Dr. Marsden I met out there a 
 nice chap who takes care of miners that meet with acci 
 dent, besides doing general work. But you don t need 
 a doctor you need diversion. Think it over. Will 
 you go ? " The doctor waited, eagerly, hoping she 
 would consider his words this time. 
 
 " Do you wish me to go ? " the lady asked, like a 
 little child. 
 
 " I certainly do," he replied, sincerely. 
 
 " Well," she said, rising to leave, " I should not 
 think of having a physician whose orders I cared to 
 disobey." 
 
 "Poor Marsden!" sighed the doctor, with make- 
 believe pity. " I trust his medical education has been 
 broad enough to show him the danger of taking any 
 thing deeper than a professional interest in his pa 
 
 tients." 
 
 " Somebody has to take me seriously, once in a 
 while, I suppose," she said, plaintively. " And it 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 13 
 
 might as well be Dr. Marsden as anybody, mightn t 
 it?" 
 
 " Marsden is very good looking the ladies are 
 mad over him," the doctor told her. 
 
 "So?" asked the lady, idly. Then offering him 
 her hand, she astonished him by saying really, he 
 quite doubted his ears " Good-bye, Doctor. I shall 
 not forget how good you have been to me. I hate to 
 write letters, but I ll find some way to let you know 
 how I am getting on. And I want to say I know it is 
 hard for you to be severe with me you are the soul 
 of sympathy, in reality. You are not cross you just 
 like to play-act it. Good-bye ! " 
 
 " You you re not really going? " he gasped. 
 
 " I am really going out to Montana four days 
 west of here, isn t it? " she said. 
 
 " But you will be in again to say good-bye? " 
 
 " I have just said good-bye," she reminded him. 
 
 Yes but when will you go? " he asked. 
 
 " What difference does that make? " she questioned. 
 
 " Well, every dif that is no particular differ 
 ence, in a way, but how about the letter to Marsden and 
 seeing if Burns will give you the house? Burns is 
 somewhere down in New Mexico now, I think. And 
 how about packing up your things? " 
 
 " Oh," she answered, promptly, " I will look up the 
 local real estate agent and have him get a carpenter to 
 take down the shutters, if I like the place; and after 
 that I can manage some way to get a look at Dr. Mars 
 den 1 am fussy about my choice of physicians, you 
 know. After seeing the man, I can let you know if a 
 
14 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 letter to him will be acceptable. But thank you just 
 the same ! " 
 
 This success was almost too abrupt for the doctor to 
 comprehend. 
 
 " Aren t you making up your mind rather quickly? " 
 he ventured, as though perhaps, after all, he was tak 
 ing the responsibility of his patient a shade too lightly 
 in sending her so far away. 
 
 " When I decide to make a change, I generally move 
 suddenly you may remember?" she appealed to 
 him. " I might as well leave on the limited at five- 
 thirty as to drag the matter out a week or ten days. 
 The maids can pack me up in three hours, and the house 
 hold stuff can follow by express. Again bye-bye ! " 
 
 She was gone. 
 
 The doctor was at a loss to understand this new 
 phase. It was probably just one of the lady s quaint 
 jokes, he argued just another trick to hold his atten 
 tion. Although Dr. LeRoy felt a bit foolish at the 
 possibility of being caught taking this little patient lit 
 erally, still he ran this risk, and telephoned her house 
 after dinner that evening to find out how she was feel 
 ing. 
 
 His answer was: "She s not in, sur no sur. 
 She and the up-stairs maid, Martha, has gahn away, sur. 
 Oi m here to kape the house and pack up things and 
 sind off the other servants. This is Annie, the cook 
 yis sur. Good-bye, sur!" 
 
 " I wonder what the West will do for her? " mused 
 the doctor. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 "T ^HE Camp, besides being four days west of New 
 York, was something more and something less 
 than its classification would imply. There were signs 
 left of the original mining camp, such as " dumps " all 
 through the town, and there were shaft-houses standing 
 next to business blocks, and after twelve o clock at 
 night the street railway tracks were also used for ore 
 trains. Yet the Camp boasted of a good hotel with 
 the familiar big rotunda chairs and the same grade of 
 tiles on the cafe floor that usually grow on cafe floors, 
 while the guests presented the same general mixed ap 
 pearance of hotel guests all over the country. 
 
 In the Camp hotel at this moment stood Mr. Craw 
 ford Mansfield Kerr, thrusting a pen into a potato-pen 
 wiper while waiting for Mr. Barton Colby, who, as 
 usual, was late. These two were in the habit of din 
 ing together on Wednesdays and some other days. 
 Mr. Kerr s restless eyes travelled to the open register 
 at his elbow, and he saw among the day s arrivals 
 " Mrs. E. Evanston and maid, New York." 
 
 " Mrs. Evanston and maid," he reflected. 
 "Well!" 
 
 Just then Mr. Colby appeared with his customary 
 set of apologies, to which Mr. Kerr paid no heed, but 
 pointed to the recent entry. 
 
 " She can t be a new feature at the vaudeville, can 
 she? " he ventured. " They don t change the bill un 
 til Saturday. Wonder if she isn t proud of her front 
 
 15 
 
16 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 name, or if she is in that fashionable position, betwixt 
 and between, when the courts haven t decided whether 
 she is to use her own front name, or Evanston s? " 
 
 " The main trouble with this Camp," began Mr. 
 Barton Colby with the assurance he alone affected with 
 the older man, " is the fact that the place does not 
 afford enough legitimate entertainment. Things in 
 terest us here that we would not stoop to notice In civ 
 ilisation. Better ask the and maid if you must know 
 the lady s full name. Come on in to dinner. I am 
 tired and sore as a goat been underground most of 
 the day, trying out a new drill." 
 
 " Oh, very well! " replied Mr. Kerr, lightly. " But 
 you needn t be so crotchety, Barton. Besides, you 
 quite overlook the proof that the Camp isn t so bad 
 there are three of us living here, you might remember, 
 when we don t have to ! " 
 
 "Three such fools?" groaned young Colby. 
 " Lord ! I have done the place an injustice I have 
 been thinking you were the only one who liked it." 
 
 Messrs. Kerr and Colby had got their napkins un 
 folded, and had manfully started in to kill time with 
 the French bread and butter until their soup should 
 arrive, when, in glancing up, they saw two figures in 
 the doorway one a delicate, patrician looking young 
 woman with sad brown eyes, a white face with a very, 
 very red mouth; a lady dressed in a soft black gown 
 with a ruche of white at the throat. The other woman 
 was also in black, but the kind of dress worn by a maid, 
 with stiff white collar and cuffs. 
 
 With a half-frightened look, the lady waited for 
 the head waiter, who came up promptly, showed her 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 17 
 
 to a small table and held back a chair for her. An 
 other waiter drew back the opposite chair for the other 
 woman ; but the maid, having escorted her mistress to 
 her place, quietly left the room. 
 
 This was an extraordinary performance for the 
 Camp. It interested Messrs. Kerr and Colby, whose 
 eyes missed not the slightest move in the unimportant 
 action of the Camp s new guest. 
 
 Young Colby was especially observing, without 
 openly staring. 
 
 " Excuse me," said Mr. Kerr with a shade of sar 
 casm in his tone, " the soup s come, Barton. It s been 
 on the table a full minute and no doubt you will be 
 in better trim to find out all about the lady, after you 
 eat it." 
 
 Mr. Colby coloured slightly at finding his ideas had 
 converted themselves into a boomerang. He had been 
 meaning for some time to stop patronising Mr. Craw 
 ford Mansfield Kerr, who was much older than him 
 self and who had for years been an established institu 
 tion in the Camp, like mining and golf. He reminded 
 himself of his resolution, and did not glance across the 
 way again that is, Mr. Kerr did not catch him at it. 
 
 At the end of a few days Messrs. Kerr and Colby 
 and several other men who preferred the hotel dinner 
 to their club one, were thoroughly alive to the move 
 ments of the new personality in the community. If 
 one saw her getting into a carriage, he told someone 
 else, only to be thrown into the background by hear 
 ing that his listener had seen her get out of the car 
 riage ! 
 
 " 1 wonder what she is out in this Camp for? " said 
 
i8 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Mr. Kerr one day on the country club por*ch. " And 
 I wonder which one of us shall meet her first? " 
 
 " You, of course," scoffed Mr. Colby, brushing the 
 rim of his soft hat back from his attractive young face. 
 " Don t they call you the town beau, Kerr? You ll 
 have to live up to the distinction! " 
 
 "Whose good name is up for dissection now?" 
 pleasantly asked young Dr. Marsden, coming in from 
 the links and slamming the screen door behind him. 
 Dropping his bag of sticks, he threw himself into a 
 porch chair and waited for an answer. 
 
 " We were speaking of the widow," remarked Mr. 
 Kerr. 
 
 " The widow ? What widow ? " asked Marsden. 
 
 " The new widow," Kerr patiently enlightened him. 
 
 " Mrs. Evanston and maid," Mr. Colby further ex 
 plained. 
 
 " Oh ! " A light burst in upon Marsden. " Is she 
 a widow? " 
 
 " I don t know," said Kerr. 
 
 " I am sure / don t know," smilingly asserted the 
 delightful " Captain " Leonard. 
 
 "You can search me!" young Colby vindicated 
 himself, blowing a puff of cigarette smoke through his 
 nose. 
 
 "What are you men talking about?" gaily de 
 manded Mrs. St. John, coming outside from the blaz 
 ing logs on the hearth in the big room, for they were 
 proving themselves too much in the sunny October 
 afternoon. 
 
 " We are talking about the widow," Mr. Kerr in 
 formed her. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 19 
 
 "What widow ?" she asked with concern, or per 
 haps it was with hope. It was very dull in the Camp 
 just then. " Has somebody died? " 
 
 Colby blew out some more smoke and took upon 
 himself the task of making answer. " We can t say 
 exactly. We don t know yet whether he is dead or 
 not," he dolefully told her. 
 
 41 Oh, you fellows are always joking! " she snapped. 
 " And I would take my oath that you are still on the 
 subject of the lady in black at the hotel." 
 
 " She isn t at the hotel any more she has gone," 
 announced Colby with an air of importance. 
 
 " Who told you that? " instantly asked Mr. Kerr. 
 
 " I saw her go," confessed Colby, as he looked out 
 at the isolated, treeless mountain that rose abruptly out 
 of the earth about a mile from the club house. 
 
 "Where has she gone?" asked Captain Leonard, 
 with just as much interest as though he had seen the 
 lady, himself which he had not. 
 
 " I don t know," sighed young Colby at last, glan 
 cing up to see if his evident concern struck Mrs. St. 
 John. 
 
 It did. 
 
 " I can tell you where Mrs. Evanston has gone," 
 volunteered Dr. Marsden, casually. 
 
 Everybody turned toward that good-looking young 
 man, who seemed to ignore the suspense he was caus 
 ing by a prolonged search through all of his pockets 
 for his cigarette case. However, he remarked at last, 
 i( Why why she has taken the Burns bungalow on 
 the top of Copper Hill. It will be nice to see a light 
 up there again, won t it? " 
 
20 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " How do you know she has taken the Burns bun 
 galow? " two or three voices asked as one. 
 
 " She told me so," Marsden acknowledged, simply. 
 
 " She told you so? " repeated Kerr, incredulously. 
 
 " She told you so? For goodness sake! " echoed 
 Captain Leonard. 
 
 " When did you meet her, Doctor? " sharply probed 
 Mrs. St. John. 
 
 "Say!" And young Colby screwed up his face 
 comically. " Are you sure, Doc, it wasn t the and 
 maid who told you so? " 
 
 " Go and look at the bungalow, if you don t believe 
 me," suggested the doctor. 
 
 Kerr leaned forward, as if to sift the matter down 
 to the satisfaction of everybody, and asked, " Where 
 abouts were you when she told you this? " 
 
 " At the hotel," replied the doctor, not in the least 
 as if prevaricating. 
 
 " At the hotel," repeated Mr. Kerr, slowly. " You 
 don t say so! And when was this? " 
 
 "Lord!" exclaimed Marsden, impatiently, "one 
 would suppose I was on trial for my life, to hear the 
 cross-examination! But it was the day before yester 
 day, if you must know, Mr. District Attorney, and the 
 hour was approximately four in the afternoon. Any 
 thing more? " 
 
 " How on earth did you meet her? " Captain Leon 
 ard next wanted to know. 
 
 "I met her professionally," the doctor impor 
 tantly announced. " Mrs. Evanston s maid acci 
 dentally let a trunk lid fall on her hand and they 
 sent for me. Anything else? " 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 21 
 
 "Wouldn t that kill you?" young Colby appealed 
 to the entire gathering. "She sent for him! Now 
 if she had been the Chief of Police, we should under 
 stand, perfectly, her having his name and address. 
 But as things stand, we would like to have this point 
 made clearer, Doc. Could you tell us, please, how in 
 the name of kingdom come, she ever heard of you? " 
 
 " That is exactly what I am trying to find out, my 
 self, Mr. Colby," grandly asserted Dr. Marsden, rising 
 and with mock dignity bowing himself and his golf 
 sticks into the club house, to begin his favourite five-mile 
 walk on the pianola. " And one more thing! " the 
 doctor said, before slamming the door behind him, 
 " I should thank you kindly, Mr. Colby, to cut out call 
 ing me Doc! " 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 \T7HEN Mr. Burns lived in the Camp, the pic- 
 " turesque bungalow with its cement walls and 
 green-shingled roof, used to be quite a centre in its 
 own way. It stood pluckily up against the sky line on 
 the top of Copper Hill, and from its wide, low ve 
 randa running all around the east side and across the 
 front of the house, one could get a capital idea of the 
 Camp with its ugly little cabins, its few tall business 
 blocks shooting up like isolated tombstones here and 
 there, its deserted shaft-houses, the dumps, the big 
 steel gallows-frames, the distant cemeteries, and all 
 else that went to make up the crude, enterprising place. 
 Also from this site one got a glorious view of the sur 
 rounding country for miles. 
 
 Burns had lived up here with a Chinese servant in 
 floppy linens and flowing pig-tail, and then there had 
 been many jolly times. But now the townsfolk had 
 grown used to seeing the little bungalow all boxed up 
 against the onslaughts of small boys whose chief aim in 
 life seems to be to throw stones through windows. 
 The people who lived nearest the bungalow were those 
 in small, ramshackle cottages of frame and brick 
 principally miners and their families. And if " so 
 ciety " was so hard pressed for amusement that it took 
 undue note of the movements of " Mrs. Evanston and 
 maid," one can easily imagine the excitement with which 
 Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Casey and the five little Martin- 
 etties watched the unboarding of the bungalow win- 
 
 22 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 23 
 
 dows, the adjusting of the sticking front door, and the 
 arrival of more trunks and boxes than they ever saw 
 at any one time before. 
 
 When a beautiful lady, accompanied by a woman not 
 so engaging, got out of one of Billy Me. Queene s car 
 riages, with Flapjack Flinn on the box (Flapjack 
 himself belonged in the neighborhood) why, it was 
 truly thrilling! And the first order of groceries de 
 livered at the bungalow exceeded any single order ever 
 taken up the hill in Burns palmiest days, Mrs. Casey 
 insisted to her friends who were all hanging out over 
 their little front fences discussing the goings-on. 
 
 If Dr. LeRoy could have peeped in upon his case of 
 nervous prostration just now, he would have been 
 elated, indeed, over the wisdom of his prescription. 
 The lady personally superintended the unpacking of a 
 roll of rugs, cases of pictures and boxes of linens that 
 had come through promptly by express, and she di 
 rected the activities of the scrub-woman and Mar 
 tha. 
 
 In her enthusiasm she so forgot herself that she 
 actually prepared the first meal alone, and smiled a 
 real smile. The picture of herself frying eggs and 
 poking up a fire delighted her. She had poked up the 
 library fire at home, when she felt inclined, but she 
 could not recall ever, in all her conventional life, hav 
 ing had any arguments with a kitchen fire, and this 
 seemed a treat, some way. 
 
 After the work of settling the house had got into full 
 swing, they came with the telephone two men, a 
 horse and a wagon. Close upon their departure, ar 
 rived the telephone inspector. For the first time the 
 
24 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 lady noticed the instrument and wondered why it 
 seemed unfamiliar. 
 
 " What is that dial for, and that circle of numbers 
 what are they for? " she asked. 
 
 The young man looked at her as if questioning her 
 seriousness, then replied, " Why, lady, they are to get 
 your party with, of course. This is the new automatic 
 phone it s what you ordered, ain t it? J> 
 
 "Did I?" she asked, in a puzzled way. "I told 
 the clerk at the hotel I wanted a telephone and he gave 
 me a blank which I filled out, but I never saw a tele 
 phone like this. How does one work it? " 
 
 " Well," the young man proceeded to give her a 
 lesson, " to begin with, it s safe." 
 
 " Safe? " she questioned, as though for the first time 
 she was learning that explosives were stored in or 
 dinary telephones. 
 
 " Yes," he went on. " It s safe as death. No Cen 
 tral to overhear you planning a hold-up or talking to 
 your best friends on personal matters. They have the 
 old phone here, but it s out of date." 
 
 It all seemed amusing and unusual. 
 
 " I suppose I shall like this machine, when I grow 
 accustomed to it," the new subscriber remarked, " but 
 it surprises me rather to find anything so progressive in 
 a place like this. I have always fancied a mining camp 
 was well, what shall I say? " 
 
 "Slow?" the young man completed her idea. 
 " Not this mining camp, lady! If you undertook to 
 beat this Camp, you would have to go some ! " 
 
 "How delightful!" she said. "Thank you, I 
 think I understand how to operate the new telephone 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 25 
 
 now. I will try to get a meat market, and see what 
 luck I have." 
 
 "Well, call 91 if you have any trouble, lady it 
 gets me 1 " And with a nice, friendly smile, full of in 
 terest in the newcomer, yet without impertinence, the 
 boyish inspector departed. 
 
 At last, a few days later, the bungalow was in order. 
 
 Its occupant stood on a rare old oriental rug in 
 front of a splendid wood fire in the great living room, 
 and surveyed the results of her work. Nothing could 
 have been more attractive. At the far end of the room 
 was a buffet well dressed with silver and glass, and a 
 small round dining table and some straight chairs. 
 Opposite the little dining-room-in-a-corner but nearer 
 the fireplace, stood a baby-grand piano, on which was 
 an oriental embroidery and just one photograph a 
 large, brown print of a commanding looking man, 
 framed in a plain board of the right shade to bring out 
 the good points of the picture. " He looks well 
 there, 1 she mused, watching the lights from the logs 
 play on the glass. 
 
 She liked the divan, too, which stood out into the 
 room to one side of the hearth it was so luxurious 
 with all the big, harmonious pillows. An old Flemish 
 oil above the mantel-piece added dignity to the room, 
 and the brass candle-sticks and the green pottery bowl 
 full of red roses were quite enough on the shelf, and 
 most effective. And the reading table with a lamp and 
 the magazines, and the Japanese ivories, looked as 
 though somebody had lived in the big room always. 
 
 Eleanor looked over her new home with pleasure, 
 for it was truly charming. She walked to the low win- 
 
26 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 dows and parted the formal, fresh little curtains and 
 looked out. It was late in the afternoon and it was 
 chilly and raining. The wonderful mountains were 
 vague and lonely. A feeling to be reckoned with, be 
 gan stealing over the lady. She dropped the muslin 
 curtains, and glanced back at the fascinating room 
 at the merry fire, at the silent piano, and at the quaint 
 mirror hanging above her desk. Here she caught the 
 reflection of the almost hunted expression of her own 
 eyes. 
 
 Her slender fingers began to toy with the soft ma 
 terial of her frock. It was an exquisite gown made of 
 the palest lavender, and soft and flowing, its only or 
 nament being a strand of pearls about the neck. But 
 the gown annoyed her; she wished she had worn some 
 thing black as she usually did. She felt self-conscious 
 in anything but black, even when she was alone. She 
 ran to the window and looked out once more at the 
 mountains, now like sorrowful shadows miles away in 
 the rain. She pressed her finger-tips against her 
 cheeks, which, with her, was always the signal of dis 
 tress. Something was the matter most awfully the 
 matter. 
 
 " Martha?" she called. But Martha was busy in 
 the kitchen and did not hear her. There was no reason 
 at all for calling Martha, so the lady began nervously 
 pacing up and down and all around the great room, like 
 a caged tigress trying to reconcile herself to the inevi 
 table. She nearly upset the telephone instrument in 
 one of her sudden turns. 
 
 The inspector s words came back to her, " If you 
 have any trouble, call 91 it gets me." 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 27 
 
 "I wonder what else one might get?" she asked 
 herself. "I shall have to get somebody or go 
 mad! It all comes over me like deep water the 
 fact that I am here all alone on the top of a hill, in the 
 rain! It was all well enough in the excitement of get 
 ting settled, but now now I shall go mad I know 
 I shall go mad ! What ever possessed me to do such a 
 wild thing as to leave every connection I have on earth, 
 and come away out here where I do not know a soul? 
 What was Dr. LeRoy thinking of? Did he plan to 
 drive me insane ? Martha Martha! " 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Evan," promptly responded Martha, 
 bursting through the swinging-door in a hurry lest some 
 thing had gone very wrong. 
 
 " Martha," she said, collecting herself sufficiently 
 not to speak too loudly, u it is nearing dinner time. 
 Don t bring anything to eat in here I cannot stand it. 
 I cannot eat. I shall go mad in this place alone. And 
 do try, Martha, not to call me just Mrs. Evan ! I 
 have spoken so many times about it." 
 
 Martha was not used to seeing her mistress in such 
 an emotional state. She had no words to offer. Un 
 consciously, she rested her eyes on the telephone. Then 
 the lady walked straight along the line Martha s gaze 
 had taken, and opened the directory at the M s. 
 " That will do, Martha," she said, gently. 
 
 Like a child, Eleanor put her finger in the various 
 little holes as the inspector had taught her and regis 
 tered 7155. She pressed the button, shyly, and lis 
 tened. 
 
 As suddenly, as it had come, the desperate mood of 
 the moment before now left her. 
 
28 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Is this 7155 ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes/ came back over the wire. 
 
 u May may I speak with Dr. Marsden?" she 
 went on, with hesitation. 
 
 " This is Dr. Marsden, speaking," came the reply. 
 
 " Oh! " she gasped. " This is Mrs. Ev " 
 
 " Mrs. Evanston? How are you?" The doctor 
 recognised her even before she could say her name. 
 
 41 J am that is I m not, Doctor ! " she told him. 
 " I am not exactly ill, you know, but I am rather worn 
 out after the week of fitting us into place up here. I 
 am never especially strong, and the grey day added to 
 everything else has upset me." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that," he said, sincerely. 
 
 " I have been thinking all the afternoon, Doctor, it 
 would do me good to see you, but I haven t the presump 
 tion to send for you professionally. There isn t a thing 
 interesting the matter with me I am only going 
 mad." 
 
 The doctor laughed boyishly. 
 
 u It isn t funny, Doctor," she pleaded, " really it 
 isn t. It has all come over me the rain, you know, 
 not knowing a single voice to chat with, and many other 
 things. Have you a prescription for unjustifiable 
 boredom, Doctor?" 
 
 " Something to eat often corrects that frame of 
 mind," he suggested. 
 
 " Not when one must dine alone, Doctor," she re 
 plied, with a strain of the pathetic in her voice in spite 
 of her effort to appear light-hearted. 
 
 " Well, don t dine alone, Mrs. Evanston ask 
 somebody in by all means," he advised. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 29 
 
 " I don t know anybody but the telephone inspector, 
 Doctor. He told me to call 91 if I got into trouble 
 but I fear they could not do much for me at the office ! " 
 
 He laughed again. 
 
 " You must not be amused, Doctor ! " she insisted. 
 " This is a serious plight of mine, indeed. But I might 
 find somebody yet, if you would lend me your aid. I 
 have been told this is an informal sort of community. 
 Is it? It might help me now to know." 
 
 " Yes," he said, " it is, rather. We take people for 
 their excellent intentions, and there seems to be com 
 paratively little criticism. We have only one rule for 
 society at large, and that is : Don t ask too many ques 
 tions! But why do you want to know this? " 
 
 " I thought I understood you to say it was not eti 
 quette to ask questions, Doctor?" she reminded him, 
 quickly. 
 
 "That s so you have caught me!" he acknowl 
 edged, good-naturedly. 
 
 " Doctor? " the lady started afresh. 
 
 " Yes? " he encouraged her. 
 
 " If you could assist in keeping me from going crazy, 
 would you do it? " she tested him. 
 
 " I would, with great pleasure," he assured her. 
 
 " Well, Doctor, if it is not too astonishing, consid 
 ering our brief acquaintance, would you I mean, will 
 you, dine here at seven o clock this evening? " 
 
 " Delighted, Mrs. Evanston ! " he promptly ac 
 cepted. 
 
 " It is good of you, Doctor," she said, simply. 
 " And good-bye until seven." 
 
 " Until seven ! " he said. 
 
3 o THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Eleanor set the instrument down, and hung up the re 
 ceiver, with a smile. " Martha!" she called. And 
 when the maid appeared, she continued, " Martha, I 
 think it would be best, after all, for me to have a bite of 
 dinner, after this busy day. And you may lay the 
 table for two, Martha." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 DR MARSDEN stopped at the Quartz Club a few 
 moments before presenting himself at the bun 
 galow on Copper Hill. It would not be fair to say that 
 he dropped in at the club for any particular purpose, 
 for he often spent the last hour of the afternoon here, 
 but still the young man was quite aware of his oppor 
 tunity to be impressive. 
 
 " Hello, Marsden!" sang out Mr. Barton Colby, 
 who, with no little difficulty, had got his automobile to 
 stand where he wanted it on the slippery pavement, and 
 had followed the doctor into the building. " Will you 
 join me at dinner to-night, Doc? " 
 
 "Sorry!" regretted Dr. Marsden, with an expres 
 sion that did not suit his word at all he looked, in 
 fact, delighted to be unable to dine with Colby. " I am 
 dining out this evening," he vouchsafed his friend, by 
 way of explanation. 
 
 Colby s sharp young eye rested on his friend s dinner 
 jacket. The men in the Camp were more than aver 
 age lazy about dressing for dinner, this ceremony usu 
 ally signifying what is called a " function," in the society 
 columns. 
 
 "What s doing?" ventured Mr. Colby, although 
 what went on about him that did not include him, never 
 interested him so he believed. 
 
 " Oh," drawled Marsden, " nothing special I m 
 just dining informally with a lady." And with this the 
 doctor smiled, and left young Colby pulling off his 
 
 31 
 
 
32 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 gauntlets, wondering what lay at the bottom of this 
 remarkable proceeding on the part of Dr. Marsden. 
 Mr. Colby ran into Mr. Kerr on the stairs and men 
 tioned the episode. 
 
 "Who s the lady?" naturally inquired Mr. Kerr. 
 44 The widow ?" 
 
 "By George!" smiled Mr. Colby. "I bet it is 
 she!" 
 
 "Talking of the widow again?" pleasantly 
 asked Captain Leonard, who had taken the stairs down, 
 instead of the automatic elevator which was new and 
 convincing in appearance, but which stuck between 
 floors half-hours at a time, often. 
 
 " Guilty! " replied Kerr. " But what is bothering 
 me is: How are we to meet her? Marsden is such 
 a pig, he would never introduce us if there was any 
 avoiding doing so he always monopolises the visit 
 ing girls when they are attractive. Any ideas, you fel 
 lows?" 
 
 Colby, with one hand on his hip and his head thrown 
 back, stood smiling. Some persons might have said he 
 was grinning. Certainly he gave the impression of one 
 having an idea, and being charmed with it. " I think 
 we can arrange it," he remarked, with an air of assur 
 ance. 
 
 Colby s unfailing confidence in himself was never 
 soothing to his friends, although they were forced to 
 have a grim regard for the way the boy managed to 
 substantiate his undertakings. 
 
 " I suppose you are dining on Copper Hill, too?" 
 ventured Mr. Kerr, with some spirit verging on sar 
 casm. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 33 
 
 " N-no," hesitated the boy. " I fear I could not 
 spare the time to-night I am expecting a long-dis 
 tance telephone call any minute. But after I get it, I 
 may find a way to run in at Copper Hill for a few mo 
 ments. So long! " And he ran up the stairs, lightly. 
 
 " Just what makes us all tolerate that youngster, 
 beats me ! " remarked Captain Leonard. 
 
 44 He isn t so bad you can t help liking him," Kerr 
 defended him. " He is undeniably strong in certain 
 ways. He is one in a thousand for making good/ 
 
 " Making good rot! " decided the Captain. " I 
 imagine he won t make good this time. 4 He ll try to 
 run in at Copper Hill later ha-ha ! " And he 
 passed Mr. Kerr to go on down the stairs. 
 
 " Don t risk any real money on his not making good, 
 Billy," Mr. Kerr called after him. " It s ten to one 
 you and I will be used in helping him do it, if neces 
 sary." 
 
 " Well, old man, the drinks are on me if Colby calls 
 at Copper Hill this evening!" the Captain laughed 
 back. 
 
 Barton Colby, no matter what they said of him, was 
 a young man whom one could not dismiss with a sen 
 tence. At the age of twenty-six, or thereabouts, he 
 held the position of manager of one of the most im 
 portant mines in the great Northwest, at a salary that 
 would seem a good deal to many an Eastern man of 
 forty-five. Socially, Mr. Colby was a matter of opin 
 ion. Some people liked him everybody noticed him. 
 It was generally taken for granted among the ladies 
 that his presence at their dinners added character to the 
 entertainment, which idea it is not at all unlikely young 
 
34 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Colby shared, himself. This partly explained a subtle 
 unpopularity the boy enjoyed among the men. It 
 seemed to amuse the young man to feel that half the 
 population would like to throw a brick at him, yet 
 found him too useful or too amusing to take the chance 
 of doing anything active. There was but one thing 
 that could have filled young Colby with disappointment 
 that was being ignored. This would have proved 
 itself too much, had anybody ever tried it which, so 
 far in his life history, nobody ever had. 
 
 Some of these things Dr. Marsden was trying to 
 analyse for the entertainment of his hostess at this very 
 moment, in the soft-lighted room on Copper Hill, with 
 the rays from the open fire playing on the long ends of 
 the table cloth, and Martha quietly stepping in now and 
 then, and even more quietly stepping out again. 
 
 " What an amusing place this Camp must be ! " ex 
 claimed the lady, with interest. " I am sure I shall 
 adore it. But do tell me something of the women? " 
 
 " Well," the doctor began, " let me see ! The women 
 are are rather " 
 
 " Yes? " she helped him along. 
 
 " Well, the women here are different from you, for 
 instance." This was something of a plunge, but the 
 doctor hoped to reach some safe landing, no doubt. 
 
 " How can you say that, Doctor, when you know 
 nothing of me? " She held him back, or tried to do 
 so. 
 
 " Well," he started again, this time trying to explain 
 himself by a dissertation on the Camp s inhabitants, 
 rather than by trying to read his hostess, in which at 
 tempt he might very easily blunder. Dr. Marsden was 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 35 
 
 a clever man, in his own way. " Well, as I size them 
 up, the women of this town are more or less the prod 
 ucts of the conditions that exist in this part of the coun 
 try. Most of them, in the so-called society of the 
 Camp, are what would come under the general head of 
 smart. 1 Their clothes are made in New York and 
 Paris, and their portraits are done in London. Those 
 that can t afford this, just omit the oil paintings and go 
 to work on the education of the local dressmakers." 
 
 " Lovely! " his audience encouraged him. 
 
 " Then they race through life pretty hard/ the doc 
 tor continued. " They say it s the altitude that is re 
 sponsible for all this restlessness. They play bridge 
 for alarming stakes; are almost as conversant with the 
 odour of Scotch whisky as the men, and have their tour 
 ing cars driven around the mountain passes as fearlessly 
 as though they were playing with toys on the nursery 
 floor. I don t mean to be critical, you understand, but 
 things are exceptional here. We are a small com 
 munity thrown all over a bunch of mountains a very 
 long way from the puritanical influences of the old 
 homestead, as it were. Here we are, right up where 
 they manufacture lightning and thunder, and no wonder 
 we are primitive. We get our living out of the ground, 
 and we settle our arguments with our fists not with 
 diplomacy. And as for the women, those that belong 
 here, haven t had enough to do since the Camp struck 
 it rich; and those that are out here temporarily because 
 their engineer-husbands must work here, take life in a 
 mad holiday spirit. A kind of hardness is the prevail 
 ing tone in us all you will see it for yourself before 
 you have been here long." 
 
36 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " I shall not take you literally, Doctor. You are 
 hard to please, I am sure. Besides, you are flattering 
 the women of the East by inference. We of the East 
 we differ from your women, probably, only in being 
 less frank. And as for being more or less unconven 
 tional," his hostess went on, with a purpose of her own, 
 " I am sure the record goes to the Eastern woman on 
 the simple grounds of my having asked you here to 
 night! But perhaps your being a physician helps out 
 the situation? " 
 
 " I can t see that the situation needs any apology," 
 the guest politely responded. " But if it did, what 
 would my being a physician have to do with it? " 
 
 Now it was the lady s turn. 
 
 " I can t say, exactly," she hesitated prettily, " unless 
 a physician is, as I have always insisted he is, different 
 from other men. He is generally a safe sort of per 
 son because he leads a bigger life than most men, and 
 so he understands people and things. A doctor under 
 stands. And it is the greatest comfort in the world to 
 be understood isn t it? " 
 
 Things progressed well, and presumably the dinner 
 was good, although neither of the diners noticed it par 
 ticularly, one way or the other. 
 
 After the coffee things had been taken away, they 
 naturally wandered over to the piano, where the lady 
 made an adorable picture as she sat on the bench and 
 unconsciously improvised little rippling airs. 
 
 The doctor s head was full of questions of her, but 
 she had reminded him once that it was not customary 
 here to ask a lot of personal questions, and he abided 
 his time, as a gentleman should. He certainly looked 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 37 
 
 hard enough at the one photograph on the piano, good 
 ness knows ! But the lady volunteered no information 
 she just toyed with the soft folds of her frock. 
 
 You are rather nervous, aren t you?" the doctor 
 asked, standing in front of the fireplace with a good 
 cigar, getting the keenest pleasure out of studying his 
 beautiful hostess in the charming setting of this great, 
 livable room. 
 
 ;< Why do you ask? " she wanted to know, looking 
 over at him, sweetly. 
 
 " Fussing with your necklace made me think so," he 
 explained. 
 
 " My ! What inveterate observers physicians are ! " 
 she laughed. And this was all the answer he got on 
 this venture. 
 
 The lady sang to him a little, her fingers running 
 over the keys, lightly. She did not attempt anything 
 difficult just one or two simple ballads. But al 
 though she sang very softly, she suggested greater 
 depths of tone and bigger songs. She gave the im 
 pression of being a professional songstress who did not 
 wish to be taken seriously at the moment. Possibly 
 this pose is unknown in great singers? Very well 
 then the lady suggested the exception ! 
 
 They were having the very pleasantest, cosiest, most 
 diverting time that either of them remembered, when 
 all of a sudden the lady s fingers dropped away from 
 the keyboard, and the last sweet note of her song 
 stopped short. She sat up straight, in the attitude of 
 one listening intently. 
 
 "What is it? " quickly asked the doctor. 
 
 She looked up at him with a question in every line of 
 
38 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 her remarkably expressive self. " An automobile, 1 
 she whispered, as if to herself, and only half-convinced 
 she was rightly classing what she fancied she heard. 
 
 " An automobile?" he echoed, incredulously. "I 
 should say not not unless the chauffeur is crazy. It 
 would be impossible to drive a machine up this steep hill 
 in these heavy roads, I should say." 
 
 Then they both listened. 
 
 Soon the merry crackle of the fire was broken by the 
 unmistakable noise of a powerful motor-car, strug 
 gling, complaining, but still forcing itself up the hill. 
 They glanced at each other full of fun and anticipation, 
 for there was a hint of adventure in the approaching 
 sounds. In another moment the car had reached the 
 top of the hill, shivered a last reproach and come to a 
 stop. They heard the power run down and the breaks 
 thrown on. 
 
 Next came a man s tread on the steps, and they fan 
 cied him hunting for the bell which he evidently 
 found, for Martha promptly responded to its summons. 
 The lady was visibly entertained, for she did not know 
 a soul in the Camp, but the man who was now her guest. 
 And the doctor? Well, he, too, was interested, for 
 nobody knew where he was this evening, and so it could 
 not be a call for him, although he often was followed 
 up as a practicing physician is apt to be. 
 
 It was rather odd, wasn t it? 
 
 In the living room they heard a nice voice saying at 
 the door, "This is Mrs. Evanston s house, isn t it? 
 Yes? Well, may I ask if Dr. Marsden is here? And 
 if he is, may I speak with him on a matter of profes- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 39 
 
 sional importance? No, thank you, I won t come in 
 I ll just wait here." 
 
 A flash of annoyance shot across the doctor s face. 
 
 A flash of amusement shot across his hostess face, 
 as she said, " Ask the gentleman in, Martha," so that 
 her voice carried to the door and the man heard 
 her. He stepped in, one stride bringing him through 
 the tiny vestibule into the big room, where he stood in 
 a long coat, his cap in hand, manfully trying not to ap 
 pear too pleased. 
 
 As the lady advanced toward him, the doctor pulled 
 himself together, and said stiffly, " Mrs. Evanston, may 
 I present Mr. Colby? " 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Colby," she said, cordially 
 extending her hand, as that young man quickly ripped 
 off his driving glove to receive it. 
 
 "I beg a thousand pardons, Mrs. Evanston!" he 
 began sincerely. " This seems an unwarrantable intru 
 sion, I know, but we have been hunting the town over 
 for the doctor, and finally somebody had the inspiration 
 to telephone the Me. Queene stables and find out if he 
 had ordered a carriage this evening, and if so, to ask 
 his driver where he had left him. I tried to get you by 
 phone but you haven t one, have you ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, but it was installed only the other day. 
 Won t you sit down?" He intuitively felt that the 
 lady was almost glad to see him, which was more than 
 the boy had promised himself, a lot more, indeed. 
 
 " I m awfully sorry, really, and I do hope you will 
 forgive us," he went on. " I came up myself, thinking 
 that if the cab driver had made a mistake, I could ex- 
 
40 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 plain matters to you better than a messenger boy would. 
 Even with the chains on, I thought I never was going 
 to make your hill." 
 
 Then turning to the silent doctor, young Colby spoke 
 with excellent self-control, " Billy Leonard has met 
 with an accident, Marsden. We all told him to call 
 Pickens or somebody who was a good surgeon, but it s 
 you or nobody for Cap; and as he is in some pain, I 
 think we had better be moving on, hadn t we? " 
 
 The lady looked very lovely and very distressed. 
 " Is Mr. Leonard in a serious condition?" she asked 
 with concern. 
 
 Mr. Colby looked grave. If it were an effort for 
 him to do so, he was actor enough to keep the fact to 
 himself. " I don t know," he told her as the doctor 
 scrambled into his top coat. " Anyway, Dr. Marsden 
 is a fair seamstress he ll get the Captain fixed up all 
 right. And again let me express my regret at having 
 to break in, in this disturbing way, Mrs. Evanston ! " 
 And he held out his hand, most politely. 
 
 "Oh, don t think of that, Mr. Colby!" she reas 
 sured him. " And if it isn t asking too much of busy 
 men, I wish one of you would let me know in the morn 
 ing how Captain Leonard is? " 
 
 u With pleasure ! " responded young Colby. 
 
 " Certainly," promised the doctor, who also mum 
 bled something about his delightful dinner and hoping 
 to see her soon again, and so on. 
 
 Although it was still drizzling and chilly, the lady 
 stood in the doorway, with the light back of her throw 
 ing her figure into relief, while Mr. Colby cranked up 
 his engine, and the doctor took his seat reluctantly. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 41 
 
 "Good night!" she called after them, "and even 
 though I don t know Captain Leonard, still, do tell him 
 I m so sorry! " 
 
 " We ll deliver the message. Good night ! " young 
 Colby sang back cheerily through the darkness. 
 
 The doctor was a human thunder cloud, which in 
 wardly delighted Mr. Colby, as he skilfully kept the 
 road against his car s persistent inclination to skid off 
 and roll down the hill. 
 
 "What the deuce is the matter with Leonard?" 
 growled the doctor, when at last they had reached the 
 road at the bottom of the hill, right side up, to their 
 relief. 
 
 " Broke his nose," Colby told him, shortly. 
 
 "Really?" sniffed the doctor. "One would sup 
 pose he had fractured his skull at least from your so 
 licitude. Did he tell you to come up on Copper Hill 
 forme?" 
 
 " No, Doc." 
 
 After they had bumped into a wagon, and nearly 
 caught a dog and at last had got into a decent street, the 
 doctor spoke again, with emphasis. " If there is any 
 one thing that makes me sicker than another," he re 
 marked, " it is to hear a man in my profession called 
 
 " Excuse me! " pleaded Colby with mock meekness. 
 " I keep forgetting that only horse doctors and geolo 
 gists will stand for the title." 
 
 The doctor reverted to the original issue. " What 
 possessed you to look for me on Copper Hill?" he 
 again asked. 
 
 " I didn t have to look," the boy sweetly informed 
 
4 2 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 him. " Everybody all over town knew where you were 
 
 it was a cinch." 
 
 " Really! " sniffed the doctor again, although a smile 
 was lurking around the corners of his mouth in spite of 
 himself. He gave thanks it was too dark for Colby to 
 see him distinctly. He cleared his throat and said, 
 " How did Cap break his nose? " 
 
 " How? " reflected Colby, whirling his car into the 
 main street of the Camp. " Carelessly, I should say 
 
 Doctor." 
 
 In another moment Mr. Colby s great roadster was 
 brought up outside the Quartz Club, and the two men 
 entered. 
 
 " Good evening, Marsden," remarked Mr. Crawford 
 Mansfield Kerr, who was just going out as they came 
 in, and who noted with a broad grin, the fact that Colby 
 and Marsden evidently had arrived together. " Per 
 haps you will join me for a drink later? " 
 
 The doctor merely nodded, slightly irritated at 
 Kerr s stopping him to wish him good evening when 
 they had exchanged greetings on the subject before din 
 ner. 
 
 Unsoothing also were Captain Leonard s twinkly 
 eyes one each side of his red and swollen nose, when 
 the doctor, with young Colby at his heels, closer than a 
 brother, entered the attractive apartments of Mr. 
 Crathorne Stone and Billy Leonard on the top floor of 
 the club house. 
 
 "How did you do this?" abruptly demanded the 
 physician. 
 
 " I was having a wrestling-skufHing match with 
 Thorny here on the polished floor, and I pitched into 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 43 
 
 the window sill all my own fault. How did Barton 
 find you so quickly? " the Captain replied. 
 
 The doctor ignored the matter of Colby s having 
 found him, and remarked, dryly, going into the bath 
 room to wash his hands before making an examination, 
 " Bright stunt rough-housing about on a polished 
 floor." 
 
 " Say, Doc," broke in young Colby, " you re not his 
 poppa. He is paying you to set his nose. His ideas 
 of brilliancy were already set before I went to the trou 
 ble of locating you." 
 
 Nobody took this up, so Mr. Colby turned to the 
 patient whose distress he lightened for a second by re 
 marking, u The widow said she was ever so sorry, Cap, 
 and for us to say so for her. She asked me to send her 
 word in the morning if you were still alive." 
 
 " Who is the widow ? " asked Mr. Stone, who was 
 apparently sincere in asking for information. 
 
 " Ask the doctor," suggested the boy. u She s a 
 friend of his." 
 
 " She is a Mrs. Evanston from New York, Thorny," 
 the doctor told him, while registering his own telephone 
 number so that he could have his office boy bring over 
 his bag. " She is a charming young woman who is 
 exceedingly pretty and who seems to have a lot of 
 coin. She is living in the Burns bungalow on Copper 
 Hill at present. I ll take you to call some day, if you 
 like." 
 
 " Thanks," replied Crathorne Stone, who never had 
 cared especially for Dr. Marsden, and who was hardly 
 pleased by his somewhat patronising kindness. " Nice 
 of you, but I m not much of a fusser, you know." 
 
44 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " I know you don t care for girls, Thorny," Colby 
 cut in, " but you ll like this one." 
 
 " I doubt it," gloomily volunteered Captain Leonard 
 from the depths of a big chair and his physical discom 
 fort. " Thorny does not pose he honestly doesn t 
 like women." 
 
 " He d like this one, I say ! " insisted Colby. Then 
 he went on, feeling himself no longer needed, " I think 
 I ll say good night. Hope you ll get some sleep, Cap. 
 Til call you up in the morning to collect the thanks due 
 me for finding the doctor. I rather enjoyed it, al 
 though it is a nasty night for motoring up mountain 
 sides. Good-bye, everybody ! " 
 
 When at last Marsden s equipment had arrived and 
 he had done all he could to make Captain Leonard com 
 fortable, and had said good night himself, Crathorne 
 Stone closed the door and said to his room-mate, 
 " What s the joke on the doctor, Billy? Barton looked 
 ready to burst with glee at his expense." 
 
 " He probably was ready to pop he loves so to be 
 in things. You see, Barton vaguely boasted that he 
 would meet the * widow, as they call her, to-night. 
 And as usual, fate has helped him make good. If fate 
 hadn t taken a hand, he would have contrived a way to 
 carry the point alone, I suppose. He is an enterprising 
 kid. But I have to smile when I think my misfortune 
 was the ill wind he was looking for. It s one on me, 
 certainly." 
 
 A tap was heard on the hall door, which Mr. Stone 
 answered. It was the darkey boy Sam with a card and 
 a pencil on a small tray. 
 
 The boy showed two rows of big white teeth, and 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 45 
 
 catching sight of the Captain with his face bandaged up, 
 said, " Mr. Kerr s compliments, Cap n Leonard, and he 
 says he won t bother you in person this evening owing 
 to the accident and your wanting to go to bed, maybe. 
 But what can he send you up to drink, sir, and will 
 you-all please be so good as to sign the check, sir? He 
 done told me the drinks for the crowd were on you, sir." 
 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 TV/TR. BARTON COLBY attended to business the 
 ***- next morning with what earnestness he could, con 
 sidering the fact that so much of his attention was con 
 centrated upon his watch. He was waiting for it to 
 be half past ten. After rather a longer time, seem 
 ingly, than it usually requires the hands to get so far, 
 it became this conservative hour. Mr. Colby turned to 
 the telephone on his desk and registered 1778, having 
 got this number from " Information." With a smile 
 it was a pity for anyone to miss, he pressed the button, 
 and said, " May I speak with Mrs. Evanston, if it is not 
 too early? " 
 
 " This is she, Mr. Colby. Good morning." 
 
 " Good day to you! " he joyously said. " But how 
 do you know you are speaking to Mr. Colby? " 
 
 Eleanor smiled to herself, as she realised how simple 
 it was. She knew it must be Colby, because it was not 
 Dr. Marsden; and besides these two, she knew no one 
 in the Camp. But she seldom committed herself, so 
 she replied, "Why, surely it is not difficult, is it? I 
 heard the voice only last evening, you know." 
 
 " It is very flattering of you to remember it," he 
 declared. Then he went on, " I want to tell you that 
 Captain Leonard rested well last night, and is on the 
 high road to recovery already, although he is much 
 annoyed at having to breathe through his mouth it 
 interferes with his natural rapidity of speech, and the 
 Captain dearly loves to talk." 
 
 46 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 47 
 
 "Why must he breathe through his mouth?" she 
 inquired. 
 
 " Well, Marsden has a theory that surgical cases get 
 on better if they take in their wind this way he is 
 very advanced in his methods. He stuffed up poor 
 Leonard s nose with cotton wads, or maybe they were 
 gun wads I can t say exactly." 
 
 " Really? " she questioned him in a bewildered little 
 way. " Very unusual thing to do, isn t it? What hap 
 pened to Captain Leonard? " 
 
 " He broke his nose," the boy sweetly enlightened 
 her. 
 
 " Oh! " she exclaimed. " I might have known just 
 to look at you that you are fond of teasing." 
 
 " You didn t get a very good look at me," he in 
 formed her, graciously. Then, as is becoming in young 
 men, especially attractive young men, Mr. Colby tact 
 fully drew the lady s thoughts away from himself. 
 " How do you like our Camp? " he asked. 
 
 " That is not a fair question," she challenged him. 
 " I don t know the Camp yet; and besides, I am sur 
 prised at your asking anything so stereotyped. What 
 could one possibly say to a native of a place, if she 
 happened not to like his home?" 
 
 " Tell the truth at any cost ! " he urged her. " You 
 won t hurt anybody s feelings here. None of us are 
 natives, as you call us. We know it s a God-forsaken 
 looking hole, although we forget to notice it until some 
 stranger comes out here and at once drops into a des 
 perate frame of mind, and starts in staring out some 
 where beyond the mountains." 
 
 " Do the strangers do these things? " 
 
48 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 1 Yes unless they do something a lot worse," he 
 cynically told her. 
 
 " I must be an original stranger, then, for I will 
 confide in you that I think I like the Camp what I 
 have seen of it," the lady truthfully expressed herself. 
 
 " That s good to hear," the boy assured her. " But 
 you say * what you have seen of it haven t you seen 
 it all all the lean cows that graze around through 
 town, feeding on the sandy surface of hope on the 
 weedless ground and the rocks and tin cans? " 
 
 " No, I haven t seen it all yet. I have been too busy 
 getting settled, and as yet I know very few people. I 
 am a little timid about walking out of town alone after 
 reading the headlines in your papers, and somebody 
 told my maid we never ought to leave the house unpro 
 tected, so she cannot go out with me. But I shall ride 
 later on, and then " 
 
 " The best way to see the place, is in an automobile," 
 he cut in. " I ve got a machine that can go anywhere a 
 Rocky Mountain goat can." 
 
 "That s good! "she laughed. 
 
 " It might be, if it weren t so lonesome," he com 
 plained. " The men won t go out of the city limits 
 with me, because they want to work every minute ; and 
 I don t care for girls." 
 
 " What a pity! " she said. " Aren t some of them 
 appealing? " 
 
 " Well, there is only one here, really. The rest are 
 just squabs young things with two adjectives 
 * cute and * fierce. They don t speak to you for a 
 week if you don t write yourself down for a dance, and 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 49 
 
 then they cut the dance, if you do take it. You know 
 how they act? " 
 
 " You will think all this very charming when 
 you re fifty, Mr. Colby," she encouraged him. " But 
 tell me about the one girl? " 
 
 "Stella Montgomery? Well, Stella is tall and 
 blond and slim and independent. She wears hats 
 three sizes bigger than were ever before seen in civili 
 sation, and generally she has a * beauty-box dangling 
 from a long silver chain, which is either in her hand or 
 lost; and the entire population of the Camp is just 
 ducking out of the way of this thing, as Stella swings 
 around, or else it is out hunting for it. But Stella can t 
 abide me. It is a very hard life for a bachelor, here," 
 he assured her, on a broad grin. 
 
 " I see it is," she condoled with him, sympathetically, 
 smiling also. 
 
 " But I must not keep you all the morning," he re 
 proved himself. " I called up only to tell you of the 
 Captain." 
 
 " It was good of you, and I am so glad it was noth 
 ing more serious," she said. 
 
 " Some day, perhaps you will take a look at the 
 Camp from my car? " he ventured. 
 
 " Some day," she vaguely promised. u And thank 
 you. Good-bye." 
 
 Life certainly promised amusement enough for the 
 brief time Eleanor intended stopping in the Camp; and 
 when she reflected upon the remarkable way she was 
 making acquaintances, she smiled. But there were 
 moments when this new plaything of being out alone 
 
50 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 in the world, on a rest-cure, mild adventure sort of an 
 expedition, palled upon her. 
 
 She belonged in a conventional groove in New York 
 life, narrowed down very much by her having been in 
 mourning for a considerable time. She lead an inac 
 tive existence and had seemed content with it, until she 
 found herself in this strange, crude, western mining 
 camp. To her surprise she no longer wanted to sit 
 still she wanted to be doing something. A calm 
 contemplation of the picturesque life of the Camp, did 
 not seem to satisfy her she vaguely wanted to be a 
 part of the life, herself. 
 
 Her own mind failed to divert her to-day. She was 
 forced to acknowledge to herself that she had too few 
 resources. She never had taken her music seriously; 
 she had never gone in for directed reading of any sort; 
 her fashionable education had left her nothing worth 
 while; she never maintained any correspondence to 
 speak of, having no near relatives, and few intimate 
 friends. She had always been very rich, and very 
 much protected from all actual work. Eleanor was 
 everything that was lovely, but little that was deep. 
 
 Some of these things were pelting her to-day, and she 
 felt adrift and alone. 
 
 All of this, and much more, Eleanor s physician had 
 told her during the two years she had been his patient. 
 He had been driven to harsh words like " egotist," 
 " hypochondriac " and " good-for-nothing," but she 
 had scarcely listened to him, much less heeded his warn 
 ings. Her mother had always stood between her only 
 daughter and all responsibility, putting the family 
 wealth between the girl and work, between her and 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 51 
 
 study; and once she went so far as to wedge wealth in 
 between the girl and fair action. But she called it 
 sparing Eleanor pain, and as the girl s mother she felt 
 she had the right. She gave this beloved daughter 
 everything on earth but the chance to develop her own 
 character. This she fought with all of a woman s 
 ingenuity in the name of her love for her child. 
 
 And now the time had come that time which the 
 mother had forgot to defend her child against the 
 time when the child was alone, with nothing to help 
 her, nothing to turn to, nothing to work for, nothing to 
 take life and death with but money. 
 
 The wise man who was her physician knew these 
 things, just as he knew his own voice was too gentle 
 with her and he knew that to throw the frail girl 
 out into conditions that were as different from those 
 that had always sheltered her, as could be found, was 
 practically the only thing that would bring her to her 
 self; so he turned to the Camp as a possible solution of 
 some of the difficulties and he chose the place well. 
 
 The Camp was vital. Here was nothing to guard 
 the individual from life at first hand. People lived in 
 the Camp, and sometimes they even went so far in their 
 living, as to die. In fact, funerals were the one de 
 pendable social diversion somebody was out being 
 buried every day of the world, and to be sure of getting 
 Me. Queene and O Hara s new ten thousand dollar 
 hearse, one had to speak ahead from the moment the 
 ill-one showed alarming symptoms. But the deaths 
 were usually from violent accident in the mines and 
 smelters, or from raging disease that settled matters up 
 promptly. Nobody in the Camp ever died of ennui, 
 
52 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 for the mere lack of an audience to listen to his woes. 
 In order to perish with some negative ailment like a 
 " broken " heart, or nervous prostration, one requires 
 the constant fanning of sympathy. Nobody had any 
 sympathy here, except for himself. 
 
 The little New Yorker s cure was beginning when she 
 remarked to herself after luncheon, that for a young 
 woman to have to debate with herself upon whether or 
 not she ought to use her strength walking about a dusty, 
 ugly little mountain town, and then climb a hill at the 
 end (which might tire her too much to enjoy her din 
 ner) was simply nothing short of slavery! Dr. 
 LeRoy had been wiser than he knew. 
 
 So Eleanor put on her hat and coat and made 
 straight for " the city," as the tradespeople called the 
 few blocks that constituted the business district of the 
 Camp. It took her about twenty minutes to walk over, 
 and there she soon found herself taking pleasure in 
 examining the windows of a very good-looking dry 
 goods shop. She turned to go on, when a cow 
 sauntered by her right out in the main street ap 
 parently bent upon going to the post office ! And all 
 about her, everywhere, were men lounging in front of 
 cigar stores and saloons, harmlessly taking in the fresh 
 air and attending to their own affairs. These were the 
 miners off shift there was a saying that five thou 
 sand miners were asleep, five thousand at work and five 
 thousand hanging out in front of the saloons. The 
 men were always in these places three alternating 
 shifts of them. They did not seem dangerous at all. 
 The stranger thought it odd they took so little notice 
 of the passersby, and were so law-abiding generally. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 53 
 
 It wasn t wild and woolly at all, except for some Indian 
 squaws selling beaded buckskin things on the curbing. 
 
 Turning down a side street, the lady came upon a 
 " Photograph Studio, " formerly a log cabin, but now 
 very grand with a whole side mostly in glass, for busi 
 ness reasons. In the corner of the well-swept, dirt 
 yard, was a show-case full of rather finely-done photo 
 graphs, which she stopped to look over. The first real 
 cow puncher she ever saw delayed her examination of 
 the pictures she caught the little sound of his spurs 
 as he lazily slouched on his jogging range pony. 
 When he disappeared around a corner, Eleanor noted 
 all the handsome dresses in the photographs. Many 
 of them belonged here, she was sure they could not 
 all be pictures of passing actresses. She stepped 
 around to see what was on the walls of the part of the 
 case that faced the other street. 
 
 Here quite alone was a large portrait of a 
 young man with a fine head and lots of blond hair, a 
 determined jaw and splendid, straightforward eyes. 
 
 Eleanor sprang back, startled and not believing her 
 own eyes the likeness was so astonishingly like that 
 of the man on her piano. She longed to ask the pic 
 ture thousands of questions. She studied the eyes, but 
 they were recorded at something a little above and a 
 little beyond the person looking at them. Had they 
 been real eyes, she could have drawn their gaze to hers, 
 but they were only picture eyes on heavy brown paper. 
 
 She looked at the mouth. " Stubborn! " she whis 
 pered to herself; "stubborn! 11 She reached up to 
 touch the picture, but her gloved hand hit only the 
 glass of the case, and this recalled to her the fact that 
 
54 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 she was in a public street, and must be careful not to 
 attract attention to herself. But she was intensely ab 
 sorbed, and spoke to herself through her teeth in a 
 small voice partly humourous, partly sad, yet a shade ir 
 ritated, " I wonder how on earth that man ever got 
 into a place like this? " 
 
 " What d you say, lady? " asked a street urchin, as 
 suming she had addressed him. 
 
 "I said somebody had a stubborn mouth!" she 
 snapped at him. 
 
 " Did that mean you d please stake me to buy some 
 papers, lady? My father he ain t had any work since 
 he got hurt in the mines; my mother, she s been sick, 
 and " 
 
 The lady whirled on him, sharply. " Don t beg! " 
 she commanded him. " I hate a beggar in any class of 
 society. If you want to earn some money, go up on 
 the top of Copper Hill and tell the maid at the back 
 door, you came to chop up some kindling." 
 
 The youngster stared at her in open amazement, but 
 he managed to gasp, " Gee ! I ain t had no such dope as 
 that handed to me since we struck the Camp ! " 
 
 But the stranger did not hear him she knew noth 
 ing beyond the big photograph and the things it 
 brought up in her mind. She hurried home with its 
 image firmly fixed in her memory, and every few blocks 
 she murmured something about stubbornness. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 1I7HETHER cordiality was at the bottom of it, or 
 ** curiosity, one can hardly say but at any rate, 
 a certain fine afternoon found one of Me. Queene s 
 carriages standing at the bungalow door, with one of 
 Me. Queene s smartest drivers huddled up on the box, 
 his feet on the dashboard, his coat buttoned up wrong, 
 his hat tilted over his nose, snoozing in the sun. The 
 horses slouched at different angles in their harnesses, 
 and plainly showed themselves glad of the chance to 
 get their wind back after the mean climb. Me. 
 Queene s carriages were used in the Camp, to get to 
 given places in, not to ornament the town or to set 
 the fashion and form for the Paris horse show. Any 
 one not caring for the general appearance of a Me. 
 Queene turnout, was at liberty to walk if he wished 
 neither Me. Queene, nor the driver, nor the hack, nor 
 the horses, nor the townsfolk cared a snap one way or 
 the other. It was all in a nice October day. 
 
 Inside were two ladies, calling. One of them 
 chatty, friendly, observing and well gowned in brown 
 velvet and yellow plumes, was Mrs. Galvin St. John, 
 known as the staunchest of friends by many people, and 
 as " a leader in our most select social circles " by the 
 Camp at large, thanks to the society column and the 
 truth. She had gracefully explained the visit by tell 
 ing her hostess that Mr. Colby had spoken with such 
 enthusiasm of her, the Camp s new acquisition, that 
 she and Miss Montgomery had taken it upon them 
 selves to call. 
 
 55 
 
56 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 To this introduction, Eleanor rose hospitably. She 
 was, indeed, very glad to see the ladies. 
 
 Miss Montgomery was tall and slender, blond and 
 thirty-odd, as Mr. Colby had described her. She wore 
 blue broadcloth, and a hat that was got sidewise 
 through an ordinary doorway, and sidewise, only. On 
 the end of the silver chain on her wrist was one of those 
 silver contrivances that contain a little of everything 
 but hot and cold running water powder, car-fare, 
 mirror, and odds and ends such as love-letters. Stella s 
 exact age was not known fortunately. If it had 
 been, then one of the ever-ready topics of conversation 
 in the Camp, would have been lost. But Miss Mont 
 gomery was handsomer than Eleanor had pictured her 
 in her mind. 
 
 " It was kind of Mr. Colby to mention me," the 
 New Yorker said, by way of opening up some mutual 
 interest. 
 
 " He is a dear boy, Barton Colby, 1 Mrs. St. John 
 loyally assured her, taking a sly glance at her compan 
 ion, and adding, " even if Stella can t stand him." 
 
 " Can t stand him?" echoed the hostess, in a little 
 way of her own that invariably led people to talk 
 more on all subjects than they intended to do. 
 
 " Well, hardly that," Miss Montgomery defended 
 herself. " But it is true that I am not so keen for him 
 as Mrs. St. John is. Mr. Colby isn t altogether popu 
 lar here he is rather too full of his own importance, 
 and is apt to tell you how unbecoming pink is to you, 
 and how you could make your little parties a success ! " 
 
 " I don t agree with you at all, Stella ! " Mrs. St. 
 John seemed to take the criticism to heart a little. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 57 
 
 " There is nothing the matter with Barton, except that 
 he is young and prosperous and a little spoiled. Surely 
 you must acknowledge that he is bright as he can be? " 
 
 " As bright as you will let him be," corrected Miss 
 Montgomery, in a tone that implied depth of experi 
 ence, " and I have known him to be even brighter 
 than that." 
 
 But something was interesting Miss Montgomery a 
 great deal more than Mr. Colby was at the moment, 
 and this was the brown photograph on the piano. She 
 looked at it closely, yet with an attempt to seem casual. 
 " AHisted?" she ventured. 
 
 And this was a mining camp! Eleanor smiled 
 faintly at the incongruities a town where a cow 
 roamed the business streets if it pleased her to do so; 
 where great, ugly dumps backed right up against fine 
 houses a town undermined by one thousand miles of 
 underground workings; a town where lived the women 
 who had helped mould the Camp s fortunes women 
 who nowadays bought their clothes in Paris, and had 
 themselves photographed by Histed! 
 
 Eleanor looked at Miss Montgomery, with her soft 
 brown eyes that never seemed to see half as much as 
 they really did, and she replied, " Yes that portrait 
 was made by Histed, and it is one of his best bits of 
 work, I think. What wonderful effects he gets with 
 jewels, doesn t he? See the way he has brought out 
 that pearl in the scarf? " 
 
 " I see," remarked Miss Montgomery. " He did 
 me in white satin and it was the only time the ma 
 terial ever looked well on me. This picture is a good 
 deal the type of young Stone here, isn t it? " 
 
$8 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 "Mr. Stone?" repeated Eleanor, with that simple 
 little trick of hers that never failed to draw people out. 
 
 " Mr. Crathorne Stone is the best looking young man 
 in the Camp," Mrs. St. John explained to her. " Be 
 sides, he is exceptionally attractive. You will like 
 him very much, if you ever " 
 
 " If she ever meets him," Miss Montgomery finished 
 the sentence with sceptical humour. 
 
 "If I ever meet him?" the hostess furthered the 
 conversation. 
 
 " He is rather a recluse," Mrs. St. John went on, 
 obligingly. 
 
 * We all dangle before him the most alluring invita 
 tions," Miss Montgomery took up the thread, " but he 
 is always too busy to do anything more than send a 
 hurried note or some flowers with his regrets." 
 
 " The next day we are apt to hear the dear fellow 
 has been ill," sympathetically added Mrs. St. John. 
 
 " And two days after this," commented Miss Mont 
 gomery, " we are apt to hear that this report was one 
 of Barton Colby s jokes, and that Mr. Stone was play 
 ing pool at the time, and did not care to drop his 
 game." It was evident that Miss Montgomery had 
 been out several seasons. 
 
 The newcomer was all interest it was written in 
 every atom of her pose and her expression; and as 
 captivated audiences are rare and pull one s prettiest 
 efforts forth, Mrs. St. John rushed on to amuse her. 
 " Nobody knows why he won t go out," she said. 
 " Mr. Stone came out here to Montana a couple of 
 years or so ago, from from where did he come 
 from, Stella?" 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 59 
 
 " You are the recording angel of the Camp, dear," 
 smiled Miss Montgomery. " I m surprised you don t 
 know. But I can t help you, I fear. Mr. Stone never 
 talks about himself, which is one reason, I suppose, 
 why we all talk so much about him. Vaguely speak 
 ing, I think he is an Easterner." 
 
 " Well," Mrs. St. John rattled on, undaunted, " any 
 way, he came out here ! He is quite important in the 
 local business life, being the manager of of what 
 is Thorny the manager of, Stella? " 
 
 " Of his own affairs, I should say," drolly Miss 
 Montgomery helped her out. 
 
 " What does he look like?" ventured Eleanor, her 
 eyes twinkling, for she had asked the question more to 
 keep the absorbing topic alive, than for informa 
 tion. 
 
 " Just like his photographs," answered Miss Mont 
 gomery, not offensively at all, her sarcasm not being 
 personal in its tone. " There is a speaking likeness of 
 Crathorne Stone in Hamilton s show-case, on the 
 Broadway side a large brown print, in a plain 
 frame. You know Hamilton s, Mrs. Evanston? 
 It s that funny looking old cabin a couple of blocks off 
 Main Street. Hamilton does excellent work, and we 
 nagged Mr. Stone into giving him a sitting. He would 
 be furious if he knew his picture had been in the show 
 case a week! " 
 
 The hostess reflected it was very well done, too. 
 Then a wee light broke through her seriousness. 
 " Oh oh yes ! " she remembered. " I think I must 
 know Hamilton s. A funny little log house with one 
 side in studio windows? And I think I recall the pic- 
 
60 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 ture you mention, too. A chap with thick, light hair 
 and blue eyes? " 
 
 " The eyes are rather more grey than blue," cor 
 rected the belle of many seasons, without the depth of 
 interest showing in her manner that might have been 
 deducted from her knowledge. In fact, Stella was 
 gazing out at the mountains, lovely at this hour with 
 the lights of a departing day lying on them. 
 
 But Eleanor was not willing to drop the subject 
 without just one more little probe. " I thought the 
 mouth in that likeness rather indicative of stubborn 
 ness," she indifferently remarked. 
 
 " Which characteristic of the gentleman does not 
 confine itself to the photograph of his mouth," dryly 
 commented Miss Montgomery. 
 
 "Never mind!" insisted Mrs. St. John, " Thorny 
 Stone is much the best looking man I know he is 
 quite as striking as that picture on the piano. And he 
 really does look a lot like it, too, although, of course 
 he is clean shaven. Wouldn t he be absurd with a 
 Van Dyke, Stella? " Then she turned the tide of the 
 talk to more general things, gaily asking her hostess 
 how she liked the Camp. 
 
 This commonplace attack took all the words out 
 of the stranger for a second, which gave Mrs. St. John 
 the opportunity to hurry right along and answer her 
 own inquiry by a few assorted remarks. The Camp 
 was certainly unique, she told her hostess, but the peo 
 ple were noted for their friendliness. The place was 
 not interesting any more, to be sure it was just like 
 any other overgrown town now; but years ago, when 
 she herself was a little girl, things were very lively. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 61 
 
 The tales of the early days would make a novel in 
 fact various newspaper men, and so on, had tried to 
 use the Camp as a setting, but they never lived here 
 long enough to get things straight or else they were 
 afraid of libel suits, and so the outside world never did 
 know what the Camp was like, after all. She cited 
 the dramatic literary possibilities of the lives of Carl 
 Heilberg and Judge Eltin Billings. Billings, she 
 cheerily said, was a very distinguished man whose in 
 fluence on the community was thrilling. He was dis 
 tinguished, among other things, for taking a hundred- 
 thousand-dollar bribe from the Heilberg faction or 
 for not taking it she never could remember which 
 it was ! And she was sure any in-comer would like the 
 Camp x in time. 
 
 Miss Montgomery then reminded her friend that 
 they had already staid an unconscionable length of 
 time. And the ladies took their departure, Me. 
 Queene s driver waking himself up with a jerk, and 
 the horses shaking themselves together. All of them 
 started down the hill, better amused for having been 
 up it. 
 
 When the sound of the wheels had died away, 
 Eleanor took the portrait from the piano walked with 
 it to the windows, where it shared the beautiful lights 
 that were on the mountains. " The resemblance is un 
 questionably strong," she mused. " But I doubt if 
 one not very much interested in Mr. Crathorne Stone, 
 would remark it. Strange place, this. Strange place, 
 the world and stranger yet the intricacies of life. 
 But strangest of all, seem the facts that this hill stands 
 in this Camp; this house stands on this hill; I stand in 
 this house; and my heart stands in me! " 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 TT was after dinner a dinner eaten alone. Upon 
 Eleanor was an evening an evening to be spent 
 alone. And this woman, like most other women, 
 found it harder to be alone on this beautiful evening, 
 than it would have been had the weather been dis 
 agreeable. And it was a wonderful night, full of 
 soft light from the moon, with one of the very last of 
 summer s caresses in the air. It was October, to be 
 sure, but, for a change, October was not eager to ac 
 knowledge itself; it wanted to play-act that it was 
 young September. The lady paced up and down her 
 great living room, unreconciled, too. She wanted to 
 be nineteen, for one thing, but more than this, she 
 wanted to be amused. Certainly, she did not want to 
 be alone. 
 
 "I suppose I had best get used to it!" she said 
 aloud to herself, picking up a magazine. But she had 
 already looked at the pictures; and who would wish to 
 sit alone on an exquisite night reading articles on the 
 slowly improving condition of tubercular tendencies in 
 the slums of New York, or nice little love stories by 
 promising young space writers? 
 
 " Heavens ! " Eleanor murmured, throwing the 
 magazine onto the divan; " heavens, heavens 
 heavens ! " And she rushed to the door leading to the 
 porch, and stepped out into the night. 
 
 The outlines of all the mine buildings, the stacks, the 
 dumps, and the cabins were well defined; and farther 
 
 62 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 63 
 
 on down in the town were the silhouettes of the better 
 houses. The business blocks and the church steeples 
 stood out in the picture. A huge, gaunt butte quite by 
 itself on the west edge of the Camp, looked more in 
 teresting than the lady had supposed it ever could. 
 The night added romance to its usual cheerlessness, 
 and made it look like a Japanese print. Eleanor de 
 cided as she looked at it now that she liked it better 
 for being barren of all save rocks, than she would if it 
 were decorated by trees. But the Lone Cone, as they 
 called this formation, was a poor tonic for the blues 
 any time, night or day, and for a long time she gazed 
 at the great, still mass against the lighter sky, and then 
 she said aloud, and very sweetly, " Poor old Cone, 
 can t you find a soul to play with, either?" 
 
 The lady had spoken quietly, but perfectly distinctly, 
 as though she really expected the grim old mountain 
 to answer her, but the Lone Cone had made it a 
 habit for many years, not to reply to questions either 
 those of ladies, or those of prospectors who gruffly 
 demanded to be told if there were copper ore in its 
 depths. However, somebody answered her, in a very 
 nice voice, not five feet away from her somebody 
 who had been standing on the ground and leaning for 
 ward on the porch railing, studying her, unbeknown 
 to anyone but himself. 
 
 " Do you want somebody to play with? " the voice 
 asked, gently enough, but the lady was so startled that 
 she recoiled from the railing and fell into the cement 
 walls of the house, along which she made her way to 
 the door. A queer little sound escaped her, half 
 frightened, half pleading. 
 
64 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Don t be alarmed! " the voice relieved her. " I 
 am neither a highwayman nor a kidnaper." 
 
 " What are you, then? " she faltered. 
 
 " Just a man," he answered, simply. " Some peo 
 ple, however, don t use this term in speaking of me 
 they pull out some disagreeable word from their vo 
 cabularies specially for me renegade is about the 
 nicest of the lot. I used to be a gentleman." 
 
 " You used to be a gentleman? " Eleanor asked, not 
 feeling so much at a disadvantage as she had. " And 
 what are you now? " 
 
 " I m a drunk now most of the time," he de 
 scribed himself. 
 
 " But you are safe, aren t you?" she questioned, 
 childishly. 
 
 " Safe as the bank of England," he assured her. 
 " I shall not steal your silver I shall not even step 
 on your porch." 
 
 " You are welcome to come onto my porch, if you 
 like," she said politely, regaining her self-possession 
 as she realised the man meant no harm. 
 
 " Don t be decent to me ! " he commanded. " I m 
 not used to it, and it is the one thing that makes me 
 unsafe being treated as I used to be." 
 
 This astonishing statement touched the maternal in 
 stincts of the lady. " Don t say that! " she begged, 
 quite unafraid by this time. " You are yourself now, 
 aren t you? " 
 
 He laughed unpleasantly. " No not now," he 
 owned. 
 
 " And to-morrow? " she asked. " Will to-morrow 
 be just the same? " 
 

 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 65 
 
 " To-morrow is never anything more than a new 
 yesterday/ he answered. 
 
 "Perhaps not?" she hoped. "And I wonder if 
 you had not best go home now? " she asked, not at all 
 unkindly. 
 
 " I am going pretty soon," he promised. And the 
 light from the open door fell upon him, showing his 
 face to be attractive in spite of its flush and his mussy 
 hair. He seemed young, and was very well dressed. 
 
 As he still lingered, the lady asked him why he had 
 come up the hill at all. 
 
 " Because I wanted to get a look at you," he frankly 
 admitted. " In the second place, the crowd of disor 
 derlies I was with, bet me five dollars I couldn t make 
 the hill with my present load and I need the five. 
 You see?" 
 
 " You wanted to see me?" Eleanor asked, in that 
 little way of hers that was second nature to her, and a 
 sure trap for everybody else. " Why? " 
 
 " Well, now you ve got me ! " he acknowledged, 
 humorously. " Maybe because you are new here; 
 maybe because I heard you were registered from my 
 own home town." 
 
 "New York?" 
 
 "New York yes." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Stranger, having seen me, and having 
 made your five dollars, isn t it time you went back to 
 your friends? " she suggested again, for it was enough 
 to make any woman nervous, having this person here. 
 Martha was already asleep, probably, and the cabins 
 below were a little far for her to make herself heard 
 if she needed assistance. 
 
66 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " I thought you wanted somebody to break the still 
 ness?" he reminded her. But in a flash he corrected 
 himself. " Perhaps you meant somebody of your own 
 kind? I used to be your sort, myself, and to prove it 
 to you, here is my gun. There ! I ll toss it onto that 
 wicker bench. Now you can plug me if I step on your 
 porch." 
 
 " I told you you were welcome to come on my porch, 
 if you wish," she said, remembering that there is a 
 popular theory to the effect that it is sometimes advis 
 able to humour insane and intoxicated creatures. She 
 made no motion to touch the revolver, but on the con 
 trary came a shade nearer her uninvited guest, saying, 
 sincerely, " I think you could be a gentleman again, if 
 you would make the stand for it." 
 
 " Several lovely women have had the same idea," he 
 commented, cynically. 
 
 " And have they all been disappointed? " she asked. 
 
 " Every one of them yes." 
 
 "Surely you are not hopeless?" she demanded, 
 eagerly. " Why nobody in the whole world is hope 
 less!" 
 
 " Let me tell you something, kind Reformer," he 
 began, in such a nice voice and with such dignity of 
 manner that his slight familiarity passed unreprimanded 
 as impertinences generally do if their exploiters are 
 clever enough. " Making changes in men is a hard 
 job anywhere, but an utter impossibility in a mining 
 camp. Nobody can blow in here and make us over, no 
 matter how right she is, or how beautiful she is. You 
 will probably remember I told you so, when the time 
 comes for you to count up your failures. I m off now, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 67 
 
 and I m sorry to have startled you. I did not intend 
 to speak to you, but I couldn t help it any more than 
 a true woman could help offering me good advice." 
 
 " Don t forget your pistol," she said. 
 
 " No," he replied, " I won t take it. You ought to 
 have one up here, and you will be less apt to hurt 
 somebody with it, than I shall. If your kind self 
 wants to do something for me, keep that gun from me. 
 And when I get down this terror of a hill and back 
 with the disorderlies, I ll have a night-cap to your 
 never having to use it on me. Good night ! " 
 
 And as he had appeared from nowhere, he sud 
 denly disappeared into nothingness. 
 
 Eleanor had several things to consider first, was 
 it best for her to rush inside and bolt the door? And 
 was this extraordinary prowler truly what he repre 
 sented himself to be a harmless drunkard? In 
 turning to go in, she noticed the light from one of 
 the windows had caught the barrel of the gun. She 
 picked up the weapon and looked at it gingerly. She 
 had never before handled one that she could recall. 
 " How exasperating! " she murmured, and went in. 
 
 A worse restlessness than had been hers earlier in 
 the evening, was annoying the lady now. She was 
 very nervous and jumped at each little sound, being 
 only half convinced that she had 3een the last of her 
 unpleasant caller for the night. She inspected all the 
 locks, but it was more than easy to enter the bungalow 
 from the windows in the bed rooms, and surely one 
 had to have the fresh air. She tried to read, but it 
 was too late to turn back to her life-long resolution to 
 take up the heavier classics. Some other time! The 
 
68 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 magazines no ! What she needed was a human 
 voice to steady her. She seemed to be facing making 
 a choice she must wake Martha, call 91, force an 
 interest in the sadly neglected works of Sir Walter 
 Scott, delve into the tubercular tendencies of the slums 
 or scream. And for the life of her, she did not 
 know which trial to turn to. If she did wake Martha, 
 she would have to offer a reason, and if Martha ever 
 got wind of the fact that a drunken person who once 
 was a gentleman was snooping around the bungalow 
 o j nights, she would give out one wild yell and run down 
 the hill in bare feet and flowing white gown, to be shot 
 down for a runaway ghost by the miners at the bottom, 
 probably. A happy situation, verily! 
 
 The logs in the fireplace snapped, and the lady 
 sprang to her feet; but being ashamed of her lack of 
 poise, she sat at the piano. The tones she drew forth 
 could hardly be classed as music, they seemed so 
 apologetic and indefinite. She could not tolerate 
 them, herself, so she gravely considered her natural 
 impulse to call up some voice on the telephone. Who 
 should it be? Mrs. St. John? No, she argued, her 
 acquaintance with her was too brief to admit of such 
 informality. Young Colby? No he was already 
 sure enough of his winning ways, and anyway it 
 would not do. Miss Montgomery? Um-m 
 hardly. Dr. Marsden? She hated to do it, but she 
 felt the sound of a voice was necessary to help her 
 compose herself, so she registered 7155. 
 
 " No, mam," drowsily replied the office boy. " He 
 was called out and hasn t come in yet. No, mam. 
 What name, please?" 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 69 
 
 " There is no message, thank you," she told him. 
 
 It had helped a little to speak an instant with some 
 body s office boy, even, but the lady was far from 
 quieted in her mind. 
 
 What should she read? Horrors! She could not 
 read. What should she think about? Heavens! 
 What was there to think about her black clothes? 
 Drunken prowlers? Ground floor sleeping rooms 
 whose windows it was the simplest thing on earth to 
 crawl in through? Cheerful, to say the least! The 
 one photograph? What good could come of that? 
 The photograph in Hamilton s show-case? What end 
 had that, pray tell? The people at home? Oh no! 
 She was trying to live apart from them for a little 
 while utterly apart. What then Miss Stella 
 Montgomery ? Well yes. 
 
 This was not an uninteresting theme. As a memory 
 test, Eleanor tried to bring the girl s face clearly be 
 fore her, by closing her eyes and thinking hard. Miss 
 Montgomery was very good looking, it was useless to 
 deny this. Her eyes were china-blue and not large, 
 but there was something in the sweep of the thick blond 
 eye-lashes that made one wonder. Miss Montgomery 
 was apparently fond of extreme styles in dress, but she 
 had personality enough to carry off her originality. 
 She was daring, but she passed unquestioned by her 
 friends. If all the other women at a party took their 
 hats off, Stella kept hers on Eleanor felt sure of 
 this, and she pondered on the combative nature behind 
 such traits. In her indifference of manner was hidden 
 strong feeling, this was easy to discover. But for 
 what or for whom was the strong feeling Mr. 
 
70 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Crathorne Stone? How much did Miss Montgomery 
 care for Mr. Stone, or did she, care? And why, 
 Eleanor demanded of herself, should she who had no 
 right to have any opinions on the subject at all, why 
 should she care? Miss Montgomery s feelings were 
 certainly her own affair. And Mr. Stone was at 
 liberty to inspire whatever sentiment he would, in 
 whomever he could, wasn t he? But one could hardly 
 help taking a tiny bit of interest, could she, when she 
 was so very much out of nearer things to absorb her 
 attention ? 
 
 The nervous, lonely woman sat long enough in one 
 posture to make her feel cramped, then she took an 
 other chair, and, as was her custom sometimes, she 
 spoke to herself, aloud. " Oh well ! " she sighed, with 
 a shrug, " what is it all to me? " 
 
 Her mood was rudely broken into by an urgent ring 
 at her desk, which, being quite unexpected, caused her 
 to shiver. But she automatically took off the receiver, 
 and brushed back a stray lock of hair with the unen 
 gaged hand. 
 
 Instead of a chance to acknowledge the call, there 
 came to her the sound of a man s voice, singing, It 
 seemed to be somewhere in the room with the tele 
 phone, but not near the transmitter, for the piano ac 
 companiment sounded metallic and remote. But the 
 man s voice reached her in all its beautiful clearness 
 and its intensity, carrying the words, " O memories 
 that bless and burn O barren gain and bitter loss ! " 
 And the fine voice went on with feeling that was con 
 vincing even so far as the top of Copper Hill, " I kiss 
 each bead, and strive at last to learn to " 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 71 
 
 Eleanor experienced a shock just here, for into the 
 even, deep tones of the song, came the impatient inter 
 ruption of Mr. Barton Colby, saying peevishly, " Cut 
 it out, Thorny cut it out ! Didn t I tell you I 
 wanted to speak with a lady? How can I hear her if 
 she answers? If you must sing, give us something 
 cheerful like * She Borrowed My Only Husband, and 
 make it soft and tender, will you? " 
 
 A heavy chord next travelled to the top of Copper 
 Hill, which eloquently announced that Mr. Crathorne 
 Stone was bored, and that his song ended here, in the 
 middle of a phrase, for this time. Then in the quiet 
 that followed, Eleanor heard in Mr. Colby s nicest 
 drawing room inflection "Hello? Is Mrs. Evans- 
 ton in? " 
 
 " Good evening, Mr. Colby," she responded. 
 
 " Discovered ! " he confessed. " Mrs. Evanston, I 
 called you up on a little errand for Mrs. St. John, but 
 before explaining myself, may I ask how the world is 
 treating you ? " 
 
 " Very well, indeed, thank you," she replied, from 
 habit, more than from facts. 
 
 " You are not scared to death up on that hill all by 
 yourself, are you? " he went on, pleasantly. 
 
 " Oh, not at all ! " she cheerfully misinformed him. 
 " I feel as brave and unmolested as can be especially 
 now that I have a pistol." 
 
 "A gun? You? You don t say! Can you shoot 
 it? " He seemed most amused by the idea. 
 
 " Well, I never have tried, but no doubt I could if 
 I had to," she told him. 
 
 " Me for a suit of tin armour, then, when I come up 
 
72 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 for the lost, strayed or stolen property of Miss Stella 
 Montgomery ! By the way, did you find her everlast 
 ing silver purse that one that resembles a young 
 suit-case on a chain? She has lost it again, and the 
 papers are so sick of printing her reward notices that 
 she hasn t the heart to propose it to them any more. 
 Mrs. St. John may have asked you already if they left 
 it at your house. No? Well, I am glad to be first. 
 Have you seen it? " 
 
 " I remember noticing it when Miss Montgomery 
 arrived, Mr. Colby," she said. " But I am sure it is 
 not in the house although she might have dropped it 
 outside, I suppose. I will have a thorough look for 
 it in the morning." 
 
 " Thank you she would appreciate it, if you will 
 be so good. She did not ask me to call upon you for 
 aid, incidentally; but she generally appeals to me 
 sooner or later, so I anticipated her this time. Per 
 sonally, I should be delighted to have her lose that 
 thing for good; yet one thing about it interests me. 
 There is a photograph of Thorny Stone in it that really 
 belongs to me she borrowed my only picture and 
 forgot to give it back, as the song goes ! By the way, 
 I should like to have you meet Mr. Stone he is in 
 the room now. I am trying to get him away from the 
 piano." 
 
 "Why get him away?" the lady asked, vaguely 
 hoping to avoid this proposed introduction. " I en 
 joyed a few notes of his song before you spoke to me." 
 
 " So ? Well, that explains why you were so long 
 in answering! I see it all he has beat me out again. 
 May I present him, Mrs. Evanston ? " 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 73 
 
 "That will be very nice, Mr. Colby. Do the 
 first time we three meet somewhere." 
 
 " Oh, but I mean now on the wire. 1 
 
 "Ah I see!" she breathed, unconsciously crush 
 ing a handful of her frock, and looking about for 
 some place to hide as though it were possible to run 
 away from someone not present. 
 
 There was a pause which filled the lady with various 
 emotions. If Mr. Stone were right there in the room 
 with Mr. Colby, why was he so long coming? Where 
 was he his rooms or Colby s and what differ 
 ence did it make? Why, if Mr. Stone wished to be 
 introduced was he speaking arguing, perhaps in 
 so low a tone that she could not make out what he 
 was saying? Was Colby s hand over the mouth-piece 
 to spare her any possible embarrassment caused by his 
 friend s reluctance? Why should this man not wish 
 to chat with her? What could he know of someone 
 he had not seen during her short stay in the Camp 
 what could he possibly know of Mrs. Evanston that 
 made him inclined not to meet her? What was keep 
 ing him and should she risk hurting Mr. Colby by 
 ringing off? What good would that do he would 
 only call her up again, which might be more awkward, 
 even, for both of them. 
 
 These things and dozens of others flashed through 
 her head, that little moment that she held a silent wire. 
 But eventually she heard, " Mrs. Evanston? " 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Colby?" she replied. 
 
 " It was nice of you to hold the line, while Mr. 
 Stone dashed for my bed room to brush up his hair 
 and set his scarf-pin straight before being introduced 
 
74 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 to a lady. But he is back now, and properly impatient 
 to know you. May I present Mr. Stone, Mrs. Evans- 
 ton?" 
 
 "How do you do, Mr. Stone?" the lady acknowl 
 edged him, perfunctorily; affecting, as though she 
 meant to disguise herself, a slight English accent, and 
 she unconsciously threw her voice higher than usual, 
 so really it did not sound like Eleanor speaking, at 
 all. 
 
 " I am glad to meet you, Mrs. Evanston," Mr. Stone 
 replied, civilly but with no warmth in his tone. " I 
 hear you are a stranger here, but I trust you will soon 
 feel at home among us." 
 
 " Thank you," she faltered, with a rising inflection 
 which gave her commonplace words the same casual 
 tone as his own. " I had the pleasure of overhearing 
 a few bars of your song," she continued, feeling that 
 awkward as this exchange of conventionalities was 
 proving itself to be, some effort must be made to keep 
 it from being farcical in its flatness. 
 
 " Thank you," he said stiffly. " Mr. Colby promises 
 me a nearer meeting with you in the future, when I 
 shall hope to thank you again for your kindness in 
 listening to me. Good-night." 
 
 " Good-night !" she managed to articulate faintly, 
 although Mr. Stone got the words, probably. She 
 heard the click of his receiver as it went into place. 
 She jumped to her feet and pressed her finger-tips into 
 her cheeks. This individual gesture always implied a 
 great deal with Eleanor. 
 
 " Colossal ! " she breathed " colossal ! Who 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 75 
 
 ever heard of a man s presuming to dismiss the woman 
 speaking with him ? " 
 
 Anger filled her whole being. She was so deeply 
 piqued that it sent a pink flush all over her face a 
 most unusual thing, for Eleanor was always without 
 colour, except in her mouth which was so very red, or 
 which against her general whiteness seemed so very red, 
 that she had grown used to being accused of reddening 
 it herself. This flush was not pretty especially it 
 was simply interesting, like the warnings of a storm. 
 It was the visible sign of a wave of indignation that 
 was dashing over her, leaving her unreasonable and 
 primitive. 
 
 She whirled upon the burning logs in the fireplace 
 as if they understood her perfectly, and she spoke 
 aloud and vigorously. " Did you ever hear of such 
 impertinence? " she demanded. "And the wretched 
 situation was in no way my fault, was it? Did I wish 
 to meet this man, I ask you? Never! " 
 
 She paced up and down the room, in temper. Once 
 again she stopped and appealed to the fire. " This is 
 a fine place we ve got ourselves into, isn t it? " she 
 asked. "Quite diverting! Drunken men prowl 
 around and volunteer odd bits of philosophy, and sober 
 men administer odd doses of discipline! They don t 
 bother to spell one s name on the hotel register the way 
 it is usually written the Camp way is good enough 
 for the Camp, and one does not have to remain if she 
 thinks she can be happier elsewhere ! They have a lit 
 tle way of assuming that one is inclined to be a shade 
 adventurous, until she proves to them she isn t. And 
 
76 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Mr. Crathorne Stone s photograph is in Miss Stella 
 Montgomery s silver suit-case as that talkative boy 
 calls it the finishing touch, indeed! " 
 
 The tired, unstrung woman finally quieted herself. 
 She dropped onto the couch. "How interesting! * 
 she reflected. " A mining camp with all the modern 
 improvements ! I don t know which of the two men I 
 have met this evening, has upset me so the one with 
 the gun and the fine phraseology, or the one with the 
 cold speaking voice and the warm singing voice in the 
 room with somebody s telephone. O memories that 
 bless and burn. Special accent might well be thrown 
 on the word, burn!" 
 
 And the plucky girlish Eleanor tried to laugh, but it 
 was a sorry try it did not sound like laughter at all. 
 It had been so long since she had taken her characteris 
 tically vehement interest in things, that this evening had 
 tired her. As one grown older, she went to bed, but 
 not to sleep, for over and over to herself, she kept say 
 ing, " The Camp hermit that nobody ever gets any 
 where with, this Crathorne Stone, is he? Amusing 
 positively amusing! " 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WHEN the occupant of the Copper Hill bungalow 
 awoke it was Saturday, she realised, and rather 
 late. Her first thought was a dull one to-morrow 
 would be Sunday, and there is nothing worse than Sun 
 day, when there is no one but oneself to consider. 
 The prospect of finding Miss Stella Montgomery s 
 silver card-case, lent a mild zest to life for the moment, 
 but the day promised little more. When Eleanor ap 
 preciated that her interest did not lie in the size of this 
 purse, nor in the number of cards therein, but rather 
 in a certain photograph supposed to be among the con 
 tents, she shrugged an irritated little shrug. 
 
 But surely if this card-case were in the house, it 
 would have been discovered in two days. 
 
 After her coffee, the lady made her customary trip 
 to the foot of the hill, where the bungalow letter box 
 stood on a post in solitary prominence. The postman 
 had had it understood with Mr. Burns when the house 
 was first built that he never would plod up that hill with 
 anything less urgent than a special delivery letter on 
 black-edged paper. And so it was that twice a day 
 somebody went down the hill for the mail. 
 
 To-day, as on all other days since she had been in 
 the Camp, Eleanor found that the box was empty. 
 There was no one to write to her, really, and she had 
 left instructions that the " at home " cards and things 
 should not be forwarded part of the reason for her 
 being here was to get away from receiving some 
 
 77 
 
78 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 friend s card to a tea, and returning one of her own. 
 But she hoped with the hunger of an exile, that some 
 body would find her out and send just a line to say 
 they were all missing her during these years. The 
 word caught her attention. "Years?" she repeated 
 aloud, with a sad little smile. " How funny ! It has 
 been about two weeks! " 
 
 Dr. LeRoy knew where to reach her, but he prob 
 ably was waiting for her to write him first. 
 
 She looked about for the missing purse, knowing it 
 was a foolish waste of time, for Miss Montgomery 
 had travelled the road in a closed carriage. But at 
 the entrance to the bungalow some workmen had loos 
 ened up some earth recently while getting at a water 
 pipe, and the lady stopped here. Close to the steps 
 and partly covered with dirt, lay the card-case, just 
 where Miss Montgomery must have dropped it when 
 gathering up her long skirts, preparatory to getting into 
 the carriage. 
 
 Eleanor reached down for it, eagerly, and put her 
 thumb on the clasp. But some wee, small voice within 
 her said, " If it amuses you to see the likeness of the 
 best-looking young man in the Camp, you will find a 
 brown print of the eyes that won t look at you and the 
 mouth that won t say what you want it to, in a public 
 show-case on Broadway! " And she quietly laid the 
 purse on the table in the big room, unopened. 
 
 " And," she went on to herself, with fine sarcasm, 
 " if you feel you really can t wait comfortably until 
 you get down town, dear Eleanor, go over to the piano 
 and study the photograph that his friends here say is 
 the image of him ! " 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 79 
 
 Truly her humour had bitterness in it, and she yielded 
 to her impulse, and took the dark heavy frame in her 
 hands, as tears of indignation forced themselves be 
 tween her and clear sight. " How well I know the 
 type ! " she sighed. " And how smart it would be of 
 us to let one good lesson on any one subject be 
 enough! " 
 
 She stood a long while, and then her thoughts took 
 their form in words once more. " Men are so much 
 stronger than we," she murmured to herself. " When 
 their lives become complicated they don t run off by 
 themselves and think, as women do they get a game 
 of billiards with somebody and then tell themselves 
 1 to cut it out. Women don t know how to * cut it 
 out they just keep it in in in and go mad in 
 silence." 
 
 It was one o clock before the lady was ready to go 
 out, and even then it took all of her will-power to make 
 her do what she knew was best for her. By three 
 o clock, she reasoned, she could call on Mrs. St. John 
 and Miss Montgomery, who lived next door to each 
 other in a filled-in gulch called, elegantly, Bryn Mawr 
 Avenue. She decided to walk out east in the mean 
 time, and see what was to be seen there. 
 
 There were endless numbers of dirty little young 
 sters playing on the board walks, or right out in the 
 middle of the streets, while their mothers with shawls 
 over their heads and shoulders, hung over the fences, 
 gossiping. 
 
 Up on the mountain side were the great mines that 
 were the cause of the Camp s fame. The experts said 
 that these mines would support the people who owned 
 
8o THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 them in New York and the people who worked 
 them in the Camp for generations. Each mine 
 seemed to be a tiny village in itself, consisting of a 
 shaft-house; a blacksmith-shop, where the drills were 
 noisily sharpened; the time-keeper s office and the 
 change-rooms. And besides, there were sheds and 
 stacks and dumps so big that they never could be carted 
 off. 
 
 It was all diverting to the stranger, even though she 
 saw it all only from the outside. Before she realised 
 it, it was three o clock and more. 
 
 It was a mile back to Bryn Mawr Avenue, but 
 Eleanor decided to walk in preference to taking the 
 bouncing little yellow car that ran across town every 
 now and then when it had nothing better to do. It 
 would have amused Dr. LeRoy to have seen his pa 
 tient s vitality, for he had been told (so many times 
 he almost believed it true), that she was obliged 
 on account of her lack of strength, to use her motor 
 car or take a taxicab for all distances beyond six 
 blocks! 
 
 Rather weary but very sweet, the Camp s new resi 
 dent rang the bell of the up-stairs flat in a converted 
 house in Bryn Mawr Avenue. After a long time a 
 nice old lady appeared and politely said they did not 
 want to buy anything to-day. Eleanor tried to explain 
 that she was merely calling on Miss Montgomery, but 
 the old lady being very deaf and seeing before her an 
 unfamiliar face, assumed she must be a book agent 
 quite a natural feeling on Miss Burke s part, for had 
 she not lived in the Camp since the time when they 
 used to bring in all the provisions by mule pack-train, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 81 
 
 and therefore, didn t she know everybody by sight, at 
 least? 
 
 But at last she excused herself and went in for her 
 ear-trumpet and matters were made clearer. She was 
 so sorry! Stella was out. Then the old lady hur 
 ried on to tell the caller that she was Stella s aunt and 
 had brought up the child since her mother s death, 
 years before. She was glad the purse had been found 
 Stella always felt badly about it every time she lost 
 it, she said. Stella was careless enough, goodness 
 knows, ordinarily, but lately she just went about like 
 one in a trance. Maybe she was ill? And finally, 
 Eleanor gradually edged herself out of ear-shot, and 
 bowing pleasantly, she went in next door, leaving the 
 old lady smiling and bidding her come another day. 
 
 Mrs. St. John had a big, plain, comfortable house of 
 two stories, very home-like and pretty inside, Eleanor 
 thought as she sat awaiting that lady s appearance. 
 She had offered the maid a card, but that buxom young 
 foreigner seemed suspicious of it, and refused to take 
 it up to her mistress, so Eleanor was just putting it back 
 in her case when Mrs. St. John ran down the stairs, 
 lightly, dressed for the street in a well-made tailored 
 suit and a moderate hat for the prevailing fashion 
 one which, could, on a pinch, be worn almost entirely 
 under an umbrella. 
 
 Mrs. St. John was refreshingly natural and glad to 
 see her visitor, expressing her gratification in her hav 
 ing come to see her so soon. " And shall we have a 
 cup of tea here," she asked, " or will you come down 
 to the country club with me? " 
 
 " It would be very nice to see your country club, 
 
82 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Mrs. St. John," Eleanor said, while trying to see her 
 way out of going there. 
 
 " Everybody will be ever so glad to see you, 1 Mrs. 
 St. John explained. " You don t know yet, of course, 
 how glad we all are of a new face. I have lived here 
 for years, and life is always the same, except that every 
 once in a while everybody is a year older than he used 
 to be. Newcomers sometimes think us unusually 
 friendly, but our attentions, I grieve to say, are more 
 than half based upon desperation. We need the 
 strangers, even more than they need us." But she 
 hesitated, for her caller looked uncertain in her own 
 mind. " Won t you come? " she urged. 
 
 " It is very good of you," Eleanor replied, sincerely. 
 " I should be glad to, if I were going out." 
 
 " One must go out or go crazy in this place ! " 
 briskly said Mrs. St. John, adroitly fencing off the 
 other woman s seriousness. 
 
 And so it came to pass that soon they were out in 
 the cool mountain air together, glad of their autumn 
 clothes when on the shady side of the street, and 
 vaguely glad of a number of things principally each 
 other. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 T? LEANOR was much surprised to find herself in 
 " the midst of an afternoon tea, upon arriving at 
 the club house; and for an instant she was self-con 
 scious it had been some time since she had gone out 
 among people. 
 
 " It isn t a party," Mrs. St. John volunteered. 
 " You won t mind it at all, Mrs. Evanston. We all 
 try to run down here for a cup of tea together on Sat 
 urday afternoons." 
 
 Suddenly as the shyness had come, it departed, for 
 already from the windows they saw four golfers 
 headed for the club house, with Dr. Marsden in the 
 lead. He opened the porch screen door for them, 
 banging it after the last man as nobody before or since 
 his time has ever banged a door. He shook the en 
 tire frame work of the porch screens, then stepped into 
 the big room. His practised eye fell upon Mrs. St. 
 John and her guest instantly, and before it was possible 
 for these ladies to speak with anyone else, the doctor 
 was warmly shaking hands, and sending an unnecessary 
 grin in the direction of Mr. Crawford Mansfield Kerr, 
 who stood wiping his glasses, near the fireplace, pre 
 paratory to getting a clearer view of " the widow " as 
 he persisted in calling the new arrival in Camp. 
 
 " Well, this is good, indeed ! " cheerily announced 
 the doctor, grasping Eleanor s hand. " We are de 
 lighted to see you welcome to our city ! " And with 
 a comic low bow that made everybody smile, he 
 
 83 
 
84 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 started right in with his usual monopoly by deftly pilot 
 ing her to the window seat. 
 
 But this was not to last, by any means. No sooner 
 had they made themselves comfortable, and Mrs. St. 
 John had gone to get some of the women to introduce 
 her guest, than the door to the men s quarters was 
 thrown open and slammed shut with a vigour that sent 
 a cold chill down the spine of those not used to the 
 Camp way of passing through doors. Mr. Barton 
 Colby had shed his golf clothes, and was now dressed 
 for his automobile, cap in hand, on his way to show 
 his contempt for afternoon tea by hurrying through 
 the room without allowing anyone to stop him yet 
 he could have left by the side entrance much more con 
 veniently. 
 
 Mr. Colby s shrewd glance never missed much in 
 life, and it took him just about the eighteenth part of 
 one second to notice the " twosome " on the window 
 seat. He slackened his pace when abreast of the fire 
 place and Mr. Kerr. " Would you like me to intro 
 duce you? " he sweetly asked. 
 
 Mr. Kerr felt a wave of annoyance at the patronis 
 ing youngster, but he followed on just the same, un 
 consciously adjusting his big, flowing, black " artist s " 
 tie. 
 
 "Good afternoon, Mrs. Evanston!" young Colby 
 said, smiling at her, and acknowledging the doctor by 
 a nod. " I am so sorry to have to report that the doc 
 tor must tear himself away. You see he is the only 
 member of the house committee present, and they are 
 looking for him. Our China-boy has been sipping the 
 rye, and, in consequence, is so slow about getting the 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 85 
 
 steam up for the tea that the dames are all growing 
 restless." 
 
 The doctor rose reluctantly, remarking as he left, 
 with poorly covered sarcasm (for Colby was always 
 getting the best of him some way or other), "Mr. 
 Colby is our most valued member here, Mrs. Evans- 
 ton. I don t know how we should ever get on with 
 out him he is so very solicitous about the ladies tea ! 
 I shall investigate the matter of the Chinaman and the 
 rye, if you will excuse me." 
 
 "Perhaps you will come back, Doctor?" she sug 
 gested, never taking her eyes from Colby, incidentally. 
 
 " Oh yes the doctor always comes back," Mr. 
 Colby answered for Dr. Marsden, to whose retreating 
 figure he bowed humorously. Then turning back to 
 the lady, he said, " Mrs. Evanston, may I present Mr. 
 Kerr? Mr. Kerr is the town beau it is less embar 
 rassing for me to tell you this frankly, than it would be 
 for him to confide it subtly. And he can t help flush 
 ing up." 
 
 There was nothing to do but smile, so the three of 
 them smiled and sat down young Colby slipping out 
 of his top coat which he tossed onto a chair. 
 
 But fate had no idea of letting this " threesome " 
 alone, either. They had just got over the proper little 
 remarks and so on, when the China-boy himself ap 
 peared, covering the distance to them in a rolling gait 
 partly due to his short-soled native shoes, and partly 
 to the club s whisky, his loose Chinese clothes flapping 
 on his thin frame, and his pig-tail flying out behind him. 
 
 Reaching the group he chanted in his sing-song way, 
 " Misty Stone, him no findy locker key. He likey talk 
 
86 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 for Misty Colby, light off quick! " Then with an evil 
 glance through the narrow slit in his heathen eye-lids, 
 he whirled and departed to bring the big samovar. 
 
 " There is no peace in life," sadly remarked Mr. 
 Colby, bowing himself away toward the locker room. 
 " But I will see you again, shortly." 
 
 " What a fascinating boy he is ! " exclaimed 
 Eleanor, who had found him, so far, most refreshing. 
 
 " Do you think so? " asked Mr. Kerr. 
 
 " Don t you?" She came right back with a ques 
 tion mark. 
 
 " At times," he owned, but none too enthusiastically. 
 " At other times well " 
 
 " At other times? " she persisted, gently. 
 
 " At other times," said Mr. Kerr in comic earnest 
 ness, " one would dearly love to wring his neck." 
 
 "Possibly you take him too seriously?" the lady 
 suggested. 
 
 " Everybody takes Barton Colby seriously at 
 least once," Mr. Kerr gloomily told her. " He is, in 
 his way, a powerful fellow whom one cannot dismiss 
 with indifference. But he ruins more good dispositions 
 than you would ever believe. It will be your turn next, 
 probably." 
 
 The outsider s reply to this dire prophecy was 
 checked by the reappearance of Mrs. St. John, who was 
 bringing up two prettily-gowned young matrons to 
 meet her. " Have I caught you talking about Barton 
 again, Mansfield Kerr?" she gaily demanded. 
 
 " Yes," he confessed honourably, " but I let him 
 down easier than usual, owing to your motherly belief 
 that he may grow up some day." 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 87 
 
 " Barton is the salt of the earth! " she stoutly de 
 fended him. " And now may I introduce Mrs. Peters, 
 Mrs. Evanston? And Mrs. Cuthbert, Mrs. Evans- 
 ton?" 
 
 And then Mrs. St. John went away to preside at the 
 tea table. 
 
 Eleanor, even at this early time in her associations 
 with the people of the Camp, was remarking to her 
 self that they accepted her as one of themselves, with 
 out question. Of course Eleanor had been accepted 
 all her life; but heretofore, she had always been 
 known. In this place she happened to be quite un 
 known, yet the atmosphere seemed singularly free from 
 the usual little inquiries of " How long have you been 
 here? " " Where did you come from? " and " How 
 long are you going to stay ? " 
 
 When the truth was sifted down, nobody here knew a 
 thing on earth about her, except what they, themselves, 
 had observed. She had brought no letters. She was 
 alone and unexplained and accepted and unques 
 tioned. Was this the West? Such extraordinary faith 
 would hardly have been possible in the East, certainly. 
 And would this ideal spirit of hospitality last if she 
 said nothing now and remained silent indefinitely? It 
 would be rather amusing to know, wouldn t it? 
 Eleanor indistinctly considered these things as she ex 
 changed the conventional afternoon remarks with the 
 young matrons, supported by the presence of Mr. 
 Crawford Mansfield Kerr. 
 
 The opening words of the average persons, meet 
 ing for the first time, are like the early part of a game 
 of checkers so easy in their sequence that one 
 
88 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 hardly needs to keep her mind on the subject, so 
 Eleanor was both talking and wondering if she had 
 heard the Chinaman correctly when he mentioned the 
 name of him who wished to speak with Mr. Colby. 
 Was it Stone the Mr. Stone ? The very idea itself 
 lent a peculiar vitality to the situation. 
 
 Her question was answered for her within the in 
 stant. 
 
 As the two new acquaintances left her and Mr. Kerr, 
 to assist Mrs. St. John, the door to the men s quarters 
 was suddenly jerked wide open, in spite of the strong 
 closing spring on it, and two attractive young men 
 stepped into the big room Mr. Barton Colby smil 
 ing affectionately at his companion, who winced 
 slightly as the door slammed shut, with the true Camp 
 slam. 
 
 The room was interested at once in the two young 
 men quite as interested as the young men seemed 
 to be in each other. 
 
 Mr. Crathorne Stone was tall and blond and serious. 
 He had a grown-up sort of smile one that was there, 
 possibly, more because the man felt it due the world, 
 than because of anything verging upon spontaneity. 
 What lay back of Mr. Crathorne Stone s smile was one 
 of the favourite topics of conversation among the la 
 dies, who at this moment were all interested in seeing 
 whether he was coming up to the tea table, or merely 
 about to walk past it with one bow to them all. 
 
 Some people seem to fascinate the world by their 
 very stubbornness and their excellent manner of having 
 their own way always their way and your thanks 
 and Mr. Stone was one of these. Of course every man 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 89 
 
 present knew that when Mr. Stone finished his golf he 
 had a high-ball, if he wanted one, in the men s quarters 
 with his partners in the game, and that he left the 
 building by the side door. They never wasted any 
 good breath asking him to join the ladies in the big 
 room. If there was anything Mr. Stone seemed per 
 fectly capable to do without in this life, it was the 
 ladies. 
 
 Every woman present knew that every other woman 
 present had done her prettiest to establish some little 
 influence with Mr. Crathorne Stone, but he never was 
 known to do a single thing that any of them ever 
 wanted him to do. He looked entertained when they 
 told him how his fine voice and good singing thrilled 
 them, but this did not signify that he had the least in 
 tention of singing at any newsboy benefits. He seemed 
 most appreciative of being asked to dinner parties, but 
 it did not follow that he ever went to them. He had, 
 during his life in the Camp, been seen three times at 
 balls, and was known to have danced with Miss Stella 
 Montgomery once. How Stella ever managed this 
 triumph, nobody knew, but the popular theory was that 
 for once Thorny Stone got into a place which had only 
 one way out. 
 
 As far as could be judged, Mr. Stone was innocent 
 of either seeing or acknowledging anything of the un 
 due interest taken in him. Nobody knew whether he 
 was without vanity, and therefore never realised his 
 own magnetism; or whether he did appreciate some 
 thing of it, but possessed the rarely good taste not to 
 reveal the fact he was amused or flattered. And be 
 cause nobody knew anything about how he thought and 
 
90 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 felt especially felt about things, he was positively 
 a disturbing element in the community. 
 
 To-day Mr. Stone was dressed for riding, and was, 
 if possible, a shade better looking than usual. He 
 promptly bowed to the tea table at large, bending over 
 his riding whip which he held in both hands. In an 
 swer to the various treble exclamations and invitations 
 to join the festive tea drinkers, he took his fine grey- 
 blue eyes from Mr. Barton Colby s face, and called 
 across the big room, " Thank you so much another 
 day ! " And then he strode toward the front door, 
 while Mr. Colby went to the tea table, although he al 
 ways " made it a point to avoid tea," did Mr. Barton 
 Colby. 
 
 " Shall we go over and get a cup of tea, Mrs. Evans- 
 ton?" suggested Mr. Kerr, just as Mr. Stone was a 
 few steps from the big door near them. 
 
 " In a moment, Mr. Kerr," she begged off, giving 
 him the idea by some subtle method of her own, that 
 she wanted to enjoy his society alone a moment longer. 
 But as matter of fact she shrank back into the cushions 
 and shadows as far as she could, with the purpose of 
 avoiding getting herself in line with Mr. Stone s eyes. 
 A perfect tumult of emotion was raging through her, in 
 spite of her insistence that it was all wrong and un 
 reasonable in her to flatter this man by noticing his ex 
 istence, even in her own mind. She was battling hard 
 to appear quite natural, but Mr. Kerr knew nothing 
 of this. 
 
 Just as Eleanor feared Mr. Stone might see her, 
 Miss Stella Montgomery stepped out of the women s 
 quarters, whose door was at right angles with the front 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 91 
 
 entrance, so this took away Eleanor s apprehension. 
 He now was back to her and Mr. Kerr. 
 
 Stella seemed wonderful to-day so lithe and blond 
 and sad. Nothing could have been more becoming 
 than the white broadcloth gown and the large dark 
 green hat she wore. And for the instant that she 
 leaned against the door she had just closed, with her 
 newly-restored silver purse clasped to her breast with 
 one hand, looking at Crathorne Stone as if he were all 
 of life and most of death to her she was beauti 
 ful. 
 
 The tall, blond young man who stood against the 
 other door smiling back at her, seemed both invincible 
 and stunning. 
 
 Eleanor missed not a single shade of the significance 
 of their meeting. She felt fearfully old, alone and far 
 away perhaps off somewhere like that place which 
 one sees through the wrong end of an opera glass. 
 She felt about that size, and very much out of every 
 thing. Mr. Kerr affably entertained her with a neat 
 list of all the impressions she would eventually form 
 of the Camp, and she was so very still that he gained 
 descriptive power, and he would truly have amused her 
 greatly, if she had been paying the least attention to 
 him. 
 
 Miss Stella Montgomery joined Mr. Stone at the 
 front door. Mr. Stone complacently waited for her. 
 He stood holding the doorknob, showing that he 
 realised it was not in the least necessary for him to 
 move. He seemed willing that Stella should come to 
 him even pleased. But Miss Stella Montgomery 
 did the coming all of the coming which for some 
 
92 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 good, yet hidden reason of her own, almost upset 
 Eleanor into uttering a nervous little laugh. She 
 checked herself in time, and drew farther back into her 
 corner, among the pillows and the words of Mr. Craw 
 ford Mansfield Kerr. 
 
 Miss Montgomery s remark to Mr. Stone was so 
 low in tone that they did not catch it on the window 
 seat, around the edge of the piano. But Mr. Stone s 
 irresistible laugh carried to them, and Eleanor heard 
 him say to the girl, " Well, I m glad you got it back. 
 But about that snap-shot of me meaning what you say 
 well really, you know, you ought to remember, I m 
 jolly-proof!" Then followed some broken remark 
 about having to hurry back to the office expecting a 
 long-distance call and so on. 
 
 Whenever any man in the Camp could not think of 
 a better excuse for going away from anywhere when he 
 got ready to go, he u was expecting a long-distance tele 
 phone call." Men the world over, we know, reserve 
 the right to go and come as they please, but the men in 
 the Camp not only reserved the right but they exe 
 cuted it. So Mr. Crathorne Stone smiled and left, 
 just as Stella knew he would, even though every atom 
 of her being begged him to stay. 
 
 The slender girl trembled as Mr. Stone shut him 
 self and his laugh outside, and let into the warm room 
 a breath of the chill out-of-doors air. She closed her 
 eyes tight as if trying to press back the threatening 
 tears, then she turned to join the crowd around Mrs. 
 St. John. Her little call of greeting to everybody was 
 a very, very pretty bit of pluck. And when she 
 reached the table, two of the Camp gallants went to 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 93 
 
 rather more than their usual bother in offering her their 
 chairs. 
 
 " We might go over for that cup of tea now, if you 
 like, Mr. Kerr," ventured Eleanor. 
 
 Society s new " prospect " as Mr. Colby had called 
 her, being distinctly lovely to rest one s tired eye upon, 
 all but two of the Camp s eligible beaux jumped to 
 their feet, as she and Mr. Kerr approached the table. 
 And in the course of time, the two slow ones got up, as 
 it came their turn to be introduced. These were the 
 only two names Eleanor could recall when she got 
 home, so the possibility is that, after all, some gain 
 may be expected from allowing one s manners to 
 grow careless when one takes up his life in frontier 
 places. 
 
 " I was telling Mrs. Evanston on our way down 
 here," began Mrs. St. John when everyone was seated 
 again, " that she ought to have come out here in the 
 good old days of Carl Heilberg, when there was some 
 thing going on. We are all so dead-and-alive now." 
 
 A general laugh followed this, and Dr. Marsden 
 added, " Yes but weren t we kept fagged out in the 
 old days, though? I don t believe I got to bed before 
 two in the morning, once in a dog s age there were 
 so many parties and talking-bees over the everlasting 
 feuds of the Heilberg factions with the Consolidated, 
 and the Consolidated with the rest of them ! " 
 
 " The principal difference between those days and 
 these days," drawled Miss Montgomery, " is that in 
 those days we were not peacefully dead-and-alive, but 
 simply dead." 
 
 " Well you women have the best of the social life," 
 
94 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 young Colby maintained, " because you can sleep all 
 day. But anyway, I am sorry I came out here too late 
 to be in the thick of the row. I d stake my machine I 
 should have got more fun out of it than I did out of 
 the time I was a lawyer." 
 
 Apparently this was a story the Camp was not fa 
 miliar with, for its introduction was greeted with all 
 sorts of expressions of encouragement and discourage 
 ment. 
 
 " Well, don t take it so hard, everybody ! " the boy 
 begged them. " I don t insist upon telling the story 
 of my life, but a kind of pride in the city is responsible 
 for my always trying to interfere with any new discus 
 sion on the old feud. Why, believe me, Mrs. Evans- 
 ton," he went on, addressing the guest of the after 
 noon, " we can t be trusted a minute not to get into 
 noisy rumpuses over the old Camp battles. We make 
 more ado over them than the men did who actually 
 fought in the original issues. Do you blame me for 
 trying to preserve the peace at least until you under 
 stand how hard-pressed we are for topics of conversa 
 tion?" 
 
 " Now, Barton Colby," began Mrs. St. John, with 
 spirit, " that is absurd, for in all the years I have lived 
 here, Carl Heilberg never once " 
 
 " We re off ! " exclaimed the boy, imitating the ex 
 citement of a horse race. " I thought I could start 
 something! " 
 
 It all seemed a great joke to these people, and Ele 
 anor entered into the humour with sympathy, although, 
 naturally, she hardly knew what it was all about. And 
 it proved quite unnecessary for her to say anything, for 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 95 
 
 Dr. Marsden broke up the gathering shortly by an 
 nouncing he had promised to show her the view from 
 the porches. 
 
 The doctor took more than his usual pains to make a 
 good impression, showing the club s guest the great 
 Lone Cone on the west edge of town and suggesting 
 like a well-trained guide that the mountain was almost 
 Japanese in effect, if one saw it at night. Eleanor was 
 already quite familiar with the butte, but she politely 
 accepted it as a new sight. She shivered slightly as she 
 recalled the night not far off when she had appealed to 
 it to speak to her. 
 
 At length she gently interrupted the doctor s scenic 
 descriptions by, " Who is this man Heilberg that they 
 call by his first name with suppressed pride in being 
 on intimate terms with him? " 
 
 " It is rather keen of you to detect that characteristic 
 of the people here," he commented, drawing a bit 
 nearer the young woman who seemed to look so far 
 out at things like mountains, and so far in at things like 
 people. 
 
 " Who is he? " she repeated, not taking up the per 
 sonal opening he offered her. 
 
 " Why, let me see if I can explain him. Carl Heil 
 berg is a queer sort of Camp combination hero and 
 villain. He came out here when the Camp was 
 young, and he was even younger just out of college. 
 He has taken it upon himself to discipline mankind for 
 all of the nagging little things it has done for the past 
 decades." 
 
 " Quite a fair-sized undertaking," remarked his com 
 panion. 
 
96 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Yes. Heilberg s undertakings are never small," 
 the doctor assured her. " Well, as I say, he drifted 
 out here and pounded a few stakes in every piece of 
 ground that looked good to him, whether it ha d pre 
 viously been taken up, or not, and the game began right 
 then and there. From that day to this, there have 
 been endless fights with tongues, fists, guns and the law, 
 trying to decide who owned what, and who stood as 
 friend and who as foe, and so on. It s all somewhat 
 complicated, and I would try to explain further, except 
 that honesty compels me to state that I am like ninety- 
 five per cent, of the present population I m not sure 
 I know what it s all about, myself! " 
 
 " It s full of possibilities for a modern business 
 drama, isn t it? " she suggested. 
 
 " Perhaps," the man agreed lamely, u but personally 
 I prefer the so-called society drama. I like the more 
 charming type of play that deals with the problems of 
 some lovely woman not those of some chump of a 
 
 man." 
 
 The sun was setting behind the old Lone Cone, but 
 before it dropped quite out of sight, it sent its parting 
 rays to put a rose tint on Eleanor s clear white cheeks, 
 and to add depth to the redness of her mouth, and to 
 show up more plainly the length, the thickness and the 
 lustre of her gorgeous eye-lashes. The breath of some 
 exultation seemed to be upon the woman, and the smile 
 that comes from a well-amused consciousness played 
 about her. She was very still, but it was only for a 
 fleeting moment. 
 
 Suddenly she said, " Isn t it soothing to be studied 
 even when you know that he who is doing it, is only 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 97 
 
 trying to do that which he thinks will best appeal to 
 your vanity? " 
 
 " I fancy you will be studied enough in this Camp," 
 he replied, with a little pique, for no man likes to have 
 his finest pretences laughed at. And in his tone there 
 was a slight intimation that he felt he was speaking 
 with some private knowledge of the future. 
 
 The quaint playfulness of the lady was gone. 
 
 " Do you know what I should really like, even more 
 than to be studied, Doctor? " she asked, sincerely. 
 
 " What? " he questioned her, briefly, but full of curi 
 osity. 
 
 " A miner s candle-stick/ she surprised him. 
 
 " For goodness sake, why? " 
 
 11 I don t know exactly," she acknowledged. " But 
 once I saw one that came from a gold mine in Colo 
 rado, and ever since I have wanted one of my own." 
 
 " Well, that will be very easily arranged," the doc 
 tor said, cheerfully. " They probably have endless bar 
 rels of them at the Montana Mining Supply Com 
 pany s for fifty cents apiece." 
 
 " But I don t want one of those," she protested. 
 " I want an old one that some miner has used and some 
 friend has brought me." 
 
 " You shall have it," he pledged himself. But his 
 manner became lighter as he reverted to the theme 
 upon which he had not been satisfied. " Tell me," he 
 insisted, " do you arrive at conclusions, or do the con 
 clusions come to you? Your hitting upon the un 
 spoken feeling of Heilberg s friends has caught my 
 curiosity, you see." 
 
 " I see," she said, kindly. " But, Doctor, what dif- 
 
98 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 ference does it make and how do I know and am 
 I to be a sort of mental clinic for you, I wonder? " 
 
 " It interests me," he announced, positively. 
 
 "Well, if you must know, Doctor," she said (and 
 no man alive could have told whether she was serious 
 or playful), " I suppose I am a kind of human pipe 
 organ upon which life plays whatever tune strikes its 
 fancy. If the conclusions you have in mind are con 
 tained in the tunes, I should say they come to me. 
 This is the beginning and the end of my mental 
 process, so far as I am able to describe it. Sorry if I 
 am not perfectly clear." And then she smiled such a 
 very amused smile, that young Dr. Marsden was per 
 plexed, indeed. 
 
 " A living pipe organ," he repeated, as though the 
 idea gave him material for thinking, " and I imagine 
 most of the melodies are in a plaintive key, aren t 
 they? " But getting no answer, he boldly went on, " I 
 venture to say that you live somewhere just about in the 
 key of A minor." 
 
 The woman looked up at him almost impersonally 
 and remarked, " The key of A minor is very easy to 
 play in, isn t it? It has only one black note in its 
 scale." 
 
 " And what is that one black note? " asked the doc 
 tor, intensely, evidently expecting that the lady would 
 give him some item concerning the facts or feeling of 
 her own life. 
 
 Eleanor stood her ground with admirable com 
 posure. She smiled up at him reflectively and said, 
 41 Why that one black note is " 
 
 " Yes? " the doctor urged her on, with the force of 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 99 
 
 a man who means to get what he has started out to get. 
 
 " Well, let me see ! " the lady finished the revelation 
 the man was demanding, " It s G sharp, isn t it? " 
 
 And just here Mr. Barton Colby whirled around the 
 corner of the porch, saying briskly, " I ve been hunting 
 the place over for you, Doc. I am sorry to take Mrs. 
 Evanston away from your stirring company, but Mrs. 
 St. John has asked me to rescue her. The ladies are 
 going up town with me, as Mrs. St. John says she 
 doesn t mind the rumble seat." 
 
 " That is nice of you, Mr. Colby," the lady said, in 
 the meantime extending her hand to Dr. Marsden, to 
 whom she remarked, u You must tell me some more 
 about the marvellous workings of these mines another 
 time, Doctor." 
 
 " With pleasure," he said, stiffly, bowing an adieu. 
 
 Walking beside Mr. Colby, Eleanor looked at him 
 with pleasurable anticipation, saying, " Is Mrs. St. 
 John to take the back seat, so that you will have an 
 opportunity to tell me about the time when you were a 
 lawyer, Mr. Colby? " 
 
 " You have a remarkable memory for details, Mrs. 
 Evanston," the boy said with gravity, holding open the 
 screen door for her to pass through to his motor. 
 " But really it isn t safe for me to select such an ab 
 sorbing topic as myself when I am driving the car. In 
 my enthusiasm over my own achievements, I might for 
 get which cranks are which, and hurt somebody. But 
 it s a ripping good story, though ! " 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Saturday afternoon had been very absorbing 
 to Eleanor, but now it was all over Mrs. St. 
 John s voice had travelled off into the air somewhere 
 with her friendly good-bye, and Mr. Barton Colby s 
 plucky racing roadster was ever so far away from the 
 top of Copper Hill by this time. Martha was at 
 home when her mistress returned, of course, but Mar 
 tha was as glum as the early winter clouds which were 
 settling down upon the mountains. The bungalow 
 was charming in itself, but oh ! how still it was ! 
 
 Winter sets in rather suddenly and seriously in the 
 Northwest. The chill wind that began to whistle 
 around the small cement and shingle house in its ex 
 posed position on the top of the hill, held a note of 
 warning. October wished one to understand it was 
 quite tired of being pleasant it was in a beastly 
 humour, and glad of it. The burning logs on the 
 hearth did not give enough warmth, although they had 
 been more than sufficient in the early afternoon. 
 
 With a sigh, Eleanor pulled off her gloves and un 
 buttoned her jacket reluctantly. She remembered, as 
 she laid her things down on a chair, that they had told 
 her at the real estate office when she took the bungalow 
 that she would be obliged to run all the stoves pretty 
 hard in order to keep comfortable in winter, and she 
 no longer doubted the statement. With an independ 
 ence heretofore never known in her, she investigated 
 the air-tight wood stove in the " dining room corner " 
 
 100 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 101 
 
 of the great room. Some of Burns old ashes were still 
 in it, but no matter. The lady decided the fire would 
 burn all the better for them, so she crumpled up a news 
 paper and piled in some small pieces from the wood 
 basket, and on top of them three short, stocky blocks 
 of wood. In just a moment the little stove was scorch 
 ing hot, and she carefully screwed tight the draught. 
 The room became tempered agreeably in five minutes. 
 " Well ! " Eleanor exclaimed cordially to the stove, 
 " I say you re a darling, and I m sorry I ever intimated 
 that you didn t improve the looks of the room ! " 
 
 But when she tried to appeal to Martha to enjoy the 
 novelty with her, she was brought immediately to the 
 realisation that the cruel October wind in the great 
 Northwest, isn t of necessity the coldest thing on earth. 
 Martha, it seemed, was so depressed, she did not even 
 try to be decent. She plainly showed she felt she 
 would rather be dead than keeping the contract she 
 had made to remain with her employer for one year 
 under whatever conditions might exist, in whatever 
 place they might find themselves, for the consideration 
 of twice her usual wage. 
 
 She raised her heavy, sulky eyes in crushing disap 
 proval, then she stalked back to the kitchen not hav 
 ing offered to help make the fire, or break the silence 
 of the house, or show any sign of life -whatever. She 
 sank deeper and deeper into her disgust with her situa 
 tion. 
 
 " Hum-m ! " the lady drawled as the pantry door 
 swung to, shutting the sullen maid from her view, " I 
 venture to predict that we shall be having a very happy, 
 gay time around here this evening! " 
 
102 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 What she had for dinner Eleanor never knew. But 
 she was absent-mindedly aware of being horribly alone, 
 and of staying the usual length jf time in the dining 
 room corner. Things had not been as bad as this be 
 fore to-night, for Martha was a human being, and she 
 was fond of her. Martha was as near to her as any 
 body, really, for Martha had been in her mother s em 
 ploy in one capacity or another ever since Eleanor was 
 a little girl. Now she felt hurt, annoyed, unfairly 
 treated and all sorts of miserable things. Martha 
 never had acted like this at home. 
 
 She was rather aggressive as she put the tray with 
 the coffee things down before her mistress. She did 
 not slam the tray down, exactly, but revolt fairly stuck 
 out all over her, and Eleanor quietly thanked the-Pow- 
 ers-that-be when she left her alone, and she at least 
 could stare at the three big pieces of highly polished 
 silver, in peace. She turned once to make sure Mar 
 tha was gone, and then she spoke in a wee, wee voice. 
 " Good evening, my three musketeers ! " she said. 
 
 But the coffee-pot, the sugar-bowl and the cream- 
 pitcher had no more to say than Martha had, so she 
 rose and got a silver box of cigarettes and a bowl of 
 matches, which she placed beside her coffee cup. 
 " Now," she remarked, under her breath, lest Martha 
 should catch a sound and think her insane, " I feel very 
 desperate, and I think I shall smoke; for once I knew 
 somebody who always insisted that it made no differ 
 ence where one lived, if one had a cigarette. It is 
 shocking, I know; but none of us is as nearly perfect as 
 the world thinks. Take you, for instance, my dear 
 Loaf Sugar. The very people who would shrink from 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 103 
 
 me if they knew me to be about to smoke a cigarette, 
 suppose you to be descended from the Cane family. I 
 don t wish to wound your feelings, but your antecedents 
 were Beets! " 
 
 For a while after this, it was a silent gathering, then 
 a log sputtered in the fireplace, and some way or other 
 the wind had managed to add a sob now and then to its 
 terrific blustering. Eleanor watched the coiled smoke 
 rise from her cigarette. She was hardly thinking 
 she was dreaming, and vaguely struggling not to think. 
 Of what use was it to think? By no possible chance 
 did one ever think out accurately the other person s 
 reasoning on a matter of mutual concern. Women, 
 Eleanor assured herself, as she watched the smoke 
 rings broaden and thin themselves out, women had a 
 trick of making out a case as they wished it to stand, 
 then they did up all the thinking of the various persons 
 involved, so that it would prove the case to be exactly 
 as they decided it should be in the first place. Later 
 on, women always found that the other actors had been 
 thinking in very different grooves from her own 
 therefore, even a piece of sugar descended from a com 
 mon beet could see that to think was a waste of time. 
 
 She appealed to the silver again. " Quite breezy 
 this evening, isn t it? " she ventured. 
 
 As one listening for an answer, attentively, she went 
 on, fancifully deluding herself into supposing she was 
 less alone than if she were silent, " Feels like snow, 
 too!" 
 
 Again she watched the delicate coil of smoke from 
 her smouldering cigarette, as it wound its way upward 
 from her fingers to the low ceiling of the room. 
 
io 4 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Evanston," she reflected. " Funny! They all pro 
 nounce my name as if it were that town north of Chi 
 cago. I wonder if clipping things off this way is 
 a local custom, or if they say Evanston because the 
 stupid night clerk at the hotel wrote it that way on the 
 register? Ah! A fine mystery! And would it be 
 best gently to correct the people, or let them spell and 
 pronounce the English language as best suits their own 
 ideas?" 
 
 The humour of the situation struck the lady. It 
 was, surely, a soul in need of companionship that could 
 imagine itself amused in a great big room at dinner 
 alone, a room on the top of a hill in a house that com 
 plained and creaked and almost threatened to blow 
 over in the wind and for playmates, only a middle- 
 aged, sour-tempered, self-centred person who would 
 not speak, and three big pieces of silver. But 
 Eleanor smiled to herself showing her nice, strong 
 teeth, framed by her very red lips, and with her partly 
 closed eyes she luxuriously watched the cigarette smoke 
 reach its destiny. It was all so bad her isolation of 
 spirit and position, and all the rest of it that it was 
 humorous. There was no other attitude to take. 
 When people live their lives out so that they find them 
 selves at last without relatives, with acquaintances 
 where there should be friends, with only confusion 
 where there should be simple happiness and all this 
 off somewhere in some God-forsaken country on the top 
 of a hill in the wind why the only way to be a 
 trustworthy guardian for one s own life, is to smile ! 
 
 But Eleanor s mood was interrupted by a mean little 
 draught that hit her shoulders from a window just back 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 105 
 
 of her chair. She recalled herself enough to rise and 
 see if it were tightly closed, for the wind had evidently 
 shifted to this side of the house. She parted the mus 
 lin curtains and looked out but she fell back again 
 with a scream. 
 
 A man s face was held close to the glass on the out 
 side, a flushed face with blood-shot eyes that did not 
 focus properly, and a malicious grin. His two large 
 hands on the window pane looked about to burst right 
 through the glass. " Boo ! " he shouted above the 
 storm. "It s the bogey-man run!" He laughed 
 noisily and that was the last of him. 
 
 Eleanor was positively faint when Martha reached 
 her side and offered to assist her to the divan. " It s 
 nothing, Martha ! " she quickly explained, although her 
 manner could hardly have been said to be convincing. 
 " I sometimes feel a sharp pain in my heart it s indi 
 gestion, probably. I am sorry to have alarmed you. 
 It s a horrid night, isn t it, but they say bad weather 
 never stays long here. We must get to bed early, and 
 forget all about it, mustn t we? " 
 
 And Martha was satisfied and left her among the 
 cushions on the divan, while she cleared away the coffee 
 things. Eleanor gave thanks that she had been quick 
 witted enough to be misleading for well did she 
 know that if ever Martha got a look at that mad face 
 on a windy night, her contract and former devotion to 
 her, would not hold the maid at her post long enough 
 to get her hat. 
 
 Martha was stiff, oldish and of many opinions, most 
 of which were absolute. She had no use for " persons 
 under the influence of intoxicating liquors," and any- 
 
io6 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 way, she had not made any contract to put up with 
 spooks as well as desolation. And while Martha was 
 not much comfort to her mistress socially she at 
 least could hear, even if she would not talk, and it was 
 not so awful as being quite alone on Copper Hill. No 
 matter what the lady herself had to endure, Martha 
 must be protected. And Martha was protected. 
 Eleanor went to each window and pulled down the 
 shade, resolving never again to overlook this matter. 
 Then she dropped on to the couch, worn out and nerv 
 ous. 
 
 In fifteen minutes Martha re-entered the big room, 
 with a sort of veiled suspicion added to her other ill 
 feelings. She announced, curtly, that " a person was 
 out there and wanted to know if he was in the house." 
 Then she volunteered the information that she had 
 slammed the kitchen door in the intruder s face and 
 bolted it. 
 
 " Martha ! " gasped Eleanor. " How could you 
 treat anybody so on such a night as this? " 
 
 " I wouldn t have liked the looks of her any better 
 on any other kind of a night," Martha retorted, in an 
 unchristian spirit. 
 
 " Whom does she mean by he? " next questioned the 
 lady. 
 
 " I thought maybe you would know," Martha ven 
 tured, in a manner that implied well, one hardly 
 knew what it really did imply, but it made her mistress 
 uncomfortable and impressed her as being impertinent. 
 
 With a shrug of annoyance, Eleanor walked out to 
 the kitchen door and fearlessly threw it open, herself, 
 to see standing before her a frail-looking young woman, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 107 
 
 showily but not warmly dressed shivering in the pen 
 etrating wind. 
 
 " I am sorry my maid has treated you uncivilly," she 
 said. " Won t you come in out of the cold? " 
 
 The young woman obeyed, awkwardly, seeming to 
 be taken aback by ordinary politeness, when rudeness 
 would not have disturbed her in the least. 
 
 " I hope you will excuse me? " she said, earnestly. 
 
 " What can I do for you ? " asked Eleanor. " Have 
 you lost your way in the storm? The sand that fills 
 the air is blinding. Won t you come into the sitting 
 room and get warm? " 
 
 The young woman hesitated, uneasily. " Maybe 
 you wouldn t want me? " she murmured. 
 
 " On the contrary," the hostess pleasantly assured 
 her, " I am particularly glad of a caller this evening. I 
 am sometimes very lonely." 
 
 " The same here," calmly replied the girl, with a 
 depth of feeling that stripped the words of their 
 slanginess. And slightly dazed, she followed Eleanor 
 into the big room and up to the fire. 
 
 " Sit down," gently suggested the lady, noting that 
 the girl made no motion to do so. 
 
 "Maybe you wouldn t want me to?" again re 
 marked the serious voice. " I just knocked at the back 
 door to see if he came in here." 
 
 "He?" 
 
 " I saw him peeking in at your windows. I have 
 followed him all the way over from town. He s 
 worse than usual to-night, and I was afraid he might 
 fall into some of these open prospect holes around here 
 and get into trouble. I am trying to get him home." 
 
io8 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 The girl stopped for breath and sank onto the divan, 
 her gaze on her feet. 
 
 "Home?" Eleanor echoed. " Is he your hus 
 band ?" 
 
 The young woman fumbled with her shabby bag, 
 and then replied with painful hesitation, " He s a 
 he s more of a worry to me than anything else, I guess." 
 
 u You love him, perhaps?" very, very gently 
 asked the lady. 
 
 " What s that to you? " sharply demanded the girl, 
 to Eleanor s great surprise, rising and holding her head 
 back with pride. 
 
 " It is nothing to me, I assure you," Eleanor an 
 swered her, without resentment. " I only ask, because 
 it occurs to me I might be of some service to you." 
 
 The girl was over- wrought, it was evident. In fact, 
 she gave the impression of one who was up from an 
 illness and in a bad state of nerves. She looked her 
 hostess straight in the eye, and daringly demanded, 
 " I d like to ask you what he is dangling around this 
 hill all the time for?" 
 
 Eleanor now rose in some heat. " Now, my dear 
 young woman," she began deliberately, " I want you 
 to understand that this man, whoever he may be, is a 
 great annoyance to me. If he is yours take him ! I 
 shall esteem it a favour if you will kindly keep him away 
 from Copper Hill, where he is most unwelcome. He 
 has never been in my house, and he never will be if 
 that is any comfort to you." 
 
 The disturbed, desperate girl leaped forward with 
 an unlooked-for strength, and put her thin, disagree 
 able hands on Eleanor s shoulders. She stared down 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 109 
 
 into the shorter woman s eyes, and almost hissed in her 
 anger, " You are lying to me ! That man is here in 
 this very room I saw him carefully try the porch 
 door, and then disappear. He came inside of 
 course he did ! Now what have you to say for your 
 self you who are supposed to be so much more than 
 some of the rest of us say tell me, will you ? " 
 
 Eleanor wrenched herself loose, and found herself in 
 a fury of indignation. "See here!" she stormed. 
 "Just wait a moment! Examine this room. Stand 
 ing back to the fireplace, you see on our left is the 
 door leading to the porch ? Now, on our right is the 
 street entrance, with a little built-out vestibule. Back 
 of this room are two bed rooms, a bath and the kitchen. 
 You see? I am not trying to make an architect of you 
 I am only trying to keep you from making an exhibi 
 tion of yourself. I want you to see how insane it is 
 of you to think this man is in my house." Eleanor 
 stopped a second to get a new breath and to control her 
 irritation. 
 
 " Please listen to me! " she hurried on. " I came 
 home two hours ago right in the front door with a 
 pass-key. I took off my hat and coat and built a fire. 
 My things are still on that chair over there, you will 
 notice. I have not been one step outside of this room 
 since I came into it. I dined over at that round table, 
 right where I could see the front entrance, and the 
 porch door perfectly. Nobody has entered either one 
 of these doors, and, in fact, I think you will find the 
 porch door bolted and the front door held by a Yale 
 lock, which I never allow thrown off the catch. About 
 half an hour ago, I saw a man s face at the window 
 
i TO THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 back of the dining table, and it frightened me dread 
 fully. You may have seen this man try the porch door, 
 but you did not see him enter it. Now are you ready to 
 apologise to me? " 
 
 The girl laughed a nasty, unbelieving laugh, and 
 sneered, " Say, that is a real cute speech of yours all 
 right, but I am not near so green as I look. Where 
 have you got him hid, is what I want to know? " 
 
 Eleanor was so enraged at the persistent insults of 
 this extraordinary woman, that she almost staggered in 
 her effort not to call out to her to leave her house in 
 stantly. But she mastered herself enough to remem 
 ber that she, as the one who had had the better ad 
 vantages of the two, ought to fight things out to an 
 understanding, patiently. 
 
 "Well!" she managed to articulate, with infinite 
 coldness, " I think we have talked about enough, Miss 
 Mrs. a-a you didn t give me your name. May I 
 ask it?" 
 
 " Corey," the girl told her. " Emily Corey." 
 
 " Very well, Miss Corey, we will " 
 
 " Just Emily will do," ventured the girl, consider 
 ably quieted, and as though she offered some crude sort 
 of apology in her suggestion. 
 
 " Very well, then Emily Corey," Eleanor said 
 sharply, " will you be so kind as to go over this bunga 
 low with me? And first, may I ask you to examine 
 both of the outside doors of this room? " 
 
 The girl looked wretched. Apparently it was be 
 ginning to dawn upon her that she had gone much too 
 far, and that possibly she was mistaken, after all. The 
 wind was high and full of dirt and cutting snow, or 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE in 
 
 really little ice flakes; besides, it was dark. Something 
 might have tricked her sight. She knew beyond all 
 doubt in her own mind, that the man was at the door, 
 and that when she turned the corner of the house, he 
 disappeared. But was she so sure his flight was ended 
 in the house ? She stood still. 
 
 " Try the doors, please ! " 
 
 " I guess I don t need to," the girl replied, doggedly. 
 " Maybe I didn t see straight." 
 
 " You cannot come into my house and insult me, and 
 be permitted to leave without an apology founded upon 
 absolute satisfaction," Eleanor coldly and grandly in 
 formed the girl. " I said try the doors ! " 
 
 Heavily, the tired girl forced herself to obey. The 
 doors were both locked, and all of the little, square 
 windows proved themselves to be securely fastened, 
 also. 
 
 Then Eleanor stepped to the pantry door and called 
 Martha, telling her she wished her to join them in go 
 ing over the entire house, first bolting the kitchen door. 
 
 " Do you suppose I d a-stayed out there all this time, 
 without its being barred? No, indeed, Mrs. Evan 
 no, indeed ! " As everything was going wrong anyway, 
 Martha added to the general discomfort by being im 
 pudent. 
 
 Eleanor thought it a poor time to notice the signs of 
 revolt in the maid, so she ignored her bearing and in 
 flections, and said, firmly, " The three of us are going 
 over the back part of the house together." 
 
 " Not my room ! " snapped Martha, sulkily. 
 
 "Why not your room?" asked her mistress, in a 
 tone that went through Martha like a warning. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Well, madame, it isn t in order, and I never like 
 company there, anyway. I cleaned this morning, but I 
 didn t get the dusting done, because I had to make cake 
 all afternoon. I don t care to show it to strangers, 
 Mrs. Evan, please." 
 
 " I am sorry, Martha, but we shall not notice the dis 
 order. This young woman thinks her friend is here, 
 and we shall have to show her she is mistaken." 
 
 Martha looked like a thunder clap, and showed 
 plainly that if they entered her room, it would not be 
 because she did not use everything in her power to pre 
 vent it. 
 
 " Now Emily Corey," Eleanor said, leading the way, 
 " this is my room. Will you please examine it? You 
 will see that the closet is so small it would hardly hold 
 a full-sized burglar. The little brass bed has a flounce 
 from the spring to the floor will you kindly lift it 
 and poke an umbrella in, Miss Corey? Get the long- 
 handled mop, Martha no wait a moment! Just 
 take down the reading light on the long cord and look 
 under, Miss Corey." 
 
 "It might be dusty I d rather she wouldn t!" 
 grumbled the maid, who would have regarded herself 
 disgraced forever if it had been dusty. 
 
 There was no man in this room even a jealous 
 creature like Emily Corey, could see this to be true. 
 
 Eleanor snapped the light on in the tiny bath room. 
 One glance was all that was necessary to prove the same 
 fact here. 
 
 Then Eleanor threw open Martha s door on the op 
 posite side of the bath room. It was dark, and she 
 asked Martha to find the electric light fixture she 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 113 
 
 couldn t remember what part of the room it was in. 
 
 " I don t believe we need a light," Martha tried to 
 ward it off, self-consciously, " it looks so mussed up." 
 
 But Eleanor, being in no mood for argument, found 
 the light herself and snapped it on quickly. 
 
 The instant the light went up, she sprang back into 
 the bath room, with a half-uttered exclamation of 
 fright. Martha gave one good yell, and Miss Emily 
 Corey complacently leaned against the dressing table 
 and smiled that nasty smile she had smiled once before 
 this evening. 
 
 Dead to the world in a heavy drunken sleep right 
 on top of Martha s hair brush, trinkets, slippers and 
 her enlarged and highly tinted photograph of her 
 brother William lay the renegade ! And upon him 
 blew the cutting winter wind charged with sand and ice 
 needles, for in his weariness, he had quite neglected to 
 pull down the window after him when he crawled in, 
 and followed his natural instinct to find a resting place. 
 
 " Say," Miss Corey sneered at her bewildered 
 hostess, " what have you got to say now? " 
 
 Eleanor evidently had nothing to say, for she was 
 little short of stunned. The triumphant girl then 
 whirled upon Martha, now trembling as if on the verge 
 of hysterics. " Say," she drawled most unpleas 
 antly, "you re a real cute old maid, ain t you? You 
 didn t know he was here at all, did you? Your room 
 didn t look fixed up enough that s why you didn t 
 want us to see it ha ! ha ! Funny, ain t it and it 
 just goes to show what a man will take to, if he stays 
 drunk long enough ! " 
 
 Martha suddenly renounced the approaching hys- 
 
ii4 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 terics, and flew into a dangerous rage, waving her hands 
 about in wild gestures which would have rivalled an 
 Indian on the war-path. " See here, young person! " 
 she fairly screamed at Emily Corey, " you will please to 
 remember to who you are speaking! You take that 
 snoring bum s muddy feet off my brother s enlargement 
 and my clean aprons, and get out of here! If you 
 don t want a kettle of hot water to help you, you d bet 
 ter move I " 
 
 It finally took the three women to arouse the stupid, 
 drunken man, and get him started down the hill, with 
 the frail, faithful, sorrowful Emily Corey doing her 
 best to keep him from falling. 
 
 " I want you to come back to see me another time, 
 Emily," Eleanor said to her forgivingly, in parting. 
 " I want to talk with you. Good night." 
 
 " Thank you," the girl sadly responded. u I am 
 sorry I gave you so much trouble and lost my temper so 
 bad. I can t help it I m all nerves lately. And I m 
 sort of crazy, too, I guess. Have you ever felt it 
 that kind of craziness that I ve got? " 
 
 " Yes, Emily," confessed the lady rather seriously. 
 " Good luck to you !" 
 
 An hour later when Eleanor sat in a fatigued little 
 heap in the corner of the divan, pondering upon a lot 
 of things with no particular gain one way or the other, 
 the bell at her desk roused her to an appreciation of the 
 time and of how very, very tired she was. 
 
 " Yes? " she answered, supposing someone had rung 
 her number by mistake. 
 
 " This is Mrs. St. John, Mrs. Evanston," came the 
 nice voice of her new friend. " I just happened to 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 115 
 
 think of you on my way to bed, and it occurred to me 
 to call up and ask if you were keeping warm. It s a 
 villainous night, isn t it, yet it was so nice this after 
 noon. This is the way with the weather out here 
 you never can count on it for more than an hour at a 
 time. I hope you aren t bored to death up there alone ? 
 This Camp is as dead as an ancient Egyptian noth 
 ing ever happens any more. But you ll grow accus 
 tomed to the unvariable level of the life, in time." 
 
 " Yes? " asked Eleanor, smiling to herself to think 
 of the " level " of things on Copper Hill this evening. 
 " But your thoughtfulness will help me not to feel too 
 dreadfully dull. It was nice of you to think of me ! " 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 1\>TRS. ST. JOHN and Mrs. Peters sat waiting in 
 *** the bungalow living room one afternoon, when 
 Mrs. Peters, who had come out to the Camp five years 
 before as the bride of a young engineer, sighed and 
 remarked, " Doesn t it make you homesick to see a 
 maid offer a tray properly for one s cards instead of 
 snatching them away from you with a greasy hand, the 
 way all of ours do in this grassless, graceless, devil- 
 may-care place? " 
 
 " This devil-may-care place is home to me, you 
 know," Mrs. St. John replied, a little hurt. 
 
 But Eleanor came in just here, in a wonderfully 
 smart house-gown of pearl grey, which interested her 
 callers at once. It was not more expensive than their 
 own things, but it was so vastly different. Their 
 gowns would have had more lace and ribbons. Yet 
 this one was beautiful, even if its style was dependent 
 entirely upon its fabric and its lines. Its charm, like 
 that of its wearer, was not placed at a glance. 
 
 Very soon it was revealed that besides the passing 
 courtesy of a call, the ladies had a real reason for com 
 ing. They announced they were trying to get up a 
 Hallowe en party at the country club, and they wanted 
 to know if their hostess would not help them. 
 
 " I shall be glad to," she quickly said, " but you 
 know, I don t go to parties? However, I can make 
 some pumpkin jack-o -lanterns and potato candle-sticks, 
 if this is what you mean? " 
 
 n6 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 117 
 
 " We want more than that," Mrs. Peters said, " we 
 want you to come and help make the evening a success. 
 It is so hard to make anything go off well here, because 
 the men all act so like the old Harry ! They seem to 
 argue that holiday times are the most appropriate oc 
 casions for the indulgence in all sorts of ill-humours. 
 They never try to be nicer than usual they just flock 
 together and drink too much and consider themselves 
 abused. Every man prefers his own mood to any 
 one s else hospitality. We thought if we could get 
 somebody new, perhaps curiosity would get the men 
 out, even if principle wouldn t." 
 
 This impressed Eleanor as being a comic idea. 
 " Men have never flocked to balls because of me, yet," 
 she laughed. 
 
 " Well, do come please do ! " pleaded Mrs. 
 Peters. " Everybody is anxious to know you, and it 
 will be such a good time to meet the people here." 
 
 " It is very charming of you to put it that way," 
 Eleanor said, " but I should feel queer at a dance I 
 haven t been to one in a long time, and you know the 
 first break is always hard to make? " 
 
 The two callers waited for their hostess to say more, 
 not knowing quite what to say, themselves. They were 
 full of curiosity, naturally. And Mrs. Peters, always 
 gossipy and small, was vaguely conscious of a budding 
 suspicion of the new arrival in the Camp. 
 
 " I was most unfortunate in losing my " Eleanor 
 dropped her glance, in her effort not to appear emo 
 tional. Yet some explanation seemed necessary 
 she must say something. 
 
 And here the guests moved to the edge of their 
 
ii8 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 chairs and caught their breaths they were so awfully 
 afraid she might change her mind, and not tell them of 
 losing her husband. And they had promised them 
 selves to get this out of her to-day! 
 
 It was an awkward moment, for Eleanor was strug 
 gling to tell them, without being depressing and spoil 
 ing their call, and she was progressing very slowly. 
 The ladies were helpless in hurrying her, and the ten 
 sion of the conversation was too tight to be comfortable 
 for any of them. 
 
 With moist eyes, Eleanor looked up courageously, 
 as if trying to speak of the sorrows of the world, and 
 not her own trials alone. " I ought to tell you, I 
 suppose ?" she began. "I am still in mourning, al 
 though I try to get away from dead black, as you see. 
 About a year and a half ago, I lost " 
 
 Both visitors eagerly leaned farther forward, and 
 waited, in sympathetic silence. 
 
 Eleanor cleared her throat and tried once more. 
 " You remember that horrible wreck in mid-ocean about 
 eighteen months ago, when two great liners collided in 
 the fog?" 
 
 The two ladies gulped an indefinite reply to the ef 
 fect that they did recall the disaster. 
 
 " And do you remember reading of the terrific dif 
 ficulties they had in getting the passengers off the sink 
 ing ship, aboard the safe one? " 
 
 The two ladies bowed the jr heads, indicating they 
 did. 
 
 Eleanor closed her eyes, as if she were telling the 
 story to herself, only, and went on with great effort, 
 "These tragedies age one, don t they? Sometimes, I 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 119 
 
 live over again all the horrible excitement and brutal 
 combat of those maddened people, trying to live ! My 
 doctor tells me it is a sin to allow oneself to brood upon 
 morbid memories, but still I do believe that there is 
 such a thing as putting too much stress upon human 
 endurance." 
 
 She forced herself to open her eyes, and she reached 
 for the tongs to readjust the logs in the fireplace, auto 
 matically. 
 
 The callers felt a shade sorry they had been curious 
 about their new neighbour, and more than a shade 
 ashamed they had promised the people with whom they 
 dined last evening, to find out (or die!), first-hand, to 
 day, " whether Mrs. Evanston was a widow or a di 
 vorcee." Their own eyes filled with tears, and had 
 they known their hostess better they would have put a 
 kind hand on her shoulder, or something like that. As 
 it was they both wished to goodness that they had 
 asked her to come to the party by note. 
 
 Taking a deep breath, and sitting up straight, as if 
 to gain strength and speed with which to finish her sad 
 little recital, Eleanor went on, " You see, it happened 
 this way: I was ordered into one life-boat, and they 
 were ordered into another." 
 
 " They?" both visitors thought at once. "Heav 
 ens ! Had she a child, too ? " 
 
 " As I say," Eleanor forced herself to continue, al 
 though it did seem as though she might fail to finish, 
 because of choking tears, " the steamer we were flee 
 ing from, suddenly settled deeper with a lurch that 
 caused an extra disturbance in the heavy waters and 
 it capsized their boat as it was leaving the wreck. Some 
 
120 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 of the people were saved, but they couldn t swim. I 
 lost them both my father and my mother." 
 
 Mrs. St. John quickly went to the sorrowful woman 
 before the fire, and drew her to her. She had no words 
 to offer. Neither had Mrs. Peters, who wiped her eyes 
 and fumbled for something comforting to say, in vain. 
 
 Eleanor, herself, relieved the situation. " I was ill 
 a long time after this," she went on. " And as I never 
 seemed to get over the shock, my New York physician 
 advised my coming out here to Montana, where every 
 thing would be quite new to me, and where I should 
 have to rely upon myself more hoping I should grow 
 strong." 
 
 " We ll help you to get strong! " volunteered Mrs. 
 Peters, in a voice that threatened to break. 
 
 " Indeed, we will!" echoed Mrs. St. John whole 
 heartedly, and with fair self-control, for Martha was 
 entering the room with the tea tray, which helped them 
 all to get back to the surface of life. 
 
 " Perhaps," Mrs. St. John made so bold as to sug 
 gest, " some spirit told us you needed to be got out of 
 yourself, and that is why we came to try to get you to 
 come to our little party." 
 
 This tactful suggestion carried weight, and Mrs. St. 
 John gathered courage to go on from this conviction. 
 " Now you see, dear Mrs. Evanston," she said, " it 
 never did anybody in the world any good to stay always 
 at home and cling to black clothes. The more one 
 wears them, the less inclination she has to take them 
 off. Possibly the very thing that would best please 
 those whom you loved, would be for you to find among 
 your things some little white gown, and join us in our 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 121 
 
 childish celebration at the country club. It would be 
 what would please me most, if I had been she." 
 
 " I know you are right," sighed Eleanor, through 
 her tears. " I will go to your party, if you really 
 
 want me." 
 
 " Good! " said both callers at once. 
 
 And gradually and cleverly, they turned the tide of 
 their talk back to the commonplace things of every-day 
 concern. They stayed another half hour, helping their 
 hostess to get away from her awful memories, and they 
 enjoyed the tea, and made plans for the coming dance. 
 But even so they were glad enough of the bracing, 
 cold air outside, when at last they started down the hill. 
 
 Mrs. Peters was the first to speak. " Henrietta," 
 she announced, with the strongest good resolutions mak 
 ing themselves felt in her voice and manner, " this ex 
 perience is going to do me for some time to come ! If 
 you ever catch me taking a deep breath and diving into 
 the depths of anybody s life again you ll know it! 
 I feel like a very poor detective who really preferred 
 being a deaconess, in the first place. In fact, I don t 
 quite know how I do feel, exactly. But I regard it ab 
 solutely none of my business whether her husband is 
 living or dead. You understand?" 
 
 " That s the best way to feel about failures, al 
 ways," cheerfully remarked Henrietta St. John, smil 
 ing, as she thought of the way they had found out what 
 they wished to know of their new acquaintance. " I 
 am trying to feel very much above our mission, my 
 self. It s all Dr. Marsden s fault, our ever prying, 
 anyway. I am glad to remember that the idea did not 
 strike Barton as being attractive," 
 
122 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " If you don t stop idealising that effervescing boy, 
 Henrietta, you ll have him a real hero, yet," her friend 
 retorted, teasingly. " But what do you suppose hap 
 pened to to Mr. Evanston? " 
 
 Mrs. St. John ignored this, and remarked, u She is 
 a dear sort of woman, isn t she? " 
 
 " Yes and we must do all we can for her. But 
 whatever became of him, I wonder? " 
 
 " Well, Gertrude, dear," sweetly suggested Mrs. St. 
 John, " you certainly have the Camp s permission to 
 find out, if you like ! " 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 ELEANOR had been unable to leave the house since 
 she had permitted herself to dwell upon her grief. 
 The long hours of weeping, which she had cleverly 
 avoided for some time, were no longer to be shirked. 
 The retrospection had almost put her down in bed, ill. 
 But she was not unmindful of her promise to Mrs. St. 
 John and Mrs. Peters to help them get ready for the 
 Hallowe en party. She had Martha make a lot of good 
 things to eat, and take them down to the club house in 
 a huge basket with a lot of big red apples with strings 
 tied on them, ready to hang up for the " bobbing." 
 
 And it was a busy scene indeed that Martha beheld 
 upon her arrival at the bleak, big shell of a house on 
 the sandy Flat. Mrs. St. John was straining every 
 nerve on the afternoon of the party, on the top round 
 of a very high ladder, putting a yellow crepe paper over 
 the glaring electric light that sputtered in the centre of 
 the ceiling. " Girls," she called down from her peri 
 lous position, " one of you take care of those things 
 Mrs. Evanston sent down, and give the basket back to 
 the maid, will you? I think the dance this year will 
 be lots less deadly than it usually is, don t you ? We ve 
 been out lobbying to get the men to promise to come; 
 and most of them, including those who hate dances, 
 have given their words-of-honour to appear even 
 Mr. Stone." 
 
 "Who told you that, Henrietta?" demanded Mrs. 
 Peters, who always spent a fair proportion of her time, 
 
 123 
 
i2 4 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 trying to induce Mr. Crathorne Stone to be " among 
 those present " with the result that if she would not 
 accept his regrets when he wanted her to, she had a box 
 of flowers before leaving home and a vacant seat 
 after she got her party to the theatre. " Henrietta," 
 she called up again, " who told you Mr. Stone was com 
 ing, I say?" 
 
 " He did," replied Mrs. St. John, almost losing her 
 balance. 
 
 ;t Where in kingdom-come did you see him, Henri 
 etta? " questioned Mrs. Cuthbert, losing all interest in 
 the paper bow she was making. Mrs. Cuthbert herself 
 was always harbouring hopes of getting Mr. Stone to 
 sing at one of the benefits for the Home for Disabled 
 Miners. So far she had not met with overwhelming 
 success in this regard, but once she did get a check for 
 three hundred dollars. 
 
 " I didn t see him," called back Mrs. St. John. " I 
 telephoned him, and he promised to come without fail 
 if he could possibly arrange it." 
 
 " That sounds familiar, Henrietta," calmly com 
 mented Miss Stella Montgomery, who stood on a chair, 
 tying up the side bulbs in yellow paper. 
 
 " Stella ! " Mrs. St. John called down, impatiently, 
 gathering up her skirts preparatory to descending the 
 ladder, " youVe just got to stop being so cynical. The 
 first thing you know, you are going to be an old maid." 
 
 " It s all right about the old maid business, Henri 
 etta," the girl replied. " That s already upon me. 
 But if you have five dollars you can afford to lose, I 
 should like to wager you that nobody sees a glimpse of 
 Thorny Stone at this barn dance of yours to-night." 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 125 
 
 " Stella, I wish you would stop calling this club house 
 a * barn. We ve had lots of good times here, even if 
 the directors do feel that they can t afford to buy good 
 whisky and plaster too," snapped Mrs. Peters. " You 
 know perfectly well, that every cent they can save 
 on the running expenses goes into keeping the chim 
 neys on. The way the wind catches this place is a 
 fright." 
 
 Miss Montgomery ignored this reproof and called 
 up to Mrs. St. John, " What about that wager, Hen 
 rietta?" 
 
 " W T ell," said Mrs. St. John, hanging onto the lad 
 der half-way down, as it wasn t safe to come down and 
 talk at the same time, and it was more important to 
 talk, " I know he is coming, Stella. It wouldn t be 
 fair to make a wager on a certainty. T told him we 
 were to have the new widow here oh ! by the way, 
 has her maid gone?" 
 
 " Yes, long ago. Go on ! " somebody answered. 
 
 " Well, I told him she was coming, and he just 
 bristled with interest and asked me a dozen questions. 
 He wanted to know how the high altitude affected her; 
 if she were gaining in health; if she had a chaperone; 
 was it true that Dr. Marsden was making a set for her; 
 and were the women nice to her? Oh, he wanted 
 to know a lot of things ! And he will be here, never 
 fear. So, if you wish, I will take that wager of yours, 
 Stella. It s too bad, though, for you need that money, 
 yourself." 
 
 "Agreed!" said Stella. " But what does Cra- 
 thorne Stone know of Mrs. Evanston s having been 
 ill?" And Stella only showed in the contraction of 
 
i 2 6 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 her eyes that this was of any particular interest to her 
 and her eyes she let no one see. 
 
 " I wondered, myself," replied Mrs. St. John, reach 
 ing the floor safely, at last. " I suppose, though, 
 everybody knows everything in a place this size 
 that s the natural explanation, of course." 
 
 At last with all the chat and the constant work of 
 active fingers, the gaunt, cheerless, unfinished hall, 
 looked as though somebody had tried to make it seem 
 " cosy " anyway. The effect of the decorations 
 showed the right spirit, even if ten rolls of yellow and 
 green paper did not make enough spots of colour to 
 show the golfers just what was the matter with the 
 room. And the women gathered up their gloves and 
 furs and things, and all fell upon the China-boy at once 
 with a fine, large assortment of conflicting orders; and 
 then in a body they took the shabby, yellow, bouncing 
 car up town, to get a little rest before the evening. 
 
 The night came, clear and cold. 
 
 The China-boy remembered enough of the instruc 
 tions hurled at him, to have a great, roaring fire of 
 logs; and at eight-forty-five, he lighted all the candles 
 in the potatoes that roosted uncertainly on the various 
 ledges along the unplastered walls, and turned on the 
 electric lights which gave the effect of being slowly 
 smothered to death under the bandages of crepe paper, 
 although they were supposed to look like the live, yel 
 low centres of modern art-flowers. 
 
 "All blosh!" grunted the China-boy, thinking of 
 the job of taking the trash down, " this stlike me all- 
 samey damfoolishness! " 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 127 
 
 The orchestra arrived first, the men thawing out 
 their fingers, and tuning up at once. 
 
 The next car brought Mrs. St. John and two pump 
 kin lanterns; Mrs. Cuthbert and a large basket of pies; 
 and Mrs. Peters and several boxes of favours and fancy 
 paper caps done up in dressy fire-crackers. These 
 ladies all had husbands, but they did not always know 
 where they were. They knew where they were not, 
 of course and that was where they were wanted. 
 However, this evening they would appear later. They 
 had always appeared later, ever since anyone could 
 remember. 
 
 The third car brought a lot of merry-makers, among 
 whom there was a rogue who whispered to first one 
 and then another of the young people, after they had 
 removed their things and shaken hands formally with 
 the Mesdames St. John, Cuthbert and Peters. Then 
 he spoke in low tones with the orchestra leader. 
 
 And the result of all this murmured conference was 
 that when the rumbling of the next car was heard, all 
 of these youngsters, men and girls both, rushed and 
 stood beside the receiving party refusing to be dis 
 persed, and utterly ignoring the protests that the ladies 
 would not stand for any such jokes as this. 
 
 When the outside door was opened and a lot of 
 well-coated and bundled-up people entered, these 
 youngsters blocked the way to the dressing rooms, and 
 began a doleful lock-step to a funeral march thumped 
 out at the piano and squeaked from memory by the 
 violins, and added to, in spots, by a well-meaning but 
 discordant base rumble from the horns. 
 
 " Hay- foot, straw- foot hay-foot, straw-foot I " 
 
ia8 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 the boys and girls chanted in solemn unison, while Dr. 
 Marsden stepped up to the newcomers and explained 
 that there was no hope of escape they would have 
 to go down the full length of the line and shake hands 
 with everybody, before they would be allowed to take 
 off their wraps. 
 
 The Mesdames St. John, Cuthbert and Peters were 
 crestfallen, but what could they do but submit to the 
 outrage with what grace they could summon to their 
 aid? They were just as game as anybody else in the 
 Camp, so they fell into step, and gave the impression 
 that it was their idea of fun, too. 
 
 An automobile was heard outside, coming to a noisy 
 stop. 
 
 " Barton Colby on time, for once ! " shouted the 
 lookout from the window. " Welcome him like a re 
 turned hero, everybody ! " 
 
 Cheers greeted Mr. Colby, as he stepped into the 
 great hall cheers that quite obliterated the funeral 
 march, now weakened by the loss of one instrument. 
 The cornetist had an uncontrollable attack of the grins, 
 which seemed to have congealed on his face, making it 
 impossible for him to toot a single toot. 
 
 " That boy s alone again ! " complained Mrs. Peters 
 in Mrs. St. John s ear. " These men make me so 
 tired they never take the girls out or think to stop 
 for the old people with their cars. The little Carew 
 girl is mad over Barton wouldn t you think he d 
 have sense enough to show her a little attention, and 
 give her a chance to get over her crush as she would, 
 of course, if she knew him better? " 
 
 But Mr. Barton Colby ran his own affairs, and he 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 129 
 
 had not played football at college for nothing, either. 
 He waved a glad greeting to his friends and broke 
 through the line, reaching the men s quarters without 
 any trouble whatever. 
 
 The line now disintegrated, and everybody went 
 spinning off in a waltz until the next arrival was re 
 ported. Then with laughter and delight they all 
 dashed back to the receiving party again, and a signal 
 to the orchestra leader turned the waltz into the 
 funeral dirge once more, and the heavy tramp, tramp, 
 tramp of all the feet fairly rocked the building. 
 
 Those nearest the entrance heard a carriage door 
 slammed, and light foot-steps were soon on the porch. 
 Next the door to the hall was held open by a maid for 
 her mistress to enter. 
 
 Once inside, the only way of escape closed behind 
 them, the lady from Copper Hill was confronted by 
 the most alarming parade of men and women and 
 surely, it was not surprising she did not understand. 
 Eleanor had loosened her long black coat, and the 
 white scarf that had been about her head, now lay 
 on her shoulders. She shrank back against the wall, 
 looking like a frightened, delicate girl in white, facing 
 her doom. Martha, beside her, stood horrified, un 
 compromising and defiant ready to act in her mis 
 tress defence, if necessary. 
 
 The natural embarrassment of the stranger was felt 
 by a number of persons, instantly, but few of them had 
 met her, and nobody seemed to know what to do, ex 
 actly. Mrs. St. John came as fast as she could from 
 the far end of the hall, but she was too late. 
 
 A tall, slender young man sprang out of the ranks, 
 
i 3 o THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 and politely; offered the newcomer his arm, saying 
 close to her so she caught his explanation in spite of the 
 noise about them, " May I take you down the line, 
 Mrs. Evanston? This is one of our Hallowe en 
 pranks, and no partiality must be shown. You won t 
 mind. I am Mr. Leonard." 
 
 Eleanor was speechless, but she gave Billy Leonard 
 a glance of gratitude. She slipped out of her cloak, 
 handing it to Martha, whom the Captain got passed 
 through the line to the women s quarters. And then 
 together they went the full length of the hall, shaking 
 hands with everybody, the extraordinary receiving 
 party breaking up and whirling off in a two-step as she 
 passed the last ones waiting to meet her. 
 
 When they were finished with this ordeal, Captain 
 Leonard took the lady to a chair opposite the fire 
 place, where they were about to exchange a remark or 
 two, when the lookout at the window shouted, " An 
 other car back to the main skirmish line, every 
 body ! " And like well-trained fire horses, all the 
 young people rushed to their places, making every 
 effort to appear serious. Tramp, tramp, tramp went 
 the feet throb, thump, bang went the funeral march. 
 
 The door was opened to admit a blast of cold air, 
 two girls, Mr. Crawford Mansfield Kerr and Mr. 
 Barry Vincent Mr. Vincent being twenty-one, hand 
 some and bored to bits. 
 
 The girls were about of a size and type small, 
 pretty, full of vivacity and very young. They were in 
 separable chums. To-night they gave vent to two de 
 lighted, high squeals, exactly in the same key and with 
 exactly the same gesture of holding open their white 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 131 
 
 broadcloth evening capes like great wings, and making 
 bows that were perfect in the unison of action. Both 
 of them were dressed in sweet little white frocks with 
 big bows in the same places. Their meeting with the 
 receiving party was by far the most overwhelming of 
 all, yet their utterances of joy rose above the roar of 
 the Hallowe en gathering. 
 
 "Who are they?" Eleanor made herself heard to 
 Captain Leonard. 
 
 " They are some of the squabs I was telling you 
 about, Mrs. Evanston," replied Mr. Barton Colby, 
 leaning near enough for her to catch his words, and 
 cutting Mr. Leonard out of the privilege of answering. 
 " The little squab with the pink bows is Evelyn Carew, 
 and the one with the blue bows is Margaret Page. 
 And because they act like a pair of twins on the stage, 
 it does not follow they are related." 
 
 " How do you do, Mr. Colby?" said Eleanor, ex 
 tending her hand. " And how did you come upon us 
 so quietly? n 
 
 " I wasn t quiet. The Fourth of July could sneak 
 up on you without your knowing it in this row. May 
 I have this waltz that is just starting? " 
 
 Eleanor hesitated. " Thank you," she said, " but 
 I have promised to sit here. It s Captain Leonard s 
 dance, I think." 
 
 " He really isn t a Captain, you know but some 
 times he is a winner. I congratulate him, and I will 
 be back later, if I may," he said. 
 
 The Captain was most entertaining on the subjects 
 of broken noses and the follies and frailties of mankind 
 generally. Before long Eleanor knew worlds about 
 
i 32 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 mines and the " pointless lives " of mining engineers 
 of which calling the Captain was a follower. 
 
 How it ever came about, nobody could have told, 
 but at the end of ten minutes, the Captain had the 
 pleasure of hearing himself volunteer to get her a 
 miner s candle-stick the very next time he went under 
 ground. He was perfectly confident the idea of giv 
 ing it to her, was all his own. 
 
 " But what on earth will you do with it? " he smiled 
 at her. 
 
 " Oh I will just keep it, I suppose," she said, 
 dreamily. 
 
 And before anybody was ready to have it so, it was 
 early morning, and apples all had big bites taken out 
 of them, the candles were burned out, and the special 
 cars sent down after the merry-makers, stood being 
 filled up with happy, joking people. Everybody had 
 had a good time everybody but Martha, who nearly 
 perished trying to keep herself awake in the dressing 
 room, hanging over a smoking, smelling little oil stove, 
 until she should be wanted. Martha had decided there 
 was something exceedingly queer about this party 
 just as there was about everything and everybody in 
 this mining camp. 
 
 Captain Leonard saw Eleanor to her carriage an 
 hour before the gathering broke up, although Mr. 
 Colby had promised himself this honour. But the 
 " squabs " waylaid him to find out if he was ever going 
 to keep his promise to take them out in his car. 
 
 The St. Johns were among the very last to leave, and 
 they were on their way to a friend s motor, when Stella 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 133 
 
 Montgomery stepped out of the women s quarters, her 
 wrap on her arm. She wore a green, clinging chiffon 
 gown, such as only she would ever dare to risk her good 
 looks in; and while she was very tired, still she was a 
 picture as she stood smiling at her friend. 
 
 "One moment, Henrietta?" she stopped Mrs. St. 
 John. " Before you get away, I want to call your at 
 tention to the usual absence of our friend, Mr. Cra- 
 thorne Stone. Just bring me over that five dollars 
 you owe me any time, dear. Too bad, too, for you 
 really need that money, yourself! " 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 COMETHING of the old-time weariness overcame 
 ^ Eleanor the days that followed close upon the Hal 
 lowe en party. The appalling loneliness of her pres 
 ent life, seemed to rob her of the vitality that had come 
 to her with the newness of the first weeks in the Camp. 
 She felt as exhausted as she used to be when she sat 
 so still in the chair beside Dr. LeRoy s desk in New 
 York. She lay back in a reclining chair before the 
 fire after dinner, her eyes closed her mind full of 
 questions among which was: Why hadn t Dr. LeRoy 
 written her? 
 
 Martha had invented a dozen excuses to enter the 
 big room, and each time she could not say whether her 
 mistress were almost asleep, or only pretending to rest. 
 She came in again, and sent a worried glance in the di 
 rection of the still, relaxed figure, not knowing what to 
 do. It had now been half an hour since Eleanor had 
 moved, and Martha could no longer stand it. " Mrs. 
 Evan? " she faintly ventured. 
 
 The lady opened her eyes, heavily. " Martha," she 
 said very quietly, " do say my whole name? You re 
 member I explain about once a week to you that it is 
 two names put together with a hyphen. Say it all, or 
 simply say madame in that affected little French way 
 I have taught you." 
 
 "Yes, Mrs. Ev madame. But madame, could 
 that country doctor do something for you ? You seem 
 so weak and you have not eaten a thing all day." 
 
 134 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 135 
 
 " I sat through dinner, didn t I ? " she asked. 
 
 * Yes, but you did not eat, madame." 
 
 " I don t need food. And Dr. Marsden would not 
 be pleased to hear you call him a country doctor, 
 Martha." 
 
 " I don t like him, Mrs. Evan madame," Martha 
 retorted, stubbornly. 
 
 Sometimes Eleanor grew tired of Martha s set 
 opinions, and this evening she tried to modify them 
 by saying, " Do you know why I am out here, Martha? 
 It is because I shrink from people. My very wise 
 physician managed to place me where I should be 
 driven to care for people, before I quietly died for 
 want of reasons to live. The same lesson might be 
 good for you, too." 
 
 Martha was at a loss to know what to say to this, 
 so she compromised on reverting to her original idea. 
 " Could I send for the doctor, Mrs. madame? " she 
 asked, respectfully. 
 
 " Hand me the telephone, Martha," Eleanor replied. 
 " The cord is very long it will reach this chair, I 
 think. And give me the directory, too." 
 
 Martha set the instrument on the board arm of her 
 chair and considered herself dismissed. 
 
 After a while, the lady lumberingly raised herself 
 and looked over the book, finally opening it at the S s. 
 " Let s see," she mused. " S St Stone yes. 
 Here we are Stone, Crathorne, Suite 5, Quartz 
 Club Bldg., 1692." She smiled faintly at her dis 
 covery. 
 
 She fell back in the chair again, but somehow she 
 was gathering together a little strength perhaps 
 
136 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 from the air itself, or, perhaps from an idea that was 
 brewing. She said to herself, " I believe that bore 
 dom kills off more people than pain ever does! " 
 
 Soon a faint smile crept over her face, and she sat 
 up aga in. "If 91 gets Trouble, 1 she mused, "I 
 just wonder what 1692 will get? " 
 
 Like a mischievous child rather a subdued 
 naughty child, however she hesitated before press 
 ing the button which would call Mr. Crathorne Stone. 
 Then, with a touch of impishness, she rang, and in 
 stantly nearly perished with embarrassment. 
 
 No answer. 
 
 She waited a moment and then pressed the button 
 again. A man s voice answered. Eleanor thought it 
 was Captain Leonard s, but she was not sure. Back 
 of him somewhere was a splendid baritone voice sing 
 ing, " Calm as the night and deep as the sea, must be 
 your love your love, dear, for me." The voice 
 modulated itself to admit of a conversation, but still 
 the quality was so pure it carried right through the 
 other man s " Hello, hello ! Who is it, please ? " 
 
 Eleanor almost weakened on her resolve, but she 
 gathered together her courage, and imitating the me 
 chanical, nasal voice of the average " operator " she 
 chanted, "Hello-hello? 1692?" 
 
 " Yes," replied Captain Leonard she was sure 
 now it was he. 
 
 " Automatic Telephone Company calling," she told 
 him. " There s trouble on the wire. Keep your re 
 ceiver off until notified to the contrary, please." 
 
 " Very well," agreed Captain Leonard, and then 
 Eleanor heard him call out to the voice at the piano, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 137 
 
 " Well, this is a new one on me ! Say, Thorny cool 
 down a minute, will you ; I want to tell you something ! 
 did you ever hear of their telling you to leave the 
 receiver off, while they 
 
 But the rest of it was lost. The singing, however, 
 went right on. The first song was ended, and now 
 " Drink to me only with thine eyes " travelled to the 
 top of Copper Hill in all its quaint charm. The clear, 
 young voice of Mr. Crathorne Stone carried well, al 
 though the piano sounded unmusical. He played an 
 unaggressive accompaniment, however, so the instru 
 ment did not detract very much from the treat to the 
 keenly attentive audience to whom this play was vastly 
 more appealing than an opera at the Metropolitan. 
 
 The nice voice soon drifted into a lovely song, whose 
 words, being unfamiliar to Eleanor did not reach her 
 clearly, but the song ended in the plea, " Kiss me 
 again!" And then, just as Eleanor caught a small 
 spirit voice within her own mind humorously saying, 
 " With pleasure ! " What should astonish her ear but 
 an impatient, discordant crash of notes on the piano, 
 and Mr. Stone s speaking voice calling out in slight 
 temper, " Is that fool thing connected still? " 
 
 " It is," solemnly answered a third voice Eleanor 
 was sure at once it was Mr. Barton Colby s. This 
 voice continued, " Suppose you close up the Caruso end 
 of this delay, Thorny? I ll hang up the receiver, while 
 Cap gets a volume of something improving to his edu 
 cation then you come on down-stairs and play me 
 those billiards you promised to. It s too much like 
 staying in nights up here listening to you singing senti 
 mental classics, to suit me." 
 
138 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Then everything was silent evidently young 
 Colby had hung up the receiver, quietly. But Eleanor, 
 having discovered the game to be one of possibilities 
 for future refuge in times of desperation, decided to 
 carry through her plan to the end, as convincingly as 
 she could. She waited a moment, then rang 1692 
 again, smiling at the thought of getting Captain Leon 
 ard away from that " improving " book Mr. Colby 
 had suggested. 
 
 "Hello?" came the sharp acknowledgment from 
 the club end. 
 
 Eleanor was suddenly overcome with self-conscious 
 ness that almost amounted to actual fear. She felt 
 that it must be possible for Mr. Stone to see her ! She 
 had not counted on his answering. 
 
 But she was flagrant to the end. She caught her 
 breath, but managed to chant, "Hello-hello? 1692? 
 This is Trouble talking. The wire is all right now, 
 thank you." 
 
 And now she fell back in her chair, murmuring, " I 
 never would have believed it of myself never. A 
 silly thing to do, but perhaps it was better than going 
 crazy ?" 
 
 She lay so quiet for the next few minutes, one would 
 have thought her sound asleep, but she was not she 
 was saying over and over again to herself, " Calm as 
 the night and deep as the sea, must be your love, your 
 love, dear, for me ! " And she was trying to hear 
 again the voice that sang these words but she could 
 not quite. It was maddening! Why, oh! why 
 was one s memory such a wretched thing? The mind 
 of man could invent and make a, machine that could re- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 139 
 
 member every ten-cent purchase made in a grocery shop, 
 day in and day out yet the mind of man forgets the 
 expression of its baby s face, and can seldom see how 
 the child looks except as he actually stands before 
 him, aged seven, or twenty-five or fifty years old. 
 
 It seemed to be asking so little, the half-ill, half- 
 tired woman thought, to want a memory that was a 
 good enough machine to allow one to close her eyes 
 and hear again, and accurately, a voice it seemed so 
 very, very little to ask, when one heard what one loved 
 so seldom, and one lived so much alone. 
 
 And save for two, great, slow tears on the white 
 cheeks, one would surely have said to look upon the 
 still form in the big chair, that the lady slept. 
 
 In half an hour a step was heard outside and the 
 front door bell was rung noisily. Martha passed 
 through the living room, but her mistress did not move. 
 
 " I m glad you came, sir she s sick," Martha 
 abruptly announced, before Dr. Marsden had a chance 
 to give his name or offer a card. " Come in, sir! " 
 
 This recalled the lady to herself, and she closed the 
 directory guiltily it was still open at the S s and 
 she rose unsteadily to receive the doctor. 
 
 "Well, well, well!" exclaimed Dr. Marsden, 
 cheerily. " What is this I hear you aren t feeling 
 well? Would you rather have me go away now, and 
 come some other time? I just dropped in to make 
 that party call I have been promising myself for some 
 days." 
 
 " I am all right, Doctor," she pluckily told him. 
 " And I am awfully glad to see you. It had not oc 
 curred to me to hope anyone would come in this even- 
 
140 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 ing. Will you lay your coat over there, and come up 
 near the fire? " 
 
 A physician is apt to be so careful not to give the 
 impression of suggesting his professional services, that 
 he is often the most casual of one s friends concerning 
 one s health and so it was with Dr. Marsden. He 
 had happened to call at a time when his quick eye saw 
 he was needed, but he had not been summoned, and 
 so he dismissed the subject of his hostess indisposition 
 with the commonplace remark, " I think we shall have 
 to try a little Christian Science on you, Mrs. Evanston, 
 or get you a good healthful job filling up ore cars in 
 the mines this would be fine for the circulation, you 
 know." 
 
 " How much of Christian Science do you believe, 
 Doctor? " Eleanor asked, by way of opening up some 
 theme for conversation. 
 
 " Very little of it, thank you," he brightly owned. 
 " I am an old-fashioned Christian, myself one of 
 those self-satisfied, comfortable, non-church-going ones, 
 you know, that rest easy in the firm belief in hell-fire 
 and brimstone. And I am a new-fashioned scientist 
 making a specialty of dietetics and all that kind of 
 thing. Now you know all there is to know of me." 
 
 U O Doctor!" the lady expostulated, softly, "you 
 really don t believe in eternal punishment, do you? " 
 
 " Of course I do, I fully expect to bob about in a 
 pot of hot oil for generations, later; that s why I m so 
 light-hearted now I am accumulating a fund of 
 things to think over on dull days." 
 
 " I believe you re only teasing," she said, " for no 
 body in this enlightened age accepts all those old ideas 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 141 
 
 we are supposed to stand by faithfully in memory of 
 our forefathers. It isn t possible you believe in Jonah 
 and the whale, is it? " 
 
 " Of course I do ! " stoutly insisted the doctor, 
 whether in earnest or not, one could hardly say. 
 
 "Heavens!" breathed the lady. " And you a 
 stomach specialist, too! " 
 
 " It is funny, isn t it? " he smiled back. " It may be 
 disappointing, but it s so nice and easy. I believe in 
 lots of old-fashioned things besides Eve s being at the 
 bottom of Adam s having to move. I believe in love 
 at first sight, for instance." 
 
 " Well," the lady reflected, " love at first sight cer 
 tainly goes consistently with eternal punishment and 
 Jonah and the whale. I admire your definiteness, any 
 way. Most men don t bother to believe anything in 
 particular not even themselves." 
 
 " Do they ever believe you?" the doctor asked 
 with a cover of banter thrown over his wish to know 
 something of this woman. 
 
 "One man did once," Eleanor answered, with 
 something of reminiscence in her manner. 
 
 "What happened to him?" the doctor quickly fol 
 lowed up his leading question. 
 
 "I I don t know, exactly," the lady hesitated, as 
 if weighing her words, lest she find herself off the sur 
 face of things, all of a sudden. In a moment she 
 looked up with a faint smile. " He must have been 
 rather stupid to believe in me, don t you think so?" 
 she asked, playfully. But down deep somewhere in 
 the simple words lay a serious strain. 
 
 " Tell us some more about it," suggested the doctor. 
 
i 4 2 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 "That s enough, isn t it?" asked the lady. " He 
 believed in me. Do you know that song whose words 
 are Calm as the night and deep as the sea, should be 
 your love for me ? No ? Well, it is a very wonder 
 ful song, and I was just thinking about it when you 
 came in. Well, as I was about to say, you know there 
 are people in the world who argue that because they, 
 themselves, are calm as the night and deep as the 
 sea, the rest of us are very much the same? " 
 
 " Yes I suppose that is a natural mistake," the 
 doctor said, his interest encouraging her. 
 
 " And in the end," Eleanor went on, somewhere be 
 tween comedy and tragedy, " it turns out that we are 
 about as calm as Mount Vesuvius on a bad day, and 
 yet only as deep as a sheet of letter paper." 
 
 " I see," smiled the doctor. " And did this poor 
 devil in question get an idea that you were " 
 
 " Deep as the sea? " she finished for him. " Per 
 haps he did, although, of course, he never used these 
 words I am using them because they express so much, 
 and they happen to be in my mind, owing to my having 
 heard them sung not long ago. No doubt he who once 
 believed in me, imagined that I would stand the wear- 
 and-tear of life well when, as a matter of fact, I 
 don t, and I never did. I have always put in all my 
 energy avoiding the pit-falls and leaving the work and 
 responsibilities to serious people like you." 
 
 And she smiled so delightfully that the doctor had 
 no idea whether she was in earnest, or not, and he 
 meant to lead her into telling him something of her 
 self, too ! 
 
 " And was this man convinced at last that he was 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 143 
 
 wrong? " pleasantly probed the doctor, hoping to in 
 volve her yet into giving him some idea of whether or 
 not she was free to be trifling with him as hard as it 
 seemingly amused her to play. 
 
 " We never discussed the matter," she answered. 
 " But I fancy he was." And there was something in 
 the atmosphere that seemed to pronounce this elusive 
 statement the last word on the subject. Even the doc 
 tor s adroit mind could find no more loop-holes through 
 which to send in any more question marks. 
 
 But Dr. Marsden was not satisfied oh! not at all; 
 nor did he regard this his last attempt to gain his point, 
 by any means. He would keep right at it, he resolved. 
 And in the instant s pause that followed the lady s last 
 remark, the doctor had ample time to reflect that she 
 spoke of this man as though he still lived not as 
 one speaks of someone who is dead. But was he of 
 whom she had given him this interesting inkling, her 
 husband, necessarily? Certainly not not neces 
 sarily. It might have been some little Tommy Tucker 
 with whom she played snow-balls as a child or may 
 be she was just making it all up as she went along, for 
 the simple purpose of being entertaining. How pro 
 voking ! 
 
 There was nothing to do but to try some other theme 
 for verbal amusement. So Dr. Marsden, like the aver 
 age young man who is hesitating until something defi 
 nite presents itself for observation, filled in the time 
 by asking if the lady were warm enough. There is 
 something delicately sweet in a man s simple concern 
 in knowing if the woman with him is warm enough 
 it has been an effective caress ever since the world be- 
 
i 4 4 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 gan, and is almost as soothing to the feminine ear in a 
 nice, well-heated room when one has on her heaviest 
 clothes, as it would be in a snow storm when one had 
 forgotten her gloves. 
 
 " You ought to have somebody up here to take care 
 of you," Dr. Marsden ventured, in a way that might 
 mean either a good deal, or nothing at all, according 
 to the listener s mood. 
 
 " Martha takes excellent care of me," the lady re 
 plied. u She keeps the house so clean I live in dread 
 of taking cold; everything is so tidy I never can find 
 anything I want, and we have enough to eat to feed 
 the Salvation Army. What more does one need? " 
 
 " I don t mean this kind of care the kind one can 
 buy. I was thinking of somebody bigger than 
 Martha," he explained, studying the fire, intently. 
 
 u Well," the lady said gently, refraining from smil 
 ing at the bent head so near her, although it was an 
 effort to keep up the mock seriousness, " I am fortunate 
 in having that kind of care, too, Doctor. You are 
 taking care of me, you see? " And there was just as 
 much, or just as little in her simple confession as her 
 listener wished to reach out and take unto himself. 
 But as the man did not respond, Eleanor went on, 
 " You are my physician." 
 
 He turned his attention from the burning logs to the 
 lady, and intimately put his elbow on the arm of the 
 chair and looked at her closely, saying, " I am not your 
 physician, I am sorry to say. I refuse the case ! " 
 
 " Why, Doctor! How horrid of you! You at 
 tended my maid when we first arrived so why won t 
 you take care of me, if I wish it? " 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 145 
 
 " Because professional etiquette would not permit 
 it," he replied, decisively. 
 
 "Why?" insisted the girlish invalid, battling with 
 herself not to laugh. 
 
 " Because a physician is not supposed to take the 
 kind of interest in his patients that I take in you," he 
 said, with apparent sincerity, " that s why." 
 
 " This sounds terribly thrilling," she said, softly. 
 " What kind of interest do you take in me, Doctor? " 
 It never could be said of Eleanor that she was a 
 coward. 
 
 " I take every kind of interest in you," the man said. 
 
 The lady was very, very sweet, but she was not at 
 all moved emotionally, as she knew she was expected to 
 be. She looked at the man beside her, and so close 
 to her, unflinchingly, and remarked, " I wouldn t do 
 that if I were you, Doctor." 
 
 " Why not? " he demanded, in a voice and manner 
 that clearly indicated he wanted an honest answer. 
 Perhaps he thought he had her cornered now that 
 she would say, " I am so sorry but I hardly think my 
 husband would like it." 
 
 But the lady deliberated. Isn t it awful to have peo 
 ple stop to ponder on things, when you are in a hurry 
 to be answered? 
 
 " Well," Eleanor drawled, " let me see! I should 
 say there are about one hundred and sixteen good rea 
 sons why it is a mistake to take any interest in a person 
 like me one hundred and fifteen of which don t seem 
 to come to me at the moment. But as a general rule, 
 it is a great mistake to take an interest in people 
 don t you think so yourself, Doctor? " 
 
146 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 The doctor drew yet closer to the lady, but as he did 
 not make any move to touch her, she allowed him to 
 remain, unreproved. So far as he could judge, his 
 extreme nearness had not impressed itself upon her 
 certainly it did not frighten her at all. 
 
 " When you are tired and ill and all by yourself," 
 the doctor began with considerable magnetism the 
 usual amount of it, you know, there generally is be 
 tween two triflers when the man s audacity goes out 
 masqueraded as sentiment " don t you ever wish there 
 was somebody bigger than you near by to take care 
 of you?" 
 
 " Yes thank you ! " replied the lady, in exact dup 
 licate of the way a little girl would say the same words 
 if you asked her if she would like a piece of candy. " I 
 always wish it. And when there occasionally is some 
 one bigger than I near me, the longing to be taken care 
 of amounts to " (and here she shrugged her shoul 
 ders a little, expressively) " amounts to positive 
 temptation." 
 
 This was enough. 
 
 The man lurched forward to gather her into his 
 arms but instead of the girl, his arms encircled 
 simply space, or air, or something, for with the vital 
 ity of some creature of the wild, Eleanor had sprung 
 out of her chair and beyond his reach, before he 
 could focus his eyes to accept the moving picture of her 
 flight. 
 
 She was now looking at him from over the top of 
 the back of the chair she had been sitting in, leaning 
 forward prettily, her hands calmly folded, quite as 
 though nothing whatever had happened to her or any- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 147 
 
 body else during the past week. " But as I was about 
 to continue," she went on in exactly the same tone of 
 voice she had been using before the change of vantage- 
 point, " temptation is one of the very riskiest things on 
 earth to yield to. It so easily grows to be a bad habit 
 don t you think so, Doctor? " 
 
 If the doctor were rebuffed, he gave no sign accept 
 ing it, or even acknowledging it. He could give the 
 idea that nothing had happened, too and he did. 
 And, being, as he was, a very clever man in some ways, 
 he did not revert at all to his slight mis-step in allow 
 ing himself to be swayed from the rigid conventionali 
 ties. He smiled the Camp smile, and refrained from 
 expressing the least surprise, or regret, or pique, or 
 apology. 
 
 You know," he began, as if in deep study, " I 
 have imagined you a woman of temperament?" 
 
 That would seem, on the face of it, a discerning 
 conclusion," she smiled back at him, impersonally, as if 
 lamely offering to aid him in his researches. 
 
 " I am not at all sure it is," he further analysed. 
 " Perhaps, after all I am wrong? I believe you are a 
 bit of a fakir a new sort of nature-fakir M " 
 
 The doctor went on, much absorbed in his own 
 thoughts, " You are so wonderfully lovely, and so 
 dearly child-like that a man s first impulse is to touch 
 you and his second, to combat everything else that 
 touches you. But I have been reminded sometimes 
 that it is a man s stunt to get lost in his own feeling 
 and lose sight of the fact that the object of his misery 
 is thinking him nothing short of ridiculous." 
 
 " Perhaps there is something in what you say," 
 
148 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 simply replied the lady, showing every nice firm tooth 
 in her head. 
 
 And now Dr. Marsden knew he was not being taken 
 with a becoming degree of seriousness, and he was 
 piqued, truly. But he did not show it, as he stood with 
 folded arms in front of the open fire, saying in most 
 friendly tones, " Come out from behind the bulwarks, 
 why don t you?" But as she paid no attention to 
 this, he went on, u Well, I suppose I ought to wend my 
 way down this hill it must be getting late. But be 
 fore I go, tell me something, will you ? " 
 
 " 1 should be delighted if there is anything 1 
 haven t already told you, Doctor. What is it?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " Well, tell me, if you will, please, what is the harm 
 in a kiss now and then, along the lonely way of life? " 
 Then he waited. 
 
 " What s the good of a kiss now and then, along the 
 lonely way of life," she questioned him back, " when 
 the kiss is really not for you? " 
 
 " What do you mean? " the man asked. 
 
 " I had in mind," she replied, " the kiss I just missed 
 getting a moment ago. Besides it s being an ac 
 knowledged mistake to accept such gifts it was not 
 for me." 
 
 "Not for you?" he repeated. " Then for whom 
 was it, pray tell? " 
 
 " It wasn t for anybody at all," she enlightened him, 
 gracefully. " It was just to see if you could. And I 
 felt it would be unfair to take it, because I could give 
 you the information you want, without your having 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 149 
 
 to incriminate yourself. Now you are satisfied, and it 
 is all settled. You see the point? " 
 
 " I am not sure that I do," he said, slowly. " But 
 there is one thing that is proved to me conclusively, 
 and this is that beyond your warm eyes and your ap 
 pealing ways, you are ice." 
 
 They both still smiled, but there was a note of con 
 test between them, and somehow it was not all play, 
 as it had been in the beginning. The doctor lightly 
 shrugged off his defeat, as if he meant to imply it 
 amused him, and only tended to lend a pretty touch 
 to his victory, whenever that should come. As the 
 woman did not contradict his last thrust, he gathered 
 up his hat and coat, with one more question. Why 
 did you say that kiss was not for you? " he asked, in a 
 hurt little way. 
 
 " I told you one of my reasons," she said, " but if 
 you want more, here goes ! It could not have been for 
 me, Dr. Marsden, for if it had been, you would have 
 noticed that I have stood longer than I have the 
 strength to stand you would have taken a little of 
 that * care of me that you referred to when you first 
 
 came." 
 
 This hit. The man stupidly watched her go to the 
 divan and sink in a plaintive, tired little mass in one 
 corner, and when he got his tongue he said something 
 about his infernal awkwardness, and something else 
 that got confused and made no sense. He crawled into 
 his top coat and held out his hand, in a distressed way, 
 saying, " I m sorry I never was thoughtful. I never 
 was much of a lady s man, anyway. But you will let 
 
1 50 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 me come again, won t you lady in the key of A 
 minor? " 
 
 u Come when you like, Doctor," she said to him 
 cordially and forgivingly for, after all, had it not 
 been merely some sort of a joke that happened to turn 
 out rather badly, as jokes have a way of doing? And 
 she added, in parting, with a smile, " But may I suggest, 
 Doctor, that you have a care about that ice you dis 
 covered? You remember they found out a few years 
 ago that there is enough fire in ice to make liquid air 
 boil? Good night, and a safe trip down the hill! " 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 COMETHING had to be done to break the mo- 
 ^ notony, certainly, so Eleanor resolved to give a 
 dinner party. She sat at her desk, thinking. 
 
 At the end of half an hour, she had spoken with the 
 last one on her little list, and she was contented in the 
 knowledge that all of them could come on Thursday 
 at seven. All of them seemed pleased at being asked. 
 She went at once to Martha, and together they planned 
 the very nicest of dinners. And it helped a great deal 
 to get Eleanor s strength up again, because with all of 
 the new conditions here, she was forced to forget her 
 self and attend to all the details for a well-appointed 
 meal and it gave her quite enough to do for a day 
 or two. 
 
 At last Thursday evening came. This little enter 
 tainment seemed much more interesting and important 
 to Eleanor than such a gathering ever had at home, 
 in the days when she did this sort of thing two or three 
 times a week. She fluttered about at the last mo 
 ment seeing that everything was all right, almost ex 
 cited. She noticed how pretty were the soft-shaded 
 lights and the warm rays from the open fire. 
 
 When everything was in readiness, the great room of 
 the Burns bungalow looked as attractive and luxurious 
 as one could imagine. Off in one corner was the tiny 
 grand piano with its shining keys and its polished ma 
 hogany, and on it the one photograph ; in the opposite 
 
152 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 corner stood the round table with six places marked 
 by beautiful silver and glass things, and in the centre 
 were lots of fine orchids, which, in this treeless and 
 grassless town seemed doubly lovely. A single orchid 
 lay in front of the one photograph it just lay on the 
 embroidery with no water to keep life in it, as if sug 
 gesting a sacrifice at a shrine to an unsaintly but good- 
 looking young man. 
 
 Martha, in her well-fitting black dress, with the big 
 white apron and smart white cap, was no less perfect 
 in her way, than was her mistress in an evening frock 
 of violet chiffon over white satin, trimmed with ex 
 traordinary purple flowers, such as only a great French 
 designer could ever conjure up in his fancy. Her orna 
 ments were pearls one beautiful cluster on the cor 
 sage, and long ear-rings of pearls. These pendants 
 made Eleanor look foreign and they seemed to ac 
 centuate the whiteness of her skin, the redness of her 
 mouth and the depth of her brown eyes. Yet with all 
 of the costly dressing, the lady presented the appear 
 ance of one whose good points are brought out by art, 
 but not dependent upon it. She seemed very young, 
 and a little shy. 
 
 " It seems good to see you in something that is not 
 black, Mrs. Evan," remarked Martha, who found no 
 warmer way of expressing her admiration for her 
 mistress as she awaited the guests at her first dinner 
 party in ages and ages. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. St. John were the first to arrive, Mr. 
 St. John leaving his things in the vestibule, and his 
 wife crossing to her hostess room, from which she 
 presently emerged in a gorgeous yellow satin gown, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 153 
 
 with gold slippers. Her bodice glistened with won 
 derful diamonds, as did also her firm, white hands. 
 Her hair was formally yet elaborately dressed, and, 
 in a word, Mrs. St. John looked just about as unlike 
 a mining camp as though she had never been any 
 nearer a Montana ore-drill than London although, 
 as a matter of fact, she was born in the Camp during 
 the time when the pioneers had to keep an eye out for 
 the Indians, along with their other troubles. 
 
 Before Mr. St. John s fingers were warmed, another 
 carriage was heard being drawn, creakingly, up the hill, 
 and shortly Captain Leonard and Dr. Marsden came 
 in, in excellent spirits and their dinner coats instead 
 of their jackets. Most men in the Camp felt they 
 had made concession enough to civilisation when they 
 wore their jackets a coat meant that the wearer was 
 above average impressed by his invitation. 
 
 Three minutes past the hour and Mr. Barton 
 Colby was still missing. 
 
 Mrs. St. John, who always had a motherly, devoted 
 eye out for the boy, tried to keep her apprehensive 
 glance from the face of the clock, but with partial 
 success, only. She well knew the sinking fe-eling that 
 all of the Camp hostesses had whenever Barton was 
 expected. And this time she felt doubly anxious, for 
 she never liked to have any newcomer join the rest of 
 the world in smiling at her indulgent attitude toward 
 the boy. But it soothed her somewhat to look at 
 Eleanor, who, if she was disturbed, certainly did not 
 show it. 
 
 Seven minutes past the hour and there was an 
 awful rumbling, snorting, puffing, struggling sound 
 
154 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 heard at the foot of the hill. Everybody listened. 
 On and on it came, until the powerful Colby roadster 
 was heard outside being brought to a stand-still with 
 considerable rumpus. There were a few running steps, 
 then the door bell was rung like a quick call to a fire. 
 Mr. Colby was out of his coat in a second, having 
 given it a master hurl at the hat-rack while entering the 
 big room, almost upsetting Martha by the sheer force 
 of the wind he created in passing her. 
 
 u My! How time improves me!" he gasped, 
 grasping his hostess hand warmly, and automatically 
 acknowledging the others Captain Leonard getting 
 the least of his attention, and Mrs. St. John an under 
 standing smile. " Why, if this keeps up," the boy 
 hurried on, smiling, " I shall undoubtedly blow in on 
 time some day and be the cause of somebody s death 
 from surprise. I did pretty well to-night, didn t I, 
 Mrs. St. John? I made the distance from my rooms in 
 the club to the top of this hill in six minutes, including 
 one arrest the engine is working fine ! " 
 
 " And having been a lawyer, Mr. Colby, I suppose 
 you attended to the slight formalities of getting your 
 self un-arrested, without difficulty? " Eleanor asked. 
 
 " Oh yes!" the boy sweetly replied. "I have it 
 all fixed up with the police. I keep a bunch of signed 
 checks at the station and have told them to fill them in 
 as required not to bother me when I am on my way 
 somewhere. But I startled a new officer this evening 
 by marring his fresh shine and they cost fifteen cents 
 up here he wouldn t have cared so much for a five- 
 cent shine, probably. But having had a high class one, 
 he got an idea, stupidly, that I had hurt his foot." 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 155 
 
 Martha appeared with a tray of small glasses. 
 
 " Ah! " exclaimed the boy, good-naturedly, " Look! 
 Who says I don t herald luck? Cocktails hurray! " 
 
 Martha passed the tray, and then Captain Leonard 
 gracefully proposed, " To the coming of our hostess to 
 our Camp! " 
 
 " To the keeping of our hostess in our Camp!" 
 quickly added Mr. Colby. 
 
 And with the charming gaiety of good fellowship, 
 they all drank standing, after Eleanor s gracious bow 
 of acknowledgment. Then Martha announced dinner 
 served, and they found their places Eleanor with 
 Captain Leonard on her right, and Mr. St. John on her 
 left; Mrs. St. John with Mr. Colby on her right, and 
 Dr. Marsden on her left. 
 
 " How lovely you have made this house ! " remarked 
 Mrs. St. John to her hostess, opposite her, by way of 
 opening the conversation. 
 
 " It makes a lot of difference whether a man or 
 woman lives in a house, doesn t it?" Captain Leon 
 ard took up the thread. " Now, in good old Burns 
 day, we used to have a lot of fun up here, and all that 
 sort of thing, and we thought he had the best of taste 
 but the house is warmer now some way. A man s 
 house may be attractive, and even comfortable, but in 
 nine cases out of ten, it s cold." 
 
 " Our homes are generally conceded to be cold 
 places where you have hot times," commented Mr. 
 Colby. 
 
 " Not so bad," thought Dr. Marsden. 
 
 " I should be sorry to think of things being reversed," 
 Eleanor joined in. " It would be disappointing, in- 
 
156 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 deed, if women had warm homes where one had cold 
 times." 
 
 " That reminds me," Mr. St. John began in his de 
 liberate way, which invariably got close attention, for 
 Galvin St. John seldom spoke at all, unless circum 
 stances demanded it; " the Cuthberts are getting on 
 badly again they had a scene in the club dining 
 room again to-day. Strange they don t try to keep 
 their affairs more to themselves, isn t it? " 
 
 14 Why don t those two get a divorce and give the 
 town a rest from their everlasting squabbles, anyway? " 
 asked young Colby. 
 
 A pause threatened them here, for Mrs. St. John 
 suddenly became self-conscious, as though the subject 
 of divorce were, perhaps, ill-considered, as most per 
 sons took for granted their hostess was a divorcee, her 
 self. She glanced at Dr. Marsden appealingly, hoping 
 he would change the tenor of things but no indeed ! 
 The doctor ate biscuits and secretly prayed that some 
 thing interesting might be brought forth under pressure. 
 
 Mr. St. John having been the one to bring up the 
 Cuthberts (who were, incidentally, practically pub 
 lic property, they were so flagrant about their own af 
 fairs) still had enough interest, apparently, to wish 
 to continue the subject further. And this he did, as 
 suming that the worried glance his wife gave him, 
 meant nothing more than that he had got the wrong 
 fork again. He was not going to let the small-talk lag 
 if he could help it, so he went on, " Well, Barton, as a 
 lawyer, or a has-been lawyer, why don t you volunteer 
 to get the lady a decree ? " 
 
 " Now that s a splendid idea ! " Mr. Colby smiled 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 157 
 
 back. Then turning to his hostess, he said, u You 
 did not know what a versatile person I am, did you? 
 I can do almost anything for you but be on time. 
 I can take you motoring, wash the dishes, beau you 
 through a mine, or get you a divorce ! " 
 
 The uneasiness had worked its way to Captain 
 Leonard by now, and even Mr. St. John vaguely felt 
 something out of the ordinary, but he could not place 
 it. And noting the stillness, young Colby, himself, 
 wondered what was wrong. Things were on the 
 verge of being awkward, when as usual, Eleanor, her 
 self, took up the responsibility of the conversation. 
 
 With unflinching eyes that greatly puzzled Mrs. St. 
 John and Dr. Marsden, and with the pleasantest smile 
 imaginable, she looked at Mr. Colby and said, " You 
 are joking, aren t you? Or could you really get one 
 a divorce? " 
 
 If his hostess were not afraid of the subject of 
 separation, why should Barton Colby be? He wasn t. 
 He smiled back at her in his irresistible way, and re 
 plied, " Surely I can! Any time. I ll be delighted to 
 get you a divorce for a hundred dollars or six for 
 five hundred." 
 
 This called forth a nervous, relieved laugh from 
 Mrs. St. John, who remembered, only too well the last 
 time an effort was made to get some information out 
 of this woman concerning " Mr. Evanston." And so 
 the possible embarrassment passed by thank heaven ! 
 
 But immediately following this, another pause 
 seemed about to drop upon them, for some unknown 
 reason unless, possibly, the hostess was an outsider, 
 and the people of the Camp were rather personal in 
 
158 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 their dinner chat, and this time did not want to indulge 
 in their usual conversation to the exclusion of her. 
 They hardly knew for a second what to take up next. 
 
 Mr. Barton Colby was thinking very fast, and re 
 solving that he would rather take the brunt of the 
 work upon himself than to sit still a second longer and 
 listen to somebody say something about an angel pass 
 ing, or its being twenty minutes to the hour, or twenty 
 minutes after it. He was a high-strung youngster and 
 there were some things he simply could not stand 
 these space-fillers were among them. So it was that he 
 looked up brightly, and addressing the table at large, 
 said, " Before somebody says something we all know to 
 be true about -the weather, may I ask a question? 
 You remember, in comic opera, the way they usually 
 introduce some specialty like a topical song? " 
 
 This unexpected turn of things seemed to get the 
 interest firmly, and they all answered, like a badly 
 trained chorus, themselves, " Yes we know 
 why?" 
 
 Young Colby smiled and sighed, " Well, I hate to 
 talk about myself, but I feel it coming. Ever since I 
 have lived in this Camp I have been waiting for the 
 right stage setting in which to tell you of the time when 
 I was a lawyer. Here in this soft light, with the audi 
 ence all dressed up, its being society night, I think I 
 could confide that experience to you that is if I were 
 coyly urged and you fixed up an inspiring opening for 
 me. But my natural modesty forbids my suggesting 
 such a thing, myself." Then the boy took much 
 pains to study the design in the decoration on his 
 plate. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 159 
 
 Even Captain Leonard smiled at Colby s ingenuity 
 and his kindly effort to keep clear of lags in the verbal 
 part of this dinner. And Dr. Marsden went further 
 in taking up the humorous idea actively by saying, " I 
 elect myself the stage manager, and give you all notice 
 that we shall present a new light opera with no sing 
 ing, called * His Shyness and Her Highness, or Why 
 He Quit The Law. The curtain goes up, and you 
 will all write your own lines and deliver them to suit 
 yourselves. Mrs. Evanston, as the blond princess, you 
 will please open the play! " 
 
 It was all deliciously childish, and they gaily took 
 up the absurdity. 
 
 "Oh! where can my prince be?" sighed Eleanor, 
 leaning forward on her elbows, and closing her eyes, 
 her long dark lashes falling effectively on her white 
 cheeks. " Could the Law have kept him from 
 me?" 
 
 Young Colby looked up, on a broad grin, and re 
 marked softly, " May I trouble you, Sir Galvin, to pass 
 the princess hand that I may kiss it before explain 
 ing?" 
 
 Mr. St. John turned to his hostess, saying grandly, 
 " With your highness permission? " And picking up 
 her fingers, he placed them in Mr. Colby s hand, that 
 young man rising so that the lady might not be in 
 convenienced by having to move, herself. 
 
 Dr. Marsden craned his neck opposite and uttered 
 a protest as Mr. Colby s lips lingered a second on the 
 white fingers he so deferentially held fingers with 
 out a marriage band, Mrs. St. John noticed. " Cut 
 that out, Prince ! " commanded the doctor in his au- 
 
160 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 thority as the stage manager. " That s a real kiss, 
 and this is only a play! " 
 
 Mrs. St. John thought it was a real kiss, too, but 
 she managed to be silent. Captain Leonard scowled 
 at not having been cast as the leading man and 
 Martha was driven to the conclusion that everybody 
 was crazy, and asked the woman in the kitchen if she 
 thought they could have got anything wrong in the 
 cocktails. 
 
 Eleanor knew it was a real kiss. 
 
 " I will tell you * all, Princess," young Colby said, 
 in his most winning way which was at times, very, 
 very winning, " but another day when we two are 
 off together, out of ear-shot of these prying supers. I 
 meant to tell you what I did to the Law; then what the 
 Law did to me ! But I can t the joy of seeing you 
 again is so great, I cannot think of myself. The 
 chorus will testify that I am fascinated far, far beyond 
 the usual limits won t you, chorus? " 
 
 " I should say we would ! " they came in, as expected. 
 
 " But I thank you for the pretty introduction; and 
 deep is my regret at having to continue to keep this 
 ripping good story from you, yet a little while. Now 
 I can think of nothing but the Princess." 
 
 And this chapter in the history of Mr. Barton Colby 
 this chapter on the Law, which always sounded so 
 full of possibilities was still kept secret, and no 
 amount of urging could draw it from " his shyness." 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 A FTER dinner the party wandered about the big 
 *\ room, looking over the rows and rows of books 
 that Mr. Burns had left in the house, and the pictures 
 and little things everywhere that belonged to the pres 
 ent tenant. Everyone seemed to feel very much at 
 home and quite happy; and at this particular moment, 
 a group of four over at the fireplace were discussing 
 a possible game of bridge, while Captain Leonard and 
 Eleanor were at the piano, where the lady sat idly run 
 ning arpeggios up and down the keyboard, the man 
 standing beside her, chatting. 
 
 " By Jove ! " the Captain suddenly exclaimed, catch 
 ing sight of the one flower before the brown photo 
 graph, " one orchid, eh? Well, this reminds me of 
 No. 5 Quartz Club Building ! " 
 
 "It does? Why?" asked Eleanor, hoping sin 
 cerely she did not appear to be as interested as she was. 
 
 Her guest did not answer directly, but asked, as if 
 feeling his way a bit, " Where did you get the idea of 
 having just one flower? " 
 
 " That is about the only idea I was born with, Cap 
 tain," she smiled up at him. " A flower is loveliest 
 when one sees it all by itself I think. Don t you? " 
 
 A shrewd, humorous expression came into the Cap 
 tain s clear eye as he drew a shade nearer and spoke 
 in lower tones, saying, " Do you know anything about 
 one orchid that comes to our place every once in a 
 while?" 
 
1 62 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " One orchid your place every once in a 
 while? " Eleanor repeated, with that trick of hers that 
 always made people talk on, without getting their own 
 questions answered first. 
 
 The man continued, " Don t you know anything 
 about one orchid that arrives by special messenger, 
 every now and then? I mean the orchid that is at 
 once placed in a tall, becoming vase, and set tenderly 
 on the piano, with a string of smilax or something 
 gently dangling down toward the music rack where it 
 might get in your eye if you weren t careful? " 
 
 The lady puckered up her delicate little face in a 
 puzzled way and used the same old bait again, ef 
 fectively. " A string of smilax or something? " she 
 gasped in a wee, high voice. 
 
 " A string of smilax exactly," Captain Leonard 
 assured her, watching her closely. " And there is 
 never a card enclosed. Can you help solve the mys 
 tery, Mrs. Evanston? " 
 
 " I wish I could! " she said cordially. " But can t 
 the florist aid you?" 
 
 " He swears he can t," dolefully confided the Cap 
 tain. " He either does not know who buys the single 
 flower or else, he is bribed to keep mum." 
 
 " How disappointing of the florist!" sympathetic 
 ally remarked the lady. Then pondering a moment as 
 though the affair were of great importance, she spoke 
 again this time to foil the Captain, utterly. " And 
 have you had the delightful impertinence to think I 
 might have been sending you single orchids, just be 
 cause you happen to run onto one lying on my piano 
 colossal person? " she asked, amused to a broad smile. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 163 
 
 The Captain leaned still farther forward over the 
 piano, so that he faced the lady, squarely, " I supposed 
 you understood," he began slowly, " that the orchid 
 does not come to me at all it is always addressed to 
 Mr. Stone with whom I live." 
 
 "O-oh! I see!" she replied, with an expression 
 that made the Captain say to himself that she was cer 
 tainly a wonderful actress if she was acting! Then 
 she went on pleasantly, " It is awfully good of you, 
 Captain, to let me into the secret. It makes one feel 
 like an accepted member of a community to be included 
 in its jokes it s the most subtle of flatteries. I 
 promise I won t tell a soul. And I am ever so much 
 entertained, for I once had a moment s chat with Mr. 
 Stone Mr. Colby introduced us over the telephone. 
 Wasn t that unique of him? You ll tell me who is pay 
 ing him this quaint attention when you find out your 
 self, won t you? " 
 
 Then the Captain wished very much that he had said 
 nothing. He looked about for a suggestion for a re 
 mark or two upon some other subject. His eye 
 naturally rested on the one photograph. He began 
 studying it, with interest and the intention of avoid 
 ing giving the impression of being curious. Eleanor 
 watched him, covertly. 
 
 " That s rather extraordinary ! " he volunteered at 
 last. " This picture looks a good deal like Thorny 
 it looks like a younger brother. The shape of the two 
 heads is marked, and the eyes are strikingly alike. 
 But Thorny never wears a beard." 
 
 " So Mrs. St. John told me," said the lady. " She 
 thought there was a decided resemblance, herself." 
 
164 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Don t you think they are very much alike ?" the 
 Captain asked, wondering if it might please her to say 
 something concerning this, the only photograph she 
 cared to have in evidence in her house, apparently. 
 
 But again he was put off. 
 
 " Ever since I have been here," Eleanor told him, 
 " I have been hearing that I should meet Mr. Stone 
 or that I should not meet him (I don t remember 
 which) but only once have I caught a glimpse of 
 him. This was rather a fleeting glimpse at the country 
 club one day, and on that occasion I did not think to 
 compare the two faces. But surely the likeness must 
 be marked, or you all would hardly be of the same 
 opinion." She lightly ran the chromatic scale, and 
 then looked up and remarked, " How much photog 
 raphy improves from year to year, doesn t it? " And 
 the topic of Mr. Crathorne Stone had but one course 
 open to it, and that was to consider itself passed by. 
 
 Just here, anyway, they were interrupted by Mr. 
 Barton Colby, who joined them with the statement that 
 they wanted to play a rubber of bridge at the other 
 side of the room, but they would not stand for his 
 game. Although his feelings were cut to the core, he 
 explained, he felt, nevertheless, that he would have to 
 give up his place to the Captain if his hostess were 
 still of the opinion she did not wish to play, her 
 self. 
 
 The Captain was well contented just where he was, 
 as no one better appreciated than young Colby, but 
 what could he do after this? Mr. Colby s bridge was 
 quite good enough to keep him in cigarettes which 
 was good enough bridge for anybody but he had 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 165 
 
 piloted his own little canoe to the landing stage that 
 best pleased his fancy the piano. And he was de 
 lighted both ways; at being with the lady himself, but 
 especially at upsetting the Captain s evident plans for a 
 long chat with her. 
 
 The boy glanced after the retreating figure of the 
 Captain, when that young man, with his usual grace, 
 bowed himself off to fill in at cards, and he dryly re 
 marked, " It seems to me that Cap didn t look as grate 
 ful as he should at being allowed in the game. Was 
 he as amused over here as he looked Princess? " 
 
 " I cannot speak for him Lawyer," she sweetly 
 replied. 
 
 The boy pretended to listen to Eleanor s pretty 
 chords a moment, then he said with gentle audacity, 
 " Princess is a good name for you it says so much 
 so concisely." 
 
 " Does it?" the lady asked, dreamily. "I never 
 encountered a princess but once." Then she smiled 
 adorably. 
 
 " Well, when you * encountered her," the boy 
 smiled back, " did she have crowds of soft, dark hair 
 and eyes that were like the eyes in a fine portrait 
 eyes that give the idea of depth and colour without any 
 use being made of hard lines? And did she wear 
 dresses that that sort of expressed her eyes ? " 
 
 Eleanor either did not recognise the daring attempt 
 to describe herself, or else she did not see fit to show 
 she realised young Colby s meaning. Neither Colby 
 nor anyone else could have told which, by looking at 
 her, as she drew forth some rich minor chords from the 
 piano, glancing first at the boy and then at the key- 
 
166 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 board, and not paying any particular attention to either 
 of them. 
 
 " N-no," she finally relieved him. " No, not this 
 princess. Princesses are always more or less disil 
 lusioning, you know? " 
 
 " Are they? " the boy questioned. " Perhaps, how 
 ever, play-princesses are not? " 
 
 " I never knew any play-princesses," Eleanor replied 
 impersonally, yet thoughtfully. 
 
 " You know," young Colby began, reaching for a 
 chair, " you are awfully clever? " 
 
 Eleanor smiled upon him and made answer, " I like 
 to hear you say that, but I am honest enough to feel 
 I ought to confide to you that you are terribly mistaken. 
 If I had been clever, I should have had you talking to 
 me of things worth while, long ago." She played a 
 little refrain of some dreamy thing, and then looked up 
 with a new line of ideas entirely. " Tell me," she said, 
 " when one is the manager of a great copper mine, is 
 his office down under the earth, half-way to China, 
 too?" 
 
 The possibility of such a thing seemed to amuse 
 young Colby, but he saw she was sincere. " What ever 
 made you think they had offices underground?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " They tell strangers such marvellous things that it 
 is only natural we should be confused," she explained. 
 " Why couldn t they have an easy thing like an office 
 underground, when they find a way to keep horses and 
 mules down there, year in and year out? I knew they 
 were joking when they told me they always smelted 
 the mules when they died, to get back the high grade 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 167 
 
 copper they had breathed in, but I did not expect to 
 convulse you by the mental picture of a roll-top desk 
 down there." 
 
 " I won t laugh at you," the boy politely comforted 
 her. " But as a matter of fact, my office, like those of 
 other miners, is on top of the earth near the entrance 
 to the mine, in a perfectly good little building with 
 steam heat, telephones, change-rooms for the engineers 
 with shower baths and the daily papers it s quite as 
 neat as the Waldorf, even if not so much gilded up. 
 But you must visit us at the mine sometime. We can 
 get up a party and we can fix you up in some old clothes 
 we keep for visitors. You ll look rather different from 
 the way you do now you ll have an old skirt, a man s 
 coat and a battered hat and handsome gum-shoes and 
 a miner s candle-stick, and we will let you down in a 
 cage 2500 feet without a stop that is, unless the 
 cable snaps half-way down." 
 
 " Might I keep the miner s candle-stick that is, if 
 the cable stands the strain until we got back to land? 
 I have always wanted a miner s candle-stick an old 
 one with candle-grease and rust on it to show it had 
 
 seen service." 
 
 " I should say not! " seriously the boy cautioned her. 
 "If they caught you stealing a candle-stick, Mullins, 
 our big shift-boss would arrest you and make you travel 
 up and down an hour in our most rickety cage." 
 
 " Why? " she gasped, just like a small child. 
 
 " Because ! " Mr. Colby sternly enlightened her. 
 "In the first place it is a bad no-no to steal; second 
 place we all get tired of visiting ladies doing the same 
 stunt; third place, Mullins likes to escort ladies down 
 
1 68 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 the shaft they always get horror-stricken and having 
 nowhere to jump but into his arms, that s what they 
 generally do, and Mullins doesn t mind. However, 
 I could get you a miner s candle-stick, myself. But 
 what would you do with it if you had it? " 
 
 " Oh," Eleanor told him, " I would lay the candle 
 stick on my desk, I suppose." 
 
 " What for? " the boy questioned her. 
 
 " Oh I can t say, exactly," she replied, in a dear 
 little way. 
 
 " Now Til tell you what I will do," the boy bar 
 gained, enjoying every moment of this useless conver 
 sation, " I ll give you a miner s candle-stick, if you will 
 give me that one orchid on the piano." 
 
 " But if I did, what would you do with it? " Eleanor 
 asked. 
 
 " Oh," the boy hesitated with a vague look of amuse 
 ment, " I might stick it in a long, slim vase and put it 
 on my piano, I suppose." 
 
 " What for? " Eleanor asked, in her turn now. 
 
 " Oh," he mimicked her in a veiled sort of way, " I 
 can t say, exactly." 
 
 Considering Captain Leonard s revelation of a few 
 moments before, this suggestion struck Eleanor with 
 some significance. What was this joke, anyway? 
 She smiled faintly, not appreciating that young Colby 
 would be able to detect any change of expression. 
 
 But Mr. Barton Colby missed very little that was 
 to be seen as he tore through life, running into a story, 
 here in his sturdy motor car, and whirling about and 
 running out of a story, there. " I thought this would 
 interest you ! " he remarked, guardedly. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 169 
 
 Now Eleanor did not know what to say. Perhaps 
 the two references to an orchid in a tall vase were noth 
 ing more, after all, than a coincidence, and to take up 
 the subject with Mr. Colby might prove to be a mis 
 take. So, after a moment, she said simply, " Yes 
 it all interests me very much particularly the candle 
 stick. Shall I have to wait long for it? " 
 
 " I have a bad memory, but the flower will help me 
 to remember this time," he said. 
 
 And just here the bridge game ended itself, and the 
 party gathered together about the fragrant wood fire 
 for a little while, before someone insisted it was time, 
 and long past time, to go. 
 
 Mr. Colby took the St. Johns home in his roadster, 
 and the other men decided to walk it was such an 
 exceptionally clear, nice night. So, after a diverting 
 evening, they all left, calling back their good nights to 
 the lovely woman in the doorway. 
 
 Eleanor wandered restlessly about a few moments, 
 and then went over to close the piano. Mr. Barton 
 Colby had forgotten the orchid just like a man. 
 The lady held it, now wilted somewhat, and tried to 
 decide whether she was disappointed at the boy s in 
 difference, or relieved that he did not take it, and pos 
 sibly have some fun with it that might might what? 
 What matter was it, really, whether he took it or not? 
 But about those single orchids at No. 5 Quartz Club 
 Building who or what was back of them, and what 
 concern could it possibly be of hers, Eleanor asked her 
 self. 
 
 Then she collected the ash-receivers and emptied 
 them. She seemed to require some kind of activity. 
 
170 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 In replacing the tray that belonged on her desk, she 
 dropped into a chair there, staring and tired. " It s 
 all very well when someone is here," she said to her 
 self, sadly. " It s all as pretty and gay and sweet as 
 can be, then. But when the party is broken up and 
 gone away away down this hill how unbearably 
 still it is ! " And she threw herself forward onto her 
 arms, on the opened leaf of the desk, but the unex 
 pected chill of the nickel-plated telephone instrument 
 standing there, made itself felt on her cheek, and she 
 slowly raised herself again, and looked at the thing. 
 
 She drew it to her and studied it as though there 
 were just the chance it might be able to answer ques 
 tions. Like someone acting from an impulse and an 
 energy not within herself, perhaps as though she were 
 a tool of fate, she deliberately registered 1692. 
 
 It was late, and she knew it was not the thing to do, 
 but a force from somewhere ran down into her hand, 
 and she pressed the button that rang the bell at No. 5 
 Quartz Club Building. 
 
 It seemed a long time before the sleepy and none too 
 pleased voice of Mr. Crathorne Stone replied. 
 
 The brown eyes that belonged on the top of Copper 
 Hill, were closed, and an accurate hand silently slipped 
 the receiver back into its hook. Somebody was with 
 out words. When she buried her tired head in her 
 arms the second time, she did not rise for a long while. 
 She had heard the voice she wanted to hear heard 
 it storming because it got no answer ! and she was 
 very still so that the memory of it might stay. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 TpHE next morning found Eleanor tired and very 
 - nervous, but determined, withal, for she had 
 reached several decisions. One of them was to keep 
 out-of-doors more. She would ride somebody had 
 told her that Me. Queene had some excellent horses, 
 and she had brought her own saddle with her. She 
 had stopped riding when all her other old interests had 
 ceased to divert her. 
 
 Yes, she would ride she would send for a horse 
 this very day ! But so many references had been made 
 in her hearing to how unsafe it was for a woman to 
 venture far from the Camp alone, that she hesitated a 
 moment. But something she had forgotten now oc 
 curred to her the renegade s pistol. 
 
 She pulled open the drawer in which she had put the 
 thing, and she took it out and looked it over, sus 
 piciously. It was a weapon of standard make, not too 
 heavy, and it carried a medium-sized bullet, plenty 
 large enough to do its work. Never having handled 
 a revolver, Eleanor was a shade apologetic in her atti 
 tude toward this one she seemed worried lest it turn 
 around and look at her, or something. She stepped 
 out onto the porch and pointing at the ground a few 
 feet away, she closed her eyes and snapped the trigger, 
 smiling at the possibility of alarming Martha. But 
 there was no report. Then she examined it more 
 freely, discovering that it was quite empty and very 
 dirty, and she found out how one loaded it. Suddenly 
 
 171 
 
172 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 she recalled a shop just off the main street of the town 
 where there were firearms in the window and hunting 
 knives and such things, so she went into the house, 
 slipped the gun into a hand bag, and made herself ready 
 for the street and a walk in the good sunshine. 
 
 The young man at the sporting goods place, seemed 
 most reluctant to sell the lady a whole box of bullets 
 he plainly showed he wondered if she wouldn t be do 
 ing enough damage with one or two. And as he oblig 
 ingly explained to her the weapon she laid down on 
 the counter, he noted that she wore black and looked 
 terribly pathetic and serious, and he thought of lot of 
 things including prospective suicides. The mischievous 
 girl caught his feeling of apprehension, and amused 
 herself by asking him all sorts of disturbing questions 
 what was the best place to aim at when one wanted 
 to stop a man, but not kill him; was it true that 
 when one sent a bullet into the roof of the mouth, 
 the result was permanent, and several other little 
 things that naturally would not add to the clerk s com 
 fort. 
 
 Eleanor learned that one might practice shooting 
 anywhere a mile outside of the " city limits " without 
 fear of arrest. And, oh yes ! of course one was sup 
 posed to get a permit to carry concealed weapons, but 
 the clerk " bet " he could round up ten men in twenty 
 minutes who had carried guns for years and who never 
 consulted the chief of police before they got into 
 trouble. He didn t think the lady need bother about 
 anybody s permission to do what she liked. 
 
 And when the new customer left the shop, the clerk 
 resolved to read all the horrors in to-morrow s papers, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 173 
 
 and he sincerely hoped there would not be any brown 
 eyes mixed up in them. 
 
 As for Eleanor, she went straight home with an 
 additional purchase of a tube of white vaseline and a 
 box of absorbent cotton. And once inside, she went 
 to the kitchen for some silver polish, and returned to 
 her desk by way of her own room where she got a lot 
 of small things that might do as ramrods, but which 
 didn t help as much as her hat pin, after all; and then, 
 turning her toes in in her intense interest, she cleaned 
 up the revolver and loaded it. 
 
 Martha came in to lay the luncheon table, and asked 
 the lady the same little question twice before she no 
 ticed her, and then what she said had no bearing upon 
 the things Martha wanted to know. " Martha," 
 Eleanor began, not looking up, " you know, don t you, 
 that Dr. LeRoy is nearer me and my affairs than any 
 body else? You remember I asked you to write down 
 his New York address in the back of the cook book? 
 Well, don t forget where to find it, if you ever need it. 
 And Martha, you d better get back in the kitchen until 
 I finish fooling with this thing it might go off any 
 time. I am going to be a dangerous wild-and-woolly 
 Westerner! " 
 
 u I guess it s safe enough until you put back those 
 bullets you just took out, isn t it? " grimly asked the 
 maid. 
 
 " Well," remarked her mistress, wisely, :< you 
 mustn t forget that more people are killed annually, 
 Martha, with so called * unloaded guns, than die in 
 open fight. Aren t you scared stiff?" 
 
 " No, Mrs. Evan." 
 
174 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 At two o clock that afternoon, there was a boy out 
 side putting Eleanor s saddle and bridle on a very good- 
 looking horse, while inside the lady was holding a 
 loaded weapon and looking a little helpless. It was a 
 problem to know what to do with the gun, for she had 
 no holster, and she would have been ashamed to hang 
 it from her belt, probably, if she had had one. She 
 thought of the little pocket under the pommel on the 
 right side of her conventional side-saddle but she 
 well knew it was too small to hold a big pistol. She 
 had only one available pocket in her habit a tiny 
 breast pocket for her handkerchief, the other pockets 
 being sewed up, so that she should never be tempted to 
 carry anything in them and spoil the lines of her coat. 
 But if she went out for a ride that pistol was going too, 
 so there ! 
 
 In a moment Martha appeared to see her mistress 
 looking vaguely amused, and most attractive in her rid 
 ing skirt, buttoned up for walking, smart boots, well- 
 cut coat and three-cornered hat and a bar of pearls 
 in her stock. In her hands were her gloves and her 
 whip. 
 
 " Martha," she began seriously, " do you notice any 
 thing peculiar about me? " 
 
 The maid looked her over carefully, and replied 
 solemnly, " No, Mrs. Evan, nothing." 
 
 " Now look well, Martha ! Don t I suggest more 
 weight on one side than the other? " 
 
 The mystified Martha glanced at her shoulders and 
 hips and feet, and gravely answered, " No, madame." 
 
 " Now Martha, honestly, don t I give the general 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 175 
 
 impression of going in for false pretences some way or 
 other?" 
 
 Martha would not have smiled to have saved any 
 body s life she hadn t for years so forgotten herself 
 but she was tolerant of her little charge s playful 
 ness, and politely replied, " No, Mrs. Evan, you look 
 perfectly square to me." 
 
 " Well, Martha, if anybody told you I had a gun 
 on me, where would you say I carried it? " 
 
 The maid studied the smiling, girlish creature before 
 her, mentally estimating how much room there was in 
 the crown of her hat, then she quietly announced, " If 
 you ve got that pistol with you, I should say you had 
 eaten it, Mrs. Evan." 
 
 " Thank you, Martha ! " gaily laughed Eleanor. 
 " I feel much easier now, but I want to say one or two 
 things before I start out. In the first place, Martha, 
 if I am brought in here, shot in the foot, I don t want 
 any local surgeon chopping it off I ll take my chances 
 with blood poisoning. I have that gun in my left boot 
 on the outside, and its cold nose is right down on my 
 ankle bone, and it makes me feel rather crowded. But 
 you won t worry about me, will you, Martha?" 
 
 " Not if I can help it, Mrs. Evan," stoically prom 
 ised the maid. 
 
 The stable boy outside thought the new lady in town 
 was queer about starting off. She refused to allow him 
 to give her a hand up, but instead, she led the horse 
 around to the back of the place and mounted from an 
 old keg while he held the beast at the bit. She said 
 she liked to get on alone, and she would not permit 
 
176 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 him or Martha, either, to pull her skirt into place 
 she seemed to be watchful for the worst. 
 
 "Do I seem all right, Martha?" she called back, 
 meaningly, to the serious person in the doorway. 
 
 " Fine ! " reported Martha. 
 
 Then with a smile, and the spirit of a true horse* 
 woman, she directed " Nickel " as the boy had called 
 the handsome horse, toward the valley which ran down 
 west of the camp, disappearing over the back of Cop 
 per Hill. 
 
 It had been a long time since she had had a ride 
 and my! but it sent the glad blood dancing through her 
 as she reached the foot of the hill and went off at a 
 gallop ! 
 
 At the end of two hours, a horse and his rider were 
 seen starting up the town side of Copper Hill, quieted 
 down a little, but not too tired. 
 
 Martha, who had stationed herself at one of the 
 front windows to watch for her gentle mistress, sighed 
 a sigh of relief and went back to the kitchen so that 
 she might appear as ungracious and unfeeling as ever 
 though she found more than her usual difficulty in 
 hiding her true devotion. 
 
 " Did you worry about me, Martha? " sweetly asked 
 the lady as she slipped off the horse at the back door, 
 conscious of her knees which seemed uncertain after the 
 first ride in so long. 
 
 " No, Mrs. Evan," answered the maid, unemotion 
 ally. 
 
 " I wager you did, and that you just won t own it ! " 
 gaily retorted the little woman, coming in and watch- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 177 
 
 ing Martha struggle to tie Nickel to the clothes-line 
 post, and showing she prayed he might be decent 
 enough not to step on her. 
 
 Martha was too much engaged to notice this banter, 
 so the lady went on, " You ought to have seen me prac 
 ticing marksmanship, Martha nothing like it was 
 ever seen before, even in Buffalo Bill s show! I tied 
 Nickel to a stake that marked out a mining claim, and 
 then I put a tin can on a rock and aimed at it. 
 Gracious ! It gave me a start ! But Nickel didn t 
 seem to mind at all, and later I shot from his back, and 
 he didn t resent it in the least. Possibly he has been 
 used in hunting, or else he is a real Westerner. It was 
 quite exciting, really 1 expected a posse of deputies 
 and things such as one reads about in magazine stories, 
 to dash up in a cloud of dust and arrest me, and I was 
 horribly disappointed when nothing happened, and the 
 only teamster that went by on that lonely road simply 
 turned and grinned at me." 
 
 " Did you hit anything? " sceptically asked Martha, 
 dodging the friendly, sniffling nose of the horse, having 
 completed a knot that it would take a burglar to get 
 into. 
 
 " Oh my, yes ! " proudly Eleanor assured her. " I 
 hit the side of the mountain, and the middle of the road 
 and a deserted shaft-house and various other small ob 
 jects ! But it won t be long until I can get the can, and 
 it s crowds of fun. By the way, Martha, when the boy 
 comes, tell him I want him to take my saddle to a har 
 ness maker s and have a new pig s skin pocket put on 
 where the little one is now twice the size of that 
 one, you understand. I shall carry the revolver in it 
 
178 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 in the future. And tell him to bring the same horse 
 every day, unless I notify him to the contrary, no mat 
 ter what the weather is." 
 
 " Yes, madame," Martha acknowledged her instruc 
 tions, as together they closed the kitchen door, having 
 cooled off the house pretty thoroughly without mean 
 ing to do so. 
 
 Eleanor went straight through to the fireplace in the 
 big room, but no sooner had she sunk onto the divan, 
 than the old dread of being too much alone came upon 
 her. She had had a respite from her mental suffering, 
 but now it faced her afresh, and while she could not 
 have placed her dread to any one thought or circum 
 stance, still the old, dull pain was at her again and 
 she was tired, and the pain was rested. 
 
 There is a natural drop from a happy, bright party 
 one evening, to a silent dinner by oneself, the next. 
 Ah ! She had the solution ready she would not eat ! 
 But, on second thoughts, she knew this would never do 
 it signified surrender and it mocked her for her 
 weakness. No, she would face it squarely it would 
 be no better to-morrow or the day after, or the day 
 after that, perhaps. 
 
 Someone to dine with her? Oh, the idea was all very 
 well, she told herself sarcastically, but had she not ex 
 hausted her list of possibilities last evening? She 
 glanced at the backs of the well-bound volumes of the 
 works of Sir Walter Scott. " I wonder," she mur 
 mured, " if I would be in any better condition to com 
 bat the attacks life makes on us poor mortals, if I had 
 waded through all that good literature at the age when 
 one has the patience and the time to do it? Well 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 179 
 
 it s too late now anything but such an alternative 
 for me ! " 
 
 Sir Walter having failed to offer comfort, the rest 
 less brown eyes roved still farther on around the room 
 and stopped at the one photograph on the piano. 
 The lady sprang to her feet, saying aloud, " Now the 
 matter is settled and I am beaten and proved to be 
 a coward. I cannot stay alone." And at the same in 
 stant a way out of her difficulties presented itself. 
 
 She picked up the telephone directory. " Now let 
 me see ! " she thought. " Would the number be apt 
 to be under her own name, or her aunt s? The logical 
 man-mind would refer us to our own observations. 
 Therefore, let us turn to the NTs. Here we are! 
 Montgomery, Miss Stella, Bryn Mawr Avenue yes. 
 1418 oh, very well! And I did not have to have 
 read forty-seven volumes of Scott to find it, either! " 
 
 Miss Montgomery answered the call, herself, and if 
 Eleanor had anticipated running into any indications of 
 resentment on the part of that young woman because 
 she had not been asked to the dinner the evening be 
 fore, she soon found she was mistaken. Miss Stella 
 Montgomery expressed herself sincerely as being 
 charmed to dine alone with her that night at seven. 
 
 " That will be very nice," pleasantly assented the 
 prospective hostess. " We shall have a most exclusive 
 gathering then! It is good of you to come so in 
 formally I can t say how much I appreciate it. I 
 will have a carriage at your door at a quarter to seven. 
 Until then, thank you, and good luck ! " 
 
 Eleanor started for her room to take off the habit 
 and slip into a flowing robe for a little rest before it 
 
i8o THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 was time to dress. In passing the neat row of books 
 that always met her wherever she went, a silent re 
 minder of the many things she ought to have done, yet 
 had not done, she smiled faintly, saying, " Another 
 time, Sir Walter, though I know we shall be forced to 
 meet each other nearer, yet And now my natural in 
 genuity has taken the place of learning again, and 
 helped me to thwart fate once more. I shall not dine 
 alone thank heaven ! " 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 AS the dinner hour approached, Eleanor stood ir 
 resolute, her hand on the knob of the closet door. 
 " I can t decide what to wear on this remarkable oc 
 casion," she informed herself. " I should say the best 
 thing would be a suit of armour, but alas! I haven t 
 one. However, velvet is thick." And she drew forth 
 a simple pale grey gown, made in long, unbroken 
 lines. In one light the fabric seemed to be plain, soft 
 velvet, yet in another, it transformed itself into a 
 sheet of tiny silver stripes. The transparent sleeves 
 were of silver lace, and the low cut neck was finished 
 by some sort of silver fluff held in place by a great 
 cloth-of-silver rose with a solitaire diamond in its heart. 
 
 Eleanor soon stepped into the big room, worlds more 
 excited than she was before last evening s guests ar 
 rived, for some reason she could not explain to herself. 
 If anything ever made Eleanor s cheeks pink, the idea 
 of dining alone with this new acquaintance who half 
 attracted her and half repelled her, would have done 
 so, but she was always white, although her eyes grew 
 deeper and browner under the stress, and her sensitive 
 mouth was smiling, in spite of her nervousness. 
 
 Miss Montgomery was punctual, and as Martha 
 opened the door, she swept into the room in a hand 
 some white opera cape and a vast, gorgeous black hat, 
 both of which she removed instantly and handed to 
 Martha, with the calm assurance of a woman who has 
 dressed at home, and knows that fussing with hand 
 
 181 
 
i8a THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 mirrors and powder puffs in other people s houses can 
 not improve her. 
 
 She and Eleanor met at the fireplace and shook 
 hands firmly, but wonderingly. 
 
 Miss Montgomery had by intention or accident, 
 dressed as nearly after the style preferred by her 
 hostess as her wardrobe permitted. She was all that 
 was commanding in a black satin gown, her only orna 
 ments being long, black onyx ear-rings and one only 
 one splendid, daring red rose. 
 
 The two opposite types of women of infinitely dif 
 ferent traditions and environment, and natures remote 
 from each other, made an interesting picture as they 
 stood together before the burning logs. They were 
 of about the same height, which surprised them both, 
 for Miss Montgomery always seemed very tall, and 
 the world had always used the word " little " when 
 speaking of Eleanor the diminutive adjective prob 
 ably being suggested by her delicacy of feature and 
 plaintiveness of manner, rather than by her stature it 
 self. 
 
 To glance at the hostess and her guest one would 
 naturally suppose the sounds around them to consist of 
 those of a city street, outside; and inside, the faint 
 strains of an orchestra and voices. But here, besides 
 their own commonplaces, there was no sound except 
 that of a long train of ore cars madly rushing by at the 
 foot of the hill on its way to the smelters down the val- 
 ley. 
 
 Martha appeared with a tiny tray and two glasses. 
 
 u Oh?" gasped Miss Montgomery. "A real 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 183 
 
 party? But how did you know I ever indulged? " 
 
 " I didn t know, exactly," laughed Eleanor, " I just 
 took the chance." 
 
 And it could hardly have been said to reflect unusual 
 powers of discernment to have taken this risk, for there 
 was nothing about Miss Montgomery, certainly, to 
 suggest the ingenue. She did not look old, to be sure, 
 but she did give the impression of being versed in a 
 number of things, among which might be unkindly men 
 tioned the possible use of rouge. The Camp, when it 
 wearied of quarrelling over Miss Montgomery s age, 
 always reverted to her colour and to the alleged devo 
 tion of Messrs. Mansfield Crawford Kerr and Carl 
 Heilberg " in the good old days." 
 
 The Camp never got anywhere in particular on either 
 theme. 
 
 "What a lovely rose you are wearing! " ventured 
 Eleanor as they went over to the dining table. 
 
 "Isn t it?" remarked Miss Montgomery. "I 
 adore one rose. I have never heard of another woman 
 who was silly enough to insist that her friends send her 
 just one flower, instead of a huge box of them, which 
 most men want to do." 
 
 At this very moment, there was one flower lying on 
 the piano in front of the one photograph there, and 
 Eleanor instantly thought of it, and resolved, some 
 way or other, to get it out of sight before Miss Mont 
 gomery s penetrating blue eyes discovered it. She 
 hardly knew why. 
 
 The dinner started off better than the hostess had 
 hoped, when Miss Montgomery looked up from her 
 
1 84 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 bouillon, and said evidently with genuine feeling, " I 
 am so glad you asked me to-night, Mrs. Evanston, in 
 stead of last night." 
 
 Apparently everybody in town knew about last night ! 
 
 This was a subject, however, the hostess, herself, 
 would have avoided, but seeing there was nothing to 
 fear from it, she smiled back, " Are you why? " 
 
 " Oh," began Miss Stella Montgomery, thought 
 fully, "how can I express it? I suppose when we 
 reach the milestone in life when we are asked to the 
 big entertainments, or to small affairs to fill in at the 
 last moment for old times sake, we are apt to notice 
 a special attention. Being asked here, alone, is some 
 thing like receiving one rose it stands for some 
 thing." 
 
 It has never failed yet that when two persons are 
 given the chance, they try, instinctively, to get at the 
 things in each other s heads that pique their interest 
 one or the other becomes personal in preference to re 
 maining in cold, good form. It is always so ; therefore, 
 it was true this time, but it came a little sooner than 
 the hostess expected it, and she didn t have an answer 
 where she could reach out and get it quickly. This hap 
 pens sometimes, too. 
 
 Miss Montgomery, having made what seemed to be 
 an effective start, went on, not rudely, but with cold 
 humour and disarming directness, " What this cosy little 
 dinner stands for, I have not yet fathomed." 
 
 " I don t think there is any deep-laid plot, Miss 
 Montgomery," Eleanor lightly rippled back, having 
 got her breath again, " but I suggest that your being 
 asked alone, stands for selfishness as much as anything. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 185 
 
 I did not want anyone else, so I have inflicted myself 
 upon you without relief. Your taking such a sweet 
 view of it, however, quite embarrasses me! " 
 
 " I won t say anything more about it, then," the blond 
 girl promised. " But I could not help wondering, you 
 see, for new people rarely like me, and the old ones 
 are more or less tired of me, having found out all there 
 is to know about me, a long time ago." 
 
 This sad little truth all dressed up in the becoming 
 garb of a humorous inflection, was surely not made as 
 an invitation to Eleanor to take it up and contradict it. 
 It was impersonal in its tone quite as much so as any 
 passing comment on the weather or humanity in general. 
 
 A smile was all that the hostess thought best to award 
 this remark, but she chose the small opening that it 
 afforded to say, " You have always had wonderfully 
 good times out here, haven t you? I have been most 
 amused by the few snatches of reminiscence I have 
 caught. The extraordinary Mr. Heilberg, for in 
 stance, appeals to one s imagination. You knew him, 
 of course? " 
 
 " Oh my, yes! " Miss Montgomery owned, with the 
 Camp smile the one everybody wore when Heil- 
 berg s name was mentioned his friends from habit 
 and his enemies because they were ashamed to be dis 
 tinguished from his friends by frowning and thus show 
 ing how easy they had been in " dear old Carl s " shrewd 
 clutches. 
 
 "And was he fascinating?" Eleanor wished to 
 know. 
 
 " He certainly was, and doubtless still is! " stoutly 
 the girl defended him. 
 
1 86 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Why? " Eleanor next persisted. 
 
 " I hardly know why," Miss Montgomery replied. 
 " Possibly one reason is that he was so awfully bad and 
 so sweet about it. He did everything a man ought not 
 to do. He lived as he liked, which was not in accord 
 ance with the way everybody thought he ought to be 
 have. He set a miserable example which many of our 
 promising young men have thought it smart to follow, 
 utterly lacking his force to see it through successfully; 
 but everybody had to tolerate Carl." 
 
 " Why did they? " gently urged the hostess. 
 
 Miss Montgomery reflected before answering; then, 
 without the least intention of being funny, she earnestly 
 explained, " Well, you see out here, about the only 
 things you can go in for, are a good time and the al 
 mighty dollar and if you stop to get squeamish at 
 every turn, you don t get either." 
 
 " I see," laughed Eleanor. " And this reminds me 
 of another characteristic I have been told exists here. 
 Is it really true that in the West I mean such a place 
 as this in the West people take no liberties with the 
 old instinct of curiosity? For instance, is it true that 
 a man can turn up in this town, join the clubs, attend to 
 business and accept the hospitalities of the representa 
 tive women and never be asked about his family, 
 provided he does not volunteer any information con 
 cerning himself? " 
 
 Again Miss Montgomery deliberated, finally reply 
 ing, " My opinion on this matter, if it is worth giving, 
 Mrs. Evanston, is that people are akin to each other, 
 no matter where they live. In the early days of the 
 mining districts, it seems to have been the fashion not 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 187 
 
 to ask too many questions at least so the modern 
 writers of short stories tell us. Our grandparents who 
 came over the plains in the fifties and sixties in prairie 
 schooners left us, among their other failures, this bit 
 of etiquette, and we of the present generation take all 
 of the pride in the idea and accept none of the re 
 sponsibilities. Of course we ask questions! But 
 why?" 
 
 " Well," hesitated Eleanor, " it seems odd to bring 
 up the subject with so new a friend as yourself, but 
 but if you don t mind, I should like to put a case before 
 you?" 
 
 " Do ! " smiled Miss Montgomery, encouragingly. 
 
 " When I arrived in this place," she plunged right 
 into what she had to say without further introductory 
 remarks, " I let a small matter slide along that now I 
 wish very much I had set right in the beginning. In a 
 way it is a joke, but still I should like to have somebody 
 understand. I have fancied I have caught a few symp 
 toms of uneasiness concerning myself in this com 
 munity, and with that spirit of perversity that is in us 
 all, more or less I suppose, I have got some bits of 
 quiet fun out of the various pit-falls arranged for me." 
 
 Miss Montgomery was keenly alive to what might 
 follow, but she patiently waited for her hostess to tell 
 her as much or as little as pleased her, and she made no 
 attempt whatever to hurry her into saying more than 
 she would, if let alone. Miss Montgomery smiled her 
 interest, or as much of her interest as she cared to show 
 and took another piece of bread, when she already 
 had two and never ate bread, anyway. 
 
 Eleanor cleared her throat and started again. " As 
 
i88 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 I said," she went on, " when I first came out here, it was 
 all very hurried and spontaneous, some way. My doc 
 tor had been trying to get me to take a change for 
 months, and one day I just well, just moved I I 
 could have brought letters in fact I had them offered 
 me but refused them, thinking that I was in no state of 
 mind to care to meet people socially. My idea seemed 
 to be to get a cottage and keep to myself, but I soon 
 discovered this promised to be almost too much vaca 
 tion for my sanity I could not live this way; and I 
 have, in one way or another met several of the persons 
 to whom I really ought to have brought an introduction. 
 
 " But to go on ! I arrived at two o clock in the 
 morning, something having gone wrong on the track 
 ahead of us, keeping us hours not twenty miles out of 
 the Camp. I was ill with a dreadful headache, and the 
 night clerk at the hotel seeing I was on the verge of 
 fainting, asked if he should register for me, and I said 
 yes. The next day I was able to come down for dinner, 
 and I then discovered that he had written my name as 
 everybody here seems to pronounce it, Evanston, al 
 though I remember telling him it was two names hy 
 phenated. It didn t strike me as being serious at the 
 time, and I went up-stairs and forgot all about it. It 
 doesn t make any difference about the tradespeople, you 
 know, because I don t run any bills, and as long as the 
 groceries get up here on time, it matters very little 
 whether that hyphen comes along, or not. But I no 
 tice you all have taken for granted it is Evanston, and 
 if you can conceive of anything so silly, I find I am 
 avoiding leaving a visiting card when I make a call." 
 
 " This is amusing," Miss Montgomery remarked. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 189 
 
 " Also it is very nice of you to speak to me about it. 
 But why do you choose me, I wonder? " 
 
 " Because you have not tried to place me, possibly," 
 Eleanor frankly answered, " and also because I believe 
 you can advise me what to do. You know these people, 
 and now that you understand the situation, you can help 
 me. What would you do try to correct everybody 
 at this late day, or just let the inaccuracy slide along for 
 the short time I shall live among you ? " 
 
 " How do you feel about it, yourself? " cautiously 
 asked Miss Montgomery. 
 
 "Why I feel slightly flat, I suppose, but hardly 
 criminal. It is such a shade of difference anyway, and 
 stupidly having already allowed myself to become iden 
 tified as Mrs. Evanston which really is the way I 
 pronounce it myself, you know it does seem strain 
 ing a point to make anything of it. The only thing is 
 that it looks different when properly written. It is a 
 vague little mix-up, you see, but everyone has been so 
 friendly and unusually kind, that I would not for the 
 world do anything that might confuse their attitude to 
 ward me or arouse a flurry of suspicion. Foolish, all 
 around, isn t it? " 
 
 " Who knows how you write your name? " shrewdly 
 asked Miss Montgomery. 
 
 14 Why everybody everywhere else, of course ! 
 But here, you know, I know and my maid knows, al 
 though she always calls me * Mrs. Evan herself, be 
 cause for years she was my mother s personal maid 
 and Evan being my family name, you see, Martha stub 
 bornly takes the stand that this is quite name enough 
 for me. I daresay she has never reasoned out the mat- 
 
190 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 ter, and simply clings to the old name for her mistress. 
 She says I look like my mother and that she always 
 thinks of her when she speaks to me. But Martha does 
 not talk much she won t make any trouble." 
 
 "Is there no one else?" sharply questioned Miss 
 Montgomery, determined to get at the very bottom of 
 things. 
 
 Eleanor felt a bit ill at ease, but she had put this 
 case fairly to Miss Montgomery, and now, in return 
 and before committing herself, Miss Montgomery evi 
 dently wanted a full statement of the affair. 
 
 " No," Eleanor said. " There is no one else, so far 
 as I know." 
 
 Miss Stella Montgomery put her tense, slender hands 
 on the edges of the table, leaned forward and looked 
 Eleanor straight in the eye. To lie to her, or to evade 
 the truth, even, would have been almost impossible. 
 " Mrs. Evanston," she began, slowly, using the name as 
 it stood here in the Camp for the past month or so, " is 
 there any person in this community whom you believe 
 does not know you or your business, who still has any 
 possible chance of identifying you correctly? " 
 
 " Y-yes. Now that you speak of it, there is a chance, 
 but it is so slight it need hardly be taken into considera 
 tion. I will explain it to you. My home physician 
 once visited this Camp he stopped in this very house, 
 incidentally, as the guest of the Mr. Burns you all refer 
 to frequently. I don t know exactly when that was, 
 but you may have met Dr. LeRoy? " 
 
 " Yes," Miss Montgomery told her. " I thought 
 him delightful, although he was taking a rest cure or 
 something and we saw him only once or twice." 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 191 
 
 " Well," Eleanor proceeded, " Dr. LeRoy himself 
 suggested that I come out here, and he kindly offered to 
 get me this bungalow, but I put him off, being rather 
 independent in my ways of doing things. I felt that if 
 this house could be got at all, I could get it through 
 some local agent which I did, you see. Dr. LeRoy 
 offered me also, a letter to Dr. Marsden whom he 
 liked, apparently; but this too, I refused, realising it 
 might not be agreeable to have to be polite to a stranger 
 I have been awfully lazy and self-indulgent the last 
 two years. But at the hotel Martha hurt her wrist by 
 carelessly letting a trunk top fall on it, and what was 
 more natural than that I should send for Dr. Marsden? 
 I suppose I might have explained to him how I knew 
 his name, but I didn t feel like talking. Martha had ex 
 asperated me by slamming things around and sulking 
 all day, so I didn t and while I thought of it at other 
 times, still I didn t. Through Dr. Marsden I met you 
 and other people and so it has all come about. You 
 see?" 
 
 " Yes, I see, perfectly," Miss Montgomery sympa 
 thised, " but will Dr. LeRoy ever write to Dr. Mars 
 den?" 
 
 " No. He hates to write letters, and besides, having 
 grown tired waiting to hear from him, myself, I wrote 
 him the other day, explaining this very situation and 
 the nervous fun I was getting out of it, and said not to 
 write me that we would have a fine laugh over it 
 together in New York before many weeks." 
 
 " So far, so good," reported Miss Montgomery. 
 * c But," and again she took that position with her hands 
 on the edges of the table in a compelling way that 
 
192 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 seemed to draw the truth from the most remote corners 
 of one s consciousness, " is there no one else who might 
 involve you ? " 
 
 " There is no one else," Eleanor stated emphatically. 
 
 But Miss Montgomery was not satisfied. With 
 " Mrs. Evanston s " appeal to her as a legitimate ex 
 cuse, she felt she could ask something else that interested 
 her deeply. She argued it was fair, for upon her ad 
 vice to this stranger depended many things. 
 
 " Mrs. Evanston," she began seriously, " you have 
 honoured me with your confidence, and everything you 
 have to tell me, interests me strongly, as though between 
 us there were some bond or barrier that we have not yet 
 placed. But you ask me to direct you, and before I 
 can make any suggestions, there is one thing I should 
 like to ask, with the understanding that you answer it, 
 or not, exactly as you wish. May I ask it? " 
 
 "By all means, Miss Montgomery!" her hostess 
 gave her permission, wishing at the same time, that 
 things would hurry up and take on a light tone. " If I 
 answer you at all, it shall be with literal honesty. Go 
 
 on." 
 
 Miss Montgomery was very, very pale all around 
 the exquisite pink flush on her cheek bones and the 
 deeper colour of her mouth. " Mrs. Evanston," she 
 prefaced her question, as though it were sorrowful to 
 care to know, " is the only photograph one sees in your 
 sitting room, a likeness of of Mr. Crathorne 
 Stone?" 
 
 Eleanor set her fork down so hard in her surprise at 
 this direct and rather exceptional question or in re 
 lief that it was no worse that it must have cracked 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 193 
 
 the edge of her frail plate. She smiled at her opposite 
 neighbour, but it was the smile that sometimes comes 
 because of intense interest, rather than from amusement. 
 
 " I have wondered," she said, gently, " just how long 
 it would be before you asked me that, Miss Mont 
 gomery. And I can fulfil my promise to reply with 
 literal honesty. That the photograph is something of 
 a likeness of this Mr. Stone, must be true or so many 
 persons, including yourself, would not remark the 
 resemblance. But the young man who sat for this 
 photograph was the late Baron Gustav von Bernharden 
 of Austria the picture was made of him when he 
 visited New York last year. When you examine the 
 frame closely you will notice a small gold coronet in 
 the upper left-hand corner the crest of his esteemed 
 family. Possibly you saw some items in the papers 
 concerning his having been killed while hunting in Long 
 Island?" 
 
 Miss Stella Montgomery looked as though she were 
 about to faint, and she tried, courageously, to smile in a 
 way that would disguise her humiliation, and yet express 
 her apology and her sympathy. "I I beg your par 
 don ! " was all that she seemed able to articulate. 
 
 " That s all right don t think of it again," Eleanor 
 tried to put her at ease, though she was just on the verge 
 of being a bit emotional, herself. u And incidentally, 
 I fear you have told me rather more than you asked me, 
 Miss Montgomery," she said, with a gentle understand 
 ing that could not hurt. 
 
 " You know, then? " Miss Montgomery murmured. 
 
 " Yes," Eleanor sighed, " I know. I know that pain, 
 myself, and I knew you knew it the first time I saw 
 
194 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 you. But let me tell you something that possibly you 
 forget sometimes he isn t worth it. None of them 
 are worth it! " 
 
 " I know I know! " breathed the pathetic mouth 
 of Stella Montgomery, her eyes shut tight that tears 
 might not show to shame her. " They aren t worth it 
 but they get it just the same. Heavens above! 
 How easily and how surely they get our defenceless 
 love!" 
 
 " One can trust them for that," dryly owned Elea 
 nor. 
 
 But this was beginning to be a strain, and Miss Mont 
 gomery had not been asked in to play the leading role 
 in a * society-drama she was supposed to be having 
 a peaceful little dinner, and Eleanor at once started in 
 to re-establish the original superficial air of things, by 
 reverting to the real subject under debate the name 
 of Evanston. 
 
 " Why not let it go? " ventured Miss Stella Mont 
 gomery, in a tired little way, as though life took up too 
 much of everybody s time. " Don t you know that 
 more than half the trouble in the world comes from try 
 ing to explain ourselves? This is a little thing, if it 
 ever comes to light. To try to make any point of it 
 just now seems both unnecessary and awkward. You 
 might give me one of your cards, if you will, but ordi 
 narily don t use cards. Send in your name most 
 of us forget cards, anyway. With two telephone com 
 panies here, it is quite simple to omit writing notes. 
 And you say you don t get any letters? Well, if there 
 is any upset over it the misunderstanding can 
 promptly be shown to be on the part of the populace, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 195 
 
 can t it? Incidentally, if there is a quiet smile to be 
 got out of it smile ! " 
 
 And so they smiled and dropped the subject. 
 
 It seemed safe enough now to leave the one flower 
 on the piano, Eleanor thought. As the photograph 
 was not one of Mr. Crathorne Stone, it could not cause 
 any dangerous storm in Miss Montgomery s emotions. 
 
 But while Stella Montgomery was true to her resolu 
 tion to ask no more questions, still her keen eye did not 
 miss the single carnation that lay before the portrait of 
 the Baron, when after dinner they wandered to that 
 part of the room. 
 
 Miss Montgomery dropped onto the bench and at 
 once drew forth from the piano some fine, rich chords, 
 glancing up at her hostess who stood beside her. " I 
 knew there was some bond between us," she said, sim 
 ply. " You like one flower, too ! " 
 
 No sooner were the words out, than their new interest 
 received a jarring set-back in an unusually aggressive 
 ring. Eleanor crossed to her desk to answer it, while 
 Miss Montgomery put her well-dressed little foot on the 
 soft pedal, and studied the splendid head of the late 
 Baron von Bernharden, wonderingly. 
 
 A man s voice a familiar voice said (as if it 
 neither knew nor cared whether it happened to be ad 
 dressing the mistress or the maid belonging on the top 
 of Copper Hill), " This is Mr. Stone speaking. I am 
 sorry to intrude, but will you be so good as to ask Miss 
 Montgomery to speak with me a moment? I heard I 
 could catch her at this number." 
 
 " I will tell her," replied the lady, in the same un 
 natural accent she had affected with Mr. Stone, orig- 
 
196 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 inally. Then walking back to the piano, she said, with 
 a smile that was gracious and unconcerned appar 
 ently "Someone for you, Miss Montgomery. Ex 
 cuse me a moment? I must get a handkerchief." 
 
 " Once in her own room, in the interests of politeness, 
 Eleanor looked in her mirror at her drawn eye-lids and 
 stern little mouth, and remarked with a shrug, " I fancy 
 there will be two bonds between us before long, if I 
 don t cultivate enough self-control to enable me to hear 
 that man s voice without being hurled into a state of 
 mental turmoil 1 " 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 days when it did not storm or was not too biting 
 cold, Eleanor was out in the late morning and 
 early afternoons, riding about the rugged country. The 
 mountain air was wonderful for her health, and Nickel 
 was proving himself to be so companionable that the 
 feeling of loneliness that fed upon her no matter where 
 she lived, seemed lessened for a few hours each day. 
 Sometimes Eleanor was conscious of such an extraor 
 dinary contentment that she tried to tell herself she liked 
 to be alone. 
 
 There were lots of places to go down the valley 
 toward the smelters ; off the other side of Lone Cone 
 or out into the country toward the great mountains 
 twenty miles away, although their clear snow-caps 
 seemed near. Then, too, Eleanor was growing to be 
 most expert at shooting, which gave her something else 
 to do to help an hour lose itself. 
 
 Besides the renegade s pistol, she now had three of 
 her own one of them, her pet possession, was an in 
 teresting little weapon carrying simply one thirty-eight 
 bullet, which the clerk at the hardware place had 
 humorously assured her was ammunition enough for 
 any ordinary emergency in the hand of a good shot. 
 But probably it was the looks of the thing which ap 
 pealed to its present owner it was so beautifully 
 made and so compact, and was the cause of Eleanor s 
 having Martha rip out the stitches that heretofore had 
 held her coat pockets closed. As a child sometimes 
 
 197 
 
198 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 loves some wee object that the rest of the world sees 
 no beauty in at all, loves it more than all its fine play 
 things, so Eleanor adored this little bull-doggy looking 
 pistol. 
 
 Eleanor s idea of learning to use firearms, in the 
 first place, was for self-protection, if such a thing were 
 ever necessary, but now she liked shooting as a sport, 
 although she never could bring herself to take a shot at 
 fleeting rabbits and pretty birds that she argued " she 
 just might hit." However, the tin cans of all the past 
 generations of cow punchers and prospectors for miles 
 about, had a mark of hers; and so also had the rocks 
 and pines, for she rode far out from the Camp where 
 there still were trees that the smelter smoke had not 
 ruined, or the busy miner had not felled to timber his 
 underground workings. And apparently Nickel was as 
 pleased by these excursions as the lady whose firm, gen 
 tle hand had guided him here. 
 
 To-day Eleanor felt rather rich. A whole good out- 
 of-doors was hers, a horse that was a strong, silent 
 friend, a victory won in having coat pockets in use for 
 once, and a magpie near by which either believed in her 
 friendship, or did not believe in her shooting, although 
 she was using her big, blue-barrelled forty-four. 
 
 And so, in this attractive spot a few miles out of the 
 Camp, a little way off an unfrequented road, Eleanor 
 was entertaining herself shooting at the tips of the 
 branches of the fir trees and seeing how much difference 
 cold fingers made in one s aim, when she caught the 
 sound of wheels. Turning to investigate, she saw Dr. 
 Marsden in his buggy, pulling up his horse and smiling 
 at her. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 199 
 
 " Well, well, well 1 " she called out, pleasantly. " Of 
 all people! What brings you here, Doctor? " 
 
 " An inconsiderate man who broke his leg, and who 
 couldn t find any other doctor who was fool enough to 
 drive twelve miles out into the wilds to fix him up," the 
 doctor reported, loosening his carriage robe, prepara 
 tory to getting out. " But I am repaid in meeting 
 you!" 
 
 Nickel was lounging on three legs, regarding himself 
 hitched as Western horses do, because the reins were 
 thrown over his head, and lay on the ground. And the 
 lady was standing near him, when the doctor tied his 
 horse to the stub of a tree at the side of the rough road, 
 and came up with his hand extended. 
 
 " Let s see what you can do with a gun? " he sug 
 gested. " I heard your shots a long way off, and I 
 wondered what was going on. Pretty heavy gun for a 
 girl, isn t it?" 
 
 Eleanor obligingly picked off pine cones for his 
 amusement, and then proposed that he try his own luck. 
 He hit about every fifth object he pointed at, and the 
 game was laughingly declared won by the lady. 
 
 " Weren t you afraid you were driving into an In 
 dian fight, Doctor?" she playfully asked him. 
 " Doesn t the sound of shooting scare you? " 
 
 " Not nearly so much as you do," he replied, with an 
 expression that Eleanor did not like. " This is a lone 
 some place for you, do you know it? " he went on. 
 
 " It s no more lonesome than any other place ! " she 
 flung back at him, lightly, rather disliking the man for 
 the first time. The doctor was more than prompt in 
 spoiling whatever pleasure the lady felt at seeing him, 
 
200 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 and she quickly said, " It must be getting late the sun 
 has deserted us, and what a difference it makes in the 
 high altitude to have the sun drop away ! I should say 
 we had best be moving on toward town, shouldn t 
 you?" 
 
 Having expressed her own desire, Eleanor slipped 
 her smoking gun into the big saddle pocket and buckled 
 it down. Then she reached for Nickel s reins and 
 stepped around the horse to the stirrup side. Here 
 Dr. Marsden met her, having come up as if to offer to 
 give her a hand to her saddle. 
 
 When she discovered that the doctor was standing 
 too close to her, and that she could not step back be 
 cause she had already driven herself into Nickel s side, 
 and realised she was not heavy enough to make the 
 horse move, she was quite ill at ease. 
 
 Her reproving glance not making the doctor retreat, 
 the lady put one hand on his chest and tried to force him 
 to step back, saying in marked irritation, u Doctor, do 
 you remember my telling you to look out for that ice 
 you say I am made of? May I ask you to remember 
 also that there is plenty of room that you don t have 
 to stand on that one little spot? " 
 
 " I recall your warning perfectly," the man replied, 
 * c but you spoke too late. That ice has set me on fire 1 " 
 
 "And do you realise why?" the woman asked, 
 sharply. 
 
 " I neither know nor care why! " he retorted, hotly. 
 
 " Let me tell you why," she persisted. " It is be 
 cause you are made of material as cold as liquid air. 
 There isn t an atom of real sentiment in you. What 
 ever you do in this world is done purely from your own 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 201 
 
 selfish motives. You would intrude yourself upon me, 
 whether it were for my pleasure or not, and you prob 
 ably never moved a foot out of town to set your pa 
 tient s leg, until you satisfied yourself he had the money 
 there ready for you. You do all things from the same 
 standpoint, and you are always obvious ! " 
 
 " You speak frankly, Mrs. Evanston," complained 
 the man, though he still held his ground and they spoke 
 right in each other s faces. " May I ask why you hon 
 our me with this fine analysis? " 
 
 " The immediate reason is to shock you into stepping 
 back from me," she acknowledged, " and the deeper 
 reason is to show you, if possible, that I see through you 
 and would like to have you understand this fact." 
 
 " A man must live ! " he angrily answered her. " A 
 man must collect the wage for his labour, and he must 
 force some response to the torrents of feeling that 
 sometimes rush through him so hard as to blind him. I 
 don t mean to frighten you, but I want one little kiss 
 and that one I am going to take. You will have to be 
 fairly civil about it. Your gun is in your saddle 
 pocket, buttoned in, and the pocket is the other side 
 of the horse. Besides, you wouldn t point a gun at a 
 good friend anyway, just because he teased you a little. 
 Now come be game be a good loser, dear little 
 storm-at-sea in the key of A minor ! " 
 
 They stood very, very near together, and the doctor 
 held both her hands, as in a vice. 
 
 " Give me my kiss ! " commanded Dr. Marsden, in 
 quiet intensity. 
 
 The lady looked him in the eye and smiled faintly. 
 " First, may I ask a favour? " she pleaded. 
 
202 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Yes," he agreed. 
 
 " Will you please allow me the use of my right hand 
 a moment? " Eleanor asked, most politely. " I should 
 like to get my handkerchief and dust off my travel- 
 stained cheek." 
 
 " Yes, I ll let you get your handkerchief, but you 
 won t be long? " And he released her right wrist. 
 
 " Thank you, gentle jailer," she smiled, sweetly, giv 
 ing the impression of having decided to take the scene 
 as a joke. She deliberately took out her handkerchief 
 and wiped her face. Then she studied the handker 
 chief to see if she had got all of the dust off. 
 
 Dr. Marsden started to capture her hand again. 
 
 " Wait a minute ! " Eleanor gasped, shoving him back 
 with considerable strength. " I haven t put my hand 
 kerchief away, yet." 
 
 A look of quiet amusement came into the deep brown 
 eyes, as the girlish person shook out her handkerchief 
 and slowly put it back in her coat pocket. But when 
 her firm, slender hand returned from the pocket, it 
 brought up her nice, stocky, bull-doggy, single-cylinder 
 gun. And within the merest fraction of an instant, its 
 wide, cold, short barrel rested just between the doctor s 
 astonished eyes. 
 
 The man neither spoke, nor moved. 
 
 " You see, it didn t take me so very long, Doctor? " 
 she said lightly. " And now, may I suggest that you 
 unhitch your horse and drive back to town? " 
 
 " Well," he breathed, as he backed off; " well, I ll be 
 hanged!" 
 
 Eleanor dropped her hand to her side, though she 
 still held the dangerous looking little weapon. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 203 
 
 "I trust I have been fair, Doctor?" she asked. 
 " You know I told you honestly, in the beginning, that 
 I did not think it would be good for you to play with 
 that ice that it might make you boil over sometime. 
 You remember ? " 
 
 Dr. Marsden stood as if fascinated, watching the 
 young woman lead her horse to a small boulder, from 
 which she mounted without his even offering to aid 
 her, so completely was he quieted. 
 
 " If you don t untie your horse, Doctor, I shall beat 
 you back to town," she called to him, having settled 
 herself comfortably in her saddle and gathered up the 
 reins. But still the man stood watching her, thickly. 
 
 Eleanor directed Nickel to trot over to him. 
 
 "What s the matter, Doctor?" she asked, leaning 
 down from her high position to look into his face. 
 
 " I don t know, exactly," he replied. " Perhaps I m 
 hurt. It never occurred to me that the first time in my 
 life a gun was pulled on me, it would be by a girl." 
 
 "Oh is that all?" she reassured him. "Well, 
 be cheered ! It wasn t much of a gun to begin with, and 
 in the second place, I never would have aimed it at you 
 in the world, if it had been loaded. See ! " 
 
 And quick as a flash she opened the little pistol and 
 showed him that it had no shell in it at all. 
 
 " I had just been practising with it, when you drove 
 up, you see," she sweetly explained, " and had not re 
 loaded it I had no more bullets. It is only an empty 
 toy something like the rest of the joke. Good-bye, 
 I m going back cross-country. Hope your patient 
 with the broken leg gets on well ! " 
 
 And she was off at a gallop. 
 
204 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " Well, I ll be hanged ! " grunted the doctor, yanking 
 his horse out of a doze. " Hanged and then some. 
 Rich, poor, good, bad and indifferent, they re all devils; 
 and they put it over you, one way or another, from the 
 day they are born ! " 
 
 And the same magpie that had been so interested in 
 the lady s marksmanship earlier in the afternoon, ut 
 tered his unpleasant call, hopped down from a pine tree, 
 and had a look at the empty shells all about the place. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE worst time for anyone who lives alone, is the 
 dinner hour. Breakfast, one can argue, is merely 
 the start of a day; luncheon is a necessity; but dinner, 
 the sociable meal of the day dinner by oneself, is, 
 indeed, the most trying time of the day. 
 
 Dinner to-night was unusually hard for Eleanor. In 
 the first place, she was late, which put Martha in a fine 
 fit of the sulks, and to be shut up with one of Martha s 
 ill-humours was no mean trial; and in the second place 
 Eleanor dined only because she felt she owed it to her 
 self to eat. To-night, try as she might, she could not 
 do more than muss up the things on her plate, which 
 Martha accepted as a personal insult, freezing up harder 
 than before. It had turned cold outside, too. The 
 wind began to express itself, as nowhere else in 
 all her life, had Eleanor ever heard it. It sighed, 
 and whistled, and moaned, and threatened by turns. 
 In spite of both the stove and the fireplace, the wind 
 sucked all the comfort right out of the little house on 
 the top of Copper Hill, when it tore around the coun 
 try at large and this spot in particular. There was no 
 such thing as keeping warm. One s head might swim 
 in heat, but it was cold on the floor, hatefully cold. 
 
 Eleanor wondered what she should do with herself as 
 soon as she dared leave the table apparently Martha 
 meant to keep on handing things to her until she ate 
 something, if the ceremony lasted all night. She could 
 not play the piano that was one thing. The piano 
 
 305 
 
206 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 was out of tune. And the Piano Tuners Union was 
 giving itself a vacation. There were two members of 
 this profession in the Camp, one of whom hadn t re 
 ported for business in ten days; and the other had gone 
 East to attend his mother s funeral in South Bend, In 
 diana, or maybe it was Kewanee, Illinois? The floor 
 manager always got them mixed. He didn t know why. 
 And for the present, anyone not caring for the tone of 
 his or her piano, had the Union s permission to do what 
 ever he or she liked best about it it was nothing to 
 the two rival piano stores they had their own 
 troubles. And this was the Camp. As has been re 
 marked before if one did not like it, one did not have 
 to stay. 
 
 Eleanor could hardly play the piano but there was 
 Sir Walter Scott. She shivered slightly, partly from 
 her thoughts, partly from the wind, and partly from 
 nerves. She wanted to talk. In fact, she had to talk 
 or explode. 
 
 " Good evening, Mr. Coffee-pot! " she murmured. 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " I will talk to myself! " she rippled on, softly, so 
 that Martha might not catch a sound from the big room 
 which might imply insanity. " What an interesting 
 place this mining camp is! A life of bright spots and 
 dull streaks the streaks quite overpowering the 
 spots. Ah! " the lady smiled in a courageous little at 
 tempt to combat that hideous enemy, loneliness, " I know 
 why I m bored. The Camp isn t what it used to be 
 Heilberg lives abroad these days. It s too civilised 
 now that the ministers are holding evening classes for the 
 unravelling of Browning. The place would have been 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 207 
 
 more amusing fifteen years ago, no doubt. Dear me ! 
 Refinement tags high-grade ore everywhere, and tends 
 to obliterate the picturesque. I share the popular dis 
 appointment in the Camp ! " 
 
 She sighed. 
 
 " What will the infinite flatness of things drive one to, 
 in time, I wonder? Still there is one great consola 
 tion there are always the private affairs of other 
 people for us to delve into by way of combating utter 
 mental stagnation. It would help to kill some of the 
 time, for instance, if one knew why Mr. Crathorne Stone 
 felt he had to speak with Miss Montgomery that even 
 ing she dined here last week." 
 
 Eleanor s thoughts rushed on, quite absorbing her. 
 " Mr. Stone has never got a glimpse of me in all the 
 time I have lived in his town," she reflected. u And 
 my voice never could have suggested anyone he ever 
 knew; for, to him I have made it unlike any voice he 
 ever heard before or ever would wish to hear again." 
 
 " Calm as the night and deep as the sea, must be 
 your love, your love, dear, for me " Eleanor smiled, 
 sadly, as this refrain came to her in fair memory of 
 Mr. Stone s fine voice. " The text of this classic song 
 reads, should be your love, " Eleanor remembered. 
 " Mr. Stone takes the liberty of saying * must be your 
 love. How characteristic of the Stones ! " 
 
 She shrugged a nervous, reminiscent shrug. " How 
 it would amuse the Camp to know that I know some 
 thing of this Crathorne Stone myself! " she thought. 
 " I know, perhaps, a little more about him than anyone 
 here with the possible exception of Miss Stella 
 Montgomery. He belonged to the family I married. 
 
ao8 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Most people marry an individual. But I didn t I 
 married a grandmother, a father, a brother, a sister, a 
 huge brown stone house stuffed with the Civil-War 
 period of marble-topped furniture. And then, too, I 
 married a few choice odds and ends like an established 
 religion, the same old housekeeper, whether I liked her 
 or not, regular hours, and a proper idea of diet. " 
 
 Eleanor left the table, automatically, and sank upon 
 the divan. The only item mentioned in my marriage 
 that I ever knew very well, was the housekeeper," her 
 thoughts forced themselves into words. " But the only 
 items that I cared to know, were my husband and his 
 brother. Yet in the atmosphere of the house in which 
 I spent my brief married life, nobody ever really knew 
 anybody else. All of the Stones are resentful of what 
 they consider my disrespect to their honoured name," 
 Eleanor recalled. " Yet I did nothing to their name, 
 but drop it once. I patched matters together the best I 
 could and joined it to my own by a hyphen, although I 
 certainly do throw the accent so strongly on my own 
 name that the result is I am generally known as Mrs. 
 Evanston." 
 
 The wind tore around the house more viciously than 
 ever, as if in response to this. " What contempt the 
 Stones had for me! " Eleanor sighed " I seemed to 
 them to be the embodiment of all that was trivial, ex 
 travagant and inappreciative the product of disgust 
 ing wealth and indulgent parentage. And when they 
 decided there was no use in trying to make me like them 
 selves, they smothered me with their unvoiced disap 
 proval all but the boys, and they dared not defend 
 me openly, lest their father change his will. Fascina- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 209 
 
 ting boys, Danforth and Crathorne ! But they were too 
 young to cope with the situation. We were all too 
 young, I fancy." 
 
 Eleanor leaned eagerly forward, as her memories 
 rushed on and on. 
 
 " I am glad enough to slide along as Mrs. Evanston," 
 she reasoned. " Of course this Camp is a tiny place, 
 and our amusing little game of hide-and-seek can t go 
 on for long. But I don t intend it shall. I shall be 
 gone soon, and in the meantime, I fancy I shall not have 
 to try to avoid the young man he does not have much 
 to do with society, from all I can gather of his habits. 
 Yet, what I shall do, if, in spite of my watchfulness, we 
 should meet somewhere, face to face? I suppose the 
 smartest thing to do, would be nothing? But 
 we shall never meet ! " 
 
 She pressed her interlaced fingers together so tightly 
 that they hurt each other, and her eyes burned with con 
 flicting feelings. 
 
 "Unbelievable how that boy changed!" she 
 breathed. " When I was engaged to him, I did not 
 realise he was undemonstrative his manner to me 
 seemed caress enough. But when he took me home, 
 something chilled him, perhaps everything chilled him 
 the ornate rose-wood set in the drawing room, the 
 colossal oils, the tremendous bronzes, the white marble 
 mantel-piece with the white marble horns-of-plenty on 
 the cross section, emptying out white marble fruits that 
 never fell to the white marble hearth, though I have 
 stared at them whole evenings at a time, waiting for the 
 crash with all my fettered soul ! " 
 
 Eleanor covered her face with her hands and sobbed. 
 
210 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " And one day I ran away. I ran away four blocks 
 to my own people." 
 
 She caught her breath as her sorrowful recollections 
 besieged her. 
 
 " Later we sent a maid to pack up what belonged to 
 me, and that was the end. I did not say good-bye to 
 anybody not even to him and his nice brother. I 
 knew none of them would understand, so I never gave a 
 reason. Perhaps there was no reason? I never 
 thought of this before, but it may be true. I went 
 abroad the following Saturday. It all seems hundreds 
 of years ago, and blurred." 
 
 Martha had grown weary of waiting for her mistress 
 bell, and so she had quietly come in and removed the 
 silver service and the table cloth. She put a centre 
 piece on the table and set a vase of flowers there, but 
 the lady sat in utter self-absorption, unaware of her 
 presence. Martha, supposing she was only more tired 
 than usual, silently left her. 
 
 At last Eleanor rose stiffly and went to the fireplace. 
 
 " What a weird sense of humour life has ! " she com 
 mented. " In trying to get away from all former as 
 sociations on my physician s orders, I bring up nearer 
 them than I have been since I left them! Had I run 
 into some of the Stones in Paris, or in Egypt or in the 
 frequented paths of Japan well, would it have been 
 so surprising? But here, in the last place on earth 
 the jumping-off place well, one can only smile at the 
 pranks of fate! And most remarkable of all, is the 
 fact that the very same things that were at the bottom 
 of my running away from my husband unresponsive- 
 ness, self-restraint, silence are the cause of this whole 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 211 
 
 community studying the smallest action and the most in 
 consequent expression of Mr. Crathorne Stone. Inter 
 esting, surely. And even I I of all the world I, 
 too, feel this man s hold." 
 
 Presently Eleanor smiled. It was a tired little smile. 
 
 " Wouldn t it be delightful," she mused, " if I went 
 mad over Crathorne Stone? Could anything be more 
 deliciously comic than the picture of me thinking for 
 the second time, too ! that a Stone was calm as the 
 night and deep as the sea ? " 
 
 She stood with one hand on her chest, as if in pain, 
 and at last she spoke to herself aloud. " I believe there 
 must be a marble top on my heart," she said, " it hurts 
 so, sometimes." 
 
 And it seemed to her as she stood there, staring, that 
 a certain golden edge of a log about to fall in a heap of 
 ash on the hearth, strongly suggested the profile of Miss 
 Stella Montgomery. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 TT was about half past eight, although had you asked 
 A Eleanor how long she had been sitting staring into 
 the fireplace, without making a single move, she prob 
 ably would have answered in a dazed little way that 
 she did not know whether it had been hours or years. 
 
 Martha was glad of an excuse to arouse her, for 
 Martha knew full well what prostration followed 
 her mistress 1 times of introspection. And so, when 
 Emily Corey stood at the back door, Martha treated 
 her better than she had on the occasion of her first call 
 she would serve a purpose so Martha asked her 
 to step inside, while she went to announce her. 
 
 " Let her come in, Martha, 1 wearily said her mis 
 tress. 
 
 The frail girl was warm this time, in a long, shabby 
 fur coat and a fur turban with some faded violets on it, 
 and she soon stood before the fire, slightly embarrassed 
 as her hostess held out her hand in welcome. 
 
 " Maybe you wouldn t want to shake hands with 
 me? " she faltered. 
 
 " Why not, Emily Corey? " Eleanor asked, putting 
 one hand on the girl s shoulder, and deliberately taking 
 the gloved hand that hung limp at the girl s side. 
 
 " We re different," the girl shortly volunteered, stub 
 bornly standing her ground. 
 
 " How absurd ! " lightly expostulated Eleanor. 
 " Unbutton your coat and sit down. How have you 
 been?" 
 
 212 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 213 
 
 " You said to come back," the girl reminded her. 
 " Otherwise I wouldn t be here." 
 
 Evidently the girl was in no mood for any imper 
 sonal commonplaces, so this was her answer to the lady s 
 natural inquiry for her health. And, as is often the 
 case, two persons who are from different moulds of life, 
 have no superficial, mutual playground. Such persons 
 get at each other very quickly, or there is nothing at all 
 between them, and they pass each other by. 
 
 " Yes," Eleanor reflected, " I remember telling you 
 to come back, and I am glad you remembered and 
 wanted to come." 
 
 " I remembered," the girl honestly said, " but I did 
 not want to come." 
 
 " Then I thank you especially," graciously replied 
 her hostess, not resenting the girl s outspoken feeling, 
 and indeed Emily Corey s manner was anything but of 
 fensive. She was more sad than rude. " And now, 
 Miss Corey," Eleanor went on, undaunted, " how have 
 you been, I say, all this long time? " 
 
 " It hasn t been so long," the girl said softly, " any 
 way, not by the calendar it s been under a month. 
 And I ve been the same." 
 
 "And how is he the young man?" Eleanor 
 boldly ventured, by way of opening up some subject for 
 conversation. 
 
 " He s been the same or worse," the girl promptly 
 told her. " After that time up here, I got him braced 
 up for a couple of weeks, so that he attended to busi 
 ness. He s a kind of broker sells unlisted stocks, as 
 he calls them, and floats mining propositions, as they 
 
214 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 say. He was doing fine, when off he went to the 
 whisky again. 
 
 " He had to go out and look over a new property ten 
 miles over the Range, and the owner who took him, had 
 a bottle of stuff in the buckboard. This started him. 
 You know it s an awful shame about him? He s so 
 good looking and he s got a fine education he s a 
 mining engineer with degrees from two or three col 
 leges. And his folks is swell from a society point 
 of view. They come from Philadelphia. But I guess 
 none of them is extra strong on common sense. He 
 ain t, certainly, and his folks lays his good-for-nothing- 
 ness all to me." 
 
 Emily Corey had hardly stopped to get breath, so 
 eager she was in the presence of a truly sympathetic 
 audience. 
 
 Eleanor forgot herself completely, and leaned for 
 ward, intent upon this girl and her difficulties. 
 " You? " she repeated. " How can they say you are 
 responsible? " 
 
 " Well," began Emily Corey, gaining courage, " you 
 know the world is full of people who think because a 
 thing is bad, it s sure to be bad clear through? There 
 are lots like that, and his folks is among them. They 
 know about me, because once when he was drunker 
 than usual, he sat down and wrote them that he 
 thought he d marry me. They needn t to have wor 
 ried. I didn t need their remarks to make me turn 
 him down, for all there was some talk of marrying him 
 for a while. I was pretty crazy, but I still could see 
 what I was up against if things went badly afterward. 
 About four times a day, I d hear something about the 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 215 
 
 natural result of marrying out of one s class/ like they 
 wrote him." 
 
 " Why do you cling to this man? " Eleanor asked, 
 gently. 
 
 Emily Corey smiled, bitterly, and answered, " I 
 don t wonder you ask me. Of course most women 
 who cling as you call it, to no-good men, have to 
 it s the law they ve got to. But why anybody gets 
 tied to one so tight without a big chain like the law, 
 but with nothing but a little string made of foolishness, 
 beats me honest it does, and I can t say why I 
 stick." 
 
 " There must be some reason," remarked her new 
 friend, quite as much to herself, as to her caller. 
 
 " Yes," sighed Emily Corey, " I guess you re right, 
 but I have to stop and think up the reasons they 
 don t come to me. He needs me, I suppose, or I think 
 he does. He s an under dog, and that means every 
 body s got time to push him down a little farther, and 
 nobody s got time to build up his self-respect, or to see 
 he doesn t fall somewhere and lie out, dead to the 
 world, all night and get sick. Those swell folks of his 
 can t be bothered. He shocks them so that they can t 
 bear to have him live in the same town with them. 
 They ve got it fixed so that the money he inherited, 
 they now give him as a present in small amounts and 
 on condition he lives out West. His folks is real cute, 
 I ll say that for them. I am about the only mother 
 he s got, in a way. Then, he treats me so indifferent. 
 You know how that works sometimes? Treat a 
 woman mean enough, and she trails you like a lamb 
 ever notice it? " 
 
2i6 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Eleanor smiled a sad little smile of the deepest un 
 derstanding, and dryly remarked, u There is a great 
 deal in that, Emily Corey!" And forcing her 
 thoughts back from generalities to the interest of the 
 moment, she next asked, " What is this man s name? " 
 
 " Chandler Maxwell Ortman," the girl replied, 
 proudly. 
 
 4 That sounds as though he had enough to live up 
 to, certainly," Eleanor commented. 
 
 4 You d think so, wouldn t you?" appealed the 
 girl. 
 
 A moment s thoughtful silence fell upon them, then 
 Eleanor was back with another question. " Are you 
 going to drag along this way forever? " she inquired, 
 concisely enough. 
 
 4 You might ask me something easy," the girl mur 
 mured, both humorously and pathetically, 44 but so 
 long as you can t think of an easier one, why all I can 
 say is, I don t know. Maybe he ll kill himself some 
 day, which will help some. He almost got to the end 
 yesterday. You know I told you he went out to a 
 new camp? Well, when I found out where he was, 
 I hired a team and followed him." 
 
 "Yes?" 
 
 " I had a rotten time getting there worst kind of 
 mountain roads, and livery horses not used to that 
 work. Well, I got there at sun-set, to see a half 
 dozen men gathered around the edge of a partly 
 boarded-over prospect hole, yelling down to somebody. 
 I soon found it was him down there, alone in a de 
 serted shaft that had some water in the bottom of it, 
 and they were afraid if he stayed down there many 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 217 
 
 more hours, he d get pneumonia, and they never could 
 get him out. When they missed him, they found out 
 he had gone down this shaft on the ladders, which were 
 not -in good condition, for it was an old claim, you see, 
 and had not been worked for years. He was drunk, 
 of course, or he would have had more sense than to 
 try such a stunt. 
 
 " Well, they did everything to get that man to come 
 up, but he d yell back that he d shoot dead the first 
 man that dared to come down after him. He was 
 there on an errand for a lady, he insisted, and he 
 would not be bullied he d come back when he 
 found what he was looking for, and not before. At 
 the end of two hours, they were scared about him, for 
 all the satisfaction they could get out of him, was that 
 he was being used as the motor-power to run the drills 
 that they were killing him by using his vitality to 
 operate so many machines, but that they had to get the 
 ore out, and he was no quitter. They were trying to 
 tell him he was mad that there were no miners un 
 derground and no drills in use there that he was 
 alone and sick when I came up. 
 
 " I called down to him then, and he said he d shoot 
 me if I tried to come down the ladders. And it oc 
 curred to me to tell him I had shot myself and needed 
 his help to get me back to a doctor, and I yelled down 
 all about the accident. This got him to try to come up, 
 for a wonder I thought for a second I had made a 
 mistake, and that he d sing back, * Good enough I 
 hope it finishes you ! but for once he was decent and 
 sorry." 
 
 Here the girl stopped, as if tired out by the memory 
 
218 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 of this exhausting experience. Her hostess did not 
 move or speak. 
 
 " Well," she went on, " if you will believe me, that 
 man was over half an hour making the climb out of 
 that shaft! I thought every minute I d faint away 
 with the suspense. We couldn t hear all he said, it 
 was so far down and so dark and all, but he d yell up 
 every little while that his strength was all gone that 
 they still had a wire attached to him which carried out 
 his life to work the pumps and that he didn t care a 
 hang if he did drop. And once once we heard a 
 crackling of timber, and we thought the ladders had 
 given way in some rotted-out place. I grew ten years 
 older in the silence that followed. He would not an 
 swer us, or he couldn t, and we didn t know which." 
 
 The girl shivered, nervously. " After a while, that 
 drunken fiend laughed. He thought it was a good 
 joke on us to hang where he was when the ladder below 
 gave way and he caught the next higher one just in 
 time to save his worthless neck. And so, when he got 
 good and ready, he came to the surface still shouting 
 he d kill the first man who insulted him by offering help 
 he didn t need. Now maybe you won t believe me, but 
 one of those old, tough miners went over in a faint 
 when at last he got on the top of the earth, and fell, 
 he was so weak. That s what he did, all right and 
 it s a wonder we all didn t give out, too. The strain 
 was the limit. 
 
 " And what do you think? He didn t have any gun 
 on him at all ! He just gave us the laugh, and said the 
 lady on Copper Hill had his gun, but he said he d 
 shoot with what he had which happened to be the 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 219 
 
 lid of a rusty old dinner-pail, and one or two other 
 pieces of rusty mine junk scrap iron or something, 
 which he was pretty smart to find, as he only had a few 
 matches. It s a wonder he didn t get to his finish, 
 ain t it now? " 
 
 Eleanor had no words it all seemed to her so 
 cruel for this frail girl in the shabby fur coat and the 
 turban with the wilted cotton flowers. 
 
 " Say," Emily Corey at last demanded, " he lied 
 about his gun, didn t he? You haven t got it, have 
 you?" 
 
 For answer, Eleanor went to her desk and got the 
 revolver the renegade had tossed upon the bench on 
 her porch, the night she met him first. And she ex 
 plained, the best she could, how it happened to be in 
 her possession. " And shall I take the bullets out, 
 Emily," she asked, " or will you have them in? " 
 
 " Better take them out," advised the girl, " and I ll 
 take care of this gun myself for a while he ll never 
 get it." She slipped the weapon into her big pocket, 
 and made a motion to go. 
 
 But suddenly she dropped again onto the couch, and 
 looked at the lady standing by her, looked at her with 
 the shrewdest scrutiny. 
 
 " What is it, Emily? " asked her hostess, kindly. 
 
 "Maybe it would hurt your feelings?" the girl 
 hesitated. 
 
 " Not at all," Eleanor reassured her. " Whatever 
 you may wish to say will not hurt me, unless you say it 
 with the intent to disturb. What is it? " 
 
 " I ve never seen anybody like you," the girl said 
 simply. " Excuse me for being so sudden, so to put 
 
220 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 it, but how does it happen that a good woman and a 
 bad woman have been together so long as this, and 
 the good one hasn t handed the other one any religious 
 dope about trying to lead a better life; how it never 
 paid anybody to be bad; how I ought to try to do a 
 little honest work and get back with the right sort of 
 people and end by throwing a flash light picture of 
 my mother onto the screen made by the other 
 remarks ? " 
 
 If Emily Corey was surprised by the absence of this 
 lecture, Eleanor was more so by the astonishing out 
 burst on the part of her guest. She was reduced to 
 stillness. 
 
 "Excuse me? * the girl pleaded again, sincerely. 
 " You will, won t you ? But honest, you do take 
 chances ! " 
 
 " So I have been told, before," her hostess smiled 
 back. 
 
 " Well, do excuse me, won t you ? " the girl once 
 more begged, "but I can t get over it it s so dif 
 ferent from anything I ever came up against before. 
 You ask me in here, and treat me like I was somebody 
 4 of your own class, as his folks call it. Do you mean 
 to do that? " 
 
 And the girl watched her with an eagerness that was 
 heart-breaking. 
 
 " I am very glad of your company, Emily," the lady 
 replied, having to use all of her resources not to show 
 any emotion, " and any time you will come to see me, I 
 shall be glad. And any time I can do anything for you, 
 I shall be even better pleased and I mean this." 
 
 The tired girl looked on the verge of an illness, 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 221 
 
 anyway, and her intense feeling threatened to break 
 her down right here, but she kept a good hold on her 
 self, and replied with depth, " I wish I had known you 
 
 sooner." 
 
 " I am glad to know you now, Emily," Eleanor said. 
 " And by the way, you can do something for me if you 
 will. I need a seamstress very much, and don t know 
 how to go about getting one in a strange place. Do 
 you know anybody? " 
 
 " I can sew," the girl promptly replied. " I make 
 all my own clothes, and I can do extra good embroider 
 ing. I did this handkerchief. It s good enough, isn t 
 it? " And she held it up for inspection. 
 
 " It is very prettily done, Emily," her hostess told 
 her. " And I am sure you can mend up a lot of things 
 for me, and make some new aprons for Martha. Will 
 you come to me for a few days work? " 
 
 " Sure I will," gladly agreed the girl. " I ll come 
 to-morrow. Is half past eight too early? " 
 
 " Yes, it is, a little. But come at nine and you can 
 have a cup of coffee. And now I am going to send 
 you home, Emily, because I am tired. I was riding 
 rather too long to-day, and I am not as strong as I 
 ought to be, so you will understand?" 
 
 " That s all right," said the girl, in her own way 
 being polite. 
 
 "Well, then good night," said Eleanor. " And 
 don t forget to-morrow. No not the back way ! 
 Just come over this way to the front door, please." 
 
 Eleanor walked to the street entrance with the girl, 
 and just as her hand rested on the door-knob, the bell 
 rang, startling them both. 
 
222 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Naturally she opened the door herself, and there 
 stood Dr. Marsden, who seemed slightly taken aback, 
 by the over-prompt answer to his ring. He stepped 
 aside to let Miss Corey pass out, noting sharply her 
 features. 
 
 Then Eleanor called good-night again in friendly 
 tones, and closed the door, with Dr. Marsden inside 
 and Emily Corey outside. 
 
 The doctor made no remarks upon the departing 
 caller, to Eleanor s relief, for she was much too tired 
 to feel like explaining her visitor. 
 
 The doctor s visit promised to be short, for he saw 
 instantly that the lady was tired. He promptly said 
 that he had been called to see a sick child in one of the 
 cabins at the foot of the hill, and it occurred to him to 
 come up and say good-evening and see if she got home 
 safely after her ride. Also, he said (with just what 
 degree of sincerity, one could hardly say) that he won 
 dered if an apology were due her from him. 
 
 Eleanor was much too worn out to care especially 
 whether the doctor wished to express any regret for 
 his actions of the afternoon, or not, but she was pleas 
 ant enough about it, and asked the man to take off his 
 coat. 
 
 He, too, was pleasant and superficial, admirably 
 disguising his real feelings, if he had any; and shortly 
 he left, saying he thought rest would be better for her 
 than his society, and suggested the visit be finished at 
 another time. 
 
 Although he made no comments, still it was marked 
 enough to the sensitive Eleanor that one or two things 
 caught the doctor s attention why, for instance, she 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 223 
 
 was still in riding dress at this hour in the evening; and 
 what could account for the extraordinary acquaintance 
 between a woman like herself, and one such as Emily 
 Corey. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 I A HE Camp afforded few places of recreation, for 
 * all of its fifty thousand people; especially was this 
 true in the winter months when the little "White 
 City " as they called the public playground up near the 
 foot of the Range, was closed until the summer should 
 come again. The Sunday afternoons were a problem 
 in all grades of society. The average person who did 
 not lean toward vesper service in one of the churches, 
 had little to turn to but the Lone Cone. 
 
 Every Sunday that was at all a possible day, either 
 winter or summer, saw a lot of people working off 
 their natural restlessness by climbing up, and stumbling 
 down the sharp, treeless sides of the gaunt Lone Cone. 
 When they reached the top, winded and fatigued, they 
 sat about a while on the crown of rocks that finished 
 this relentless looking pile of lava, which had been 
 thrown up there centuries before. From the south side 
 of the Burns bungalow, these Sunday climbers looked 
 like busy little ants, madly scrambling up to the most 
 cheerless of places, to reflect upon an unrequited love, 
 perhaps. 
 
 Sunday afternoon, out of golfing season, was a trying 
 time for the bachelors, who, as a tribe, had boycotted 
 making calls and all other simple, homely things. 
 When the Quartz Club got on their nerves, they some 
 times wandered down to the country club on the Flat, 
 where they sat about the great stove in the dining room, 
 telling each other what they were going to do when 
 
 224 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 225 
 
 they made enough money to clear out of this God-for 
 saken country. Sometimes, some desperate young 
 matron or some of the girls found their way down there 
 also, sooner than stay home another minute, hoping 
 for something to happen. By dropping in at the coun 
 try club, they stood a mild chance of inducing some 
 solemn cynic to come back home for Sunday night tea 
 with them. But always the Sunday afternoons were 
 vibrant with ill-humours, the blues, introspection, 
 good resolutions, sceptical generalities and daring 
 personalities. 
 
 It did not take Eleanor long to realise what awful 
 monsters Sundays were in the Camp, but she had 
 guarded against the ravages of desolation the best she 
 could. This particular kindly winter Sunday after 
 noon found her away off in the country alone, shooting 
 at moss patches on the rocks, and making believe it 
 was a week day, as usual. She was not a member of 
 the country club, so she went there only when invited, 
 but to-day when she rode by the place, she felt lonelier 
 than ever, and out of everything. 
 
 Inside the house, as she passed by, were a crowd of 
 fellows and Mrs. Cuthbert and Mrs. Peters gathered 
 about the stove in the dining room, the only habitable 
 spot in the building in winter. At the piano, back to 
 them, sat Miss Evelyn Carew, running over some new 
 popular songs, the soft pedal down hard, while at one 
 side of her stood her boon companion, Miss Margaret 
 Page, and on the other side, Barton Colby turning 
 leaves at the wrong time. Mr. Colby was of the 
 opinion that he could not abide girls, but he was so out 
 of something better to do, that he grimly welcomed the 
 
226 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 post of official leaf-turner. He liked music that s 
 why he stood there, of course ! 
 
 The only hope of diversion for anybody seemed to 
 lie with a stranger among them, Lieut. Montgrove, 
 who was talking upon various cheering topics, the one 
 at the moment being shipwreck. Mr. Montgrove be 
 longed in the merchant-marine service, and was a long 
 way from the sea; but a furlough, and being Mrs. 
 Peters brother explained this. 
 
 At last he got everybody s attention by remarking, 
 " Do you know this place reminds me of a ship? " 
 
 " It does? " somebody encouraged him. 
 
 " Yes," the lieutenant went on, " a ship on a three 
 years cruise that has been about a hundred days out 
 of sight of land." 
 
 " That is why we take such a vivid interest in each 
 other," remarked Miss Montgomery, slipping into her 
 long fur coat, preparatory to taking a walk in the sun 
 shine on the barren links. " We are driven to it 
 there is nothing else. We all live ourselves to death, 
 over nothing." And there was even greater depth 
 in her utterance than usual, as she stepped out by way 
 of the kitchen door, braving the disapproval of the 
 China-boy who hated to have his kitchen used as a 
 passage way, and who was no more enthusiastic over 
 Sundays than the club members, themselves. 
 
 " What s the matter with Stella lately? " asked Mrs. 
 Peters. 
 
 " I don t know," replied Mrs. Cuthbert. " But she 
 affects me as a barrel of gunpowder might, if some fool 
 flicked his cigarette ashes into it while I was near. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 227 
 
 Let her alone, is my advice. Maybe she s in love? " 
 
 Everyone smiled at this. It must have been some 
 sort of a Camp joke, Stella s being in love. All of her 
 friends had tried to marry her off to somebody or other, 
 but it invariably fell through. Men admired Stella, 
 too, and to most of them she was a staunch friend. 
 But the Camp was giving up hope on the matter of 
 getting her settled in life. 
 
 " Funny about that girl," drawled Marsden. 
 " She s awfully attractive. I have thought some of 
 marrying her, myself." 
 
 " You want to think again, Doc ! " suggested Barton 
 Colby, from the piano. " She d squelch you so hard, 
 if you ever proposed to her, that you d be of the 
 opinion that a steam roller had passed over you. She 
 wouldn t consider any one of us for an instant." 
 
 " What do you know about it? " sharply demanded 
 the doctor. 
 
 But Mr. Colby was busy turning leaves just then, 
 and did not answer. 
 
 "Why doesn t Kerr marry her?" Barry Vincent 
 wanted to know. " They say he has been wild about 
 Stella for years." 
 
 " Oh, that s mostly talk," Mrs. Cuthbert broke in. 
 44 They ve said the same thing of Heilberg, too, but 
 you all know perfectly well that Heilberg is never go 
 ing to marry any of the women out here. He has been 
 devoted to us all, in turn; but when Heilberg marries 
 it will be some brilliant New Yorker, or titled foreigner, 
 or fashionable actress. He is a worldling, from the 
 word go. Don t you suppose I know? Wasn t I en- 
 
228 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 gaged to him, myself, for ten days once off and on 
 at the St. John s house party at the Springs eight 
 years ago? " 
 
 " Heavens ! " gasped Mrs. Peters. " Don t take all 
 the glory! Didn t the town gossips get it well circu 
 lated when I came out here, a bride, that I was going 
 to get a divorce so that he might marry me ? And all 
 because I ran a few dinners for him, and bought his 
 german favours?" 
 
 " I ve thought every now and then, that Stella is 
 crushed on Thorny Stone," Dr. Marsden gave out with 
 a puff of cigarette smoke. 
 
 Mr. Colby whirled away from the piano toward the 
 stove, and addressed Dr. Marsden, none too gently. 
 " I have already suggested that you think again, Doc," 
 he reproved him. " Better put a little oil on the 
 wheels, too something s working wrong in the en 
 gine. She is very kind to us all thoughtful of our 
 comfort and all that, and she mothers Thorny, just 
 the way she does the rest of us, so you can cut out 
 that idea right now. I know. See?" 
 
 " Oh, excuse me ! " pleaded the doctor, partly dis 
 guising his annoyance, by assuming a comic, mock 
 humility. " I didn t know I was speaking of a special 
 friend of yours. Maybe you are the man we re look 
 ing for? Can we congratulate you? " 
 
 " I regret to say I have not the honour to be eligible 
 for congratulations, but I envy the fellow who is," 
 Colby said, nicely. 
 
 " I say," spoke up young Barry Vincent, as things 
 were taking on a slight degree of heat, " let s change 
 the subject? I d like to get a little gossip upon an- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 229 
 
 other attractive woman this Mrs. Evanston, as you 
 all call her." 
 
 " Evanston as we all call her?" asked Mrs. 
 Cuthbert, the others all taking interest at once. 
 " What do you mean?" 
 
 " Well, far be it from me to start anything, but I 
 just thought I d ask for a little enlightenment, as you 
 women seem to have taken her up, and are probably in 
 her confidence." Then, with the air of one who has 
 information of great import, he leisurely fumbled for 
 his match safe, and postponed the climax. 
 
 " Barry? " Mrs. Peters jogged him up. 
 
 " Oh," that young man hesitated, " nothing much, of 
 course, but Evanston isn t her name, apparently." 
 
 " It isn t? Well, then, what is it, and how do you 
 know so much, anyway?" Mrs. Cuthbert eagerly 
 inquired. 
 
 " Well, it is simple enough," Barry Vincent went on. 
 " As the paying teller in the bank, I happen to know her 
 signature. Her money comes through the Lincoln 
 Trust of New York. Her name is Eleanor Evan- 
 Stone." Then Mr. Vincent held the head of his match 
 against the stove until it broke into flame, and complete 
 silence held for a second. 
 
 " There is probably some mistake," Mr. Barton 
 Colby vouchsafed. 
 
 " Hardly possible," indifferently answered Mr. 
 Barry Vincent. 
 
 " There is a popular theory that women do all of 
 the gossiping in the world," drolly added the little 
 " squab " to the catchy air of the waltz refrain she 
 was playing very softly. 
 
230 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Mr. Colby smiled back at her, approvingly. 
 
 " Well," snapped Mrs. Peters, " you can call this 
 what you like, but personally, I think it is a decided im 
 position that any stranger should come out here and 
 accept our hospitality under false pretences. My vote 
 is drop her! " 
 
 " Oh, what difference does it make?" put in the 
 doctor. " She gives good dinners." 
 
 " Barry evidently has not been asked to one of 
 them," the second " squab " laughed, copying her play 
 mate, Miss Carew, in adding her say-so. 
 
 " Well," young Vincent remarked, with affected self- 
 pity, " I see I haven t made a hit. Too bad I spoke. 
 I really didn t appreciate that I should be stirring up 
 any trouble." And he reached for his coat which lay 
 on a side table. Tell Thorny Stone, if he ever does 
 turn up here, will you Doc, that I got tired waiting for 
 him, and it s too late now to play a round, anyway? 
 Day-day, everybody ! " 
 
 But the yellow car had not got Mr. Vincent far up 
 toward town, when Mr. Stone appeared from another 
 direction, on his horse. He dismounted, threw his 
 reins to a caddy, and leaped up the back steps; nodded 
 to the Chinaman and entered the dining room and 
 the tempest in a tea-pot. 
 
 " Good afternoon ! " he pleasantly greeted them. 
 " Has anyone seen Mrs. Peters? Oh here you are ! 
 I couldn t get an answer at your house, and assumed 
 you might be here. I have some news for you all." 
 
 It was unusual, to say the least, for Mr. Crathorne 
 Stone to be so informal, and everyone paid flattering at 
 tention to him, all urging him not to keep them waiting. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 231 
 
 " You never could guess," he told them, almost 
 gaily. " So I ll not ask you to try. Carl Heilberg is 
 coming back here for a brief visit, and is proposing to 
 give a ball on Thanksgiving night at the Quartz Club 
 a re-union for his old friends and a treat for his 
 new ones, not to say a thunderbolt for his enemies. 
 Billy Leonard got a letter from him yesterday, asking 
 him to make out the list of guests, and see to all the 
 details for him, as he, himself, could not be here until 
 the late afternoon of Thanksgiving. Billy s list was 
 to be given to Mrs. Peters to revise, as she knows his 
 preferences and is an authority on the newcomers, and 
 so on. Billy was calkd over to Idaho on a mining 
 consultation this morning, and asked me to bring his 
 list, or partial list, to you promptly." 
 
 " Are we going to be asked? " squealed both buds at 
 once, from the piano. 
 
 "What a surprise!" gasped Mrs. Cuthbert. 
 
 "How very nice of him!" Mrs. Peters thought, 
 reaching out for Captain Leonard s neatly written 
 sheets, which Mr. Stone took from his inside coat 
 pocket. 
 
 Mrs. Peters spread the list out on the table, all the 
 people there gathering around her, and looking on 
 and making remarks all at once. Quite a hub-bub 
 reigned, during which Mr. Stone stood alone by the 
 stove, toasting his fingers. 
 
 As would be expected of Captain Leonard, the list 
 was alphabetically arranged; and together they all 
 looked over the names. The A s were all right, but 
 Billy had overlooked the Allbrights. 
 
 " Has anybody a pencil? " asked Mrs. Peters. 
 
232 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Dr. Marsden offered his fountain pen, and the name 
 was inserted. The B s and C s and D s all brought 
 forth pleasant remarks and slight corrections. The 
 next was E. With her finger, Mrs. Peters, the only 
 one who was seated, ran down the line. The Erms- 
 tons fine ! Mr. Emerson surely ! the Misses 
 Ernest of course ! Had there ever been a party 
 without them ? No escape ! And the next was Evans- 
 ton Mrs. Evanston. 
 
 Mrs. Peters sat up straight, and those close to her 
 fell back a little, as she deliberately drew the pen 
 through this name. " I fancy the ball can do without 
 the honour of Mrs. Evanston s presence," was all 
 that she said. 
 
 It had a quieting effect on everyone nobody knew 
 what to say at this decided action. Young Colby 
 wanted to champion the lady, but it seemed to be the 
 wrong time. He shot an inquiring glance at his friend 
 Mr. Stone, but he got no ideas from that young man. 
 Mr. Stone stood motionless; there was nothing to be 
 deducted from his expression. His drawn eyelids 
 might have indicated nothing more than that the light 
 was too strong. 
 
 Extreme uneasiness was averted by the entrance of 
 Miss Montgomery, who decided she had had enough 
 exercise when she turned once and saw Mr. Stone s 
 fine horse Jack-O, at the club house. 
 
 "Hello?" she said, noting instantly the difference 
 in the tone of the gathering from that which it had 
 when she left it, half an hour before. " What s go 
 ing on a party? " 
 
 " O Stella ! " gasped Mrs. Peters, full to bursting 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 233 
 
 with importance, u what do you think has happened? 
 Dear old Carl is coming back here after these three 
 long years, on business for a few days, and is giving us 
 a ball on Thanksgiving. Isn t that just like him? " 
 
 Miss Montgomery smiled pleasantly, but did not ex 
 press any emotion, to Mrs. Peters dismay. 
 
 " Aren t you surprised? " she demanded of the com 
 placent girl. " He wants me to revise the list, too." 
 
 " So he wrote me," calmly responded Miss Mont 
 gomery. 
 
 " So he wrote you? Mercy! Do you hear from 
 him often? " This Mrs. Peters got off with a touch 
 of something not quite soothing. 
 
 " N-no," acknowledged Miss Montgomery. " Not 
 often. May I see the list? " 
 
 She glanced over the names, then looked up sharply, 
 saying, " May I ask what this means the line 
 through Mrs. Evanston s name?" 
 
 " It means that we don t care to continue an ac 
 quaintance with any woman who represents herself to 
 be one person, and who happens to be another!" 
 grandly replied Mrs. Cuthbert, speaking up for her 
 friend Mrs. Peters, who found no answer immediately. 
 
 "And where did you get this idea?" Miss Mont 
 gomery further questioned, not at all losing her 
 temper. 
 
 " It is a matter that can be confirmed by the Miners 
 National Bank," Mrs. Peters replied, caustically. 
 " Her name is Evan-Stone, but she lives as Mrs. 
 Evanston." 
 
 "How interesting!" coldly remarked Miss Mont 
 gomery. "A slight miss-spelling, I suppose?" 
 
234 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " So? " Dr. Marsden cut in. " Apparently you are 
 familiar with the lady s real name ? " 
 
 " What a marvellous Pinkerton the world missed, 
 Doctor, when you went in for medicine ! " said Miss 
 Montgomery. " I am quite familiar with the name 
 in fact it never occurred to me that anyone would be so 
 stupid as to assume it was ever spelled as it is pro 
 nounced. Mrs. Evan-Stone, I have understood it 
 from the first. In fact, I think I have one of Mrs. 
 Evan-Stone s cards in my purse." She opened her 
 silver bag, and leisurely took out the card the lady 
 had given her the night she had dined at the bungalow; 
 the card she had felt at that time, she might have to use 
 some day. And she idly tossed it onto the table, say 
 ing, " I think the line through Evan-Stone s name had 
 best be removed." 
 
 "That line stays on my revised list!" hotly in 
 sisted Mrs. Peters. " I think it high time that we, 
 as a community, were being a little more conservative 
 in regard to strangers and possible impostors." 
 
 Miss Montgomery handed back the list, without a 
 ripple of irritation, rather more than could be said of 
 the others. " I should not think of presuming to alter 
 your list," she remarked, " and I apologise for my 
 suggestion." 
 
 Silence fell upon them all, as Miss Montgomery 
 walked up to the telephone instrument on the wall, 
 registered a number and pressed the button. " Is 
 this the Western Union Telegraph Company?" she 
 asked. "Yes? Very well. Please take a message? 
 And charge it to Miss Stella Montgomery, 795 Bryn 
 Mawr Avenue. You have the name? Very well. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 235 
 
 To Carl Heilberg, The Waldorf, New York. Please 
 send card to ball, special delivery, to Mrs. Evan-Stone, 
 Copper Hill. Sign it, Stella Montgomery. Now re 
 peat it to me, please? Thank you correct. Good- 
 bye." 
 
 Then she quietly hung up the receiver, and turned 
 to the kitchen door and called the China-boy, saying to 
 him when he appeared in the most natural of tones 
 " Hong Ty, can t you make us some tea? " 
 
 Mr. Crathorne Stone, except for being rather pale, 
 seemed to take no intimate interest in the scene that 
 had just been enacted. If he had had any suspicions 
 concerning the real identity of this woman that the 
 Camp had been busying itself about for the past six 
 weeks, he certainly knew all that was necessary now. 
 This was she the Mrs. Evan-Stone. 
 
 When the opportunity came, he left, refusing a cup 
 of tea, even though it was offered him by Miss Mont 
 gomery, whom he admired immensely for her quiet 
 independence, and kindliness toward a woman when 
 that woman stood in need of a friend. But then, he 
 had had a long and serious talk recently with Miss 
 Montgomery, and they understood each other well. 
 
 There was noise enough with all the chatter, to ad 
 mit of his saying a word alone with her, in passing. 
 " Tell me," he asked warmly; "tell me, what did 
 you send that telegram for? " 
 
 She closed her sorrowful blue eyes before he should 
 see the tears, and she said simply and honestly, " I did 
 it for you." 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 MONTGOMERY was a Westerner, born 
 and trained; therefore Miss Montgomery knew 
 the value of bluff. Also, she was a square type of 
 woman, who when she made a mistake, at once bent her 
 undivided effort toward rectifying it as far as was pos 
 sible. She had advised Mrs. Evanston, or rather 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone, badly, and she was sorry but not 
 beaten. She thought things out clearly and acted as 
 would have become a diplomatist. She called Mrs. 
 Evan-Stone, bright and early on Monday morning, 
 with a direct question as a start. 
 
 " Have I a private line, you ask? " repeated Eleanor. 
 " Why, yes, I think so. But why? " 
 
 " I want to talk over a private matter with you," 
 Miss Montgomery explained, " and what I want to say 
 is that we quite overlooked the fact of the bank s prob 
 ably having your signature, and if this is the case, it 
 would be a mistake to go on letting everybody suppose 
 your name to be spelled as it is pronounced, as we de 
 cided to do you remember ? It would be best, in my 
 opinion, for you to anticipate all comment by using 
 your regular visiting cards. Do you owe any of the 
 women here a call?" 
 
 " Only Mrs. Peters, I think," Eleanor replied. " I 
 meant to have returned that call last week, but neg 
 lected it. Of course the bank has my signature I 
 never thought of this, stupidly." 
 
 44 Suppose you call on Mrs. Peters this afternoon? 
 
 236 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 237 
 
 And send in your card, and refer to yourself, or your 
 connections, as Evanston, never intimating in any way 
 that there is the least discrepancy between the two 
 names? It would be the most natural way to make 
 the correction, and it occurs to me that the sooner you 
 attend to this, the better. You remember you asked 
 my advice in the beginning? " 
 
 " Certainly, I will do this right away, if you think 
 best; and I greatly appreciate your interest, Miss Mont 
 gomery. I can t say how good it is of you. But I 
 hope nothing unpleasant has come up? " 
 
 " Oh no ! " suavely Miss Montgomery perverted the 
 simple truth. " But I fear something may be said 
 sooner or later. The clerks in the banks, you know, 
 are fellows one meets everywhere." 
 
 " I will do this to-day, even if I give up my ride to 
 get it in. I wish you rode, Miss Montgomery. But 
 can t we take some walks together? " 
 
 " That would be very pleasant. How about this 
 afternoon, after you make that call? I ll meet you at 
 the drug store two blocks from the Peters house, at 
 four." 
 
 " Yes. Good-bye." 
 
 Then Miss Stella Montgomery registered a new 
 number that of Mrs. St. John. " Henrietta? " she 
 recognised her friend. " Henrietta, dear, you are 
 having company for luncheon. And this afternoon 
 you are detaining your guest until after four o clock. I 
 don t care what you do drive, play bridge, go out 
 making calls, or fancy work but she s yours for the 
 afternoon. I will explain later, but I want you to do 
 this for me. And do it! " 
 
238 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 "Stella, have you gone crazy?" interrupted Mrs. 
 St. John. 
 
 " No, but you do this for me, Henrietta ! Get that 
 two-by-four Gertrude Peters to tell you what took place 
 at our usually peaceful country club yesterday after 
 noon. You missed the time of your life. Tell her 
 you want to know if it is really true that Carl is coming 
 back for a few days, and going to give a ball. Insist 
 that she must come to lunch." 
 
 "What? Carl Heilberg coming back? What do 
 you mean, Stella? " she fairly screamed at her. 
 
 " For Heaven s sake, Henrietta, hasn t that news 
 got to you, yet? And you, the town information 
 bureau? " 
 
 " Stella Montgomery, you know perfectly well I 
 never hear a thing that is going on, except from you ! " 
 
 " Well, you ll hear enough from Gertrude Peters, 
 let me tell you. But you stand up for me, Henrietta 
 don t forget you are for me, no matter what side 
 you find me on? " she pleaded, quaintly. 
 
 " You may feel at ease about that, Stella, but I 
 shall perish of curiosity if you don t tell me what is 
 going on ! " 
 
 * You can find out all you want to know from 
 Gertrude Peters, Henrietta, if you hurry and get her 
 before she goes out to market. Will you? " 
 
 " Yes, Stella, I ll ask her to lunch and keep her all 
 afternoon, if I have to chloroform her if you will 
 ever stop talking, so I can call her. Good-bye." 
 
 And the plan worked itself out well. 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone, having called on Mrs. Peters 
 while Mrs. Peters was out (as Miss Montgomery had 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 239 
 
 planned) remained in peaceful ignorance of the fact 
 that the mention of her affairs had already come up. 
 And the only thing that could be done to set things 
 swinging truly again, had been done without injury to 
 anybody s feelings. 
 
 Miss Stella Montgomery needed the walk she and 
 Eleanor took together, to refresh her after a fairly 
 arduous time. And as for Mrs. Peters and Mrs. St. 
 John, they were at that time planning new gowns for 
 the great social event the Thanksgiving ball. 
 
 But while Miss Montgomery s prompt and intelli 
 gent action had aided the Camp life to level down once 
 more to its even tenor, still, it by no means stopped the 
 talk, or guaranteed the matter settled. Everybody 
 was buzzing about retailing the discovery of the differ 
 ence in " Mrs. Evanston s " two names, and for the 
 only time on record, so far as even the pioneers could 
 judge, somebody divided the honours with Mr. Carl 
 Heilberg in holding the public attention. It was all 
 so very absorbing, that the " squabs " quite forgot to 
 experience their customary " worlds of thrills " at hav 
 ing been close enough to Mr. Crathorne Stone on Sun 
 day afternoon, to have been introduced after all their 
 waiting for this crisis and now were merely discus 
 sing new frocks, having ascertained beyond all doubt 
 that their names were on the list of Mr. Heilberg s 
 guests. 
 
 In fact, the only women in the Camp who were not in 
 an excited state, were Mrs. Evan-Stone, who cared lit 
 tle or nothing about receiving a card, and who had 
 plenty of appropriate gowns waiting patiently to be 
 worn and Miss Stella Montgomery, whose gown 
 
240 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 for this ball had been designed a month before, and 
 now awaited her in Chicago for fittings. 
 
 To-day she told Eleanor, with a smile, that the Camp 
 would ostracise her if it ever got wind of the fact that 
 she knew what Mr. Heilberg intended to do, weeks 
 ago! She also had been asked to attend to the list 
 and plans, herself, but had suggested Mrs. Peters and 
 Captain Leonard, thinking it would be better so, all 
 around. 
 
 4 Then you are very good friends, you and Mr. 
 Heilberg? " Eleanor asked, more because of some 
 thing to say than because she was purely inquisitive. 
 
 " He treats me as though I were a child," Stella said. 
 41 At sixteen it fretted me exceedingly now, 1 am 
 grateful for it." And she seemed to have no more to 
 say on the subject. 
 
 Even the men about town had more to say about 
 this ball, than they generally wasted on such affairs, 
 because of the man giving it. There were plenty of 
 people in the community who were insulted (so they 
 said) at Heilberg s impertinence at supposing they 
 would greet him on his return, but who softened as 
 the time drew nearer, dreading to be quite out of the 
 little that was going on in the Camp. They agreed (to 
 themselves) for this one evening, to overlook the slight 
 matter of his having got them in for all they were 
 worth " on the ground floor " of some of his enter 
 prises, which seemed to have kept him in Europe very 
 comfortably ever since and which had kept them 
 tied down in the Camp pretty steadily ever since. 
 
 "Oh, Carl s all right!" insisted Dr. Marsden, at 
 the time Captain Leonard s guest at a poker party at 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 241 
 
 Suite 5, Quartz Club Building. u His heart s in the 
 right place, and he isn t exactly crooked he s just 
 shrewd." 
 
 " He s all of that certainly," remarked the Cap 
 tain, thinking of five hundred shares of " Baltimore 
 and Montana Extension " that he had always meant 
 to convert into lamp lighters for his aged grand 
 mother, who considered the modern use of matches, 
 prodigal. 
 
 " He played this Camp for all that was in it, but 
 Lord ! we used to have a lively time in those good old 
 days ! Something doing every minute ! " sighed Mr. 
 St. John. " If it wasn t a mob of disgruntled miners 
 looking for Heilberg with a rope, why it was a din 
 ner party with gold souvenirs for the ladies, and vin 
 tage champagne as free as the town pump. There 
 was a row outside once when he had a lot of us at his 
 house, and he simply stepped out on the porch and 
 told the strikers he appreciated exactly how they felt, 
 and he d adjust their troubles in the morning to 
 come around to the office in business hours. And so 
 they dispersed a favour they never would have 
 granted any other man on earth! And we ve been a 
 collection of dead-ones ever since he left." 
 
 " I am looking forward to seeing him," remarked 
 Mr. Crathorne Stone, from the other side of the room. 
 " I got here after he had left the place, and I have al 
 ways felt I missed a lot." 
 
 " You would have missed it, all right, if it had been 
 money you had any wild idea of doubling in some of 
 Heilberg s schemes," dryly commented Mr. Barton 
 Colby. 
 
242 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " He wasn t bad he was clever, I tell you," again 
 the doctor defended him. 
 
 " Doc isn t an investor," explained Mr. Colby to the 
 room in general. " He wisely avoids the ground floor 
 because the elevator always goes to the basement with 
 him in it he s a second story worker, and puts his 
 money into things you can t get away from him 
 mint juleps, experience and dope like that." 
 
 Well, cutting me out, and returning to the subject 
 of the ball," Dr. Marsden undertook to change the 
 topic, " did the women get their fracas fixed up ? My ! 
 But the temperature ran high at the country club Sun 
 day afternoon! I expected hair-pulling any min 
 ute." And Dr. Marsden lighted a fresh cigar, and 
 waited. 
 
 " I am sure we shall all be very glad to see Mrs. 
 Evanston," remarked Mr. Colby, coldly, although the 
 coldness was directed at the doctor, not at the prospect 
 of seeing Mrs. Evan-Stone. 
 
 " Well, I fancy she is a nice little woman, but I have 
 wondered how the women would like it, if they knew 
 who some of her friends are," the doctor went on, with 
 apparent indifference. " She is pretty thick with that 
 Corey woman. It is none of my business, of course, 
 but I thought it strange." 
 
 Mr. Stone rose and whirled toward the card table, 
 not being, himself one of the players, and with a quiet 
 voice that suggested trouble to follow, he addressed 
 Dr. Marsden. " You are not my guest this evening, 
 Doctor," he began formally, " so I shall not express 
 myself as fully as I would, had I invited you to come 
 here. But this much I wish to recall to your mind: 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 243 
 
 There is a rule in this club that no woman, or her af 
 fairs, shall be discussed under this roof. This rule, so 
 far as I have observed in my two years membership, 
 until this evening, has been pretty conscientiously re 
 spected." 
 
 "I thought we were in a private apartment 
 bachelor quarters," suggested Dr. Marsden, rising. 
 
 " This rule holds good under the entire club roof," 
 firmly announced Mr. Stone. 
 
 " Oh ! " sneered the doctor, unpleasantly. " If you 
 are running a ladies aid society here, why, I propose 
 we adjourn to Colby s rooms and finish the game. 
 Perhaps we disturb your reading? " 
 
 " Not for mine, thanks," Mr. Colby himself ac 
 knowledged the idea. u I stand with Stone, and I d 
 like to add that I don t like your talk, and I question 
 your authority to make any such statement as you 
 have." 
 
 " You certainly overlook the fact that you are speak 
 ing of a lady who has given us all pleasure by her 
 charming society, and whom everybody has been glad 
 to welcome among us," moderately joined in the host, 
 Captain Leonard, who looked utterly distressed to see 
 his party breaking up in such revolutionary style. 
 
 " I don t know who this Corey woman is, but " 
 Mr. Stone got no farther. 
 
 " You might ask that gutter-rat, Ortman, who long 
 ago got kicked out of the clubs around here, who she 
 is; you might ask any one of half a dozen others, who 
 Emily Corey is I guess they will tell you ! " the doc 
 tor replied, hotly. 
 
 " You seem to know her pretty well, yourself, 
 
244 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Doc! " sweetly ventured Colby, hoping to get some 
 body to be a little lighter in manner. 
 
 " I have attended her, professionally," the man an 
 swered. "I was called to her this evening high 
 temperature and bad cold together with a general run 
 down condition, and may develop into pneumonia. 
 You will find the patient at present in a cot in Mrs. 
 Evanston s or Evan-Stone s bed room. I am sorry 
 to have stirred up a rough-house. Good-night." 
 
 " I think if you fellows will excuse me," young 
 Colby quickly decided as the door slammed to after 
 the angry Dr. Marsden, whose manner upon leaving 
 implied he felt he had been much too severely dealt 
 with, on the whole, " I think I will stick with the doc 
 tor a little while. I want to remind him that it is not 
 professional for a physician to talk too much. 
 I d hate to have him stop down-stairs in his present 
 humour. So-long, everybody! " And the door 
 banged after the boy. 
 
 Captain Leonard and Mr. Stone were looking at Mr. 
 St. John, closely, these three being all that were left of 
 the poker party. 
 
 " Don t worry," calmly said Mr. St. John. " I m 
 married, I know, but I am not going to burst in and 
 wake my wife with a graphic description of this session, 
 gentlemen. Nothing can be got out of me not even 
 with a jimmy. But it s a queer deal, to say the least, 
 Mrs. Evanston s being so friendly with such a char 
 acter, isn t it? Good-night." 
 
 "When is this infernal ball coming off?" sharply 
 asked Mr. Stone of his companion, when St. John s 
 footsteps were lost to hearing down the hall. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 245 
 
 " Thanksgiving you know as well as I do 
 why?" 
 
 " I m thinking who is the agent for that Burns 
 bungalow?" Mr. Stone next inquired. 
 
 "Why," Billy Leonard reflected, "there are only 
 two real estate firms here of any consequence I sup 
 pose one of them has that house why? " 
 
 " I was thinking," replied Mr. Stone. 
 
 " I am thinking, too, Thorny," announced the Cap 
 tain. " I d like to know why you concern yourself with 
 the troubles of some woman you wouldn t stir an inch 
 to meet? It s really most interesting to me." 
 
 " It s interesting to me, too, old man," Mr. Cra- 
 thorne Stone acknowledged, with strong feeling, held 
 down hard. " I attribute it partly to habit, partly to 
 every man s duty but principally to the fact that at 
 one time Mrs. Evan-Stone was nty wife." Then he 
 lighted a cigarette, with the appearance of perfect calm, 
 although his hand trembled slightly, and he turned his 
 face away from his friend. 
 
 The silence was positively oppressive. Mr. Stone 
 stood it until he recovered absolute control of his ex 
 pression, and he went on standing it as long afterward 
 as he could. Then he addressed Captain Leonard with 
 a simple, "Well?" 
 
 " Well," said Captain Leonard, " I was just wonder 
 ing, as I stood here, if my astonishment made me look 
 like the straw-man in the Wizard of Oz." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 TpHURSDAY came in due time Thanksgiving 
 -* Day with nice deep snow, and all the dress 
 makers worn to a thread, not having stopped long 
 enough to get a bite of turkey, some of them, while 
 messenger boys were hurrying about with big boxes for 
 the town s fashionables. The florists were in a flurry, 
 too, because the dressmakers kept the messenger boys 
 so busy. 
 
 The club house was a wonderful tribute to u floral 
 art." The immense dining room looked like the in 
 side of a royal bower in a story book, the high ceiling 
 being covered entirely with autumn leaves fetched from 
 a distance, and the chandeliers were lost in trailing vines 
 and flowers. And the walls also were covered by 
 leaves held on lattices. The great reception hall and 
 the rooms off it down-stairs were so lovely that the 
 Camp flock of reporters was forced to hesitate for 
 words. 
 
 The ladies rooms were peeped into also, and on the 
 centre table were three colossal boxes containing, so the 
 boy at the desk told the society reporters, the bouquets 
 for the reception committee. Instantly he was ques 
 tioned, " Who were the ladies receiving for Mr. Heil- 
 berg?" 
 
 " Well, now you ve got me," the boy confessed. 
 " Mr. Heilberg didn t get in until the late afternoon, 
 and he went up to his rooms here at once and said he 
 wanted to rest not to ring his bell." So the re- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 247 
 
 porters had to await developments, as they themselves, 
 would have expressed it. The newspaper representa 
 tives were not, by any means, the only people who 
 wanted to know the names of the receiving ladies. 
 Mrs. Peters had spent most of five dollars trying to 
 catch Carl Heilberg by wire to ask him if he wished 
 her to arrange this point, also; but no word ever got 
 to him, so swiftly did he move about from place to 
 place when once he started West. 
 
 Stella Montgomery had intimated, rather top-loftily, 
 Mrs. Peters and several of her friends had agreed, that 
 she was in Mr. Heilberg s confidence perhaps she 
 knew what he intended to do? Possibly he meant to 
 ask the first few women who arrived? This was the 
 spontaneous way he used to do things in the good old 
 days. They would ask Stella, whom they had ex 
 pected home the day before. 
 
 But as late as three o clock, there was no answer at 
 Stella s. There was no maid, and the old aunt, being 
 very deaf, never heard the bells. Stella had gone to 
 Chicago ten days before, ostensibly to see another aunt 
 who ^vas ill, but Mrs. Peters and the rest knew perfectly 
 weU she went largely to get something new to wear 
 to this ball. 
 
 When superintending the final touches to the decora 
 tions, Mrs. Peters had asked Mrs. Cuthbert to try 1418 
 again. She, herself, was still on rather stiff terms with 
 Stella, as the result of their recent tiff at the country 
 club, and she did not care to defer to her in person 
 naturally. 
 
 Mrs. Cuthbert had come out of the booth once more, 
 and reported that Henrietta St. John had answered 
 
248 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 that she was there, helping Stella unpack, as the train 
 had been several hours delayed by snow drifts; and 
 Stella, being pretty tired, begged not to be called from 
 the couch. Stella sent a message, however, to the ef 
 fect that she did not have a word of enlightenment to 
 offer concerning the ladies who were to receive. 
 
 Then Mesdames Peters and Cuthbert gave it up, 
 and resigned themselves to waiting. 
 
 "Well," sighed Mrs. Cuthbert, tightening her fur 
 at her throat, when the chill air struck them outside the 
 Quartz Club Building, " there is one thing to be thank 
 ful for we are in luck to be allowed to use the 
 ground floor of this club. I don t know of another 
 man s club in the country that permits it, do you? It 
 gives us somewhere to go for a cup of tea, when every 
 thing else fails us. But I prophesy that the Camp has 
 never before seen anything to equal the grandeur of 
 Stella Montgomery to-night! I wager she has spent 
 every cent that was left of her father s estate on a 
 dress to dazzle us. She isn t going to let Heilberg see 
 that she has faded away, pining for him these past few 
 years. I wonder what colour her gown will be? Red 
 screaming red, perhaps he used to like her in red 
 when she was a fresh little girl." 
 
 " Possibly she won t be so overpoweringly stunning, 
 dear maybe her trunk didn t come," soothingly sug 
 gested Mrs. Peters. 
 
 " Don t you think it! " Mrs. Cuthbert called back, 
 for they were going different ways at the corner. 
 " Stella would have got that new dress here, if she had 
 had to carry the trunk herself all the way from St. 
 Paul." 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 249 
 
 At a quarter to ten the first carriage drove up to the 
 Quartz Club, and two ladies and two men got out. 
 They went to their dressing rooms, and joined each 
 other shortly in the reception hall. Nobody was pres 
 ent to receive them, but the club attendants and the boy 
 at the desk. 
 
 Five minutes more, and another carriage stopped. 
 The first arrivals greeted the second arrivals, but still 
 nobody else was in evidence. None of the men living 
 at the club had appeared, preferring their own haunts 
 up-stairs until the last moment, always. 
 
 Another fifteen minutes or so, and some twenty or 
 more people wandered about the various roms, chat 
 ting. Mr. and Mrs. Peters soon put in their appear 
 ance, quickly followed by Mr. and Mrs. Cuthbert and 
 Mr. St. John, whose wife had begged to be excused 
 after dinner, as she had promised to run over to Stel 
 la s apartment and hook her up, Stella s aunt being so 
 nervous always, when trying to get Stella ready for a 
 function. She was to come with Stella in a few mo 
 ments. 
 
 A pleasant hum of voices was heard now, intermin 
 gled with the sounds of tuning up the orchestra; and 
 all of a sudden Mr. Heilberg was seen coming down 
 the broad staircase, all smiles and apologies for having 
 been detained on business up in the library. Every 
 one crowded about him, shaking hands and all talk 
 ing at once, and asking questions, making quite as dem 
 onstrative a meeting as Mr. Heilberg could have 
 wished. 
 
 Mrs. Peters claimed his special attention as soon as 
 it was possible to get it, and a hush fell upon them all, 
 
250 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 as she said, " Where are we supposed to go to be 
 formally received, Carl?" 
 
 Everybody called Mr. Heilberg Carl with that pe 
 culiar pride one has in appearing to be on informal 
 terms with a celebrity. 
 
 " Oh? " responded Mr. Heilberg, in a puzzled way, 
 looking toward the front entrance, " Mrs. Heilberg 
 will be here very shortly. I am sorry she is late, but 
 I left her to rest a little after the trip, and she may 
 have overslept." 
 
 "Mrs. Heilberg? Mrs. Heilberg?" everybody 
 gasped, as the Camp hero stood beaming, one step 
 above them. 
 
 "Mrs. Heilberg yes," he said, proudly. "I 
 have a surprise for you, haven t I ? This is our wed 
 ding reception. We were married in New York sev 
 eral days ago; and, if you will excuse me, I will see if 
 Mrs. Heilberg has arrived." 
 
 And he worked his way through the mass of aston 
 ished guests, to the door of the ladies dressing room. 
 
 The maid took in his name, and three women stepped 
 out of the room; Mrs. St. John first, who warmly 
 greeted Mr. Heilberg with sincere congratulations, and 
 then she introduced him to Mrs. Evan-Stone, to whom 
 he said a cordial word or two. And now Stella Mont 
 gomery smiled up at him, faintly, almost as if half 
 frightened. 
 
 Graciously, he offered Stella his arm, and the little 
 party walked across the big hall to the handsome De 
 ception room, the guests so utterly at sea, they were 
 positively solemn, as though they were at a wedding 
 ceremony. A dynamite bomb set down in their midst 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 251 
 
 might have caused a little more activity, but it could 
 not have caused more consternation. 
 
 Stella Montgomery-Heilberg was a most marvellous 
 picture in a white satin gown with a long train, the entire 
 frock studded with seed pearls. It was so simple, yet 
 so gorgeous, that the slight, girlish figure had to throw 
 its full weight into it, to carry it. Her only jewel was 
 a splendid tiara of diamonds and pearls, the only tiara 
 ever seen in the Camp before, so far as anybody could 
 recall. She carried one American Beauty rose from 
 her bouquet only one in her white gloved hand, 
 and as the receiving party fell into line, no lady of a 
 foreign court could have seemed more beautiful, than 
 this Western mining camp girl, as she stood with her 
 fine blond head slightly bent, beside the man who had 
 always treated her like a little child. 
 
 Next to Mrs. Heilberg, stood Mrs. Evan-Stone, and 
 next to her, Mrs. St. John. 
 
 Rather shyly - from the shock of the surprise, no 
 doubt the guests came up, and offered the Heil- 
 bergs their good wishes; and their pleasure was gen- 
 uin^, too, for this marriage was a splendid thing for 
 Stella, and a fitting climax, all around. But the towns 
 folk had been successfully foiled, and this is always 
 trying. Still they were glad, and it was very soon a 
 merry, happy gathering. 
 
 Everybody was civil to Mrs. Evan-Stone and inter 
 ested in her as could be they had to be, for she stood 
 very well protected from anything else. The men, who 
 but a week or so ago, had had such an unpleasant few 
 moments because of her affairs, were pointedly nice to 
 her they had agreed among themselves to be so. 
 
252 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Mrs. St. John always made things go off well, so 
 once the guests were received the full length of the 
 line, they were started out favourably for a memorable 
 good time. And everybody was there, and everybody 
 looked well, and everybody did have no end of fun, in 
 deed, especially the " twin-squabs " who challenged 
 everybody s supply of flattering adjectives, they were 
 so sweet and fluffy and enthusiastic. They simultane 
 ously gasped that they never expected to get over their 
 paroxysms of thrills over this romantic marriage, as 
 long as they lived. And they thought that the way the 
 bride and groom had fooled everybody, was simply too 
 cute for words. 
 
 The line was about to break up, almost everyone 
 having arrived by eleven, when Captain Leonard 
 claimed a dance with Mrs. Evan-Stone, saying, " Shall 
 we waltz, or would you like to come up and see our 
 bachelor quarters which are on exhibition this even 
 ing? We can get Mrs. St. John, too, if you like, and 
 Barton Colby." 
 
 This did interest Eleanor, exceedingly a great deal 
 more than she would ever have owned, even to herself, 
 and she had just assented, when the club steward beck 
 oned to Captain Leonard, who asked to be excused a 
 second. This left her standing alone, although not 
 noticeably so, as many people were all about her. 
 
 She was just wondering to whom to turn for a word, 
 when who should walk up, all smiles and manly charm, 
 but Mr. Crathorne Stone ! 
 
 The former Mrs. Stone almost fainted at being so 
 near him, and for a fraction of a fearful moment 
 fearful lest he should speak to her, and fearful lest he 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 253 
 
 should not she thought he was holding out his hand 
 to her. 
 
 But no oh, no not at all. 
 
 Stella was still beside Mrs. Evan-Stone, and it was to 
 Stella that Mr. Stone had come. He took the bride s 
 hand, warmly, saying (and Eleanor could not possibly 
 have helped hearing him he was so horribly near), 
 " I intended to be the first to wish you well, Mrs. Heil- 
 berg. I do wish you every happiness in the world! 
 Save me a waltz, will you? I shall not dance with 
 anyone else send up to the billiard room for me, 
 when you want me." 
 
 And he bowed, and whirled away. 
 
 Stella was speechless she just looked her thanks. 
 
 Mr. Stone had been near enough for Eleanor to have 
 put her delicate hands on the pearl studs she had once 
 given him, and which were the only gifts of hers he had 
 not returned when the break came yet he had pre 
 tended not to see her. He was so thoroughly done 
 with the whole story that he didn t feel embarrassment, 
 even, at coming near her! She was openly, and finally 
 ignored. The punishment was almost unendurable. 
 Had the time been such that she could have given in to 
 her emotions, she surely would have burst into mad 
 tears, or have thrown herself down upon the earth in 
 the wild intensity of pique. But being where she was, 
 Eleanor Evan-Stone smiled vaguely and said common 
 place things to the woman who came up late and intro 
 duced herself. 
 
 Not only had this man affected no knowledge of 
 Eleanor s existence, not to say her presence, but he had 
 deliberately let her see his deep interest in Stella, and 
 
254 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 he knew she was there and could hear him of course, 
 he knew ! 
 
 What was his and Stella s story? Eleanor would 
 have given half of her inheritance to know. 
 
 But by this time Captain Leonard was back, and the 
 little party of four was on its way to the top of the 
 building, in the automatic elevator which was both 
 the pride and the dread of the Camp; the pride when 
 it worked, and dread when it spent an hour or so be 
 tween floors, with somebody inside, none too pleased, 
 who had a pressing engagement elsewhere at the time. 
 
 Once within the Stone-Leonard apartments, the la 
 dies wandered about, looking at the photographs, beer 
 mugs, pipes, embroidered pillows and things. It was 
 an attractive sitting room very. A piano was swung 
 out into the room at one end, and Mrs. Evan-Stone 
 walked over to it, drawn there by the sight of a tall 
 vase with a single orchid in it that stood on the top, 
 together with some ornaments. She ran her fingers 
 over the key-board lightly, studying, in the meantime, 
 some sheet music on the rack. 
 
 One song was opened u Calm as the Night." 
 
 Captain Leonard followed the lady and looked down 
 at her from the corner of the upright instrument where 
 he placed his elbow so that his hand might support his 
 head an attitude that proclaimed him quite at home 
 and content with his visitors. The lady rose from the 
 bench, standing near him so that she might engage his 
 eye as well as his interest. Having established her 
 position firmly, she adroitly slipped this particular song 
 from those that backed it up, and while smiling and 
 joking with her host, she quickly rolled it tight, bent it 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 255 
 
 double, and drew her scarf over her theft. No pick 
 pocket in the east end of London could have done a 
 more skilful bit of work. The Captain helped his 
 friend and room-mate hunt for that missing song, for 
 days. 
 
 " Do you see our flower, Mrs. Evan-Stone? " he mis 
 chievously asked. And his expression was enough to 
 draw comparison to the single flower the lady, herself, 
 was wearing, and to report the two orchids duplicates. 
 
 " Oh, yes," said the lady, carelessly. " Have you 
 found out yet who sends them? " 
 
 The Captain cleared his throat impressively, and 
 remarked, " You know bluff is a wonderful thing? 
 Yes I value it higher every year I live. But in the 
 West it doesn t deceive us as it might, some way. You 
 see, I have you in hand-cuffs, now but I admire your 
 gameness, just the same ! " 
 
 u You may have heard, perhaps," Eleanor began, 
 tucking her stolen goods in the safe covering of her 
 dainty scarf, under her arm, as she looked at the young 
 man, squarely, " that every once in a while the wrong 
 man gets hanged because of circumstantial evidence? " 
 
 " But Mrs. Evan-Stone," he tried to force a confes 
 sion, " you surely don t mean to tell me in all earnest 
 ness that you did not send this flower ? " 
 
 " I certainly do mean to tell you that I did not send 
 it," she replied. And the truth of her statement made 
 itself felt, beyond all question. 
 
 Then the Captain glanced at the single American 
 Beauty rose in a high, green vase on the table and 
 then back at the lady. 
 
 " Nor the rose, either ! " she warmly insisted al- 
 
256 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 though his asking was not done in words only in 
 manner. 
 
 " Well," sighed the Captain, " I believe you but 
 I would not believe any other woman I know. And 
 it s most extraordinary about these single flowers! 
 Every now and then, we receive a lone red rose up here; 
 and every now and again, we get a lavender orchid. 
 They don t come from the same place, and I doubt if 
 they come from the same person. All of us are ab 
 sorbed in the mystery. We have Mr. Stone s permis 
 sion to find out all we can and then tell him ! He 
 has just as much fun out of it as anybody. The red 
 rose comes in a Montana Floral Company box, with no 
 card; and the orchid comes in another make of box 
 without either a card or a florist s name." 
 
 Then the Captain lighted a cigarette and screwed 
 his face up over the knotty problem. 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone felt sure she could place the red 
 rose where it belonged but she and Stella Mont 
 gomery had been friends in a strange sort of way, and 
 no amount of probing could ever have made her sug 
 gest this name to the Captain. As for the orchid 
 she was just as out of the secret as he. The fact that 
 it tore at her heart to see that somebody else was doing 
 a little thing that once had been her own attention to 
 Mr. Stone to see that he could bring himself to ac 
 cept the same thing from someone else did not af 
 fect the smile she wore but oh ! how it hurt ! It 
 would have been so much finer in the man gently to 
 have led this unknown somebody to believe he really 
 preferred some other flower. The idea of one flower, 
 itself, was his own in the beginning, so no doubt it was 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 257 
 
 his influence on the taste of his friends that made them 
 send just one flower, when it is customary to send a lot 
 of flowers, or none at all. 
 
 Nothing, seemingly, was left of Mr. Crathorne 
 Stone s old-time sentiment for Eleanor, but a per 
 sistent endeavour to blot it out to confuse its ex 
 pressions with those of other loves. It was too crush 
 ing a punishment for her desertion of him, she felt. 
 
 But stanch and evenly did the woman stand and 
 smile and take the blow. She was so deceiving that 
 the Captain had a notion he was amusing her immensely 
 by continuing the subject and affecting a disbelief in her 
 denial of knowing anything of the flowers. 
 
 " Now, be honest," he pleaded. " I won t tell a 
 soul, I swear. But don t you know a little just a 
 little about this single flower business? " 
 
 " Not one thing," she told him, seriously, even 
 sadly. " Not one little thing. Surely, Captain, all 
 joking set aside, you cannot think me guilty of sending 
 this touching token to a man who has shown the marked 
 unfriendly spirit toward me that Mr. Stone has ever 
 since I have lived here, can you? " 
 
 " Has he been unfriendly? " he asked, feigning sur 
 prise and belief that such a thing must be impossible. 
 The Captain, knowing as much as he did of the past 
 relationship of these two persons, could not resist do 
 ing a little to encourage the lady s enlightening him 
 further, so long as he had the opportunity to do it 
 guardedly and nicely. 
 
 " It makes no particular difference, one way or the 
 other," Mrs. Evan-Stone began, with a fair assumption 
 of lightness, " but nothing could have induced me to 
 
258 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 come up here in his rooms, except the fact I did not 
 want to break up your little party." 
 
 "Be perfectly comfortable!" the Captain reas 
 sured her. " This is my home, too, you know, and you 
 are my guest. Mr. Stone, to my definite knowledge 
 will not be up here for at least an hour, as he is at pres 
 ent down-stairs deep in billiards, as usual." 
 
 " You won t tell Mr. Stone I have been here, will 
 you, Captain? " the lady begged, in a plaintive way that 
 showed right through her attempt to appear uncon 
 cerned. 
 
 " No," promised the Captain. " Not if you don t 
 want me to. And now I want to show you our books." 
 
 After the pleasantest half hour imaginable on the 
 surface the little party broke up and then went down 
 once more to the ball room. 
 
 The greatest stir was on everybody talking at 
 once and all that sort of thing. The Heilbergs had 
 got away, and not a soul knew how or when. And by 
 the time their disappearance became generally known 
 the North Coast Limited was just pulling out of the 
 station. 
 
 Very, very late or was it very, very early the next 
 morning? the bell rang out clearly in Suite 5, Quartz 
 Club Building. 
 
 A lot of fellows had gathered there to wait for 
 breakfast, as the down-stairs part of the club was chilly, 
 deserted, and mussy with the last of the supper things 
 about, and wilted flowers cluttering the steam radiators 
 and broken fans and bits of spangles and things giving 
 a doleful look to the rooms. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 259 
 
 Mr. Stone set down his highball glass. " Yes? " he 
 said, thinking, of course, he was being rung up by some 
 belated merry-maker who did not know what to do with 
 himself until it was time to dress for business. 
 
 But he got no answer. 
 
 " Who is it? " he demanded, sharply this time. 
 
 "So bad off he can t articulate?" cheerfully ven 
 tured Mr. Barton Colby s nice voice, somewhere near 
 the transmitter. 
 
 "Hello, I say?" stormed Mr. Stone to the unre 
 sponsive wire. 
 
 But silence, and silence, only, reigned at the other 
 end. And in exasperation, Mr. Stone turned to the 
 room full of men and exclaimed right beside the 
 mouth-piece " Well, I certainly should like to know 
 who the devil it is that calls this place about three times 
 a week at crazy hours, and won t apologise for getting 
 the wrong number!" And he slammed up the re 
 ceiver. 
 
 The next instant, Eleanor Evan-Stone rose from her 
 desk, away up on the top of Copper Hill, and glancing 
 at the cold ashes on the hearth, she gathered her flowing 
 wrap about her slender, tired little self, smiled sadly 
 and turned toward her room. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 TT is a lamentable thing that the better time you have 
 A had at a ball, the worse you feel the next morning 
 the world is full of testimony to this aged fact. 
 Certainly this was more than true in the case of Mrs. 
 Evan-Stone, not that she had had such an enjoyable 
 time, necessarily, but she had been the victim of a vital 
 experience; and this morning, after a couple of hours 
 sleep, broken sleep at that (for poor Emily Corey 
 breathed so hard in the cot next to her bed, that rest 
 for her was impossible), Eleanor was very depressed 
 in spirits and very stiff from having caught cold. The 
 moment s gaiety had only accentuated her loneliness by 
 its contrast. 
 
 Emily Corey turned, heavily, as her hostess stood 
 before her mirror remarking the deep shadows under 
 the girl s eyes, reflected there. " How are you this 
 morning, Emfly? " she asked. 
 
 " I am better," the girl courageously reported. " I 
 didn t cough so much in the night as usual. Was the 
 ball fine?" 
 
 Then Eleanor described all the gowns she could re 
 member, and made up just as good accounts of those 
 she could not recall, told Emily what they had for sup 
 per, and all about Mr. and Mrs. Heilberg and the dec 
 orations. It diverted the sick girl. 
 
 Later Eleanor sat drinking her coffee in the big room 
 when the bell rang. She nervously hurried to her desk, 
 and to her acknowledgment came a man s voice, saying, 
 
 260 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 261 
 
 " This is Mr. Burbanks, Mrs. Evanston, of Burbanks, 
 Stark and Biddle. I am sorry to have to remind you 
 that when Mr. Biddle rented you the house you are 
 occupying, we were not in a position to give you a lease. 
 Our orders from the owner were to rent the house, sub 
 ject to sale, without notice. Your month is up the 
 thirtieth, and while this allows you a very short time 
 in which to make a change, still we have telegraphic in 
 structions to deliver the house on the morning of the 
 first to the new owner." 
 
 " Why ! " gasped Mrs. Evan-Stone in amazement. 
 " This gives me only two or three days in which to pack 
 up, Mr. Burbanks. One can hardly do it." 
 
 " I appreciate that it is trying, Mrs. Evanston," he 
 replied, " but of course you have no furniture to move, 
 which helps a good deal, doesn t it? " 
 
 " Well, really, I am too surprised to think. But 
 have you any other furnished houses to let? " the lady 
 asked. 
 
 " No," he told her. " I don t believe there is such 
 a thing as a furnished house to be had in town. It is 
 very difficult to get any sort of a house here just now. 
 At present we have two one a barn of a ten room 
 place that I am sure you would not consider; and the 
 other a five room shack in a cheap neighbourhood no 
 place at all for a lady. I am sorry about this, but the 
 recent purchaser insists upon the property being turned 
 over to him at once." 
 
 " Why must he have it for occupancy so soon? " she 
 next wanted to know. 
 
 " Well, it s a funny thing," Mr. Burbanks said, " but 
 he doesn t seem to want to live in it, himself, or have 
 
262 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 anybody else do so. Our orders the moment we get 
 the keys, are to send carpenters to board up the place 
 as it was when you took it. But perhaps if you would 
 come down to the office, we might get something for 
 you a furnished flat in the kitchenette apartment 
 house, or some place to go for the present." 
 
 " Thank you," she said, rather stupidly, for this was 
 a real shock to her. " I will try to come in this after 
 noon, and you may have the house on the morning of 
 the thirtieth. Good-bye." 
 
 The more Eleanor thought it over, the less recon 
 ciled she was to have her life upset. She was not 
 ready to go back to New York, and she dreaded to move 
 anywhere else in the Camp. One good look at the 
 " cabins " as they still called the small houses of the 
 place, whether they were modern little brick houses, or 
 literally log cabins of the original camp, was enough to 
 prove that this bungalow was the only thing possible 
 for her she never could stand the frame shanties 
 that seemed to be the only places for rent, even if she 
 renovated and furnished one, herself, and hotels were 
 entirely outside of her plans. Verily, it was a serious 
 moment. Perhaps if she talked with the new owner, 
 herself, and offered to pay higher rent, some arrange 
 ment could be made for her to stay on a little while 
 longer, she thought, so she called up the agents. 
 
 The stenographer answered, with a nasal, " Who s 
 the party who bought the Burns bungalow, you want to 
 know? Hold the wire, please, and Til look it up." 
 
 In a moment the girl was back with a metallic, 
 " Hello? Well, Stone s the name of the party you in- 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 263 
 
 quired about Crathorne Stone you re welcome. 
 Good-bye." 
 
 Eleanor Evan-Stone fairly staggered to the divan, a 
 living whirlwind of warring emotions. So this was 
 what her former husband had done, was it? Cleverly 
 done, too. He took the very roof from over her head, 
 knowing there would be but one course open for her to 
 take to go home. So Mr. Crathorne Stone did not 
 propose to allow her to live in the same town with him, 
 even? It was as bad as that! Truly this seemed car 
 rying resentment and wounded pride very, very far. 
 
 A long time the crushed little woman huddled in the 
 corner of the divan, her coffee cold and forgotten, con 
 scious of nothing save her own chagrin and her in 
 finite desolation. " If I had ever annoyed him in any 
 way if I had ever chattered about our affairs if I 
 had even come here deliberately, knowing he lived here 
 if I had ever done anything but live my own little 
 unaggressive life, on my own money, it wouldn t be so 
 terrible!" she sobbed. "If if only I did not 
 worship him! " 
 
 And she cried until one would hardly have recognised 
 the dear, pretty little face at all. 
 
 It was a long time before Eleanor realised that Emily 
 Corey, pathetically weak and in her dressing gown and 
 slippers, knelt beside her, gently smoothing back her 
 dark, rich hair, saying softly, " Say? You want to cut 
 out going to balls, and taking the men serious, see? 
 They ain t worth a continental gee-haw ! " 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone sat up and smiled through her 
 tears, for there was something funny in Emily s slangy 
 
264 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 words, her intonation of the cynic, and her intuitional 
 diagnosis of this breakdown. 
 
 " Emily Corey," Eleanor said, abruptly, " have you 
 had enough of this mining camp? / have! " 
 
 " You can bet everything you own on it! " grimly an 
 swered the ill girl, her eyes wide and full of determina 
 tion. 
 
 " Do you think you could be contented living the 
 dull life of a seamstress, Emily?" her friend next 
 wanted to know. 
 
 " Well," hesitated the girl, " I wasn t born yester 
 day, and so I don t set so much store on the strength of 
 the human being, as I might, but I d welcome a chance 
 at trying it, all right." 
 
 " I will give you that chance, if you want it," said 
 Eleanor Evan-Stone. " I am going back to New York 
 just as soon as we can get our trunks and boxes packed, 
 and you may come with Martha and me and live in my 
 house until you are strong again. After that I will get 
 you all the work you can do, and you are so gifted, you 
 will grow to be an excellent dressmaker, in time." 
 
 "My! but you re good!" breathed the sick girl. 
 " But what if it didn t work? What if some day I 
 went back?" 
 
 " That is the chance I take," simply explained the 
 other woman. 
 
 " You do take the most awful chances of any person 
 I ever met! " Emily remarked, more with reverence, 
 however, than criticism. 
 
 " Yes," dreamily sighed Eleanor Evan-Stone. 
 " And the funny thing is that sometimes, I win." 
 
 " You bet you do ! " said Emily Corey. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 265 
 
 Once having decided to leave the Camp, Mrs. Evan- 
 Stone resolved she would get out of it just as quickly 
 as she left New York. She went to work at once upon 
 the details of the departure, losing herself in the excite 
 ment, for the moment. She got reservations on the 
 fastest eastbound train for the next night. She had P. 
 P. C. cards to address; and a scrub-woman to find, so 
 that the bungalow might be left in good order for Mr. 
 Crathorne Stone. Did he buy the place, she pondered, 
 partly to drive her away, and partly as a home for the 
 future Mrs. Stone, who doubtless was sending him the 
 orchids? Extraordinary taste, to be sure, but prob 
 ably true. A packer had to be got hold of, and 
 Dr. Marsden consulted upon Emily s condition and 
 care while on the train. There was quite enough to 
 do! 
 
 And a certain fiendish joy thrilled Eleanor Evan- 
 Stone as she reasoned that she was doing exactly what 
 any sensible man would do in a crisis. She was work 
 ing, instead of thinking. 
 
 They had not had a trained nurse for Emily, because 
 the house was small, and she was hardly dangerously 
 ill. Mrs. Evan-Stone and Martha were perfectly com 
 petent to do all that was necessary for her; and Martha 
 had been a good deal nicer about the visitor than could 
 have been hoped. Mrs. Evan-Stone had explained 
 Emily as being unfortunate and in need of care and en 
 couragement. Martha delved no further to her re 
 lief. Liking the girl personally, and being so hard up 
 for company when her mistress was out, both helped 
 to make Martha resigned to Emily s staying in the 
 house. The fact that Emily no longer " kept company 
 
2 66 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 with that awful bum " made Martha see that the girl 
 really had some sense, after all. 
 
 Martha and Emily already had planned to go to 
 gether to the annual festival of the young ladies aux 
 iliary of the White Ribbon Society, if they got back to 
 New York in time. 
 
 " Won t you be glad to see the dear old subway, 
 Emily?" asked Martha, when they all got into the 
 spirit of going, and Martha was giving the girl her tray 
 of light luncheon. 
 
 " I don t know anything about * the dear old sub 
 way/ Martha," she replied, " but I ll be glad enough to 
 lose this mining camp." 
 
 " Me, too ! " Martha said, earnestly, from the door 
 way. u I de-test the place, myself. It s either so lone 
 some you nearly die, or else it s queer, and I don t like 
 either of em. And about once a week, regular, I have 
 expected this little box to blow clean off the hill, and 
 land in a pile of kindling wood some place down near 
 Brinmarr Avenoo. And me on the very bottom of the 
 wreck, right under the kitchen stove with the piano on 
 top of that! " 
 
 " Martha ? Please don t make me laugh ? " pleaded 
 Emily. " I told you once I had a pain in my side, 
 didn t I?" 
 
 " I ain t trying to be funny this trip hasn t been 
 no joke to me ! " solemnly declared Martha. And 
 then she hurried back to her duties. 
 
 But while most of this day was taken up with packing, 
 shopping and so on, preparatory to getting out of town 
 the following night, still Mrs. Evan-Stone promised 
 herself one more good ride with Nickel. Dear old 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 267 
 
 Nickel ! It was a bit of a wrench to leave the horse, 
 and it was with a loving touch that his rider gave him 
 his lumps of sugar this afternoon when they started off. 
 
 It was a bright winter s day, not too cold if one wore 
 warm gloves and kept moving. They turned off on the 
 valley road, and took a shot or two at the old familiar 
 cans, but it brought only sadness to Eleanor, so she 
 reloaded her brute of a forty-four and tucked it back 
 in the saddle pocket. There didn t seem to be any fun 
 in it any more; it seemed too heavy. She was sorry 
 she had not brought the lighter pistol. 
 
 Then they retraced their steps and headed for the 
 Flat, in the direction of the country club. It was such 
 a fine day that possibly some scarlet sweaters might be 
 seen out on the links, working off the dull feelings 
 which resulted from the late hours and the ball. Ele 
 anor wanted to have a last look at them. She didn t 
 know why. 
 
 Fifteen minutes of brisk trotting brought them to the 
 fence that divided the cemetery from the golf grounds, 
 and one glance was enough to reveal the fact that some 
 thing most unusual was going on near the club house. 
 
 Mr. Colby s roadster stood vibrating, alone, and 
 young Colby was running about, excitedly, apparently 
 calling out orders. A couple of golfers were hurrying 
 up to try to help the rider of a terrified, or vicious horse, 
 Eleanor could not tell which. She naturally turned in 
 at the big gate on the chance of being useful. 
 
 Nickel responded willingly to her signal to gallop, 
 and a few seconds brought her to Mr. Colby s side. 
 That boy was pale and confused. He omitted all for 
 malities, and burst out, " That horse has not been out 
 
268 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 of his stall in a week, and he is crazy full of the devil ! 
 I frightened him, starting up my car. He seems pos 
 sessed to throw Thorny, and it s all right enough as 
 long as he keeps away from that open prospect hole." 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone, realising the danger, had no time 
 or inclination to consider anything personal between 
 herself and the rider of the maddened horse, a hundred 
 yards from her. Her eyes travelled to the prospect 
 hole, which she had heard somebody say, one day, 
 ought to have been boarded up or fenced in, long ago, 
 on account of the golf balls lost in it. But now one saw 
 there were graver reasons why this never should have 
 been neglected. The hole was a good twenty feet 
 deep, and about fifteen feet in circumference. If 
 the horse should rear into it, or plunge down into it with 
 his rider, it meant a hideous death for both of them. 
 
 " Run out there and wave your coat, if the horse 
 starts to run this way! " Eleanor suggested, sensibly. 
 
 And young Colby did so, as she, herself, took a posi 
 tion to one side of the yawning danger twenty yards 
 or so from it. She was hesitating what to do ; whether 
 to ride out to the plunging, snorting beast, which as yet 
 had not dislodged his determined rider; or whether not 
 to run the risk of frightening him any more, by inter 
 fering when oh ! horrible ! 
 
 The infuriated animal started to run, and one man s 
 power was as a baby s on his gaping jaws. 
 
 " Can t we do anything?" yelled Colby to the dis 
 tressed woman. 
 
 She sat motionless, knowing she had not the strength 
 to hold the beast, even if she did succeed in getting a 
 grip on his reins near the bit, which is sometimes done 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 269 
 
 in such cases. This meant sure tragedy, because two 
 horses running so close together are more than apt to 
 throw each other. She waited and hoped. 
 
 To see this man killed, would have been the end of 
 life for her, even though she owed him nothing and 
 he had done with their story. 
 
 Crathorne Stone s mad horse ran toward the club 
 house, unrestrained, heedless of the frantic wavings of 
 the coats of three men, who had stationed themselves in 
 line with the prospect hole. The insane brute tore by 
 them, as though he did not see them; and the force with 
 which he dashed by Colby, felled that young man. 
 
 The next that anybody knew, three sharp shots rang 
 out in the clear air of the late afternoon. 
 
 Eleanor Evan-Stone closed her eyes and prayed for 
 the strength to look upon her work. But the courage 
 did not come until she had first put her smoking gun 
 back into the saddle pocket, and tightened up her reins 
 quite as though nothing at all had happened. 
 
 She feared that when she looked up after the dull 
 fall she had heard, she would see nothing but prairie. 
 She was sure she had been too late, and that both the 
 horse and his rider were now at the bottom of the open 
 hole, in their last struggle. But she had to look some 
 time so she breathed hard and looked. 
 
 Colby sat, mouth open, where he had been knocked 
 down. The other men stood nearby, transfixed. A 
 dead horse lay on the ground in a fleshy mass, his nose 
 bleeding and his two front hoofs lying out over the edge 
 of the great hole. 
 
 Mr. Crathorne Stone well nigh stunned from his 
 landing had been hurled, violently, clear the other 
 
270 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 side of the prospect hole, where he now sat stupidly, in 
 a small cloud of dust and dirt. 
 
 Then Eleanor Evan-Stone caustically remarked to 
 herself that fainting had gone out of fashion. She 
 turned her horse toward the gate and rode away at a 
 gallop before any of the astounded men collected 
 enough wit to call to her. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 6TT S been about two months," mused Eleanor, 
 
 after she had seen to Emily Corey s supper being 
 taken in to her, and had at last dropped into her own 
 chair at the dinner table, almost exhausted. " Two 
 months, only, and yet I would swear I had lived here 
 forever! I feel so near to the mountains and the 
 plains and the people people, with one exception." 
 A faint look of amusement crossed her face, even 
 though it hurt her as it passed. 
 
 She could not eat, yet she needed the food. She 
 was so tired from the strain of last night and to-day 
 that she merely pushed back the food offered her, and 
 fell forward on her arms, half lying on the table in a 
 haze of thinking, dozing, dreaming, suffering. 
 
 Martha quietly cleared away the dishes, and let her 
 mistress alone, remembering that very soon they would 
 be at home once more, where life would be more nat 
 ural for Mrs. Evan, as she called her, and where she 
 might once more drop into that restful state of indif 
 ference that Martha was accustomed to see her in, and 
 which she believed tired the lady less than taking a 
 strong interest in life. 
 
 About half past seven this dazed condition and 
 cramped position were broken by the bell at her desk. 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone raised herself, heavily, and acknowl 
 edged the call, in a lifeless, low-pitched voice, most 
 unlike her usual tone. 
 
 She was further shaken out of herself by hearing the 
 
 271 
 
272 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 most attractive voice of Mr. Crathorne Stone, saying, 
 " Is this 1778 Mrs. Stone s house? " 
 
 It would hardly have been more surprising to her, to 
 have looked out to see the Lone Cone standing at the 
 other end of town. 
 
 But Eleanor had thought quickly once before to-day, 
 and while she was near the end of her strength, still 
 there was enough of her left to think again promptly. 
 Nothing on earth could have made her speak with Mr. 
 Stone nothing on earth, in the waters under the earth, 
 or in the heavens above even though his voice was 
 all there was in life, for her. No. She could be 
 just as cold and just as stubborn as he, which was 
 quite cold enough and quite stubborn enough to suit any 
 body. 
 
 "You want 1778?" she repeated, in that same, un 
 natural voice. " Well, this ain t it. Good-bye." 
 And she hung up the receiver, knowing that if her tone 
 did not deceive Mr. Stone, her grammar would. 
 
 Eleanor was much too fatigued to work herself into 
 any sort of a rage, but she still had vitality enough to 
 be sarcastic. She spoke aloud, softly. " Too much 
 bother for him to write a note? Out of the habit of 
 sending flowers? Too far to think of calling in per 
 son? Some way, it doesn t seem to please me to get 
 his thanks this way. It s a shade too casual." 
 
 And she went to the divan, and dropped down there, 
 logily, staring at the bright fire on the hearth. 
 
 In a moment the bell rang again a positive, not 
 to say aggressive ring, indicating a marked assurance 
 on the part of the finger belonging to the person on the 
 other end of the line. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 273 
 
 "How very enterprising of Mr. Stone! " said the 
 lady, this time addressing the fire. 
 
 The fire burned a sympathetic response. 
 
 An interval, sufficient in time to have allowed some 
 body to answer, was given, then came another ring 
 a longer one, this time. 
 
 Eleanor sat perfectly still. 
 
 It rang a third time, and Martha appeared, assuming 
 that her mistress was asleep and had not heard. 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone sprang up with the agility of a cat. 
 " Martha! " she commanded. " Don t touch that re 
 ceiver. I am too worn out to care to talk with any- 
 body." 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Evan," Martha replied, retiring. 
 
 Twice more and then the ringing stopped. He 
 had given up. 
 
 A sweeping feeling of hopelessness overcame the 
 lady during the quiet that followed. Odd, wasn t it? 
 But there was a grim sense of companionship in merely 
 having Crathorne Stone trying to get her for a brief, 
 perfunctory moment s conversation, with the distance 
 of a full mile between them. But Eleanor knew the 
 man of old. He would dismiss the detail of thanking 
 her, with one good try. And heavens! Could one 
 blame him ? It wasn t exactly a pleasant task. Yet 
 it was her last chance, probably, to hear his voice. But 
 pride is pride, and soon Eleanor was saying to herself 
 that she really did not care to speak with Mr. Stone 
 that while one could not always choose the lives one 
 must save, still, one did have the privilege of choosing 
 the persons with whom one chatted, didn t one? 
 
 The quiet of eternal death reigned on the top of 
 
274 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 Copper Hill. By nine o clock Martha had gone to bed, 
 tired out by a long, hard day. Since six o clock Emily 
 Corey had been in a sickish doze, her only sign of life, 
 being her breathing. The wind was busy somewhere 
 else, for a change and one can be so alone that one 
 misses the wind. The fire had reached that stage when 
 it was silent. And Eleanor Evan-Stone sat very, very 
 still. 
 
 In fifteen minutes, " Burrrr-rrrr-rrrr-rrrr ! " came the 
 call, fresh and vigorous as one could imagine. 
 
 " Ah? " sighed the lady, startled out of her dreaming. 
 " The dashing, tall, blond hero is reluctant to acknowl 
 edge himself beaten, is he? Delightful!" And she 
 sank farther back into the pillows, complacently. 
 
 Another pause, and then mercy ! One wondered 
 if the bells were securely fastened on the box, so that 
 they would not work themselves completely off ! 
 
 " How sweet this is! " murmured the lady, resting 
 gracefully, with her eyes luxuriously closed, and her red 
 mouth suggesting a smile. * The New York Symphony 
 Orchestra never made such music! " 
 
 Shortly there came the recognised signal of " Trou 
 ble " three curt, successive rings, which indicated the 
 wire was being tested from the office. 
 
 Emily Corey opened the bedroom door, and stood 
 there uncertain of her balance, she was so weak and so 
 very, very sleepy. But she managed to drawl, " Say? 
 Isn t that noise working over-time ? " 
 
 " Get thee back to bed, Ophelia ! " gaily commanded 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone. " You give me the creeps with that 
 long, white gown and your wild hair. It s nothing but 
 a man trying to extend his appreciation of my having 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 275 
 
 kept him from getting into a prospect hole, when it 
 looked for a moment as though that was his destination. 
 I don t want the thanks, but I am having a lovely time. 
 Don t interrupt me, please. I will put a sofa cushion 
 on the bells so they won t disturb you any more. Be 
 off!" 
 
 And Emily Corey, like something that had been ma 
 terialised but didn t care for the place, vanished. 
 
 Eleanor took up a small pine-needle pillow and knelt 
 beside the signal case, which was fastened on the base 
 board near her desk. She laid the pillow on the bells, 
 neatly patting down its contents so that the sound might 
 be somewhat deadened, when again the ringing started, 
 the disturbance making itself felt in her hands. Like a 
 sprite, she threw off the pillow and put all of her fingers 
 on the bells, taking the vibrations as they came. 
 
 When the ringing stopped she fell back, saying with 
 a sadness that knew no end, " I suppose this is as near 
 a caress as I shall ever come." 
 
 But this was the last. 
 
 Just as Eleanor was rested a little and congratulating 
 herself upon having been in Mr. Crathorne Stone s 
 thoughts for something over one hour and a quarter 
 the time since he spoke what should take her atten 
 tion from her triumph, but the unmistakable complain 
 ing of Mr. Barton Colby s sixty-horse power car 
 making the climb of Copper Hill ! 
 
 She met Mr. Colby at the door. He ripped off his 
 driving glove and grasped her hand firmly almost 
 affectionately. 
 
 "Princess?" he began, in his sweet boyish way. 
 "What the deuce is the matter with your telephone? 
 
276 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 I have spent the best of a whole hour trying to get 
 you this evening, and I had Trouble hot on the job, 
 too. The office insisted the wire was in perfect condi 
 tion that you wouldn t answer. I got worried for 
 fear you were ill after your strenuous experience this 
 afternoon. Are you all right, Princess? " 
 
 " You have been trying to get me for an hour, you 
 say you? " Mrs. Evan-Stone asked drawing her hand 
 away from him, gently. 
 
 " Me? Sure. Who did you think it was the 
 police? Say well, I ll be hanged! What have you 
 got your bells muffled for? " Being bent on finding out 
 the difficulty, he had walked to the desk before she 
 could intercept him. 
 
 Eleanor stood like a guilty school girl. 
 
 " You ll be sorry when you hear who else tried to 
 get you! " the boy said, smiling at her evident shyness. 
 u The town hero whose life you saved to-day. He 
 tried twice. He can t move an inch off the couch. 
 Poor devil he wanted to thank you for not shooting 
 him up any worse." 
 
 "What do you mean, Mr. Colby?" she gasped in 
 alarm. 
 
 " Well, he s glad, and I m glad, and the girls at 
 large will be glad that you did not pop out one of his 
 eyes. The girls are crazy about Thorny s eyes, you 
 know, and he s kind of attached to them, himself, using 
 them regularly to see with and being used to having 
 them in working order." 
 
 " Will you stop your nonsense, and tell me what you 
 mean?" she demanded. 
 
 " What do you care what you did to him? " probed 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 277 
 
 the boy. " Cap told me you thought Thorny had rot 
 
 ten manners." 
 
 Will you tell me? " she almost wept in annoyance. 
 
 " You spoiled one of his puttees the right one, 
 and he liked that better than the left, as luck would 
 have it. You plugged it, proper! " he dolefully told 
 her. 
 
 " Did it hurt him? " she whispered, with her pretty 
 foreheacl all wrinkled up with anxiety. 
 
 " Oh no! " he answered, gleefully. " It didn t do 
 a thing to Thorny! It just used his puttee as a pas 
 sageway, and lodged in the inner workings of that 
 horse Jack-O that Thorny cares more for than he does 
 all the rest of us put together. Your other bullets, you 
 thoughtfully confined to the horse, exclusively. 
 Thorny s leg was an incident." 
 
 " You are positively cruel ! " complained the lady. 
 "Did I hurt him dreadfully?" 
 
 " I suppose you did, but he seems kind of proud of 
 the wound and the distinction. He s got his leg all 
 bound round with a woollen string, as the song goes, 
 and scented up with the very vilest-smelling disinfectant 
 known to man. Anybody can examine the bandages 
 who cares to. I took him up town in my machine, and 
 got the doctor at once." 
 
 "Dr. Marsden?" she asked. 
 
 " Well, I should say not! " he told her with a signifi 
 cance she naturally did not understand. " Pickens is 
 his doctor. Thorny s going to live, though." And 
 the boy grinned, irresistibly. 
 
 " Barton Colby? " the lady pleaded, " you won t say 
 anything about that cushion, will you ? It would sound 
 
278 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 awfully queer. You see, Martha has a beau who calls 
 her every evening about the same hour; and it annoys 
 me, so I thought the best way to stop him was to 
 deaden the bells so that she could not hear them in the 
 back of the house. You see?" 
 
 " Well, I d rather tell it all over town, Princess, but 
 as you feel so bad about it, I ll keep quiet to the grave. 
 But who s Martha ? " The boy was wondering if Mar 
 tha was what " the Corey woman " called herself to 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone. 
 
 " My maid," she told him. 
 
 " Oh ! " he exclaimed. " I thought maybe you had 
 somebody visiting you?" He wanted to understand 
 his new friend better. 
 
 " I have a sort of visitor here," she simply enlight 
 ened him. " An ill girl that I am taking East with me 
 to-morrow night. 1 
 
 " You are going away to-morrow night? " repeated 
 young Colby. " Why Princess, you have only just 
 come! " And the subject of Emily Corey was quite 
 forgotten, so much stronger was his concern over this 
 unexpected piece of news. 
 
 " This is good-bye, Mr. Barton Colby," she said, re 
 gretfully. " But I am going to ask you not to mention 
 it to anybody, for I prefer to go as I came unnoticed. 
 I have written little notes to those who have been 
 friendly to me. There is one to you over on the desk, 
 waiting to be posted." 
 
 " O Princess? " he begged. " Don t go ! Why, it 
 will be awful. Some old chump of a person will be here 
 in this house, and we all like to feel that you are in it." 
 
 " Perhaps you will like the next occupant a lot better 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 279 
 
 than you like me," she suggested, a tear rolling down 
 her cheek, in spite of herself. 
 
 " Never, Princess ! " he assured her, earnestly. 
 " But before you go I want to tell you something that 
 I had meant to keep dark for a while yet." 
 
 u Oh, don t!" she pleaded. "I am too tired for 
 any confidences, and maybe you might be sorry later if 
 you did tell me? " 
 
 " No. And by George, you ve got to listen ! 
 Princess, the most terrible thing has happened to me. 
 I ve got my final attack of the worst disease that man is 
 heir to I m in love ! " 
 
 "Oh, perhaps not?" she ventured, not jokingly at 
 all, but as one to whom love has been an infinite pain. 
 " It hurts so to care, boy! " 
 
 " Hurts? " he repeated. " Hell it s a lot worse 
 than that! And I am not so sure she will use me for 
 a dust-rag after I tell her how I feel, but anyway, I am 
 going to take the chance." 
 
 " Haven t you told her yet? " asked the lady. 
 
 " No, but I am going to in a few minutes." And this 
 was announced with determination uncombatable. 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone hardly dared to look up. Was it 
 possible that this boy was in love with her? And she 
 had thought from the first that he was so very sophisti 
 cated ! She could not bear to listen to any serious woes 
 this evening she must stop him before it was too late. 
 
 " She is a little wonder! " the boy started to describe 
 her, proudly. 
 
 " Don t let us talk about her? " interfered Eleanor. 
 " I am so tired to-night, I know I cannot show the en 
 thusiasm you will expect of me. And the first thing 
 
a8o THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 you know, you will be disclosing her identity, and you 
 know you will be sorry after you go. Let s talk about 
 me. Did you bring me that miner s candle-stick, to 
 night? " 
 
 " O hang! " exclaimed the boy, snapping his fingers 
 in exasperation. u I have intended to get that candle 
 stick every time I have been down in the mine, ever 
 since I promised it to you. I have told half a dozen 
 fellows to jog my memory about that thing. It s jolly 
 well known all over the state you want one." 
 
 " Barton Colby! " she breathed, falling back in the 
 pillows, as she realised the smiles this would cause the 
 two other men who were to bring her the same token 
 if it ever reached their ears. " To whom did you 
 mention this? " she went on, apprehensively. 
 
 " Nobody you know," he relieved her. " I told a 
 cage full of miners one day to bring me one and 
 they all forgot it. But it s a fright how little things do 
 get the rounds in a place as desperate for news items 
 as this, though. But about the serious things I m 
 simply mad about her! I don t eat enough to keep a 
 bird alive, I m so in love, and I ve kept it so much to 
 myself. And she s the prettiest little thing in the 
 world!" 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone closed her eyes and waited for the 
 inevitable, as it grew more and more hopeless every 
 minute, to divert the declaration. 
 
 " Ask me who she is? " demanded the boy. 
 
 " I am waiting," said the lady. 
 
 " A squab ! " the boy announced, delightedly. " A 
 darling little brunette squab who wears pink bows on 
 her elbows when she has on white dresses. A winner 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 281 
 
 you know her Evelyn Carew ? I am wild about 
 her, and I must have been for a long time, but only 
 recently discovered what was the matter with me. 
 Gee won t the Camp get a shock, eh ? Will you 
 wish me well, Princess? " 
 
 Yes, boy, I do. I always shall, but it s so serious, 
 this thing of marrying. Really it is an appalling 
 risk! " she insisted. 
 
 " Princess? " he said, " don t you know, yet, that it 
 is the risks of life that make the game interesting? 
 Now I ve got to go, because her dad gets red hot when 
 I call too late; if I don t get this out of my system be 
 fore morning, I ll explode or something. I ought to 
 have had this all over an hour ago, but I had to find 
 out first, how you were we were all worried. I 
 won t tell them that you are going, but they will all 
 miss you, just as I shall. You ll come back some day 
 and visit Mrs. Colby and me, won t you? You know I 
 never have had a chance to tell you about the time when 
 I was a lawyer, and you ought not to miss anything like 
 that, really. And now I am going to kiss the other 
 hand the one I did not kiss that night at your dinner 
 and then I ll have to beat it for the only-girl s 
 house." 
 
 And he did. 
 
 When he got his car cranked up, and had started, he 
 called back what he came to say in the first place, " That 
 was a great stunt you did this afternoon, Princess it 
 was the prettiest piece of shooting seen around here, 
 since they put Montana on the map ! Good-bye ! " 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 T IFE moved in the Camp even if those who still 
 *- mourned the loss of the presence of Carl Heil- 
 berg among them, did feel the place was on the wane. 
 Everybody lived at a high pressure, and so, naturally 
 enough, while she was a part of the Camp, herself, 
 Eleanor Evan-Stone lived, and lived hard. And now 
 that the time for her to go away, had come the time 
 when the very roof above her bid her go, and every 
 atom of her soul called out and begged to stay the 
 lady almost lived herself to death. 
 
 Martha got a sort of picnic supper on the last 
 night, twas the best she could do with the limited con 
 veniences and appointments left in the house after their 
 own things had been sent to the express company s. 
 But Martha was too tired to eat, she said, and Emily 
 Corey had the blues and it took what strength she had 
 to try to appear glad that she was being given a chance 
 the mountains pulled her to the windows; the flats 
 and hills with their cruel scars made by blasted hope 
 and prospect holes, held her, staring out. She would 
 not try to eat. Mrs. Evan-Stone crumbled her bread 
 up and made little balls of it by rolling it on the bare 
 table, and her eyes were blinded by the struggle to 
 hold back the tears. She got no further toward ac 
 knowledging that a meal was spread before her. And 
 on the whole, the last supper party on the top of Cop 
 per Hill could not have been called a brilliant affair, 
 even by the most unworn of society reporters, 
 
 282 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 283 
 
 And the dear little house itself was sad in its dis 
 mantled state the pretty curtains down, the pillows 
 packed away with all ornaments and pictures; and 
 worst of all, the piano shrouded in an evil-looking oil 
 cloth cover. Only the telephone remained the same 
 the man had not come to disconnect it, as was ordered 
 but it looked a monument to woe, standing all by 
 itself on a deserted desk. The bungalow could hardly 
 have been more uncheering in appearance, immediately 
 after a funeral. 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone had suggested that they spend the 
 last day at the hotel, but Emily Corey seemed averse to 
 this, frankly telling her hostess that it wouldn t do any 
 nice woman any good to be seen with her in a public 
 place in the Camp. Furthermore, Emily was very 
 weak, and it was with difficulty that she made even lit 
 tle changes, like going from one room to another. So 
 they kept her still, and all stayed together until the 
 last in Mr. Crathorne Stone s new house, their 
 former home. 
 
 The train pulled out of this Montana spot at two 
 o clock in the morning, generally conceded by the na 
 tives an awkward hour, being a little too early to leave 
 whatever company one was in for the evening, and a 
 little too late to sit up for without going somewhere 
 first. But persons not natives could find out, if they 
 tried, that the Pullman was side-tracked in the station 
 yards at eleven, where one could go and get a fair pro 
 portion of the sleep he was paying for, if he were so 
 inclined. Therefore, a Me. Queene hack came creak 
 ing and rumbling up to the top of Copper Hill at half 
 past ten; and with some vigorous remarks along the 
 
284 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 same line as those made by most cab-drivers when 
 urging their horses to make the climb, this driver 
 heralded his arrival. It was not necessary for him to 
 ring the door bell. The bags were ready and the 
 travellers with their hats on, were standing at the door. 
 The electricity had been turned off in the afternoon, so 
 the house was dark. 
 
 " It s a damn-good thing," he remarked to the trio 
 in the doorway, with something of the Camp in 
 formality, " that I didn t have this pull for nothing. 
 When I reached that place, half-way up, where it s 
 even betting whether you and the team fall off back 
 wards, or keep the trail, I would have swore there 
 wasn t a light in the place, and you folks had already 
 went." 
 
 Martha and the driver helped Emily into the car 
 riage, then the man took the bags up onto the box. 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone appeared without her coat, and pro 
 ceeded to give Martha her instructions, to that person s 
 surprise. 
 
 " Martha," she said, " I am not going with you I 
 will follow later. I want you to get Emily to bed at 
 once on the sofa. The drawing room will be ready 
 for you when you arrive, and here are your tickets. 
 You can go out after Emily is comfortable and check 
 your two trunks; I will attend to my own things, my 
 self. Then go to bed, and don t bother about me." 
 
 Martha stood rebellious, instantly. " Why Mrs. 
 Evan? " she gasped in a queer sort of awe. " I ain t 
 going to let you stay here alone your mother s little 
 girl? No madame it wouldn t be right." 
 
 "Nor me, either!" Emily Corey seconded her. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 285 
 
 " We stay right with you, Mrs. Evan-Stone. It ain t 
 safe up here for you alone at night honest it ain t. 
 I know this Camp believe me ! " 
 
 It was clear that Eleanor s little plan to have an hour 
 alone in this place she had loved, was not in accordance 
 with the ideas of the two loyal women who held them 
 selves responsible for her. 
 
 But Mrs. Evan-Stone held the winning argument. 
 
 " Martha," she said firmly, " get inside the car 
 riage ! " And Martha obeyed, to her own astonish 
 ment. Then Mrs. Evan-Stone put her head inside so 
 that the driver might not hear all that was said, and she 
 went on, " Now you two must do what I think best. 
 Emily knows that the reason she would not go to the 
 hotel with me, holds good about my going to the sta 
 tion with her. She is too ill to sit in this cold house 
 any longer than necessary, and she cannot go to the 
 train alone, Martha. You and she will have your 
 meals in the drawing room, and stay right there until it 
 is necessary to change cars at St. Paul, and when this 
 is to be done, you two will still go together, and I shall 
 follow. Emily understands this must be so. Don t 
 you, Emily? " 
 
 " If you ever take me on another trip some place 
 different from this Camp, it won t be so ! " responded 
 Emily Corey with pride and a touch of appreciation 
 that was very sweet. " But I guess you re right this 
 
 time." 
 
 That s a dear girl! " Mrs. Evan-Stone said, taking 
 her hand. " Never bother yourselves about me, you 
 two, for I have a clear head and my trusty thirty- 
 eight. Good-bye for a little while." And slamming 
 
a86 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 the door, she looked up and said, " All right, driver. 
 And I want you to be back here at one o clock." 
 
 Martha s face at the carriage window was a tragedy 
 in itself, and even though the night was dark, one both 
 felt and saw the faithful servant s apprehension. 
 
 And the choking girl beside her sat still, struggling 
 with many things, among which was a feeling almost 
 too much for her, concerning the present welfare of 
 her gentle friend alone up there on the hill. And 
 through it all, was an upheaval of soul that she did not 
 place as the fact that one s great opportunity in life, 
 does not always come singing and dancing for joy 
 but sometimes heavy with uncried tears and very hard 
 to accept. 
 
 It was with a nervous shudder that Eleanor Evan- 
 Stone turned back into the house back to the last 
 candle yet nothing in the world could have held her 
 from this pain. It was what she wanted to do. She 
 threw herself, face down, on the divan. She longed 
 for somebody to call her she would not have said it 
 was the wrong number, this time. But she had waited 
 all day long, and not a word of any sort had come from 
 Mr. Crathorne Stone. 
 
 She longed to help fate hurry, for the time was 
 growing short, and she might never again have a chance 
 to hear this voice; she even registered 1692, once, 
 knowing that if she got an answer at all, it would be in 
 that voice she wanted to hear, for Mr. Stone was alone 
 in Suite 5 just now, the other man being out of town. 
 Oh it was just a little place, the Camp and one knew 
 lots of little things like this, you know. Eleanor won 
 dered if he were still on the couch, and if it would give 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 287 
 
 him distress to move. But she did not ring. No, she 
 argued, why fight the end, when the end had come? 
 
 He might have done something, whether he despised 
 her, or not; he might have forgotten her old cruelty to 
 him, long enough to thank her for her new service, 
 surely? He might have got his stenographer to type 
 a note on business paper? 
 
 But he did not. 
 
 Everything had happened but this. All sorts of the 
 tag-ends of the population had found time to speak 
 with Mrs. Evan-Stone this day the ticket-agent even 
 (and mercy knows most ticket-agents will let you miss 
 every train that ever ran on the company s tracks, and 
 never shift a cigar) . But this one went to the unusual 
 lengths of calling 1778 to say they could go aboard an 
 hour earlier than usual, and he pleasantly asked that his 
 regards be taken to Broadway ! The grocery man had 
 found time to hesitate in the back doorway and intimate 
 that he had fully intended to ask Martha if she wouldn t 
 do him the favour of accompanying him to Young Peo 
 ples Meeting some Sunday night, when he heard of 
 her sudden departure. Oh, yes everybody had 
 found time to be polite but the only one who made 
 any difference! 
 
 Dr. Marsden was in between five and six. Yes, so 
 he was! Eleanor paid him fifty-five dollars, in real 
 money, " for services rendered to date," apologizing 
 for her apparent indelicacy in not offering him a check, 
 but explaining that she had closed her account. How 
 ever, real money did not embarrass this professional 
 man at all, much as some of them wince at having a 
 lady hand it to them. 
 
288 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 The doctor said he was awfully pleased to have met 
 her, hoped to see her again, would advise Miss Corey 
 not to over-do for a while, and asked if she noticed the 
 sunset. 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone had extended a nice, limp hand and 
 said she trusted he would look her up if he ever came 
 to New York. 
 
 And this affair which had started off to be most 
 thrilling, came to an amicable, perfectly flat little end 
 ing, natural enough in all of its detail and stage setting, 
 to afford any of our modern playwrights the chance of 
 their lives for stirring action, emotional effect and 
 scintillating epigram. 
 
 Upon realising this climax in its fullest significance, 
 Eleanor sprang up, chilled and nervous, calling out to 
 the emptiness of the place, " This silence will drive me 
 mad ! I must go I must go ! " 
 
 She ran across the big room and sent a blind scurry 
 ing up, to get a last look at the mountains from her 
 windows or his windows. The great snow- 
 covered tops were faintly discernible in the night. 
 She jerked the shade down again, and rushed for her 
 hat and veil, which she put on without thinking of 
 a mirror. Next she threw herself into her long travel 
 ling coat, put her left glove on with a single thrust, and 
 tremblingly she opened her hand bag to make sure she 
 was still herself, and that her favourite gun was where 
 she thought it was. Then she quickly went the rounds 
 of the locks, finding them all secure, as she knew they 
 were before she started. 
 
 The last candle was down to a flickering stub an 
 inch high, in a brass stick which stood on a little table 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 289 
 
 that had been shoved up close to one of the book cases. 
 Its dying light cast into prominence a couple of volumes 
 of the works of Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 When Eleanor leaned over to blow out the light, 
 the name caught her eye. She laughed a little hysteric 
 ally, and said in a quaint, friendly way, " Good-bye, 
 Sir Walter! Life will drive us to each other, yet! I 
 hope it won t be so lonely for you when the next people 
 move in good night." And with a brave little at 
 tempt to be playful, she bowed as she killed the light. 
 
 The front door slammed upon her, and she stood 
 locked out, motionless. She thought she saw a move 
 ment in the shadows of the porch, and she had her 
 right hand inside her bag and on her gun instantly. 
 
 " It s only the bogey-man don t jump," said a 
 voice, kindly. " I have made it a point to be sober 
 to-night, so you have nothing to fear. You remember 
 I told you that once I was a gentleman? I have been 
 hanging around here, freezing, for an hour, thinking 
 I might be of some service. I could hear you crying 
 clear out here. Can I help you? " 
 
 " You are nice to want to help, Mr. Ortman," she 
 replied. " I am sorry you heard me crying, because I 
 have no excuse to cry. And there is something you 
 can do for me, if you will." 
 
 " I am glad," was all he said. 
 
 " I was just about to run down this hill, and walk up 
 into town to that other hill, just back of the Quartz 
 Club Building. I want to sit on that heap of rocks 
 there in the vacant lot, until twenty minutes to one. 
 Then I want to come back to the foot of this hill 
 and meet my carriage for the station. Will you stay 
 
290 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 somewhere near me, in case I should be molested? " 
 
 " I will," he told her, sincerely glad of the trust, and 
 adding, " I want to thank you, Mrs. Evan-Stone, for 
 your goodness to the little Corey girl. Tell her some 
 time, will you, that I knew it hurt her for me not to say 
 good-bye, but I thought it was the easiest way for her? 
 She s as square a woman as ever lived, and she will 
 make good with the chance, and maybe be even happy 
 some day. She did a lot for me, but nobody can change 
 me I am as bad as that." And for this little, sober 
 moment, there was honesty and humility in him. 
 
 The two stood in the darkness, in silence a second, 
 then the man went on, " I hope you will excuse me? 
 But you know how things get noised around in a hole 
 like this, and I happened to hear a miner s candle-stick 
 was wanted by a lady from the East. One of the shift 
 bosses of the mine Colby runs, told me one day he had 
 orders to get one for Colby, but he never could re 
 member it. I put two and two together Colby s 
 machine climbing this hill often, and your being from 
 the East. Maybe I am mistaken? But anyway, I 
 went down into a deserted prospect hole on ladders one 
 day, and got this for you. If you don t want it, or if 
 you already have several all right." 
 
 The lady held out her hand and took the cold, metal 
 thing he offered her. " I haven t any other miner s 
 candle-stick," she said, " and I shall be glad to have 
 this. Thank you. And I should like to shake hands 
 with you, and wish you well." 
 
 The man stepped back. 
 
 " Thank you" he replied. " I ll keep your good 
 wishes but that s enough. Now if you will go 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 291 
 
 where you want to, I will see that nobody annoys you. 
 Good-bye I shall not speak to you again, unless you 
 speak to me first." 
 
 " Good-bye, Mr. Ortman," she said, putting the 
 candle-stick in her bag, beside the gun. " And good 
 luck to you ! " 
 
 Then she walked down the hill as fast as it was safe 
 in such, uncertain light. Once at the bottom, she 
 turned back and addressed the night, knowing that her 
 bodyguard would hear her. " Will you whistle three 
 times when it s a quarter to one? " she asked. 
 
 Yes," answered a voice from the deep shadows 
 to the left of her. 
 
 Then she hurried on. 
 
 Eleanor scrambled to an uncomfortable seat among 
 the rocks that had lain here only heaven knows how 
 long, and these days were not overlooking simple 
 wilderness, but rather the windows of Suite 5, Quartz 
 Club Building. 
 
 There was a light. 
 
 There was a white little face staring at that light 
 for almost an hour, feverishly. 
 
 Presently the light was snapped off, and the little 
 white face dropped with a sob into a pair of gloved 
 hands, and stayed just here until three distinct, short 
 whistles recalled Eleanor Evan-Stone to the world and 
 its responsibilities. 
 
 The North Coast Limited left at the usual hour, with 
 two of the occupants of the drawing room of the last 
 Pullman, sound asleep, and the third one lay face down 
 in the lower berth, clothes all on, crying herself to un 
 consciousness as quietly as she could. 
 
292 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 And the key to the Burns bungalow lay between 
 two bits of cardboard in an envelope at the bottom of 
 the station letter box, addressed to the new owner, Mr. 
 Crathorne Stone, care of Messrs. Burbanks, Stark and 
 Biddle, real estate agents. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 ELEANOR EVAN-STONE sat in a chair beside 
 the desk of her physician, Dr. LeRoy, in the late 
 afternoon of a day soon after her return to New York. 
 She seemed very different from the droopy little " case " 
 that used to sit in the same place often but a few 
 weeks before. She looked taller, more vigorous and 
 very much changed. Generally speaking, she seemed 
 much improved in health, although there were dark 
 circles under her heavy brown eyes that indicated lack of 
 sleep, perhaps, and nerves. She seemed spiritually 
 changed, more than physically she was older, and 
 there was a new pride and a new smile that was puz 
 zling to the man who sat studying her. 
 
 " J ought not to forgive you for having been in town 
 several days without letting me know," he was saying; 
 " perhaps I don t forgive you. But anyway, I am glad 
 to see you looking so well, and dressed in colours. I 
 will try to excuse your neglect of me." 
 
 " I never expect to treat any man civilly again," 
 the former patient made answer. " I have done with 
 
 men." 
 
 " Really?" he smiled back at her, utterly at a loss 
 to know how much or how little in earnest she was, and 
 resolving to get at the reason for the new attitude she 
 had toward life in general. " Done with men, eh? 
 That is why you came to see me, I suppose? But a 
 physician is a privileged character at least so you 
 used to tell me. However, I want to hear about a 
 
 293 
 
294 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 number of things now, so we won t waste any time on 
 me. You have been somewhere to a matinee, haven t 
 you?" 
 
 Eleanor glanced down at a concert program she 
 was rolling in her restless hands. " Yes," she reflected, 
 " and I nearly went wild, too ! It was awful. There 
 was a great orchestra, agitating the air, together with a 
 renowned pianist adding to the noise, and the whole 
 effect so bewildering that one couldn t sit and think in 
 any peace at all. I kept wishing that the piano person 
 would try to find some more fitting use for his man s 
 time and strength." 
 
 "I thought you were a music lover?" the doctor 
 commented. 
 
 " I used to think so myself," she owned in a tired 
 little way, " but then, I used to think also that I was 
 civilised and tame, and conventional. But I m not, I 
 find, I am a kind of thing they call an * Indian out 
 West. I don t like fussy music in heated theatres 
 I like the wind in the Camp country club screens 
 and I like the sound of copper ore tearing down a 
 chute. I belong in that jumping-off place you sent 
 
 me to." 
 
 "So?" smiled the doctor, much amused. "How 
 you have changed! " 
 
 Eleanor closed her eyes, and spoke as if to her 
 self, alone. " I am so homesick for that God-forsaken 
 mining camp, with its crudeness, its noise and its life, 
 that I sometimes want to throw myself on the earth 
 and cry myself to death ! " 
 
 The physician leaned forward eagerly. 
 
 " So it worked, did it? " he asked. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 295 
 
 "What worked? * questioned the young woman, 
 catching his words. 
 
 " Well," he explained, " everything worked. My 
 plan of breaking into your settled state of self-absorp 
 tion, worked, for one thing; and because something 
 jarred into it, you are a hundred times stronger than 
 you were. You have grown sensible and have dis 
 carded the black clothes that used to pull your spirits 
 down you are wonderful in brown velvet, just the 
 shade of your eyes, and that bunch of scarlet flowers in 
 your turban, and these fine furs." 
 
 "That will do, Doctor!" she reproved him. 
 " This sounds too much like the Western men, who are 
 the very worst men for saying exactly what they feel 
 like saying, I ever met. But I am stronger, and you 
 may congratulate yourself on your idea of making me 
 take a different point-of-view, if you like. I am dif 
 ferent I have been gone long enough to have be 
 come changed, heaven knows." 
 
 " About two months since you went away, isn t it? " 
 he thought back. 
 
 " Two years, you mean, Doctor," she replied. 
 " But twenty years would seem nearer the truth." 
 
 " Nine weeks on Wednesday," he insisted. 
 
 " I have changed," the lady rushed on, the subject 
 being uppermost in her mind. " If you think this 
 gown attractive, you might wait for the next one. I 
 have a visiting secretary at present going over the old 
 Evan social list, and I am going to give myself the 
 honour of presenting myself to society for the second 
 time! A series of receptions, I have planned, a flock 
 of dinners, and a ball. I am going to get the present 
 
296 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 tenants out of the Newport place, if I have to dynamite 
 them out the way they do the ore in the Camp; and I 
 shall live there part of next summer, with house parties 
 going and coming until one can t think. That yacht of 
 Father s that has been soaking in stagnant water in 
 Harlem for three years, I shall have put in commission. 
 And to-morrow morning if I can arrange to get it 
 in I shall consult my lawyers upon beginning action 
 at once for absolute divorce. This silly, intermediate 
 4 legal separation business is a farce. I want my 
 liberty and peace of mind." 
 
 The doctor beamed, because of his professional 
 triumph. His patient was so very beautiful and so 
 sure of herself and so madly in earnest she was like 
 the climax of a play to him. 
 
 " This gives one the impression that you will be 
 rather busy for a while, at least," he dryly commented. 
 " When you get through with all these proposed things 
 what then? " 
 
 She smiled dreamily, instantly softening. 
 
 "Well," she hesitated, "how can one say? Per 
 haps I shall marry you then." 
 
 " Now that is very sweet and thoughtful of you ! " 
 the doctor retorted. " I appreciate your unselfishness, 
 but you won t do anything of the kind. I have quite 
 enough trouble as it is. But thank you, just the 
 
 same." 
 
 " I will if I want to," she insisted. 
 
 " You will hardly be marrying anybody, I venture to 
 say," he went on. " First, you remember, you will 
 have to get your freedom, and it is not so easy as it 
 seems. What grounds will you base your plea upon? " 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 297 
 
 " I should like to plead general cussedness, but that 
 being informal, perhaps non-support can be used." 
 
 "Yes?" the doctor encouraged her. "But when 
 Mr. Stone s attorneys step in and promptly prove that 
 he offered to make you a liberal allowance, without ever 
 having been asked to do so what then? The fact 
 that you scorned the offer, does not react against the 
 defendant, does it? " 
 
 " This eternal standing-together of men, is all very 
 well," she replied, caustically, " but I won t listen to a 
 word of pleading, open or veiled, for this person who 
 once was my husband ! He has treated me abominably. 
 You know he has, for I have told you truthfully how 
 he behaved. Furthermore, I shall never believe you 
 were innocent of Crathorne Stone s being in the Camp, 
 when you suggested my going out there ! " 
 
 "Innocent of it? Who ever said I was?" the 
 doctor surprised her. " I knew he had been there for 
 a couple of years of course I knew it. I wanted to 
 effect a reconciliation." 
 
 She stared at the man, but finally managed to calm 
 herself enough to say, " Well, you certainly made glow 
 ing success of reconciling the Crathorne Stones, Doctor ! 
 Ha! ha! Blessed is the peacemaker! " 
 
 Her irony, instead of confusing the doctor, struck 
 him as being humorous, and he boldly remarked, 
 " Now don t take all the wind out of my sails, please? 
 You know, I think I did very well. I have done well 
 enough to make you fall deeply in love with the man, 
 which is more than you ever were before. And every 
 woman owes it to her husband to fall in love with him 
 at least once^" 
 
298 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " In love with him with that man? " stormed the 
 lady, springing to her feet in a whirlwind of temper, 
 and looking like a dear little modern goddess of war. 
 " Do you wish to insult me? " 
 
 " No sit down. I am only trying to make you 
 happy," he pleasantly asserted. 
 
 " Doctor," she said, severely, " you had best stick 
 to doing things in your own profession. You are not 
 fitted to heal mental and spiritual wounds. You don t 
 know anything about love." 
 
 " Don t I ? " he said, putting his kind hands on her 
 shoulders, and gently forcing her to sit down again. 
 " You want to remember, little patient, that you must 
 play fair. You have not heard what the man has to 
 say for himself you have not made any allowance 
 whatever for him; for his inherited, repressed nature; 
 his pride; his wrongs. You left him as a naughty 
 child throws a toy across the room. You thought to 
 justify your action by cultivating a hatred for all that 
 was connected with this boy; you didn t care for his 
 grandmother, with whom his father insisted that you 
 both live. Otherwise they both would have disin 
 herited him. He is not the type of fellow who is 
 analytical, and he is not a diplomatist unless he has 
 acquired the art recently." 
 
 "Oh, he hasn t acquired it, Doctor! That is, one 
 can t see it with ordinary eye-sight," Eleanor broke in 
 with a warm inflection that made the doctor stop and 
 smile. 
 
 " As I was about to say," the doctor went on, " the 
 boy never had a glib tongue he might feel every 
 thing in heaven aud earth, but he could not express 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 299 
 
 that feeling in words. You did not want the great love 
 of a good man you wanted poses and words." 
 
 " I am getting plenty of words, now, certainly," she 
 drolly remarked. 
 
 " Yes, but his words, are the words for you to listen 
 to," the doctor gravely pointed out her duty to her. 
 
 " His words his words?" Eleanor almost 
 screamed at the man. " Haven t I listened for a few 
 words from that man every day since I ran away 
 from the marble-topped rosewood and the morning 
 prayers at his house? And if I were fool enough to 
 keep on listening, wouldn t I do the last few years of it 
 through an ear-trumpet, so old I should be with 
 waiting? " 
 
 " Couldn t you go a little way to him?" the 
 would-be peacemaker gently ventured. 
 
 " I fancy he is of the opinion that I did go a little 
 way to him, when I landed in that treeless mining 
 camp, unconscious of * going to meet him, when he was 
 yet a great way off ! " 
 
 And she folded her arms and waited for the next 
 blow. 
 
 " Ladies always have the right to renew or drop 
 former acquaintances," the doctor amused himself by 
 recalling. 
 
 " Yes," agreed the injured woman, " and I have 
 dropped this one." 
 
 " He probably took your action as final," thought 
 the doctor, gloomily. 
 
 This arrested the lady s interest. She stopped 
 tramping about, and leaned up against the bookcase. 
 
 " I despise a milk-and-water man who stays dis- 
 
300 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 carded ! " she grandly exclaimed, her eyes having lost 
 their heaviness which, perhaps, was burned out by the 
 fire in them now. 
 
 " Yes, so do I," the doctor sided with her. " But 
 even a milk-and-water man, as you call him, makes a 
 stand for the things he wants, as a rule." 
 
 It was a full moment before Mrs. Evan-Stone got 
 over the shock of this simple truth. But presently she 
 said, in a more humble spirit, " I appreciate this man 
 does not care to know me, Doctor; you don t need to 
 make it any clearer than it is. I think I saw that 
 point, myself, sometime ago. And, so long as this 
 affair interests you and you like problems, you will be 
 amused to hear that the next time I run away from 
 anybody, I intend to be sure that I shall want to stay 
 gone, before I ever make the start." 
 
 " I thought you did not care for this man? " asked 
 the doctor. 
 
 " You have thought accurately, Doctor, I don t. 
 Heavens ! You would have us re-united in five minutes 
 conversation, the tall blond hero uttering some of those 
 words you would have me listen to; and the orchestra 
 softly sobbing out * Calm as the , I mean * After the 
 ball. You positively exhaust one s patience. Don t 
 think for a moment I shall ever have a chance to listen 
 to Mr. Crathorne Stone speak on our affairs, or any 
 other subject he is at present in Montana with his 
 game leg bolstered up on a chair, enjoying the peace 
 and quiet of things now that Mrs. Evanston has 
 left." 
 
 "Is he?" asked the Doctor. "Well, anyway, let 
 us shake hands and part as friends? And surely you 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 301 
 
 cannot tell me you got nothing at all out of your stay 
 in the Camp? " 
 
 She stopped on her way to the door, and her face 
 lightened with a look of reminiscence. Conscious of 
 the farce in a number of things, she assumed great 
 earnestness and said, " Yes 1 did get something, 
 but I never worked so hard for any one thing in all 
 my life as I did for it never. I got a miner s candle 
 stick. It was given me by a queer wreck of humanity, 
 who sagely remarked to me once when I was mistaking 
 him for a burglar, that making changes in men was a 
 difficult task anywhere, but an impossibility in a mining 
 camp, and that one day I would find it out for myself. 
 I have found it out. Good-bye." 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone directed the chauffeur to go home. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 1%/TRS. EVAN-STONE swept by the butler, with al- 
 *** most as much vim as Barton Colby passed a 
 maid when he arrived late for dinner. She threw her 
 muff off in the general direction of the hall table. 
 Completely absorbed in her own confused emotions, 
 she made for the stairs. The man spoke twice, but she 
 heeded him not. The third time he addressed her, she 
 whirled on the first landing and snapped, " What did 
 you say, Thompson? I do wish you would speak so 
 one can hear you ! " 
 
 " I said, Mrs. Evan-Stone," the man replied, keep 
 ing his temper, creditably, " a gentleman is waiting to 
 see you." 
 
 " Where is his card? " she asked. 
 
 " He wouldn t give a name, Mrs. Evan-Stone," he 
 reported. 
 
 " What does he look like? " came next. 
 
 " Like a caller," said the man. " Frock coat, high 
 hat, light trousers, cane, new gloves, a flower in his 
 button-hole." 
 
 "What does he look like, I said?" Mrs. Evan- 
 Stone repeated. 
 
 " I didn t have time to look at his face, Mrs. Evan- 
 Stone," the butler acknowledged. 
 
 " Apparently not," remarked the mistress, throwing 
 her neck fur over the stair railing, tossing her card- 
 case and program onto a chair, and turning toward 
 the drawing room, like a little cyclone, prepared to an- 
 
 302 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 303 
 
 nihilate some gentlemanly book-agent or sewing-ma 
 chine man. 
 
 Somebody was destined to wish he had stayed at 
 home this was evident. 
 
 A young man was leaning forward over the grand 
 piano, intently studying the brown portrait of the late 
 Baron Gastav von Bernharden. Upon Mrs. Evan- 
 Stone s entrance, he deliberately set the frame down, 
 and bowed. 
 
 " Good-afternoon," he said, smiling enough to show 
 his fine teeth with the slight part in the centre that was 
 perfectly familiar to the lady. 
 
 She automatically reached for the back of a tall 
 chair, to help steady herself, as she bowed formally 
 and said, " Good-afternoon ! " 
 
 " I was spending the time until you should come in, 
 looking at this photograph, which I heard about dur 
 ing your brief sojourn out in Montana. It really does 
 look a good deal like me, doesn t it? " he appealed to 
 her. 
 
 " Some of your friends seemed to think so, Mr. 
 Stone," stiffly remarked Mrs. Evan-Stone. "Won t 
 you sit down? " 
 
 " Thank you Mrs. Stone," he said, sweetly, and 
 with perfect composure, seemingly. 
 
 Eleanor almost fainted at the man s mannerly as 
 surance, but she found no courage to inform him, icily, 
 that her name was at present Ei^w-Stone, a thing she 
 would have liked to do. 
 
 " No doubt you are surprised by my visit?" the 
 young man began, in commonplace tones. " I had 
 promised myself to call upon you when you lived 
 
304 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 among us, but you left a little sooner than I expected 
 you to, and I have been somewhat inconvenienced by a 
 game leg, until four days ago when I took an east- 
 bound train out of the Camp." 
 
 It was all so civil and so very well done, that the 
 lady felt herself weakening terribly. She had not a 
 spark of anger in her soul to help her preserve her 
 dignity. Although she would not have so analysed 
 it, yet her love was greater than her pride she was 
 defeated to begin with. 
 
 " You knew I was leaving the Camp, then, did 
 you? " she asked, having nothing better to say. 
 
 " Oh, yes," he replied, pleasantly. " I expected 
 you would be going shortly, when I bought the house 
 you were living in." 
 
 Mrs. Evan-Stone was speechless, so colossal was 
 this frank admission. 
 
 Mr. Stone ran his forefinger around the edge of his 
 high collar, unconsciously, as though he had not yet 
 got used to the old-time conventionalities in city dress, 
 and went on in the same, even, adorable voice that had 
 always been his greatest attraction, " I came East ex 
 pressly to explain to you, Mrs. Stone, that I bought 
 this little house purely out of consideration for you. 
 There seemed to be some rather serious gossip starting 
 in regard to a young woman whom you were befriend 
 ing. The simplest way to stop the talk that might 
 have resulted disastrously for you, was to get you 
 away." 
 
 Still the woman was dumb. 
 
 Mr. Stone took a deep breath, and went on, assum 
 ing a calm he did not feel at all, " In regard to your 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 305 
 
 wonderful quickness of action in saving my life 
 what can a man say? I vaguely recall having read in 
 some household magazine, or other, that in the case 
 of a lady saving a man s life, it was only fitting that 
 the man should offer to present that life to the lady. 
 But remembering your tastes, it occurred to me an 
 orchid might be more acceptable." 
 
 The hand that drew the flower from an inside coat 
 pocket, trembled slightly. 
 
 " Too bad," Mr. Stone murmured, taking off the thin 
 oiled paper that was about it. " I see one petal is 
 broken. May I lay it on the piano? " 
 
 He looked hard at the lady, who had risen, and 
 now stood as one cut out of marble an exquisite 
 figure dressed in brown velvet. 
 
 Presently Eleanor spoke, with some effort. 
 " Thank you for the flower," she slowly said, " but I 
 do not understand your offering me a single orchid." 
 
 " I beg pardon? " he said. 
 
 u It is true, is it not," she forced herself to con 
 tinue, " that you receive tokens of orchids every once 
 in a while, which you put in a tall vase on your piano? " 
 
 She waited. 
 
 " It is true," he owned. 
 
 " Then you appreciate, that I cannot keep your 
 orchid?" 
 
 " I cannot imagine how such a detail of my life 
 could ever have reached your ears, Mrs. Stone, but I 
 shall be glad to explain the matter to you on one 
 condition," Mr. Stone proposed. " I should like to 
 know about this photograph on the piano." 
 
 " That seems fair," agreed Mrs. Evan-Stone. 
 
3 o6 THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 
 
 " It is a little embarrassing," Mr. Stone hesitated, 
 " but having discovered a crumpled song of mine 
 among your sheets of music a song that most mys 
 teriously disappeared from my rooms gives me the 
 needed nerve. I I had nothing else, so so I 
 bought the orchids myself. Humiliating confession 
 of sentiment, isn t it? " 
 
 44 That is rather awful," Eleanor said, her eyes 
 full of tears, but she did not show him her eyes. 
 
 " The brown portrait is equally disgraceful to me," 
 she did her part now. " At the time I we that 
 is, at the time we have in mind, I destroyed every 
 photograph I had of you, and later I was sorry. One 
 day I begged this photograph of the late Baron von 
 Bernharden from a friend. It is not unlike some of 
 the earlier pictures of of you. The coronet be 
 longed on the travelling bag of an old aunt of young 
 Gustav s, and it fell off when we were in a railway car 
 riage together once somewhere in Bavaria. The old 
 lady asked me to throw it out of the window it al 
 ways caught on her silk gloves! But I kept it; and 
 eventually it was gold-washed and fastened on this 
 frame, coyly, to induce foolish persons to ask ques 
 
 tions." 
 
 Silence fell upon them after this, a strange vibrant 
 silence. 
 
 Finally, Mr. Stone cleared his throat and said, ear 
 nestly, " I fancy most of our troubles could be just 
 about as easily explained as these. Have you ever 
 thought, Eleanor, that you might be willing to come 
 to me, and give our difficulties a chance ? " 
 
 " I will never go all the way to you," she answered. 
 
THE JUMPING-OFF PLACE 307 
 
 " But if you will come as far as the table, I think I can 
 go the other half of the distance between us." 
 
 Then she stood shyly waiting for his response to 
 this, gazing at the floor. 
 
 "Good!" Crathorne Stone said, quietly. "I will 
 go as far as the table and wait for you dear." 
 
 Eleanor walked to him, slowly, but very gladly; and 
 while she could not bring herself to look up, still she 
 saw through her tears the envelope that Mr. Stone 
 drew out of his pocket, and recognised her own hand 
 writing on it. He held the thing in a nervous, loving 
 hand so that she could see it. 
 
 In as steady a voice as he could, he said, " It sur 
 prises me that anyone who can direct a bullet as well 
 as you do, Eleanor, would direct a letter so incorrectly. 
 Apparently you intended to send this key to the owner 
 of the Copper Hill bungalow, so I have re-addressed 
 it to to Mrs. Crathorne Stone." 
 
 " Our bungalow? " she breathed, looking up at him 
 through clouded brown eyes. 
 
 " Our bungalow! " said Crathorne Stone, devotedly 
 wiping away a runaway tear on her cheek. " Our 
 bungalow exactly I " 
 
 THE END 
 
1 2334