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All in all, hers was a baffling personality and Phillips fell asleep with the riddle of it unanswered. He awoke in the morning with it still upon his mind. The Countess Courteau had been first to arise; she was fully dressed and the sheet-iron stove was glowing when her companions roused themselves. By the time they had returned from the lake she had breakfast ready.
Now, however, the Countess Courteau brought up the rear of the procession and immediately in advance of her walked the head man of the Dyea tribe. It was a still, clear morning, but autumn was in the air and a pale sun lacked the necessary heat to melt a skin of ice which, during the night, had covered stagnant pools.
Leaving the men at the Barracks, the girl proceeded to her hotel. She had changed out of her trail clothes and was upon the point of hurrying down-town to her work when she encountered Hilda Courteau. "Where in the world have you been?" the latter inquired. "Nowhere, in the world," Rouletta smiled. "I've been quite out of it."
Courteau 'ain't lose but six hundred, an' he's got it back. No! I'm t'inkin' you Policemans is got good sense, but I lak better a miners' meetin'. Us 'sour-dough' mak' better law as dem feller at Ottawa." "Morris Best was willing to go his bail," Rock informed him, "but Miller wouldn't allow it. Ben is sore at having the Rialto implicated there's been so much short-weighing going on. Understand?"
Wood and water were handy, the Countess Courteau had a quick and capable way, therefore supper was not long delayed.
Having brought the last of the Courteau boats through the canon, 'Poleon Doret piloted the little flotilla across to the town of White Horse and there collected his money, while Pierce Phillips and the other men pitched camp. The labor of making things comfortable for the night did not prevent Lucky Broad from discussing at some length the exciting incidents of the afternoon.
He was surprised at the unexpected liberality of his attitude. This country was indeed working a change in him; he was broadening rapidly. As a matter of fact, he assured himself, the Countess Courteau was an exceptional woman; she was quite different from the other members of her sex and the rules of decorum which obtained for them did not obtain for her.
Now, oddly enough, the effect upon her was only a little less disturbing than upon him, for this first boy-love was a thing which no good woman could have treated lightly: its simplicity, its purity, its unselfishness were different to anything she had known so different, for instance, to that affection which Count Courteau had bestowed upon her as to seem almost sacred therefore she watched its growth with gratification not unmixed with apprehension.
Why work in here?" "You understand me," the other persisted. "Too good for the dance- hall, eh? Too good to associate with us girls; too good to live like us! Bah! Miller fell for you, but you'd better let well enough alone." "That's precisely what I do. If there were a better hotel than the Courteau House I'd stop there. But there isn't. Now, then, suppose you tell me what really ails you."
The Countess Courteau was walking slowly when Rouletta overtook her a block or so down the street. She looked up as the younger woman joined her. "Well," she said, "I presume you saw. Not a look, not a thought for any one but her that other girl." "Yes, I saw." There was a pause, then: "She's wonderful. I think I'm very glad." "Glad?" Hilda raised her brows; she glanced curiously at the speaker.
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