He had planned boldly and striven tirelessly, and now the fee he could not take would surely be tendered him.

Wheat was growing dearer every day, and such crops as he had sown had not been seen at Silverdale.

Still, the man, who had had few compunctions before he met Maud Barrington, knew now that in a little while he must leave all he had painfully achieved behind.

What he would do then he did not know, for only one fact seemed certain--in another four months, or less, he would have turned his back on Silverdale.
Presently, however, the sound of horse-hoofs caught his ears, and he stood up when a mounted figure rose out of the prairie.

The moon had just swung up, round and coppery, from behind a rise, and when horse and rider cut black and sharp against it his pulses throbbed faster and a little flush crept into his face, for he knew every line of the figure in the saddle.