Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/284

266 "If—if you had not found the gold—would you—knowing I was an heiress—have asked me that question, Peter?"

"No—"

"And then I should have had to go away. I could not have stayed. And, I did not want to go, Peter."

The same impulse came to both of them. Both glanced swiftly round the ring of sleepers. The rider left on guard was up at the head of the little canyon with the horses. They were quite alone for the moment. She lifted her face towards him. It was like a flower, he thought, as he bent his own to meet it, moving his arm painfully.

"Oh, Peter, your poor arm," she said, and then knelt beside him, her arms going about his neck, her lips on hit.

They talked softly together for a little. This was their own short hour and they wanted to make the most of it.

"Peter," he asked, "Will there be enough gold for you to complete the project?"

"Hardly that. But enough to make a good start. To dig the main ditch, to put in the siphon and start the water flowing. The power house must come later, from the sale of shares. I don't know just what the cost will be, Mary. My estimates are all amateur. There is a man I know back East, a young man, comparatively, but a splendid engineer. I think I can persuade him to come out here and superintend the work. We might see him together."