you love me. And I want to marry you!” His tone changed abruptly. “You do love me, Beth?”

He held out his arms appealingly, and in answer the girl rose silently and kissed him. “You know that, Tom,” she said simply.

“Then why do I have to sneak away like a thief? Just because we love each other, what’s that he’s got against me?”

“You know why he said it was, Tom.” She crossed the room again to attend to the stove.

“Because I haven’t got any money. I know—that’s what he said. But I’ve got enough to keep you as well as he does—and better.” He glanced around the cabin contemptuously. “You know that isn’t the reason. It’d be the same, anyway—unless maybe I had a fortune and would give him some of it.”

Beth winced. It hurt, somehow, to have him say things like that. But she knew it was true. And she knew, too, just how he felt—how he resented the way he had been treated.

“Besides, why shouldn’t I marry you?” the boy went on. “I’m from the East, same as you. I’ve been to college—my family’s as good as yours—for all his drunken talk—better than his, if you ask me. What he wants is to get you a rich husband back East if he can’t stake a big-paying claim out here. And I don’t fit into that scheme. That’s what’s the matter, and you know it.”

Beth laid the coffee cups on the table and sat down again, facing him.

“You mustn’t talk that way, Tom,” she remonstrated. “You just mustn’t. I won’t listen. I’ve told you that before. I can’t listen to such things. Why were you going to Vailstown tonight?”

He ignored her question. “Well, I’m right, and you know it. I love you, and I’d make you happy. He’s the only thing in the way. So far as your happiness is concerned, he’d be better off dead, and I wish he was. Oh, I know it’s a rotten thing to say, but I do. Look at that.”

He leaned forward suddenly, and gripped her by the shoulder, pulling her toward him.

“Your neck’s bruised black and blue. You think I don’t notice things like that, don’t you? I know how he treats you when he’s crazy drunk—and I’m the only one who does. And I can’t do anything about it because you won’t let me.”

“Tom—I—”

“And because he’s your stepfather, you won’t let anybody say a word 

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