Flower of the North

u will, Whittemore, but I swear that she was t

girlishly sensitive face as he looked across t

I'm going to make a full-page 'cover' of her to-morrow for Burke's. Burke dotes on pretty

se, Tom," apologized Whitt

f the little cabin, lighted by a single oil-lamp hanging

at Rio Piedras, wasn't it, Tom? A Spanish girl, or was she a Creole? I believe I've got your letter yet, and I'll read it to you to-morrow. I

rted the artist, flecking the a

Valencia

nzed by snow and wind, illumined in the lamp-glow. Gregson, in strong contrast, with his round, smooth cheeks, slim hands, and

e back from South America. Valencia! Will we ever forget it? When Burke handed me his first turn-down a month ago and said, 'Tom, your work begins to show you want a rest,' I thought of Valencia, and was so confoundedly homesic

nd. "That was when I made up my mind you were the nerviest man

ern Republics' and again as 'The Girl of Valencia.' She married t

hom you swore would make your fortune if you could get her to sit for you, and whose husband was on the point of putting six

beginning my paternoster when-chug!-and down he went! And he deserved it. I said nothing wrong. In my very best Sp

eliest creature you had ever seen.' And after that there were ot

n draw and do well. I'd think an editor was mad if he asked me to do something without a pretty woman in

t to see it in the

I imagine that it is there, and she is perfect! But this one that I saw t

rke,' two or three miscellaneous, and a 'study' for

l ability for hitting the

old you to t

fered his

lace, and forget everything for a fortnight or two except your clothes and half a dozen cases of beer.' Rest! Nature! Beer! Think of those cheerful suggestions, Phil, whi

pacing uneasily back and forth across the cabin floor. "I gave you promis

and faced Gregson

ll that's going to cut loose pretty soon up here-and I'm in need of help. Understand? It's not fun-this time. I'm playing a s

physique. Yet there was something in the cold gray-blue of his eyes, a peculiar hardness of his chin, that compel

courting Minnie Sheldon seven years ago-and married her the day after I got your letter. I was too busy figuring out what you hadn't written to go to the wedding

," chuckled Whittemore, lighting his pipe. "It's g

by the arm and l

pped ridges which are called mountains in the far north. Into that north swept infinite wilderness, white and gray where the starlit tops of the spruce rose up at their feet, black in the distance. From

of the Bay down there, and if you're keen you can catch the smell of icebergs. There's Fort Churchill-a rifle-shot beyond the ridge, asleep. There's nothing but Hudson's Bay Company's posts, Indian camps, and trappers between here and civilization, which is four hundred miles down there. Seems like a quiet and peaceful country, doesn't it? There's something about it that makes you thrill and wonder if this is

n. "What the deuce are

me up here. I hesitate at the last word. It seems almost brutal, taking into consideration your philosophy of beauty

is

, fi

d the match so that the tiny flame light

ated, "you haven't got m

id Philip. "But

a tightness in the grip of his fingers which convi

n in Honduras the second week after we struck Pu

wasn't half pr

lf to a cousinly kiss. O'Kelly, unperceived, arrives in time to witness the act. From that moment his friendship for Belize turns to hatred and jealousy. Within three weeks he has started a revolution, beats the government forces at Ceiba, chases Belize from the capital, gets Nicaragua mixed up in the trouble, and dra

's a climax, come to it, Phil. I admit that there