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For several nights these stolen intervieere apparently the safer

because of Joan's tender blinding of her lover But it see of her lips and her

whispers of love had really been a mistake Not only had she made

the situation perilously sweet for herself, but in Jim's case she

had added the spark to the powder She realized her blunder when it

was too late And the fact that she did not regret it very much, and

seemed to have lost herself in a defiant, reckless spell, warned her

again that she, too, was answering to the wildness of the tience had broadened wonderfully in this period

of her life, just as all her feelings had quickened If gold had

developed and intensified and liberated the worst passions of men,

so the spirit of that atmosphere had its baneful effect upon her

Joan deplored this, yet she had the keenness to understand that it

was nature fitting her to survive

Back upon her fell that weight of suspense--ould happen next?

Here in Alder Creek there did not at present appear to be the same

peril which had h

fatality to Cleve or Kells And these two slept at night under a

shadow that held death, and by day they walked on a thin crust over