Almost any day one or other of the two men
could be seen with Sheba on the street. Those who wanted to take a
sporting chance on the issue knew that odds were offered _sub rosa_
at the Pay Streak saloon of three to one on Mac.
As for Sheba, she rebelled impotently at the situation. The mine-owner
would not take "No" for an answer. He wooed her with a steady, dominant
persistence that shook even her strong, young will. There was something
resistless in the way he took her for granted. Gordon Elliot had not
mentioned love to her, though there were times when her heart fluttered
for fear he would. She did not want any more complications. She wanted
to be let alone. So when an invitation came from her little friends the
Husteds, signed by all three of the children, asking her to come and
visit them at the camp back of Katma, the Irish girl jumped at the
chance to escape for a time from the decision being forced upon her.
Sheba pledged her cousin to secrecy until after she had gone, so that
Miss O'Neill was able to slip away on the stage unnoticed either by
Macdonald or Elliot. The only other passenger was an elderly woman going
up to the Katma camp to take a place as cook.
Later on the same day Wally Selfridge, coming in over the ice, reached
Kusiak with important news for his chief.
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