"What made you come at all?" he said.
Jim appeared to reflect. "I've done quite a lot of foolish things before—and I don't quite know."
Brooke only smiled, but a little flush crept into Jimmy's face, for men do not express their sentiments dramatically in that country, that is, unless they are connected with mineral speculations or the selling of land.
"Of course!" he said. "I fancy I shall remember it."
They turned away together to inspect the result of the shot, and one of the miners who looked after them nodded approval. "When that man takes hold of anything he puts it through 'most every time," he said. "There's good hard sand in him."
In the meanwhile Jimmy glanced at his comrade, apparently with an entire absence of interest, out of half-closed eyes.
"I guess you were too busy to see a friend of yours a little while ago?" he said.
"I expect I was," said Brooke. "Anyway, nobody I'm acquainted with is likely to be met with in this part of the province, unless it was Saxton."
"No," said Jimmy, "it wasn't him. Saxton doesn't go trailing round in a big white hat and a four-decker skirt with a long tail to it."
Brooke turned a trifle sharply, and glanced at him. "You mean Miss Heathcote?"