"You mean you will stake all you have on it?"
"That's it," Blake agreed with a humorous twinkle. "It's true that what I have doesn't amount to much, but I'm throwing in what I would like to get, and that's a great deal."
There was something of a hint in his manner and she noticed his expression suddenly grow serious. It seemed advisable to choose another topic and she said: "You must have had adventures. Tell me about them."
"Oh!" he protested, "they're really not interesting."
"Let me judge. Is it nothing to have gone where other men seldom venture?"
He began rather awkwardly, but she prompted him with tactful questions, and he saw that she wished to hear his story. By degrees he lost himself in his subject and, being gifted with keen imagination, she followed his journey into the wilds. It was not his wish to represent himself as a hero, and now and then he spoke with deprecatory humour, but he betrayed something of his character in doing justice to his theme. Millicent's eyes sparkled as she listened, for she found the story moving; he was the man she had thought him, capable of grim endurance, determined action, and steadfast loyalty.
"So you carried your crippled comrade when you were exhausted and starving," she said when he came to their search for the factory. "One likes to hear of such things as that! But what would you have done if you hadn't found the post?"
"I can't answer," he said soberly. "We durst not think of it; a starving man's will gets weak." Then his expression grew whimsical. "Besides, if one must be accurate, we dragged him."
"Still," said Millicent softly, "I can't think you would have left him."
He looked at her with some embarrassment and then smiled. "I'm flattered, Miss Graham, but you really haven't very strong grounds for your confidence in me."