CHAPTER XIV—AN IMPORTANT CHAMPAGNE LUNCH.
WHEN John Steele stepped down from the sleeping-car in the early morning at Pickaxe Gulch, he found Alice Fuller the sole occupant of the platform. She welcomed him with the cordiality of good comradeship. Her costume differed rather strikingly from the apparel she wore in his office. She reminded him of one of those reckless female riders he had seen at Buffalo Bilks Wild West Show, and he was forced to confess that the outfit suited her to perfection. She was even more attractive than when he had first seen her, and he could hardly have believed that possible. Before he ventured to compliment the young woman on her appearance, she complimented him on his.
“You are already looking very much better than you did in the city.”
“Yes!” he cried jubilantly. “Your visit did me ever so much good; and, besides that, I am now out from under Peter’s shadow.”
“‘Peter’s shadow?’” she repeated. “What is that? The shadow of a mountain?”
“In a way, yes,” laughed Steele, “and a gold-producing mountain at that. I have been a rather anxious person these many months past; but now, whether it is the exhilaration of the air in the West, or the prospect”—he hesitated a moment, then continued—“of this journey, I am quite my own man once more.”
Without reply she led the way to the dusty road which ran between two rows of roughly built shanties.
“Did you breakfast on the train?” she asked.
“No.”