Jess of the Rebel Trail Part 48

John laughed as he nervously tore off a splinter from the log and broke it into bits. "I had two rivals then, but now I have none. One has repented of his own free will, while the other will trouble you no longer. Are you glad?"

"I suppose I should be," the girl slowly replied.

"And it will not be necessary to run away from your father now, and work for your own living," John continued. "So that matter is settled."

"But I have no father now," was the low response. "You have taken my place, so if I don't work I shall have to depend upon my own mother for a living, and I could not think of doing that."

"But you will have plenty, Jess. Your father, I mean my father. Dear me, I am all mixed up. Suppose I say, 'Our father'? Anyway, he wants me to go to the city, and help him in his business, which he says is too much for him to manage alone. He told me this afternoon that he would do what he could for the developing of the mine, and feels quite sure that he will succeed. Now, if we change places everything will be terribly mixed up. There is only one way out of it, Jess, and you know what that is. You must be my wife. It is you I want more than anything else in the world. I asked you once before, and you told me to wait. But now I can wait no longer. Oh, Jess, tell me that you love me, and will be my wife."

For a few seconds an intense silence reigned. Then the girl, her eyes misty with tears, turned her face to her lover's, and laid her hand in his.

"Take me, John," she simply said. "I am yours."

With his face radiant with joy, John enfolded her in his arms, and pressed his lips to hers.

"I agree with you now," he whispered, "that this is a perfect ending of a perfect day."

"And the beginning of many perfect days, let us hope," was the girl's low, happy reply.

THE END