And outside, staring into the fire, his strong face the index of dark thoughts, Hubert Stane sat through the short night of the Northland summer, never once feeling the need of sleep, reviewing from a different angle the same question as that which had perplexed the mind of the girl in the tent.

At the first hint of dawn, Stane rose from his seat, gathered up the girl's now dry raiment, and put it in a heap at the tent door, then procuring a canvas bucket of water he set that beside the clothes and busied himself with preparing breakfast. After a little time Helen emerged from the tent. Her eyes were bright, her beautiful face was radiant with health, and it was clear that she was no worse for her experience of the day before.

66

Good morning, Mr. Stane," she said in gay salutation, "you are the early bird. I hope you slept well."

"May I reciprocate the hope, Miss Yardely?" "Never better, thank you. I think hunger and adventure must be healthful. I slept like the Seven Sleepers rolled into one; I feel as fresh as the morning, and as hungry as she ended with a laugh.

well, you will see,"

"Then fall to," he said, joining in the laughter. The sooner the breakfast is over the sooner we shall start."

"I warn you I am in no hurry," she retorted gaily. "I quite like this. It is the real thing; whilst my uncle's camps are just civilization imposing itself on the wilderness.'

"But your uncle! You must think of him, Miss

Yardely. You have now been away an afternoon and a night. He will be very anxious."

"Yes!" she said, "that's the pity of it. If it were not for that She broke off suddenly, gave a little laugh, and for no apparent reason her face flushed rosily. "But you must restore me to the bosom of my family soon!

"More's the pity!" said Stane to himself under his breath; his heart-beats quickening as he looked at her radiant face and laughing eyes; whilst openly he said: "I will do my best. You will be able to help me to paddle against the current, and no doubt in a little time we shall meet a search-party coming to look for you."

"Then my little jaunt will be over! But you must not surrender me until you have seen my uncle, Mr. Stane."

Stane laughed. "I will hold you against the world until then, Miss Yardely."

"And perhaps you will see Gerald Ainley, as you wish," she said, glancing at him to watch the effect of her words.

The laughter died swiftly from his face, and a stern light came into his eyes. "Yes," he said grimly, "perhaps I shall. Indeed that is my hope." Helen Yardely did not pursue the matter further. Again she glimpsed depths that she did not understand, and as she ate her breakfast, she glanced from time to time at her companion, wondering what was between him and Ainley, and wondering in vain.

Breakfast finished, they struck camp, launched

the canoe and began to paddle upstream. The current was strong, and their progress slow, but after some three hours they arrived at the junction of the two rivers. Then Stane asked a question. "Which way did you come, Miss Yardely? Down the main stream or the other one?"

The girl looked towards the meeting of the waters doubtfully. "I do not know," she said. "I certainly do not remember coming through that rough water."

"Your uncle's party had of course travelled some way since I left Fort Malsun?

"Oh yes; we had made long journeys each day and we were well on our way to . wait a moment. I shall remember the name to old Fort

Winagog."

،،

Winagog?" said Stane. "Yes! That is the name. uncle mentioning it yesterday."

to

I remember my

"Then you came down the main stream for a certainty, for the old fort stands on a lake that finds an outlet into this river, though it is rather a long way from here. We will keep straight on. No doubt we shall strike either your uncle's camp or some search party presently."

As it happened the conclusion he reached was based on a miscalculation. The only waterway to old Fort Winagog that he knew was from the main river and up the stream that formed the outlet for the lake. But there was another that was reached by a short portage through the woods from the subsidiary stream from which he turned aside,

a waterway which fed the lake, and which cut off at least a hundred and twenty miles. Knowing nothing of this shorter route he naturally concluded that Helen Yardely's canoe had come down the main stream, and took the wrong course in the perfect assurance that it was the right one.

So hugging the left bank they passed the junction of the rivers, and a little further on crossed to the other side to seek shelter from a rising wind, under the high bank. And less than an hour later the canoe, carrying Gerald Ainley and his Indian, swept out of the tributary stream into the broader current, and they drove downstream, unconscious that every stroke of the paddle was taking them further from the girl whom they sought.

CHAPTER VII

STRANDED

T was high noon when Hubert Stane directed the nose of the canoe towards a landing-place in the lee of a sand-bar, on the upperside of which was a pile of dry driftwood suitable for firing.

66

We will take an hour's rest, Miss Yardely; and possibly whilst we are waiting your friends may show up."

He lit a fire, prepared a wilderness meal of bacon and beans (the latter already half-cooked) and biscuit and coffee, and as they consumed it, he watched the river, a long stretch of which was visible.

"I thought we should have encountered your friends before now, Miss Yardely," he remarked thoughtfully.

The girl smiled. Are you anxious to get rid of me?" she asked. "Believe me, I am enjoying myself amazingly, and if it were not for the anxiety my uncle and the others will be feeling, I should not trouble at all. Thisshe waved a hand towards the canoe and the river" is so different from my uncle's specially conducted tour."

"Oh, I am not at all anxious to be rid of you," laughed Stane, "but I cannot help wondering