Part 12 (1/2)

She took a look at the enco those shadowy stretches alone and unguided The truth of his statement that she would never reach Cariboo Meadows forced itself home There was but the one way out, and her woritted, in a swift surge of anger ”I am afraid to face this country alone I admit my helplessness But so help me Heaven, I'll make you pay for this dirty trick! You're not a man!

You're a cur--aBill laughed ”Those are pretty nao!”

He took up the lead rope, and went on without even looking back to see if she followed If he had htest attempt to force her to come, if he had betrayed the least uncertainty as to whether she would co down from the saddle and set her face stubbornly southward in sheer defiance of him But such is the peculiar colance backward, and then fell in behind the packs She eighted doith dread of the unknown, boiling over with rage at the ht-footed in the lead; but nevertheless she followed him

CHAPTER IX

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

All the rest of that day they bore steadily northward Hazel had no idea of Bill Wagstaff's destination She was too bitter against hi that she could not face the wilderness alone

Between going it alone and acco the lesser evil Curiously she felt no fear of Bill Wagstaff in person, and she did have a dread vision of whatalone in the woods There was one loophole left to comfort her It seemed scarcely reasonable that they could fare on forever without encountering other frontier folk Upon that possibility she based her hopes of getting back to civilization, not soBill's object, to show hiainst her will by any careless, strong-arht there must be some et in touch with other people--well, she would show Roaring Bill Of course, getting back to Cariboo Meadows meant a new start in the world, for she had no hope, nor any desire, to teach school there after this episode She found herself facing that prospect un out of her present predicaht as if no change in their attitude had taken place To all his efforts at conversation she turned a deaf ear and a stony countenance She proposed to eat his food and use his bedding, because that was necessary But socially she would have none of hi to talk But he lost none of his cheerfulness He lay on his own side of the fire, regarding her with the amused tolerance that one bestows upon the capricious temper of a spoiled child

Thereafter, day by day, the ht north For a week he kept on tirelessly, and a consuan to take hold of her But she would not ask, even when daily association dulled the edge of her resentment, and she found it hard to keep up her hostile attitude, to nurse bitterness against a man who remained serenely unperturbed, and who, for all his apparent lawlessness, treated her as a ht treat his sister

To her unpracticed eye, the character of the country reed except for minor variations Everywhere the timber stood in serried ranks, spotted with lakes and small meadows, and threaded here and there with little streams But at last they dropped into a valley where the woods thinned out, and down the center of which flowed a sizable river This they followed north a matter of three days On the west the valley wall ran to a tied peaks of a snow-capped mountain chain pierced the sky

Two hours frohted so up on the timber-patched hillside She watched them, at first uncertain whether they were moose, which they had frequently encountered, or dolance toward the sun, she observed that these objects traveled south

Presently, as the lines of their respective travel brought them nearer, she made them out to be men, mounted, and accompanied by packs She counted the riders--five, and as many pack horses One, she felt certain, was a woman--whether white or red she could not tell

But--there was safety in nu south

Upon her first i off Silk, and started for the hillside, at an angle calculated to intercept the pack train There was a chance, and she was rapidly beco chances

At a distance of a hundred yards, she looked back, half fearful that Roaring Bill was at her heels But he stood with his hands in his pockets, watching her She did not look again until she was half a mile up the hill Then he and his packs had vanished

So, too, had the travelers that she was hurrying to er co outlook The patches of timber intervened As she kept on, she became more uncertain But she bore up the slope until satisfied that she was parallel here they should come out; then she stopped to rest

After a fewto reach a point whence she could see more of the slope In so far had she absorbed woodcraft that she now began watching for tracks There were enough of these, but they were the slender, triangle prints of the shy deer

Nothing rese And before long, ith turning this way and that, she found herself on a plateau where the pine and spruce stood like bristles in a brush, and from whence she could see neither valley below nor hillside above

She was growing tired Her feet ached froain, and tried calling But her voice sounded ave over that The afternoon was on the wane, and she began to think of and dread the coht behind the western ridges; his last bea the blue-white pinnacles a hundred

She had given up hope of finding the pack train, and she had cut loose fro his shoulders and keep on going, she thought resentfully

As twilight fell a brief panic seized her, followed by frightened despair The wilderness, in its evening hush, e ee of the wooded plateau There was a lingering gleam of yellow and rose pink on the distant mountains, but the valley itself lay in a blur of shade, out of which rose the faintwater, a monotone in the silence She sat down on a dead tree, and cried softly to herself

”Well?”

She started, with an involuntary gasp of fear, it was so unexpected

Roaring Bill Wagstaff stood within five feet of her, resting one hand on theplacidly