hich had been given to him
by a young lady named "Miggles," when that charming and historic girl
had decided to accompany her paralytic lover to the San Francisco
hospital, was missing that evening. It had been its regular habit to
come to the door every night for some sweet biscuit or sugar before
going to its lair in the underbrush behind the cabin. Everybody knew it
along the length and breadth of Hemlock Ridge, as well as the fact
of its being a legacy from the fair exile. No rifle had ever yet been
raised against its lazy bulk or the stupid, small-eyed head and ruff
of circling hairs made more erect by its well-worn leather collar.
Consoling himself with the thought that the storm had probably delayed
its return, Jack took off his coat and threw it on his bunk. But from
thinking of the storm his thoughts naturally returned again to the
impeded travelers below him, and he half mechanically stepped out in his
shirt-sleeves for a final look at them.

But here something occurred that changed his resolution entirely. He had
previously noticed only the three foreshortened, crawling figures
around the now stationary wagon bulk. They were now apparently making
arrangements to camp for the night. But another figure had been added
to the group, and as it stood perched upon a wagon seat laid on the snow
Jack could see that its outline was not bifurcated like the others.
But even that general suggestion was not needed! the little head, the
symmetrical curves visible even at that distance, were quite enough to
indicate that it was a woman! The easy smile faded from Jack's face, and
was succeeded by a look of concern and then of resignation. He had no
choice now; he MUST go! There was a woman there, and that settled it.
Yet he had arrived at this conclusion from no sense of gallantry, nor,
indeed, of chivalrous transport, but as a matter of simple duty to the
sex. He was giving up his sleep, was going down six hundred feet of
steep trail to offer his services during the rest of the night as much
as a matter of course as an Eastern man would have offered his seat in
an omnibus to a woman, and with as little expectation of return for his
courtesy.

Having resumed his coat, with a bottle of whiskey thrust into its
pocket, he put on a pair of india-rubber boots reaching to his thighs,
and, catching the blanket from his bunk, started with an axe and shovel
on his shoulder on his downward journey. When the distance was half
complete