d he shouted to the travelers below; the cry was joyously
answered by the three men; he saw the fourth figure, now unmistakably
that of a slender youthful woman, in a cloak, helped back into the
wagon, as if deliverance was now sure and immediate. But Jack on
arriving speedily dissipated that illusive hope; they could only get
through the gorge by taking off the wheels of the wagon, placing
the axle on rude sledge-runners of split saplings, which, with their
assistance, he would fashion in a couple of hours at his cabin and bring
down to the gorge. The only other alternative would be for them to
come to his cabin and remain there while he went for assistance to the
nearest station, but that would take several hours and necessitate a
double journey for the sledge if he was lucky enough to find one. The
party quickly acquiesced in Jack's first suggestion.

"Very well," said Jack, "then there's no time to be lost; unhitch your
horses and we'll dig a hole in that bank for them to stand in out of
the snow." This was speedily done. "Now," continued Jack, "you'll just
follow me up to my cabin; it's a pretty tough climb, but I'll want your
help to bring down the runners."

Here the man who seemed to be the head of the party--of middle age and a
superior, professional type--for the first time hesitated. "I forgot
to say that there is a lady with us,--my daughter," he began, glancing
towards the wagon.

"I reckoned as much," interrupted Jack simply, "and I allowed to carry
her up myself the roughest part of the way. She kin make herself warm
and comf'ble in the cabin until we've got the runners ready."

"You hear what our friend says, Amy?" suggested the gentleman,
appealingly, to the closed leather curtains of the wagon.

There was a pause. The curtain was suddenly drawn aside, and a charming
little head and shoulders, furred to the throat and topped with a
bewitching velvet cap, were thrust out. In the obscurity little could
be seen of the girl's features, but there was a certain willfulness and
impatience in her attitude. Being in the shadow, she had the advantage
of the others, particularly of Jack, as his figure was fully revealed in
the moonlight against the snowbank. Her eyes rested for a moment on his
high boots, his heavy mustache, so long as to mingle with the unkempt
locks which fell over his broad shoulders, on his huge red hands
streaked with black grease from the wagon wheels, and some blood,
stanched with snow