e little priest's smile was good to see.

"Not a thing, ma'am," he said earnestly. "Murray's gold, so far as we
see. It's only that we see just what he wants us to see. Kars is
gold, too, but--you can see clear through Kars. That's all."

The woman's apprehensions were allayed. But she knew that, where
Jessie was concerned, the little Padre had only put into words those
unspoken, almost unrealized feelings which had been hers all along.

She moved out of the doorway.

"Alec's up at the Fort. Maybe he's fretting I'm not up there to help."
She smiled. "Say, the boy's changed since--since he's to get his
vacation. He hasn't a word against Murray--now. And I'm glad. So
glad."

The Padre had turned to go. He paused.

"I'd be gladder if it was John Kars he was making the trail with," he
said, in his direct fashion. Then he smiled. "And at this moment
maybe Murray's risking his life for us."

"Yes."

The mother sighed. The disloyalty of their feelings seemed deplorable,
and it was the priest who came to her rescue.

"But it can't be. That's all."

"No. It would affront Murray."

Father Jose nodded.

"Murray mustn't be affronted--with so much depending on him."

"No." Ailsa Mowbray's eyes lit with a shadow of a smile as she went
on. "I feel like--like a plotter. It's terrible."

For answer Father Jose nodded. He had no word to offer to dispel the
woman's unease, so he hurried away without further spoken word between
them.

Ailsa Mowbray turned toward the path through the woods at the foot of
the hill. As she made her way up towards the Fort her thoughts were
painfully busy. What, she asked herself, again and again, was the
thing that lay at the back of the little priest's mind? What--what was
the curious, nebulous instinct that was busy at the back of her own?

CHAPTER XVI

A MAN AND A MAID

It was the second day after the arrival of John Kars and his outfit.
The noon meal at Ailsa Mowbray's house had been shared by the visitors.
The river was busy with the life of the post, mother and son had
returned to the Fort to continue their long day's work, and the
woodland paths approaching it were alive with a procession of those who
had wares to trade. It was a busy scene. And one which gave no hint
of any fear of the marauders whom Murray had gone to deal with.

Besides John Kars' outfit at the landing a number of canoes were moored
along the river bank under the shadow of the