nything--human. Say, you're a man and strong. I'm just a woman,
and--and he's my father. He's overdue by six weeks. He's not back
yet, and we've had no word from him all summer."

Her impatience became swallowed up by her anxiety again. The appeal of
her manner, her beauty were not lost upon the man.

"So you stand around looking at the trail he needs to come over,
setting up a fever of trouble for yourself figgering on the traps and
things nature's laid out for us folk beyond those hills. Guess that's
a woman sure."

Hot, impatient words rose to the girl's lips, but she choked them back.

"I can't argue it," she cried, a little desperately. "Father should
have been back six weeks ago. You know that. He isn't back. Well?"

"Allan and I have run this old post ten years," Murray said soberly.
"In those ten years there's not been a single time that Allan's hit the
northern trail on a trade when he's got back to time by many
weeks--generally more than six. It don't seem to me I've seen his
little girl standing around same as she's doing now--ever before."

The girl drew her collar up about her neck. The gesture was a mere
desire for movement.

"I guess I've never felt as I do now," she said miserably.

"How?"

The girl's words came in a sudden passionate rush.

"Oh, it's no use!" she cried. "You wouldn't understand. You're a good
partner. You're a big man on the trail. Guess there's no bigger men
on the trail than you and father--unless it's John Kars. But you all
fight with hard muscle. You figure out the sums as you see them. You
don't act as women do when they don't know. I've got it all here," she
added, pressing her fur mitted hands over her bosom, her face flushed
and her eyes shining with emotion. "I know, I feel there's something
amiss. I've never felt this way before. Where is he? Where did he go
this time? He never tells us. You never tell us. We don't know.
Can't help be sent? Can't I go with an outfit and search for him?"

The man's smile had died out. His big eyes, strange, big dark eyes,
avoided the girl's. They turned towards the desolate, sunlit horizon.
His reply was delayed as though he were seeking what best to say.

The girl waited with what patience she could summon. She was born and
bred to the life of this fierce northern world, where women look to
their men for guidance, where they are forced to rely upon man's
strength for life itself.

She gazed upon th