see nothing that promised a secure hiding
place all the way to the skyline, and he thought that the plain ran on
beyond it, as little broken. When he had cut some wood, he turned back
toward the door, and the man regarded him with a meaning smile.

"Come in, if you want; but leave the ax right there," he said.

He moved back a few paces, out of reach of a sudden spring, as George
entered, and the latter realized that he did not mean to be taken by
surprise. During the afternoon, another man arrived on horseback with
some provisions and remained until George went to sleep. The following
morning, the stranger had disappeared, but he came again once or twice,
and this was all that broke the monotony of the next few days. George,
however, was beginning to feel the strain; his nerves were getting raw,
the constant watchfulness was wearing him. The trial would now be
beginning, and it was time the binders were driven into his grain; the
oats would be ripe, and his neighbors would pick up all the Ontario
hands who reached the settlement. Another day passed, and he was
feeling desperate when the relief watcher arrived in the afternoon.
Listening with strained attention, he heard the men talking outside.
Only a few words reached him, but one was "adjourned," and it filled
him with fresh determination. If he could escape, it might not be too
late.

It was an oppressive afternoon; the fresh northwest breeze had dropped,
the sky was clouded, the air hot and heavy. Both men remained about
the building, but George sat quietly on the earth floor, smoking and
waiting for night. A few large drops of rain fell, splashing upon roof
and grass while he ate his supper, but it stopped, and the evening was
marked by a deep stillness. He felt listless and disinclined to move;
his guards, to judge by their voices, for they were playing cards
outside, were languidly irritable.

Dusk came and a thick obscurity, unlike the usual clearness of the
summer nights, shut in the lonely building. It was intensely dark in
the stable; George could not see the relief man's horse, though he
could now and then hear it move. Voices rose at intervals from beyond
the partition, but they ceased at last and only an occasional crackle
of the dry grass that served for seats and bedding told that one at
least of the rustlers was keeping watch. George felt his limbs quiver
while he waited, and he was conscious of an unpleasant tension on his
nerves. T