e she knows where Nesis is hidden," Colina said to Germain.
"She says she will take me there."

"We will go back," said Germain.

Colina shook her head. "No need for you to come back," she said. "It
will only anger the policeman. You and Georges go on home. I will get
a policeman to go with me."

Germain protested, but his secret desire was to obey the sergeant's
orders, and Colina had no difficulty in persuading him.

A division of the baggage was made on the spot, and they parted. The
Grampierres continued toward Enterprise, and the three girls turned
back.

Colina breathed more freely. Plaskett now believed that she had gone
home with Germain, and Germain believed she had gone back to Plaskett.

Marya had mounted on their pack-horse. They had not gone far in the
trail, when she signified that they were to strike off to the left.

Colina pulled up. "Cora," she said, "it's not true that I am going to
get help from the police. I mean to go myself to the other Indian
village to get the girl I want. You don't have to come. You can ride
after Germain, and tell him I decided I didn't need you."

"I go wit' you," Cora said stolidly.

Colina beamed on her handmaiden, and offered her her hand. She was
willing to face the thing alone, but it was a comfort to have the
stolid dependable Cora at her side. Moreover, Cora was an admirable
cook and packer. Colina was not enamored of the drudgery of camp.

Marya led the way slowly through the trackless bush in the general
direction of the afternoon sun, or southwest. Colina guessed that they
were making a wide detour around the Indian village.

The going was not too difficult, for it was only second growth timber,
poplar and birch, with spruce in the hollows. The original monarchs
had been consumed by fire many years before.

They had covered, Colina guessed, about five miles when the sky showed
ahead through the tree trunks, and Marya signed that they were to
dismount and tie the horses. Leading them to the edge of the trees,
she made them lie down.

They found themselves overlooking a grassy bottom similar to that upon
which the Kakisa village stood. The outer edge of the meadow was
skirted by the brown flood of the river, and trees hemmed it in on
either side. A score of Indian ponies were feeding in the grass.

Marya made Colina understand that the trail to Kakisa Lake traversed
the little plain below alongside the river. She signified that some