el any better.

CHAPTER V.

AN INVITATION TO DINE.

Lunch was not long in preparing, for the rice had been on the fire when
Colina first appeared. The young man set forth the meal as temptingly
as he could on a flat rock, and at the risk of breaking his sinews
carried another rock for Colina to sit upon. His apologies for the
discrepancies in the service disarmed Colina again.

"I am no fine lady," she said. "I know what it is to live out."

Colina was hungry and the food good. A good understanding rapidly
established itself between them. But the young man made no move to
serve himself. Indeed he sat at the other side of the rock-table and
produced his pipe.

"Why don't you eat?" demanded Colina.

"There is plenty of time," he said, blushing.

"But why wait?"

"Well--there's only one knife and fork."

"Is that all?" said Colina coolly. "We can pass them back and
forth--can't we?"

Starting up and dropping the pipe in his pocket he flashed a look of
extraordinary rapture on her that brought Colina's eyelids fluttering
down like winged birds. He was a disconcerting young man. Resentment
moved her, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

They ate amicably, passing the utensils back and forth.

After a while Colina asked: "Do you know who I am?"

"Of course," he said. "Miss Colina Gaviller."

"I don't know you," she said.

"I am Ambrose Doane, of Moultrie."

"Where is Moultrie?"

"On Lake Miwasa--three hundred miles down the river."

"Three hundred miles!" exclaimed Colina. "Have you come so far alone?"

"I have Job," Ambrose said with a smile.

"How much farther are you going?" she asked.

"Only to Fort Enterprise."

"Oh!" she said. The question in the air was: "What did you come for?"
Both felt it.

"Do you know my father?" Colina asked.

"No," said Ambrose.

"I suppose you have business with him?"

"No," he said again.

Colina glanced at him with a shade of annoyance. "We don't have many
visitors in the summer," she said carelessly.

"I suppose not," said Ambrose simply.

Colina was a woman--and an impulsive one; it was bound to come sooner
or later: "What did you come for?"

His eyes pounced on hers with the same look of mixed boldness and
apprehension that she had marked before; she saw that he caught his
breath before answering.

"To see you!" he said.

Colina saw it coming, and would have given worlds to have recalled the
question. She blushed all