nd Sissy, but the house-dog, if
encouraged to seek, would certainly find her. He had felt a sort of
grudge against the animal all day, because he must know which way she
had gone and could not tell. Now he resolved as soon as the strangers
were gone to set the dog to seek her. Upon this he stayed his mind.

The surveyors hoped to get a few days' more work done before the winter
put an end to their march; they determined when thus stopped to turn
down the river valley and take the train for Quebec. The way they now
wished to take lay, not in the direction in which the ox-cart had gone,
but over the hills directly across the lake. The scow belonging to this
clearing, on which they had counted, was called into requisition.

The day was still calm; Bates had no objection to take them across. At
any other time he would have had some one to leave in charge of the
place, but especially as he would be in sight of the house all the time,
he made no difficulty of leaving as it was. He could produce four oars,
such as they were, and the way across was traversed rapidly.

"And there ain't really a female belonging to the place, except the old
lady," said the dentist, addressing the assembled party upon the scow.
"It was all a tale, and--my eye;--he took me in completely."

Probably he did not give entire credence to his own words, and wished to
provoke the others to question Bates further; but they were not now in
the same idle mood that had enthralled them when, in the morning, they
had listened to him indulgently. Their loins were girded; they were
intent upon what they were doing and what they were going to do. No one
but Bates paid heed to him.

Bates heard him clearly enough, but, so stubbornly had he set himself to
rebuff this young man, and so closely was he wrapped in that pride of
reserve that makes a merit of obstinate self-reliance, that it never
even occurred to him to answer or to accept this last offer of a
fellow-man's interest in the search he was just about to undertake.

He had some hope that, if Sissy were skulking round, she would find it
easier to go back to the house when he was absent, and that he should
find her as usual on his return; but, as he wrought at his oar in
returning across the leaden water, looking up occasionally to make the
log house his aim, and staring for the most part at the lone hills,
under the pine woods of which his late companions had disappeared, his
heart gradually grew more hea