was to Old Baldy."

"Old Baldy, eh? Let me see--what trail did you take?"

"On the river path. Then--then we got separated----"

"I see. But it's a fairly clear trail. Did you try another?"

"We--we crossed the river the wrong time, I think, and so got on the
wrong mountain. We----"

Maria Angelina's voice died away in sudden sick perception of that
betraying pronoun.

Quite slowly, without looking at her, Barry completed the lighting of
that pipe to his satisfaction and drew a few appreciative puffs. Then he
turned to inquire casually, "And who is 'we'?"

He saw only the top of the girl's tousled head and the tense grip of her
clasped hands in her lap.

"If you would not ask, Signor!" she said whisperingly.

"A dark secret!" He tried to laugh over that but his keen eyes rested on
her with a troubled wonder.

"And then you got lost--even from your companion?" he prompted quietly.

"Yes, I--I came away alone for he--he refused to go on," faltered Maria
Angelina painfully, "and then I seemed to go on forever--and I could do
no more. But now I am quite well again," she insisted with a ghost of a
brave smile. "If only--if only my Cousin Jane could know that I'm trying
to get back," she finished in a tone that shook in spite of her.

"You weren't trying to get lost, were you?" questioned Barry lightly,
groping for a cue. There was no mistaking the flash of Maria Angelina's
repudiation and the candor of her suddenly upraised young face.

"Oh, no, Signor, no, no! It was only that I was so careless--that I
believed he knew the way."

"And was he trying to get lost?"

"Oh, no, Signor, no, it was all a mistake."

"This is a very easy neck of the woods to get lost in," Barry told her
reassuringly. "Old residents here often miss their way--especially in a
storm. Mrs. Blair will worry, of course, but she is very sensible and
she knows you will come to light with the daylight. Just as soon as it
is clear enough for me to find my way I'll strike over to Peter's place
and phone her that you are safe and sound, and I'll get a horse for you
to ride out on--you won't care for any more walking and the motor can
only come as far as the road."

"But you must not tell them _you_ have found me," said Maria Angelina,
overwhelmed with tragedy again. She seemed fated, she thought in
dreadful humor, to spend the night with young men! And to have been lost
by one and found by another!

"It will be so much worse," she said ple