d drives past and is gone. The transformation was
startling. Without further glance at his companion, he moved swiftly
towards the house. Once more Fleda's voice called, and before he could
answer they were face to face.

She stood radiant and elate, and seemed not apprehensive of disfavour or
reproach. Behind her was Tekewani and his braves.

"You have heard?" she asked reading her father's face.

"I have heard. Have you no heart?" he answered. "If the Rapids had
drowned you!"

She came close to him and ran her fingers through his beard tenderly. "I
was not born to be drowned," she said softly.

Now that she was a long distance from Ingolby, the fact that a man had
held her in his arms left no shadow on her face. Ingolby was now only
part of her triumph of the Rapids. She tossed a hand affectionately
towards Tekewani and his braves.

"How!" said Gabriel Druse, and made a gesture of salutation to the
Indian chief.

"How!" answered Tekewani, and raised his arm high in response. An
instant afterwards Tekewani and his followers were gone their ways.

Suddenly Fleda's eyes rested on the young Romany who was now standing
at a little distance away. Apprehension came to her face. She felt her
heart stand still and her hands grow cold, she knew not why. But she saw
that the man was a Romany.

Her father turned sharply. A storm gathered in his face once more, and a
murderous look came into his eyes.

"Who is he?" Fleda asked, scarce above a whisper, and she noted the
insistent, amorous look of the stranger.

"He says he is your husband," answered her father harshly.

CHAPTER V. "BY THE RIVER STARZKE... IT WAS SO DONE"

There was absolute silence for a moment. The two men fixed their
gaze upon the girl. The fear which had first come to her face passed
suddenly, and a will, new-born and fearless, possessed it. Yesterday
this will had been only a trembling, undisciplined force, but since then
she had been passed through the tests which her own soul, or
Destiny, had set for her, and she had emerged a woman, confident and
understanding, if tremulous. In days gone by her adventurous, lonely
spirit had driven her to the prairies, savagely riding her Indian pony
through the streets of Manitou and out on the North Trail, or south
through coulees, or westward into the great woods, looking for what: she
never found.

Her spirit was no longer the vague thing driving here and there with
pleasant torture. It had found