you do?"

"The nearest woman was a hundred miles off. I cooked and looked after
the stores. Sometimes I mended the clothes."

"And how were the others occupied?"

Carrie hesitated. Although Bernard had asked her to tell him about
Canada, she imagined he wanted to hear about Jim, but after a few
moments she began to relate the story of their cutting the telegraph
line. She could not have told it to Mrs. Halliday, but she felt
Bernard would understand, and he helped her by tactful questions. She
wanted him to know what kind of man Jim was and she made something of
an epic of the simple tale; man's struggle against Nature and his
victory. Indeed, for Bernard was very shrewd, she told him more than
she thought.

"But, when you were nearly beaten, you could have sold the copper vein
you talked about and used the money," he remarked.

"In a way, we couldn't sell. Baumstein was putting the screw to us; he
meant to buy for very much less than the claim was worth. We would
have starved before we let him, and for a time we hadn't as much food
as we liked."

"After all, you might have been beaten but for the contractor. Why did
he help? No doubt, he knew it was a rash speculation."

"Oh, well," said Carrie, "I think he liked Jim. But we wouldn't have
been beaten. We'd have made good somehow."

"Still it looks as if the contractor was a useful friend. Did he stop
at Vancouver? Does he write to you?"

Carrie hesitated, because she imagined she saw where Bernard's
questions led.

"We won't forget him, but he doesn't write and I don't know where he
is," she said; and added with a touch of dignity: "I don't see what
this has to do with the rest."

"Perhaps it has nothing to do with it," Bernard replied. "Thank you
for telling me a rather moving tale."

He let her go and when she passed a bench where Mrs. Halliday and
Mordaunt sat the former looked at her companion.

"I suppose you have remarked that Bernard has been unusually gracious
to the girl and her mother. Is it his notion of a host's duty? Or is
it something else?"

"I imagine it's something else," Mordaunt replied.

"But what? Does he want to annoy us?"

"It's possible he thought he might do so. Are you annoyed?"

"I am certainly surprised."

"Oh, well," said Mordaunt; "perhaps he had another object. I don't
know. He's rather inscrutable."

Mrs. Halliday got up. "I thought we could be frank, Lance. After all,
our habit is to tak