I don't think he's as ill
now as he would have us believe." She nodded toward the closed door.
"We ought to ask him to move over to the Hut with Swimming Wolf
now. . . . Ellen--I'm growing dreadfully afraid of him. . . . Oh!"
She started nervously at a sound from the other room.

"I wish we had some way of locking that door." In a low voice Ellen
thus admitted her own uneasiness, while her gaze wandered about the
room. "We might put the table in front of it, and then if he did try
to come through in the night, we would hear him."

Cautiously the two women lifted the table and placed the inadequate
barrier across the door.

"From now on, Jean, only one of us will sleep, while the other
watches--just to be ready, you know. If he makes one suspicious
move--" she broke off and patted almost lovingly the revolver she had
drawn from an inside pocket of her blouse.

Noting the look of fear that had crept into Jean's eyes since her
suspicions had been confirmed, Ellen added: "But it won't be much
longer, Jeanie, this waiting. Surely Shane will come in a day or two.
It's nearly the twenty-first of June."

The twenty-first of June, the longest and most beautiful day of the
year in the North, was also the anniversary of Ellen's wedding. Never
during the last ten years had Shane forgotten it. Never had he failed
to bring her some little surprise, to arrange some extra pleasure for
her. For the past two weeks this thought had been with Ellen
constantly, comforting her, promising her. By some complex, womanish
process she had come to believe that on the twenty-first of June Shane,
if alive, _must_ come to her. As she and Jean lay awake whispering
during the long, light nights, she had instilled some of her faith into
the girl's mind. If they could but keep the trader from any untoward
action until then, they both felt that all would be well.

During the days that followed the sisters never left each other's side.
Swimming Wolf and Lollie procured the food. The Wolf chopped the wood
and attended to other like duties about the cabin. The White Chief did
nothing, except lounge on Kayak's bunk. In response to Ellen's
suggestion that he move to the Hut on the other side of the Island he
had merely looked into her eyes and smiled.

Since recovering his strength he had begun to take long walks about the
beaches. Ellen feared that sometime he might come upon their cavern
and learn the secret of the gold of Kon Klayu,