k?"

"I know she did. She was furious because I had not concealed the fact
of his being here, but I felt that I owed it--"

"Yes, to be sure. And where would she be most likely to meet him? Do
you know?"

"I know where she did meet him," Kate retorted with an edge to her
voice. "She couldn't have gotten lost, though, if she had gone there.
It is close to the road you traveled. Doug--Professor Harrison has led
a party up where Marion said Jack had his cave. If they are there, we
shall know it as soon as they come back."

"Yes, certainly. And if they are not there?" Mrs. Singleton Corey held
her voice firm though the heart within her trembled at the terrible
possibility.

"Well--she didn't take the train, we know that positively. She _must_
be up there with Jack!"

Mrs. Singleton Corey knew very well that Kate was merely propping her
hope with the statement, but she was glad enough to accept the prop
for her own hopes. So they talked desultorily and with that
arms-length amiability which is the small currency of polite
conversation between two strange women, and Mrs. Singleton Corey laid
aside her dignity with her fur-lined coat, and made tea for
them--since Kate could not walk.

Late in the afternoon men began to straggle into the cabin, fagged and
with no news of Marion. The professor was brought back so exhausted
that he could not walk without assistance, and talked incoherently of
being shot at, up near the peak, and of being unable to reach Taylor
Rock on account of the furious wind and the deep drifts.

Hank Brown declared that he could make it in the morning, and one or
two others volunteered to go with him. It began to seem more and more
likely that Marion was up there and compelled by the storm to stay, in
whatever poor refuge Jack might have. It seemed useless to make any
further attempt at hiding Jack's identity and whereabouts, although
Mrs. Singleton Corey, with a warning glance at Kate and a few
carefully constructed sentences, managed to convey the impression that
Jack had been hiding away from her, after a quarrel between them which
had proved merely a misunderstanding. She was vastly relieved to see
that her explanation was accepted, and to know that if Quincy had ever
heard of the auto-bandit affair, it had forgotten all about it long
ago.

Still, that was a small relief, and temporary. Until the next day they
were hopeful, and the physical discomfort of staying in that crude
little cabin wi