hat now," said Natalie. "Please listen to what I have to
say."

But the man, shrinking from matter hateful to his ears, strove to divert
her. He struck his forehead with his knuckles, and jumped up. "By Gad!
What's the matter with me!" he cried. "I never asked you in! It's a
wretched hole, but such as it is----" He had turned to the door. Sudden
recollection chopped off the speech midway; and he turned a furtive,
frightened face over his shoulder to Natalie.

"N-never mind," he gabbled hurriedly. "Don't come in! It's not fit to
receive you! It's better out here!" Little beads of sweat were springing
out on his forehead.

His whole bearing had been so wild and stupefied since his waking, that
they attached small importance to this display of terror. Natalie
patiently essayed to speak again; but again he interrupted.

His face cleared. "You've left your outfit somewhere back on the trail,"
he said eagerly. "I'll go back with you; and we can talk things over
quietly there!" He actually started toward the watercourse, walking with
jerky, uneven steps.

Natalie made no move to follow. "I will say what I have to say here,"
she spoke after him.

Mabyn was voluble, scarcely coherent in his incontinent desire to take
her away from the hut. Natalie waited, letting him talk himself out.
Finally compelled to give in, he returned with strange, apprehensive
glances around the hut, and over the summits of the hills behind. Garth
thought his brain was beginning to be affected by a solitary life.

However, he now listened patiently enough.

"You have not written to your mother or to me in many months," began
Natalie coldly; "and your letters for three years past have given us no
information. Your mother's whole thought is of you; and through her
anxiety and suspense she is worn to a shadow of what she was; the
doctors tell her she has a mortal disease that must soon prevail."

In spite of herself Natalie's voice softened as she delivered her
pitiful plea; but it was not from any kindness for him. "She has been
very kind to me all these years," she went on, "and I, to ease her what
I could of the torment of her mind during her last days, volunteered to
go with her to find you. Her age and her infirmities prevented her from
coming any farther than Prince George. I have been fortunate in finding
friends who have assisted me the rest of the way. I have come to beg
you, on behalf of your mother, to let her see you before she dies.