d the young girl.

"Ill luck makes them companions. They are too frightened to hurt one
another now."

"But they will eat each other later on," said Kate, stealing a glance at
her companion.

He lifted his long lashes and met her eyes. "Not on a haven of refuge."

CHAPTER IV

Kate found her sister, as the stranger had intimated, fully prepared. A
hasty inventory of provisions and means of subsistence showed that they
had ample resources for a much longer isolation.

"They tell me it is by no means an uncommon case, Kate; somebody over at
somebody's place was snowed in for four weeks, and now it appears that
even the Summit House is not always accessible. John ought to have known
it when he bought the place; in fact, I was ashamed to admit that he did
not. But that is like John to prefer his own theories to the experience
of others. However, I don't suppose we should even notice the privation
except for the mails. It will be a lesson to John, though. As Mr. Lee
says, he is on the outside, and can probably go wherever he likes from
the Summit except to come here."

"Mr. Lee?" echoed Kate.

"Yes, the wounded one; and the other's name is Falkner. I asked them in
order that you might be properly introduced. There were very respectable
Falkners in Charlestown, you remember; I thought you might warm to
the name, and perhaps trace the connection, now that you are such good
friends. It's providential they are here, as we haven't got a horse or
a man in the place since Manuel disappeared, though Mr. Falkner says
he can't be far away, or they would have met him on the trail if he had
gone towards the Summit."

"Did they say anything more of Manuel?"

"Nothing; though I am inclined to agree with you that he isn't
trustworthy. But that again is the result of John's idea of employing
native skill at the expense of retaining native habits."

The evening closed early, and with no diminution in the falling rain and
rising wind. Falkner kept his word, and unostentatiously performed the
out-door work in the barn and stables, assisted by the only Chinese
servant remaining, and under the advice and supervision of Kate.
Although he seemed to understand horses, she was surprised to find that
he betrayed a civic ignorance of the ordinary details of the farm and
rustic household. It was quite impossible that she should retain her
distrustful attitude, or he his reserve in their enforced companionship.
They talked freely of