ther.
They discovered early that each was a thinker and a searcher in his own
way for the one great solution of life.

During the first half-hour Claire had demanded of their rescuer where
they were and how soon they could get back to civilization. Philip had
laughed gently.

"You are on the borders of Bolivia," he told her, "and the nearest
railroad is two hundred miles away. It is impossible to get out until
spring. Long ere this snow will have barred the way through the one pass
that leads out and we are prisoners--the three of us. You will have to
accept the hospitality of Philip Ortez until the spring."

Lawrence had accepted the verdict with calm indifference.

"Oh, well," he said, "it's hard on you, but as far as I'm concerned, one
place is as good as another."

"I shall enjoy your company," their host laughed.

After voicing polite thanks, Claire, in her own thought, had rebelled
against the situation vehemently. She wanted to get home, she wanted to
get away from everything that suggested her last weeks of suffering, she
wanted to get away from these men. Her heart leaped to the
ever-recurring dream of the husband, whose arms should take her up and
hold her warmly against the memory of their separation.

"Then there is no way out?" she asked again.

"None, _madame_," and Philip Ortez bowed. "You will have to be the guest
of a humble mountaineer."

"I shall enjoy it, I am sure," she answered. "It is simply a woman's
natural desire for home which leads me to ask again."

His eyes clouded. Claire somehow found herself fancying a tragic mystery
in the life of this man, and then rebuked herself for romancing.
Certainly, such fancies were not her habit, and she wondered why they
were occurring to her.

The cabin stood on the very edge of the forest through which Lawrence
had carried Claire the last morning of their long march. Protected by
its pines, the little house fronted on a small lake, a place where the
river which they had followed widened to a half-mile, and stayed thus
with scarcely any current save directly through the center. All around
the lake the forest stretched its massed green, and here Philip trapped.
The lake, in its turn, provided him with fish.

The week after their arrival snow had heaped itself into the ravine and
piled up high around the cabin. Ice was beginning to form on the edge of
the lake, and their host was preparing for his winter's work. They were
too weak to go with him