veling across--a small party, you know, of her own? I presume of
course you know whom I mean?"

I nodded. "You must mean the Baroness von Ritz."

"Yes. She has been traveling abroad. Of course we took such care of her
on shipboard as we could, although a lady has no place on board a
warship. She had with her complete furnishings for a suite of
apartments, and these were delivered ashore at Fort Vancouver. Doctor
McLaughlin gave her quarters. Of course you do not know anything of
this?"

I allowed him to proceed.

"Well, she has told us calmly that she plans crossing this country from
here to the Eastern States!"

"That could not possibly be!" I declared.

"Quite so. The old trappers tell me that the mountains are impassable
even in the fall. They say that unless she met some west-bound train and
came back with it, the chance would be that she would never be heard of
again."

"You have personal interest in this?" I interrupted.

He nodded, flushing a little. "Awfully so," said he.

"I would have the right to guess you were hit pretty hard?"

"To the extent of asking her to become my wife!" said he firmly,
although his fair face flushed again.

"You do not in the least know her," he went on. "In my case, I have done
my turn at living, and have seen my share of women, but never her like
in any part of the world! So when she proposed to make this absurd
journey, I offered to go with her. It meant of course my desertion from
the Navy, and so I told her. She would not listen to it. She gives me no
footing which leaves it possible for me to accompany her or to follow
her. Frankly, I do not know what to do."

"It seems to me, Lieutenant Peel," I ventured, "that the most sensible
thing in the world for us to do is to get together an expedition to
follow her."

He caught me by the hand. "You do not tell me _you_ would do that?"

"It seems a duty."

"But could you yourself get through?"

"As to that, no one can tell. I did so coming west."

He sat silent for a time. "It will be the last I shall ever see of her
in any case," said he, at length. "We don't know how long it will be
before we leave the mouth of the Columbia, and then I could not count
on finding her. You do not think me a fool for telling you what I have?"

"No," said I. "I do not blame you for being a fool. All men who are men
are fools over women, one time or other."

"Good luck to you, then! Now, what shall we do?"

"In the first place," sa