the meal of fish and beans and coffee, she disappeared once more,
and later he heard her busy outside again. From the sounds he judged
that she had found the bark and the other materials that she needed,
and was busy sewing the covering for her tepee, and presently he heard
her fixing it. The operation seemed to take quite a long time and was
evidently troublesome, for once or twice sounds of vexation reached him
and once he heard her cry roundly: "Confound the thing!"

He laughed silently to himself at the heartiness of her expression,
then wished that he could go out and help her; but as he could not, and
as she did not come to him in her difficulty he refrained from asking
what the difficulty was, and from offering advice. Half an hour later
she stood in the tent doorway, flushed but triumphant.

"Finished," she cried, "and Sir Christopher Wren was never more proud
than I am."

"I should like to see your castle," laughed Stane.

"You shall, sir," she cried gaily. "You shall. I will lift the canvas
of the tent that you may feast your eyes on my handiwork."

A moment later she was busy rolling up the canvas at one side of the
tent, and presently he found himself looking out on a very fair
imitation of an Indian hunting tepee. He gave the work his ungrudging
admiration.

"It is a very creditable piece of work, Miss Yardely."

"Yes," she responded lightly, "and I'm not going to pretend that I'm
not proud of it. I am, and having done that, I don't think Robinson
Crusoe was so very wonderful after all! I think that I could have
managed as well as he did on his desert island. But here's a fanfare on
my own trumpet! And I've work yet to do, and I must do it before my
doll's house goes completely to my head."

She dropped the canvas of the tent, fastened it into its place, and
then proceeded to arrange a bed of young spruce boughs for herself.
That done to her satisfaction, she prepared the last meal of the day
and then in the stillness of the bright Northland evening, she went off
towards the lake she had discovered in the morning, with the intention
of setting the snare that she had spoken of.

But she did not do so that night, for before she came in sight of it
she was aware of an alarmed clamour of the water-fowl, and wondering
what was the cause of it, she made her approach with caution. The
stream, which she had followed fell over a small cliff to the shore of
the lake and as she reached the head of the fall s