much," answered Herbert. "A brand struck me on the shoulder and
opened a hole in my shirt,--that's all. How do you feel?"

"Fried, boy; yis, actally fried. Ef this infarnal heat lasts, I'll be
ready to turn afore we reach the second bend."

"How goes the stream below?" asked Herbert.

"All clear for a while," answered the trapper, "all clear for a while.
Put yer strength into the paddle till we come to the varge below, for
the fire be runnin' fast, and it's agin reason for a mortal to stand
this heat long."

"Shall we run out of the smoke at the next flight?" asked Herbert.

"I think so, boy; I think so," answered the trapper. "The maples grow to
the bank at the foot of the next dip, and it isn't in the natur' of hard
wood to make smoke like a balsam."

[Illustration: "_Past mossy banks where great eddies whirled._"]

He would have said more, but his companion had nodded to him as he had
ended the sentence, for they had come to the last flight of the rapids,
and the great pool lay glimmering through the branches of the trees
below.

The old man knew what was meant and said: "I know it, boy, I know it.
Take the east run, for the water be deeper that way, and the boat sets
deep. I won't trouble ye, for ye know the way. Lord! how the water
biles! Now's yer time, boy,--to the right with ye! to the right! Sweep
her round and let her go!"

Away and downward swept the boat. The strong eddies caught it, but the
controlling paddle was stronger than the eddies and kept it to the line
of its safest descent. Past rocks that stood in mid current, against
which the swift-going water beat and dashed--past mossy banks and
shadowed curves where the great eddies whirled--down over miniature
falls into bubbles and froth the light craft swept, and with a final
plunge and leap jumped the last cascade, and, darting out into the great
basin, ran shoreward.

It touched the beach, and the trapper and Herbert rose to their feet;
but for a moment neither stirred, for in front of them, not thirty feet
away, at the line where the sand and the green mosses met, and looking
directly at them, _stood a man and a girl_!

* * * * *

WHO WAS HE? The two men asked this question a thousand times mentally in
the next two months, and once afterward they asked it aloud, as they
looked into each other's eyes across a grave. But to the question,
whether spoken or silent, no answer ever came.

The world has its enigm