ed by slight
light-headedness. My only fear was that we should be compelled to spend
another night without shelter, and what its effect might be upon the
delicately-reared girl whose hand I held tenderly in mine. Surely my
position was a strange one. Her terrible affliction seemed to cause her
to be entirely dependent upon me.

Suddenly, just as the yellow sunlight overhead had begun to fade, the
flat-faced Finn, whose name he had told me was Felix Estlander, cried
joyfully--

"_Polushaite!_ Look, Excellency! Ah! The road at last!"

And as we glanced before us we saw that his quick, well-trained eyes had
detected away in the twilight, at some distance, a path traversing our
vista among the gray-green tree-trunks. Then, hurrying along, we found
ourselves upon a track, on which we turned to the right--a track, rough
and deeply-rutted by the felled trunks that were dragged along it to the
nearest river.

Elma made a gesture of renewed hope, and all three of us redoubled our
pace, expecting every moment to come upon some log hut, the owner of
which would surely give us hospitality for the night. But darkness came
on quickly, and yet we still pushed forward. Poor Elma was limping, and
I knew that her injured foot was paining her, even though she could tell
me nothing.

At last, however, after walking for nearly four hours in the almost
impenetrable forest gloom, always fearing lest we might miss the path,
our hearts suddenly beat quickly by seeing before us a light shining in
a window, and five minutes later Felix was knocking at the door, and
asking in Finnish the occupant to give hospitality to a lady lost in
the forest.

We heard a low growl like a muttered imprecation within, and when the
door opened there stood upon the threshold a tall, bearded, muscular old
fellow in a dirty red shirt, with a big revolver shining in his hand. A
quick glance at us satisfied him that we were not thieves, and he
invited us in while Felix explained that we had landed from the lake,
and our boat having drifted away we had been compelled to take to the
woods. The man heard the Finn's picturesque story, and then said
something to me which Felix translated into Russian.

"Your Excellency is welcome to all the poor fare he has. He gives up his
bed in the room yonder to the lady, so that she may rest. He is honored
by your Excellency's presence."

And while he was making this explanation the herculean wood-cutter in
the red shirt sti