rine and the stranger took the
oars. Miles edged them out of the crowding ice dangers, and,
keeping well to the bank, they began their progress up river.

"Mrs. Jenkin is beckoning. Will you go across?" asked Miles.

"No," Katherine answered with prompt decision. "The force of the
current is fearful, and we have faced enough risks for one day.
Besides, it is of no use; we want dry garments. Mrs. Jenkin has
barely enough clothes for herself, so I am certain she could not
supply my needs; and no garments of Stee's would be big enough for
this--this gentleman."

"My name is Jervis Ferrars," put in the stranger, seeing her
embarrassment and hastening to relieve it.

"Thank you!" murmured Katherine, a flush coming into her cheeks
which made her charming despite her bedraggled condition. Then she
went on: "I think it will be better for you to come with us right
up to Roaring Water Portage, because then we can lend you some of
Father's clothes: he is tall, and they will about fit you, I should
think; and it is so very difficult to get what one wants at Seal
Cove."

"That I have already proved. But it was very kind of you to come
and rescue me. I owe my life to you," the stranger said, with a
sudden thrill of feeling in his voice.

Katherine flushed more brightly than before. "We thought it was
Oily Dave whom we were trying to save," she said, with a faint
ripple of laughter. "And Miles said he wasn't worth it, only of
course we had to do the best we could. Are you the Englishman who
came through from Maxokama two days ago?"

"Yes," he answered. "And it was the four hundred miles on
snowshoes that made my feet so bad, though I am rather proud of
having done it."

"I am sure you have a right to be proud of such a feat," Katherine
answered; and then they did not say much more, for the work was
getting harder every minute, and she wondered what would have
happened if there had been only Miles and herself to manage the
boat, for certainly the arms of Jervis Ferrars had a strength which
Miles did not possess, yet in spite of this it was as much as they
could do to make headway against the streaming current.

The danger came when they had to creep past the fishing boats, some
of which were anchored so close in to the banks that they had to
get out in the open river to pass them. Katherine had left off
shivering, but she was trembling still from excitement and
exhaustion; moreover, she was miserably self-consci