ke a look around, and you had better start
off the first thing to-morrow and hurry those castings on. There's a good
deal to be done if we're to get away when Carsley turns up."

CHAPTER XXV

A RELIABLE MAN

The sun had just dipped behind a black ridge of hills, and the lake lay
still, mirroring the tall cedars on its farther shore. A faint chill was
creeping into the mountain air, which was scented with resinous smoke,
and somewhere across the water a loon was calling. A cluster of tents
stood upon the shingle, and in front of the largest Millicent reclined in
a camp-chair. Near her Miss Hume sat industriously embroidering; and
Nasmyth lay upon the stones. Bella occupied another camp-chair, a young
man with a pleasant brown face sitting at her feet; and farther along the
beach a group of packers in blue shirts and duck trousers lay smoking
about a fire. By and by one rose and when he began to hack at a drift-log
the sharp thudding of his ax startled the loon which departed with a peal
of shrieking laughter.

The party had reached the fringe of the wilderness after a long stage
journey from the railroad through a rugged country. They had met with no
mishaps beyond a delay in the transport of some of their baggage, and
everything had been made comparatively easy for them; but they knew that
henceforward there might be a difference. Man must depend largely upon
his own natural resources in the wilds, where, after furnishing the
traveler with the best equipment and packers to carry it, the power of
wealth is strictly limited. A recognition of the fact hovered more or
less darkly in all their minds, but Millicent was the first to hint at
it.

"So far we have had absolutely nothing to complain of except a little
jolting in the stage," she said. "I'm beginning to understand why
adventurous sight-seers are coming out here--it's a glorious country!"

"It's my duty to point out that it won't be quite the same as we go on,"
Nasmyth remarked. "What do you say, Carew?"

"It doesn't matter; he's said it all before," Bella broke in. "I've had
to listen to appalling accounts of his previous adventures in Canada,
which were, no doubt, meant to deter me; but the reality is that the
hotels at Banff and Glacier are remarkably comfortable, and I haven't the
least fault to find with this camp. We ought to be grateful to Millicent
for letting us come, and though Arthur hinted that it would be a rather
sociable honeymoon, I sa