g
to think connectedly. When he looked up it was to say: "We are in a
pretty bad box, Lucetta, with the canoe gone and nothing to eat. It is
hammering itself into what is left of my brain that we can't afford to
sit still and wait for something to turn up. If we push on down river we
may find the canoe or the wreck of it, and there will surely be some
little salvage. I don't believe the birch-bark would sink, even if it
were full of water."

"You are not able to push on," she interposed quickly. "As it is, you
can hardly hold your head up."

"I can do whatever it is needful to do," he declared, unconsciously
giving her a glimpse of the strong thread in the rather loosely woven
fabric of his character. "I have always been able to do what I had to
do. Let's start out at once."

With a couple of firebrands for torches they set out down the river
bank, following the stream closely and keeping a sharp lookout for the
wreck. Before they had gone very far, however, the blinding headache got
in its work, and Prime began to stumble. It was at Lucetta's insistence
that they made another halt and gave up the search for the night.

"It is no manner of use," she argued. "You are not able to go on; and,
besides, we can't see well enough to make sure that we are not passing
the thing we are looking for. We had much better stop right where we are
and wait for daylight."

The halt was made in a small opening in the wood, and the young woman
persuaded Prime to lie down while she gathered the material for another
camp-fire. Almost as soon as it was kindled Prime dropped off into a
heavy sleep. Lucetta provided fuel to last through the night, and then
sat down with her back to a tree, determined to stay awake and watch
with the sick man.

XI

"A CRACKLING OF THORNS"

THOUGH she had formed her resolution with a fair degree of
self-reliance, Lucetta Millington soon found that she had set herself a
task calling for plenty of fortitude and endurance. Beyond the circle of
firelight the shadows of the forest gloomed forbiddingly. They had seen
but little of the wild life of the woods in their voyagings thus far,
but now it seemed to be stirring uneasily on all sides of the lonely
camp-fire.

Once some large-hoofed animal went crashing through the underbrush
toward the river; and again there were other hoof-beats stopping
abruptly at a little distance from the clearing