who ever heard of rowing a birch-bark canoe?"

"Somebody will hear of it, if I ever live to work this vacation trip of
ours into a story--No, no; paddle the other way! We want to turn around
and go back!"

They got the hang of it a little better after a while, the young woman
catching the knack first; and after much labor they won back to their
camping-place on the small peninsula. Over the evening fire Prime
unwrapped the deerskin they had found in the canvas-roll.

"We shall have to have moccasins of some sort," he announced. "That
flimsy boat isn't going to stand for shoes with heels on them. Does
domestic science include a semester in shoemaking? I can assure you in
advance that literature doesn't."

Lucetta took the leather and sat for a time regarding it thoughtfully.
"No needle, no thread, no pattern," she mused. "And if we cut it and
spoil it there won't be enough left for two pairs."

"If you have an idea, try it; I'll stand the expense of the leather,"
chuckled Prime, with large liberality.

But now the young woman was hesitating on another score.

"This leather belongs to the owners of the canoe; I don't know that we
have any right to cut it," she objected.

Prime was tempted to say things objurgatory of these phantom owners who
would not down, but he didn't. Every fresh reference to the two dead men
gave him an impulse to glance over his shoulder at the silent pool in
the eddy, and the longer the thing went on the less able he was to
control the prompting.

"You forget that we are able to pay for all damages," was what he really
did say, and at that the young woman removed a shoe, placed a neatly
stockinged foot on the skin and marked around it with a bit of charcoal
taken from the fire, leaving a generous margin. Borrowing Prime's
pocket-knife she cut to the line, made tiny buttonholes all around the
piece, and threaded them with a drawing-string made of the soft leather.

"You've got it!" exclaimed the unskilled one in open-eyed admiration,
after the one-piece slipper was fashioned and tried on. "You are a
wonder! I shouldn't have thought of that in a month of Sundays. It's
capital!"

There was enough material in the single skin to make the two pairs, with
something left over, and Prime put his on at once with a sigh of relief
born of the grateful chance to get rid of the civilized shoes. Past that
there was more talk about the ever-thickening mysteries, and again
Lucetta refused to accept th