She came to the top of the slope near the foot of which Nasmyth, who
had now raised himself on one elbow, lay, and though this might well
have startled her, she stood quietly still, looking down on him.
Nasmyth raised himself a trifle further, and blinked at her stupidly,
and she noticed that his face was drawn and grey.

"I heard the rails fall," she said. "What are you doing there?"

It did not appear strange to Nasmyth that she should speak in
well-modulated English, for there are probably as many insular English
as Canadians in parts of that country. Besides, he was scarcely in a
condition to notice a point of that kind just then.

"I think I upset the fence," he answered. "You see, I couldn't get
over. Then I must have fallen down."

It naturally struck the girl as significant that he did not seem sure
of what had happened, but the explanation that would have suggested
itself to anyone fresh from England did not occur to her. There was
not a saloon or hotel within eight or nine miles of the spot.

"Can you get up?" she asked.

"I'll try," said Nasmyth; but the attempt he made was not a complete
success, for, although he staggered to his feet, he reeled when he
stood upon them, and probably would have fallen had she not run down
the slope and taken hold of him.

"You can rest on me," she said, laying a firm and capable hand upon
his shoulder.

With her assistance, Nasmyth staggered up the slope, and there were
afterwards times when he remembered the next few minutes with somewhat
mixed feelings. Just then, however, he was only glad to have someone
to lean upon, and her mere human presence was a relief, since Nature
had come very near to crushing the life out of him.

"This is your ranch?" he inquired, looking at her with half-closed
eyes, when at length she moved away from him, a pace or two, and,
gasping a little, stood still, beneath a colonnade of towering firs.

"It is," she said simply; and a moment or two later he saw a little
house of logs half hidden among the trees.

They reached it in another minute, and, staggering in, he sank into
the nearest chair. A stove snapped and crackled in the middle of the
little log-walled room, which in spite of its uncovered, split-boarded
floor, seemed to possess a daintiness very unusual in the Bush. He did
not, however, know what particular objects in it conveyed that
impression, for the whole room seemed to be swinging up and down; but
he was definitely con