ust have passed imperceptibly into the heavy sleep of
emotional exhaustion, for she lay unstirring for some hours. The
crying of the little one awoke her.

Stiff, half frozen, utterly dazed, she pulled herself up to the
bunk, nursed the child, and soothed him again to sleep. Then the
accumulation of anguish which had overwhelmed her rolled back upon her
understanding. She staggered to the window.

The dreadful illumination across the valley had died down to a faint
ruddiness, just seen through the thin tops of the firs. The
fire--whether it had been the barn or the house--had burned itself
out. Whatever had happened, it was over. As she stood shuddering,
unable to think, not daring to think, her eyes rested upon the bear,
huge and formless in the gloom, staring at her, not ten feet away. She
answered the stare fixedly, no longer aware of fearing him. Then she
saw him turn his head suddenly, as if he had heard something. And the
next moment he had faded away swiftly and noiselessly into the
darkness, like a startled partridge. She heard quick footsteps coming
up the trail. A dog's fierce growl broke into a bark of warning. That
was Jake's bark! She almost threw herself at the door, and tore it
open.

* * * * *

Dave Stone had got back from the settlement earlier than he expected,
driving furiously the last two miles of his journey, with his eyes
full of the red light of that burning, his heart gripped with
intolerable fear. He had found his good barn in flames, but the
children safe, the house untouched, the stock rescued. The children,
prompt and resourceful as the children of the backwoods have need to
be, had loosed the cattle from the stanchions and got them out in
time. Neighbours, hurrying up in response to the flaming summons, had
found the children watching the blaze enthusiastically from the
doorstep, as if it had been arranged for their amusement. Seeing
matters so much better than they might have been, Dave was struck with
a new apprehension, because Mandy had not returned. It was hardly
conceivable that she had failed to see the flames from the window of
the shack! Then why had she not come? Followed by Jake, he had taken
the camp trail at a run to find out what was the matter.

As he drew near the shack, the darkness of it chilled him with dread.
No firelight gleam showed out from the window! And no red glow came
from the boiling-shed! The fire had been allowed