ope for the house toward which he intended to bend
his steps. He was well out on the lake before he saw far enough round
the first cliff to come in sight of the log house and its clearing, and
no sooner did he see it than he heard his approach, although he was yet
so far away, heralded by the barking of a dog. Before he had gone much
farther a man came forth with a dog to meet him.

The two men had seen one another before, in the days when the
neighbourhood had turned out in the fruitless search for Cameron's
daughter and for Cameron himself. At that time a fevered eye and haggard
face had been the signs that Bates was taking his misfortune to heart;
now Trenholme looked, half expecting to see the same tokens developed by
solitude into some demonstration of manner; but this was not the case.
His flesh had certainly wasted, and his eye had the excitement of
expectation in it as he met his visitor; but the man was the same man
still, with the stiff, unexpressive manner which was the expression of
his pride.

Bates spoke of the weather, of the news Trenholme brought from Turrifs
Settlement, of the railway--all briefly, and without warmth of interest;
then he asked why Trenholme had come.

"You haven't been able to get any one yet to fell your trees for you?"

Bates replied in the negative.

"They think the place is dangerous," said the other, as if giving
information, although he knew perfectly that Bates was aware of this. He
had grown a little diffident in stating why he had come.

"Fools they are!" said Bates, ill-temperedly.

Trenholme said that he was willing to do the work Bates had wanted a man
for, at the same wages.

"It's rough work for a gentlemany young man like you."

Trenholme's face twitched with a peculiar smile. "I can handle an axe. I
can learn to fell trees."

"I mean, the living is rough, and all that; and of course" (this was
added with suspicious caution) "it wouldn't be worth my while to pay the
same wages to an inexperienced hand."

Trenholme laughed. This reception was slightly different from what he
had anticipated. He remarked that he might be taken a week on trial, and
to this Bates agreed, not without some further hesitation. Trenholme
inquired after the health of the old aunt of whom he had heard.

"In bodily health," said Bates, "she is well. You may perhaps have heard
that in mind she has failed somewhat."

The man's reserve was his dignity, and it produced its result, althoug