w it," said MacNair. "Tell me, did
Lapierre advise you to bring me here?"

"No," answered Chloe, "he did not. He--he said to leave you; that your
Indians would care for you."

"And my Indians--did they not follow you?" Chloe shook her head. Once
more MacNair bent a searching glance upon the girl's face. "Where is
Lapierre?" he asked.

"He is gone," Chloe answered. "Two days ago he left for the----" She
hesitated as there flashed through her brain the moment on Snare Lake
when, once before, she had answered MacNair's question in almost the
same words. "_He said_ he was going to the southward," she corrected.

MacNair smiled. "I think, this time, he has gone. But why he left
without killing me I cannot understand. Lapierre has made a mistake."

"You do him an injustice! Mr. Lapierre does not want to kill you. He
is sorry he was forced to shoot; but, as he said, it was your life or
his. And now please do be quiet, or I must leave you to yourself."

MacNair closed his eyes, and, seating herself by the table, Chloe
stared silently into the face of the portrait until the man's deep,
regular breathing told her that he slept.

Slowly the moments passed, and the girl's gaze roved from the face of
the portrait along the walls of the little room. Suddenly her eyes
dilated in horror; for there, tight pressed against an upper pane of
the window, whose lower sash was daintily curtained with chintz,
appeared a dark, scowling face--the face of an Indian, which she
instantly recognized as one of the two who had accompanied MacNair upon
his first visit to her clearing.

Even as she looked the face vanished, leaving the girl staring
wide-eyed at the black square of the window. Curbing her impulse to
awake MacNair, she stole softly from the room and, unlocking the outer
door, sped swiftly through the darkness toward the little square of
light that glowed from the window of the store.

The distance was not great from the door of the cottage to the soft
square of radiance that showed distinctly in the darkness. But even as
Chloe ran, the light was suddenly extinguished, and the outlines of the
big storehouse loomed vague and huge and indistinct against the black
background of the encircling scrub. The girl stopped abruptly and
stared uncertainly into the darkness. Her heart beat wildly. A
strange sense of terror came over her as she stood alone, surrounded by
the blackness of the clearing. Why had LeFroy exting