pared for
him, and Miss Deringham retired to the wagon. She found the bed of
cedar-twigs comfortable, but it was some time before she slept and
dreamed that a stranger dressed in coarse blue jean was holding high
revel in the Carnaby she loved. She was awakened by the howl of a
wolf, and lay still shivering, until she saw the tall, dusky figure of
the Canadian approach the fire and stand there as if on guard with the
red light upon him. Then with a curious sense of security she went to
sleep again.

CHAPTER IV

HALLAM OF THE TYEE

The morning was still and warm when the driver of the wagon pulled up
his team where four trails met in the shadow of the bush. Miss
Deringham had somewhat to her astonishment passed the night very
comfortably and enjoyed the breakfast their companion provided. The
bracing cold of sunrise, when all the bush was steeped in fragrance and
a wonderful freshness came down from the snow, had also brought her a
curious exhilaration, as well as a tinge of colour into her cheeks, and
now she was sensible of a faint regret and irritation when the man
glanced towards her deprecatingly.

"It would please me to drive you straight through to the settlement,
but there's a load of things I want at Calhoun's up yonder," he said.

He pointed to a trail that turned off sharply, and the girl glanced at
her father somewhat blankly. "And what are we to do?" said she.

"Well," said the man, "you can wait here until Barscombe comes along.
He'll be riding in to the settlement presently, and would be glad to
take you for a dollar or two."

"But we might have to wait a long time," said the girl with a trace of
imperiousness. "It would suit us considerably better to go on with
you."

"Sorry!" said the man gravely. "I can't take you. Calhoun's a busy
man, and he'll be waiting up at the ranch for me. I told him I was
coming."

There was now no doubt about the colour in Miss Deringham's face. Few
of her wishes bad been denied her hitherto, and most of the men she had
met had been eager to do her bidding, while the scarcely qualified
refusal of this one came as a painful astonishment. The fact that she
should be left in the lonely forest to avoid keeping some rude rancher
waiting was distinctly exasperating.

Deringham, however, smiled a little as he took a wallet from his
pocket. "I can understand it, because I am also a busy man when I'm at
home," he said. "It is a question of the value of