must be met with boldness,
and nothing but candour and truthfulness would serve him now. He
looked about the room. Shelves well filled with books showed that
their owner was a reader and a student. The walls were adorned with
trophies of the chase, such as fine antlers of moose, caribou, and
great horns of mountain sheep, while several large and valuable bear
and wolf-skin rugs were stretched out upon the floor.

"What are you doing here, young man?"

These words deliberately uttered brought Reynolds back from his
contemplation of the room.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked, looking Weston full in the eyes.

"Certainly. What did I ask you for, then?"

"Well, I am here because I was brought in on your boat."

"I know that," wag the impatient reply. "But what were you doing in
this region?"

"I was looking for your daughter, sir. That's what I was doing."

Jim Weston's eyes grew suddenly big with amazement at this candid
confession. Had the prisoner made any other reply he would have known
at once what to say. But to see him standing so calmly there, looking
him straight in the eyes, disconcerted him for a minute.

"Looking for my daughter, were you?" he at length found voice to ask.

"That's just it. But she found me instead."

"Are you not afraid to make such a confession, young man?"

"Afraid! Of what?"

"Of what might happen to you."

Reynolds shrugged his shoulders, and smiled.

"Why should I be afraid? I have done nothing wrong. You are the one,
sir, to blame."

"I!" Weston exclaimed in astonishment.

"Yes, you, for possessing such a captivating daughter. Why, she won my
heart the first time I saw her. She is the most charming girl I ever
met, and it was love at first sight with me."

"Look here," and Weston shifted uneasily in his chair. "Are you in
earnest, or are you making fun of me? Do you realise what you are
saying? Have you the least idea what my daughter means to me? Why,
she is more to me than life, and all my interests are bound up in her."

"I can well understand it, sir. And let me tell you that you are not
the only one. She is also to me more than life, and all my interests
as well as yours are bound up in her."

"You certainly have a great deal of impudence to speak in such a manner
about my daughter," Weston retorted. "You surely must have heard what
a risk it would be to venture into Glen West. Others have come here in
the past, and I suppose you