do whatever will best ensure your safety," Garth said doggedly.

That bright red spot had appeared in either of Natalie's cheeks. "Bother
my safety!" she cried. "You will not allow me a shred of pluck! My
honour is engaged on this journey, just the same as if I were a man! I
said I'd do it; and I will! And if I hear another word about my comfort
or my safety, upon my word, I'll go on alone!"

Garth had smiled at the threat, and given in; because on the whole it
seemed safer to press ahead, than to attempt to return. Secretly, he was
delighted with the spirit she showed.

They had bought the boat from Pierre Toma, a breed of the more
self-respecting elder generation, in whose aged eyes still twinkled
the spirit of the voyageurs. Pake's magnanimous offer of the wagon and
team at only twice their real value was declined; inasmuch as the trail
was impassible for wagons beyond Toma's place, and ceased altogether at
Caribou Lake. They counted on the boat to carry them as far as the lake;
there, Pierre Toma had assured them, they might very likely overtake the
Bishop, if he were delayed by contrary winds, or christenings. In any
case Wall-eye Macgregor, said Pierre, had a strong boat at the lake that
could take them the eighty miles across. According to the haphazard
measurements of the breeds, Caribou Lake was twenty-five miles from
Pierre Toma's.

Their own boat was but crazily hung together. Natalie had christened
it the _Flat-iron_ from its shape. It was of extremely simple
construction--two planks laid V-shape, with a shorter plank to close the
end, and boards nailed on for a bottom. Pierre Toma had said with pride,
there was no other boat in the country like it; and after using it a day
they were prepared to agree. It was designed to be propelled with a pole;
and they had started in that manner; but the _Flat-iron_ showed a perverse
disposition to travel in any direction save the desired one; and her
favourite manoeuvre under the impetus of the pole was to swing on her
centre without moving ahead at all. So Garth, after some study, had
constructed the tracking apparatus.

It was a simple, park-like, little river with brown, foam-flecked water
flowing moderately through a country of small timber; and occasionally
there were natural meadows starred with flowers, where children in their
white dresses should have been picnicking, so intimate and peaceful it
seemed. None the less, it was the strange and lonely North into