tealing on the suspended evening
air--the quavering howl of the coyote. They heard it throb miles off;
and it was answered from immeasurable distances side to side. Little by
little, attracted by the smell of cooking food, the animals drew closer,
and at last stationed themselves in a kind of wide-drawn circle about
their camp on both sides of the river, wailing back and forth like
souls inconceivably tormented. Natalie shuddered.

"They are cowardly beasts," Garth said reassuringly. "They won't come
any closer."

They spoke but little to each other. Night, solitude and that spirit of
woe abroad, filled them with a mighty longing for each other's arms. At
last she crept away to her tent.

As the darkness deepened; and the clear-eyed Northern constellations
looked out, one by one, there were other sounds; a peevish growling and
whining at the top of the bank above them; a frantic scurry when Garth
heaved a stone. The better to ensure Natalie's peace of mind, he
weighted the tent all around with rocks; and heaped wood on the fire.

Natalie stuck her head out of her cosy refuge. "I can't bear to have
you sleeping unprotected outside," she said anxiously.

Garth's heart paused breathlessly at the thought of the alternative. He
sprang up and thrust the thought aside. "Nonsense! I'll be all right!"
he cried. "To please you I'll keep the fire going all night."

Later, he rolled himself in his blankets across the door of her tent,
as before; and lay there smoking, gazing at the fire, picturing Natalie
asleep within; and assuaging his hungry heart as best he might with the
sound of her child-like breathing.

The day broke gloriously; and shortly after sunrise they were on
their way again, under a sky as tenderly blue as palest turquoise, over
which were flung bright, silken, cloudy scarves. As they ascended, the
character of the river changed; the trees disappeared, giving place to
wide, flat meadows of blue grass as high as a man's waist; the current
slackened, and its course became more circuitous. Along the shores,
steep cut-banks alternated with muddy shoals; and a new set of
problems faced Garth.

These chiefly took the form of stout willow bushes overhanging the
cut-banks--diabolically malicious, sentient beings, they became to
Garth. He tried crawling underneath with his tow-line, whereupon the
earth gave way, precipitating him in water up to his middle; he tried
crashing bodily through, and the line would invari