It was evident that he doubted
their power of endurance.

"We'll have to go to East Cape to start," he suggested.

"East Cape?" Marian exclaimed in a startled tone.

"Sure. What's wrong with East Cape?"

"Nothing. Only--only that's where that strange white man is."

"What's so terrible about him?"

Marian hesitated. She had come to the end of a blind alley. Should
she tell him of her experience with the miner who demanded the blue
envelope, and of her suspicion that this man at East Cape was that same
man?

She looked into his frank blue eyes for a moment, then said to herself,
"Yes, I will."

She did tell him the whole story. When she had finished, there was a
new, a very friendly light in the boy's eyes.

"I say," he exclaimed, "That was bully good of you. It really was.
That man--"

He hesitated. Marian thought she was going to be told the whole secret
of the blue envelope.

"That man," he repeated, "he won't hurt you. You need have no fear of
him. As for yours truly, meaning me, I can take care of myself. We
start for East Cape today. What say?"

"All right."

Marian sprang to her feet, and, after imparting the news to Lucile, who
had by this time fully recovered from the shock of the previous day,
set to work packing their sled for the journey.

All the time she was packing her mind was working. She had meant to
discuss the mysterious disappearance of the blue envelope with the
college boy. Even as she thought of this, there flashed through her
mind the question, "Why is he so cheerful now? Why so anxious to get
across the Straits?"

One explanation alone came to her. He had deceived them. The envelope
was secure in his possession. It had imparted to him news of great
importance. He was eager to cross the Straits and put its instructions
into execution. What these instructions might be, she could not tell.
The North was a place of rare furs, ivory and much gold. Anything was
possible.

"No," she almost exploded between tight-set teeth, "no, I won't talk it
over with him, I won't."

One thing, however, she did do. Under pretense of missing some article
from her wardrobe when on the beach ready to start for East Cape, she
hastened to the cabin on the beach, and executed a quick search for the
missing envelope. The search was unrewarded.

One thing, though, arrested her attention for a moment. As she left
the cabin she noticed, near the door, the print of a man's skin-b