"Where are you
going to sleep? You ought not to have given me the tent."

She waved a hand airily. "Outside. There isn't much room here. Like
R. L. S. sleeping out with his donkey I shall discover a new pleasure
for myself."

A quick light leaped in Stane's eyes and a smile came on his wan face.

"What are you smiling at?" demanded the girl laughingly. But he did not
tell her how his mind had recalled the context of the passage she had
referred to, a passage which declared that to live out of doors with
the woman a man loves is of all lives the most complete and free. His
reply was a mere evasion.

"I am afraid you will find it an exaggerated pleasure, Miss Yardely."

"Then it will be strictly for one night only," she said. "Tomorrow I
shall build a shack of boughs and bark like one I watched an Indian
building, down on the Peace river. It will be exhilarating to be
architect and builder and tenant all in one! But for tonight it is
'God's green caravanserai' for me, and I hope there won't be any
trespassers, wolves or bears and such-like beasts."

"There may be mice!" laughed Stane.

"Mice!" A look of mock-horror came on her face. "I'm mortally afraid of
mice!"

"And Meeko may pay you a visit."

"The Lord have mercy on me! Who is Meeko?"

"Meeko is the red squirrel. He abounds in these woods and his Indian
name means the mischief-maker."

"I adore squirrels," laughed Helen.

"Upweekis will be away just now, so he won't disturb you with his
screeching."

"And who may Upweekis be?"

"The lynx! He will have gone to the burned lands after the rabbits for
the summer-hunting."

"Anything else on the forest visiting-list?" asked the girl merrily.

"Kookooskoss, the owl may hail you."

"Pooh! Who's afraid of owls?"

She laughed again, and then grew suddenly grave. "But we are talking
too much," she said quickly. "There is a little-too-bright colour in
your face. I think you had better try to sleep. I shall be just outside
the tent, and if there is anything you need you must call me. Good
night, Mr. Stane. In spite of the forest folk, I expect I shall sleep
like a top."

"Good night, Miss Yardely."

The girl went outside, and after sitting for quite a long time looking
in the fire, retired to the couch of spruce which she had prepared for
herself, and almost instantly fell asleep.

Four hours afterwards she awakened suddenly and looked around her. A
rosy glow through the trees proclaimed the dawn. Th