"Yes," he answered, "it is a promise."

"Then I write it on the tablets of my mind. I shall hold you to it, and
some day I shall demand its fulfilment."

She turned and resumed her work and singing at the same time, and Stane
lay there looking at her with the love shining plainly in his eyes. He
had no doubt that she divined that which he would not speak; that
indeed it was no secret to her, and that she was glad in the knowledge
he could hardly question. Her bearing as well as her singing told him
that; and he knew that in the last few minutes they had travelled a
very long way towards full revelation of each other; and that the day
when he should speak would bring to her nothing that was not already
within the sphere of her knowledge.

The next day was spent in removal to the cabin further up the lake,
both of them working at poling the raft with all their stores. The
cabin was well situated on a small bay, where a fair-sized stream
emptied into the lake, and behind it stretched the forest, dark and
impenetrable. As he hobbled through the open door, Stane looked round,
and under the bunk discovered a number of steel-traps which the girl on
her first visit had overlooked. Also on a peg in a dark corner he found
a set of dogs' harness hung just as the owner had left it, probably
months before. He pointed the traps out to the girl.

"As I guessed, it is a trapper's cabin, Miss Yardely. Any day may bring
the owner back."

"Possession is nine points of the law," she laughed. "What is the term
the gold-seekers use, Jump?--yes, we will jump the claim, for the
present at any rate."

"The owner may come back while there is open water, or he may wait for
the ice."

"But we are tenants of the furnished cabin meanwhile," she answered
cheerfully, "and may as well make ourselves at home. I'm going to light
the stove."

Inside the cabin there was a little wood-pile, and with a few
well-chosen logs and dried sticks she soon had the stove roaring, and
then began to bestow their possessions tidily. By the time that was
accomplished the shadows were creeping across the lake and deepening in
the woods, and it was time for the evening meal, and when it was ready
they ate it at the rough table, with a sense of safety and comfort that
had long been lacking. "This place is quite cosy," said Helen, looking
round the firelit cabin. "Tomorrow I shall make a curtain for the
doorway out of caribous skins."

"Tomorrow," laughed Sta