d recklessly to the door. She saw him running towards the trees,
saw him grappled by the Indian who barred the way, and beheld the
second figure rise like a shadow by the side of the struggling men. The
raised knife gleamed in the firelight, and with a sharp cry of warning
that never reached Stane, she started to run towards him. The next
moment something thick and heavy enveloped her head and shoulders, she
was tripped up and fell heavily in the snow, and two seconds later was
conscious of two pairs of hands binding her with thongs. The covering
over her head, a blanket by the feel of it, was bound about her, so
that she could see nothing, and whilst she could still hear, the sounds
that reached her were muffled. Her feet were tied, and for a brief
space of time she was left lying in the snow, wondering in an agonized
way, not what was going to happen to herself, but what had already
happened to her lover.

Then there came a sound that made her heart leap with hope--a sound
that was the unmistakable crack of a rifle. Again the rifle spoke,
three times in rapid succession, and from the sounds she conjectured
that the fight was not yet over, and felt a surge of gladness in her
heart. Then she was lifted from the ground, suddenly hurried forward,
and quite roughly dropped on what she guessed was a sledge. Again hands
were busy about her, and she knew that she was being lashed to the
chariot of the North. There was a clamour of excited voices, again the
crack of the rifle, then she felt a quick jerk, and found the sled was
in motion.

She had no thought of outside intervention and as the sled went forward
at a great pace, notwithstanding her own parlous condition, she
rejoiced in spirit. Whither she was being carried, and what the fate
reserved for her she had not the slightest notion; but from the
rifle-shots, and the manifest haste of her captors, she argued that her
lover had escaped, and believing that he would follow, she was in good
heart.

That she was in any immediate danger, she did not believe. Her captors,
on lashing her to the sledge, had thrown some soft warm covering over
her, and that they should show such care to preserve her from the
bitter cold, told her, that whatever might ultimately befall, she was
in no imminent peril. With her head covered, she was as warm as if she
were in a sleeping bag, the sled ran smoothly without a single jar, and
the only discomfort that she suffered came from her bound lim