whilst she watched him. In that moment she momentarily forgot the
distrust which her own questioning had awakened in her, and listened
absorbed whilst he narrated the discovery of the brooch, and the new
hope it occasioned, since it afforded evidence that she was in all
probability still alive. Then he broke off sharply. "You were saved
from the river, somehow, by that fellow Stane, who was up at Fort
Malsun, were you not?"

"Yes! How did you know?"

"I got his description from a half-breed who had met and hailed you
going up the river in a canoe towards Old Fort Winagog."

"But we met no half-breed," said Helen quickly, her distrust awakening
in full force.

"You met no half-breed?" The surprise in Ainley's face was quite
genuine, as Helen saw, and she realized that whatever was to come, this
part of the man's story was quite true.

"No, we met no one, and we never reached Fort Winagog, because our
canoe was stolen whilst we slept."

"Is that so?" Ainley's face grew dark as he asked the question; then a
troubled look came upon it. "The man must have lied to me," he said,
"or have told me only half the truth, but he must have seen you, or how
did he know that the man who was with you was Stane?"

"Perhaps he was the man who stole our canoe," said Helen.

"Yes," answered Ainley, "that will be it. But----" he broke off without
finishing. "Anyway," he continued after a moment, "following his
statement, I went up to Old Fort Winagog, but found no sign of you,
then back by another and a quicker route that I might tell your uncle
of the lack of news, and organize a regular search. After that, I
started to beat the country round about steadily. Rodwell sent news of
you to all the Indians and trappers in the country, whilst your uncle
promised a reward. For weeks I searched, and all in vain, then one day
an Indian girl came with a story of a white man and woman living in a
cabin on a lake, and though she did not know their names she was able
to tell me that this man and woman were Stane and you."

"Who was the girl?" asked Helen quickly.

"It was that Indian girl who was up at Fort Malsun!"

"Miskodeed!" cried Helen.

"That I believe was her name. She looked on Stane as her lover, and she
did you the honour of being jealous of you!" Ainley laughed as he
spoke. "Absurd, of course--But what will you? The primitive, untutored
heart is very simple in its emotions and the man was her paramour!"

"It is a lie!" crie