and joined Helen, who still paced to and fro in the
shadows. Her face, as her lover saw, was full of trouble.

"Oh!" she whispered. "It is unbearable to watch a man one has known go
all to pieces!"

"It is certainly very sad," agreed Stane, out of whose heart all hatred
suddenly vanished. "I wish that things were not as they are."

"Let us try to forget," said Helen with a quick glance towards the
fire. "Tell me what happened when you went out of the cabin last
night."

"Well," answered her lover falling into step by her side, "when I went
out, I thought I was certainly going to my death."

"Ah, I knew that was in your mind!... But how did you escape?"

"It was a narrow thing. An Indian grappled me, and another man was
hurrying towards me with an ax. I could not get away, and a third
person appeared suddenly with a knife. I thought the knife was meant
for me, but it was not. It was meant for my antagonist, and he went
down and just after--my--my--saviour was killed by the second Indian,
who also struck at me, knocking me senseless."

"Who was the person with the knife? Someone with Jean Benard?"

"No," answered Stane slowly, "it was the Indian girl, Miskodeed."

"Miskodeed!" cried Helen in utter surprise.

"Yes! I did not know it at the time, but we found her afterwards, Jean
Benard and I. It was a dreadful discovery. Jean had come back to his
cabin, hoping to marry her, and she had died for me!"

"Oh," sobbed Helen in a sudden accession of grief. "I would have done
as much!"

"I know," answered Stane quietly.

"And last night when you were in the wood together, and I heard your
voices, I was jealous of that girl; last night and at other times."

"But," said the man, a note of wonder in his voice, "there was no need,
Helen. You must know that?"

"Oh yes, I know it now. But she was very beautiful and Gerald Ainley
had suggested that you--that you----. And I am sure that she loved you.
But not more than I, though she died for you!"

"I am very sure of that," answered Stane, earnestly, putting his arm
about her and trying to comfort her.

Helen sobbed convulsively. "I shall always be grateful to her, though I
was jealous of her. She saved you--for me--and she was only an Indian
girl."

"She had a heart of gold," said Stane. "She came to warn me and then
stayed to do what she did!" Both were silent for a long time, the girl
thinking of Miskodeed in her flashing beauty, the other of Jean, bent
over th