four."

"Hm! You don't look it. What is your relation to the other prisoner
here?"

"No relation, just a friend."

"Ah? Where do you come from?"

The woman hesitated.

Imbrie murmured: "Winnipeg."

"Be silent!" cried the Major. "Sergeant Lambert, take that man out, and
keep him out of earshot until I call you."

It was done.

"How long have you been in this country?"

"Since Spring--May."

"How did you come in?"

"By way of Caribou Lake and the Crossing."

"Alone?"

"Yes, sir."

"By what means did you travel?"

"I got passage on a york boat up the rivers, and across Caribou Lake.
From the lake a freighter took me on his load across the long portage to
the Crossing."

"Ancose," said the Major, "you watch the prisoner outside, and ask
Sergeant Lambert to step here."

Meanwhile he went on with his questions. "How did you travel from the
Crossing?"

"I built a little raft and floated down the Spirit River to Carcajou
Point."

Lambert came in.

"Lambert," said the Major, "this woman claims to have come over the
portage to the Crossing in May with a freighter and to have built a raft
there and floated down the river. Can you verify her story?"

"No, sir, never saw her before."

"Is it possible for her to have done such a thing?"

"Possible, sir," said Lambert cautiously, "but not likely. It's part of
my business to keep track of all who come and go. There are not enough
travellers to make that difficult. Such an extraordinary thing as a
woman travelling alone on a raft would have been the talk of the
country. If I might ask her a question, sir----?"

The Major signed to him to do so.

"What was the name of the freighter who brought you over the portage?"

"I don't know his whole name. Men called him Jack."

Lambert shrugged. "There's many a Jack, sir."

"Of course. Let it go for the present." To the woman he said: "What was
your object in making this long journey alone?"

"Doctor Imbrie wrote to me to come and live with him. He had nobody to
take care of his house and all that."

"I see. What do you mean by saying he was your friend?" The Major asked
this with an uneasy glance in Clare's direction.

"Just my friend," answered the woman, with a hint of defiance. "I took
care of him when he was little."

"Ah, his nurse. When did you get the letter from him?"

"In March."

"Where was it sent from?"

"Fort Enterprise."

"Sergeant Stonor, can you testify as to that?"

"I can te