were all right for mere guides.

She stood beside us for a few minutes, watching us busy with our
delicious dinner.

"You poor fellows," she said gently. "You are nearly starved."

It is agreeable to be sympathized with by a tall, fair, fresh young girl.
We looked up, simpering gratefully.

"This is really a most lovely little lake," she said, gazing out across
the still, crystalline water which was all rose and gold in the sunset,
save where the sombre shapes of the towering mountains were mirrored in
glassy depths.

"It's odd," I said, "that no trout are jumping. There ought to be lots of
them there, and this is their jumping hour."

We all looked at the quiet, oval bit of water. Not a circle, not the
slightest ripple disturbed it.

"It must be deep," remarked Brown.

We gazed up at the three lofty peaks, the bases of which were the shores
of this tiny gem among lakes. Deep, deep, plunging down into dusky
profundity, the rocks fell away sheer into limpid depths.

"That little lake may be a thousand feet deep," I said. "In 1903
Professor Farrago, of Bronx Park, measured a lake in the Thunder
Mountains, which was two thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine feet
deep."

Miss White looked at me curiously.

Into a patch of late sunshine flitted a small butterfly--one of the
_Grapta_ species. It settled on a chip of wood, uncoiled its delicate
proboscis, and spread its fulvous and deeply indented wings.

"_Grapta California_," remarked Brown to me.

"_Vanessa asteriska_" I corrected him. "Note the anal angle of the
secondaries and the argentiferous discal area bordering the subcostal
nervule."

"The characteristic stripes on the primaries are wanting," he demurred.

"It is double brooded. The summer form lacks the three darker bands."

A few moments' silence was broken by the voice of Miss White.

"I had no idea," she remarked, "that Alaskan guides were so familiar with
entomological terms and nomenclature."

We both turned very red.

Brown mumbled something about having picked up a smattering. I added that
Brown had taught me.

Perhaps she believed us; her blue eyes rested on us curiously, musingly.
Also, at moments, I fancied there was the faintest glint of amusement in
them.

She said:

"Two scientific gentlemen from New York requested permission to join this
expedition, but Mrs. Batt refused them." She gazed thoughtfully upon
the waters of Lake Gladys Doolittle Batt. "I wonder," she murmured,