not an
inquisitive country, and its desolation was forbidding. Pete had learned
to discourage the rare sociability of the other traders.

Now, however, the young man had not only to trade his pelts but to trap
them, and for this business of trapping which was distasteful to him, he
had not a tithe of Hugh's skill. His bundle of pelts brought him a sorry
supply of necessities. He was ashamed, himself, and having dumped the
burden from his shoulders to the kitchen floor would hurry into the
other room, not to see Bella's expression when she opened her bundles.

To-night Pete was tired; the load had not been heavy, but the snow was
beginning to soften under the mild glowing of an April sun, and his skis
had tugged at his feet and gathered a clogging mass. His body ached,
and there was a sullen and despairing weight upon his spirit. A mob
of rebels danced in his heart. He watched Hugh's face, saw the flaring
adoration of his eyes, thought that Sylvie must feel the scorch of them
on her cheek, so close. In his own eyes there showed a brooding fire.

Bella broke into the room.

"Look here," she said, "you'd better get to trapping again, Hugh Garth.
Pete's pelts don't bring a quarter of what we need--especially these
days."

Sylvie quivered as though a wound had been touched. "Oh, you mean me,"
she said, "I know you mean me. I'm making trouble. I'm eating too much.
I'll go. Pete, has anybody been asking about me at the post-office,
trying to find me? They _must_ be hunting for me." She had stood up and
was clasping and unclasping her hands. Hugh and Pete protested in one
breath: "Nonsense, Sylvie!"

And Pete went on with: "There hasn't been anyone asking about you,
but--so much the better for us. You're safe here, and comfortable,
aren't you? And--Hugh, _you_ tell her what it means to us to have her
here."

It was more of a speech than he had made since Sylvie's arrival, and it
was not just the speech, in tone or manner, of a fourteen-year-old boy.
There was a new somber note in his voice, too--some of the youthful
quality had gone out of it. Sylvie took a step toward him, to thank
him, perhaps, perhaps to satisfy, by laying her hand upon him, a sudden
bewilderment; but in her blindness she stumbled on the edge of the
hearth, and to save her from falling, Pete caught her in his arms.
For an instant he held her close, held her fiercely, closer and more
fiercely than he knew, and Sylvie felt the strength of him and heard