nscious that something was wrong somewhere.

The head of the barrel came off with a jerk, and then 'Duke
answered with an air of studied indifference: "An Englishman, Astor
M'Kree said he was; Selincourt or some such name, I think."

A burst of eager talk followed this announcement, but, her entries
made in the ledger, Katherine slipped away from it all and hurried
into the sitting-room, where supper was already beginning. But the
food had lost its flavour for her, and she might have been feeding
on the sawdust and pine cones of which Mrs. M'Kree had spoken for
all the taste her supper possessed. She had to talk, however, and
to seem cheerful, yet all the time she was shrinking and shivering
because of this mysterious mood displayed by her father at the
mention of a strange man's name.

'Duke Radford did not come in from the store until it was nearly
time for night school, so Katherine saw very little more of him,
except at a distance, for that evening; but he was so quiet and
absorbed that Mrs. Burton asked more than once if he were feeling
unwell. She even insisted on his taking a basin of onion gruel
before he went to bed, because she thought he had caught a chill.
He swallowed the gruel obediently enough, yet knew all the time
that the chill was at his heart, where no comforting food nor drink
could relieve him.

CHAPTER II

A Curious Accident

The nearest Hudson's Bay store to Roaring Water Portage was fifteen
miles away by land, but only five by boat, as it stood on an angle
of land jutting into the water, three miles from the mouth of the
river. 'Duke Radford's business took him over to this place, which
was called Fort Garry, always once a week, and sometimes oftener.
Usually either Miles or Phil went with him, although on rare
occasions Katherine took the place of the boys and helped to row
the boat across the inlet to the grim old blockhouse crowning the
height.

It was a week after the trip to the house of Astor M'Kree that the
storekeeper announced his intention of going to Fort Garry, and
said that he should need Miles to help him.

"I must go by land to-day, which is a nuisance, for it takes so
much longer," he declared, as he sat down to breakfast, which at
this time of the year had always to be taken by lamplight.

"Shall I come instead?" asked Katherine, who was frying potatoes at
the stove. "I am quicker on snowshoes than Miles, and he has got
such a bad cold."

"You can if yo