ay it with a rope.

Upon this rude mast she bound a yard, from which hung one of her
blankets with a rope tied to each of the lower corners. Afterward she
stowed her baggage in the boat. She worked with a determined swiftness
that suggested some particular urgency.

Finally she started back along the beach, whereupon Sam turned and,
hastening ahead of her, resumed operations on the raft as if he had
never dropped them.

"Now I guess you know why we goin' to the shore," she stated abruptly.

"I'm hanged if I do!" returned Sam.

"You got strong eyes and not see not'ing?" she asked scornfully.
"Look!"

Following the direction of her pointing finger across the lake, he
made out a black spot on the water, between them and the head of the
river.

"Those men comin' here," she said. "I am think before maybe come
to-day. Yesterday I guess they ride down the river and get Johnny
Gagnon's boat."

When she pointed it out, the object was clear enough. The rise and
fall of oars was suggested. Sam watched it doubtfully. He was ready to
welcome relief in any form from his hateful situation, but was this
relief?

"How do you expect to sail to the river when they're coming from
there?" he asked.

"I wait till come close," she replied eagerly. "Then go round ot'er
side of island. They never catch me wit' my sail. Johnny Gagnon's boat
got no sail."

Her eagerness made him suspicious. What had she up her sleeve now? he
wondered. While he could scarcely regard Jack, Shand, and Joe in the
light of deliverers, his galled pride forbade him to put himself in
her hands again. He suddenly made up his mind.

"Go ahead!" he said harshly. "Go anywhere you like! I stay here!"

Bela changed colour, and a real fear showed in her eyes. She moved
toward him involuntarily.

"They kill you if they find you here," she said.

"Not if they don't find you here, too."

"They kill you!" she insisted. "Two days they are after us. All tam
talk together what they goin' do when they catch us, and get more mad.
If they find me gone away, they get more mad again. W'en they catch
you, they got kill you for 'cause they say so many times. You are on
this little island. Nobody know. Nobody see. They are safe to kill
you. You don' go wit' me, you never leave here."

Sam, knowing the men, could not but be shaken by her words. He paled a
little, but, having announced his decision to her, pride would not
allow him to take it back.

"Go on," he said. "