g that was charging the cook tent."

"The drive!" she repeated. He was surprised by the sudden interest he
roused in her. "Are you from the north country?" Her color heightened
with her interest. She leaned forward.

Latisan, in his infrequent experiences, had never been at ease in the
presence of pretty girls, even when their notice of him was merely
cursory. In the region where he had toiled there were few females, and
those were spouses and helpers of woods cooks, mostly.

Here was a maid of the big city showing an interest disquietingly
acute--her glowing eyes and parted lips revealed her emotions. At the
moment he was not able to separate himself, as a personality, from the
subject which he had brought up. Just what there was about him or the
subject to arouse her so strangely he did not pause to inquire of
himself, for his thoughts were not coherent just then; he, too, was
stirred by her nearer propinquity as she leaned forward, questioning him
eagerly.

He replied, telling what he was but not who he was; he felt a twinge of
disappointment because she did not venture to probe into his identity.
Her questions were concerned with the north country as a region. At
first her quizzing was of a general nature. Then she narrowed the field
of inquiry.

"You say the Tomah waters are parallel with the Noda basin! Do you know
many folks over in the Noda region?"

"Very few. I have kept pretty closely on my own side of the watershed."

"Isn't there a village in the Noda called Adonia?"

"Oh yes! It's the jumping-off place--the end of a narrow-gauge
railroad."

"You have been in Adonia?"

"A few times."

"I had--there were friends of mine--they were friends of a man in
Adonia. His name was--let's see!" He wondered whether the faint wrinkle
of a frown under the bronze-flecked hair on her forehead was as much the
expression of puzzled memory as she was trying to make it seem; there
did appear something not wholly ingenuous in her looks just then. "Oh,
his name is Flagg."

"Echford Flagg?"

"Yes, that's it. My friends were very friendly with him, and I'd like
to be able to tell them----" She hesitated.

"You have given me some news," he declared, bluntly; in his mood of the
day he was finding no good qualities in mankind. "I never heard of Eck
Flagg having any friends. Well, I'll take that back! I believe he's ace
high among the Tarratine Indians up our way; they have made him an
honorary chief. But it's no par