allow her to turn round and retrace her steps."

"Good heavens!" said Cousin Jane.

"I beg your pardon?" said Uncle Sylvester politely.

"I only said, 'Good heavens!' Well?" she added impatiently.

"Well?" repeated Uncle Sylvester vaguely. "Oh, that's all. I only wanted
to explain what I meant by saying I had ridden in my sleep."

"But," said Cousin Jane, leaning across the table with grim
deliberation and emphasizing each word with the handle of her knife,
"how--did--you--and--that--mule get down?"

"Oh, with slings and ropes, you know--so," demonstrating by placing his
napkin-ring in a sling made of his napkin.

"And I suppose you carried the slings and ropes with you in your five
trunks!" gasped Cousin Jane.

"No. Fellows on the river brought 'em in the morning. Mighty spry chaps,
those river miners."

"Very!" said Cousin Jane.

Breakfast over, they were not surprised that their sybaritic guest
excused himself from an inspection of the town in the frigid morning
air, and declined joining a skating party to the lake on the ground that
he could keep warmer indoors with half the exertion. An hour later found
him standing before the fire in Gabriel Lane's study, looking languidly
down on his elder brother.

"Then, as far as I can see," he said quietly, "you have made ducks and
drakes of your share of the property, and that virtually you are in the
hands of this man Gunn and his father."

"You're putting it too strongly," said Gabriel deprecatingly. "In the
first place, my investments with Gunn's firm are by no means failures,
and they only hold as security a mortgage on the forest land below the
hill. It's scarcely worth the money. I would have sold it long ago, but
it had been a fancy of father's to keep it wild land for the sake of old
times and the healthiness of the town."

"There used to be a log cabin there, where the old man had a habit of
camping out whenever he felt cramped by civilization up here, wasn't
there?" said Uncle Sylvester meditatively.

"Yes," said Gabriel impatiently; "it's still there--but to return to Mr.
Gunn. He has taken a fancy to Kitty, and even if I could not lift the
mortgage, there's some possibility that the land would still remain in
the family."

"I think I'll drive over this afternoon and take a look at the old
shanty if this infernal weather lets up."

"Yes; but just now, my dear Sylvester, let us attend to business. I want
to show you those investments."

"Oh,