the bank. I watched her disappear among the trees; then,
my fear of missing the steamer growing stronger than the dread of
terrifying her, I followed. The trail drops precipitously around the lower
falls, you remember, and I struck the level where the river bends at the
foot of the cataract, with considerable noise. I found myself in a sort of
open-air parlor flanked by two tents; rustic seats under a canopy of maple
boughs, hammocks, a percolator bubbling on a sheet-iron contrivance over
the camp-fire coals, and, looking at me across a table, the girl. 'I beg
your pardon,' I hurried to say. 'Don't be afraid of me.'

"'Afraid?' she repeated. 'Afraid--of you?' And the way she said it, with a
half scornful, half humorous surprise, the sight of her standing there so
self-reliant, buoyant, the type of that civilization I had tried so hard
to reach, started a reaction of my overstrained nerves. Still, I think I
might have held myself together had I not at that moment caught the voice
of that unhappy squaw. It struck a chill to my bones, and I sank down on
the nearest seat and dropped my face in my hands, completely unmanned.

"I knew she came around the table and stood looking me over, but when I
finally managed to lift my head, she had gone back to the percolator to
bring me a cup of coffee. It had a pleasant aroma, and the cream with
which she cooled it gave it a nice color. You don't know how that first
draught steadied me. 'I am sorry, madam,' I said, 'but I have had a hard
experience in these woods, and I expected to catch the mail boat for
Seattle; but that singing down-stream means I am cut off.'

"She started a little and looked me over again with new interest. 'The
squaw,' she said, 'is mourning for her papoose. It was a terrible
accident. A young hunter up the Dosewallups, where the Indians were
berrying, killed the baby in jumping a log.'

"'Yes, madam,' I answered, and rose and put the cup down, 'I am the man.
It is harder breaking trail to the Lilliwaup than coming by canoe, and the
Indians have beaten me. I must double back now to the Duckabush. By that
time, they will have given up the watch.'

"'Wait,' she said, 'let me think.' But it did not take her long. A turn
the length of the table, and her face brightened. 'Why, it's the easiest
thing in the world,' she said. 'I must row you to the steamer.' Then when
I hesitated to let her run the risk, she explained that her party had
moved their camp from the mo