ead out before them that impelled tranquillity. The clump of
wet cedars among which they had camped distilled a clean, aromatic smell;
and there was a freshness in the cool evening air that reinvigorated
their tired bodies. Above the low hilltops the sky glimmered with saffron
and transcendental green, and half the lake shone in ethereal splendor;
the other half was dim and bordered with the sharply-cut shadows of the
trees. Except for the lap of water upon the pebbles and the wild cry of a
loon that rang like a peal of unearthly laughter out of a darkening bay,
there was nothing to break the deep stillness of the waste.

Lisle pointed to the gap in the hills, which was filling with thin white
mist.

"That's the last big portage the Gladwynes made," he remarked. "They came
in by a creek to the west, and they were badly played out when they
struck this divide; the struggle to get through broke them up." He paused
before he added: "What kind of men were they?"

"George wasn't effusive; he was the kind of man you like better the
longer you know him. If I were told that he ever did a mean thing, I
wouldn't believe it. His last action--sending the others on--was
characteristic."

"They didn't want to go," Lisle interposed quietly.

His companion nodded.

"I believe that's true. I like to think so."

There was something curious in his tone, which Lisle noticed.

"From the beginning," Nasmyth went on, "George behaved very generously to
Clarence."

"It was Clarence that I meant to ask about more particularly."

Nasmyth looked thoughtful, and when he answered, it struck Lisle that he
was making an effort to give an unbiased opinion.

"Clarence," he said, "is more likable when you first meet him than George
used to be; a handsome man who knows how to say the right thing. Makes
friends readily, but somehow he never keeps the best of them. He's one of
the people who seem able to get whatever they want without having to
struggle for it and who rarely land in any difficulty."

Again a grudging note became apparent, as though the speaker were trying
to subdue faint suspicion or disapproval, and Lisle changed the subject.

"Had George Gladwyne any immediate relatives?"

"One sister, as like him as it's possible for a woman to be. He wasn't
greatly given to society; I don't think he'd ever have married. His death
was a crushing blow to the girl--they were wonderfully attached to each
other--but I've never seen a finer di