"And my man?"

"Thy man comes now. Behold!"

From among the gloomy spruces came the light carolling of Fairfax's
voice.

As the day is quenched by a sea of fog, so his song smote the light
out of her face. "It is the tongue of his own people," she said; "the
tongue of his own people."

She turned, with the free movement of a lithe young animal, and made
off into the forest.

"It's all fixed," Fairfax called as he came up. "His regal highness
will receive you after breakfast."

"Have you told him?" Van Brunt asked.

"No. Nor shall I tell him till we're ready to pull out."

Van Brunt looked with moody affection over the sleeping forms of his
men.

"I shall be glad when we are a hundred leagues upon our way," he said.

* * * * *

Thom raised the skin-flap of her father's lodge. Two men sat with
him, and the three looked at her with swift interest. But her face