conjecture rose in his mind as to her probable whereabouts.

He took his aunt to her big chair, piled the stove from the well-stored
wood-box, and lit it. Then, shutting the door of the room where the
disordered bed lay and throwing the house-door open, he bid the visitors
enter. He went out himself to search the surroundings of the house, but
Sissy was not to be found.

The dog did not follow Bates on this search. He sat down before the
stove in an upright position, breathed with his mouth open, and bestowed
on the visitors such cheerful and animated looks that they talked to and
patted him. Their own dogs had been shut into the empty ox-shed for the
sake of peace, and the house-dog was very much master of the situation.

Of the party, the two surveyors--one older and one younger--were men of
refinement and education. British they were, or of such Canadian birth
and training as makes a good imitation. Five of the others were
evidently of humbler position--axe-men and carriers. The eighth man, who
completed the party, was a young American, a singularly handsome young
fellow--tall and lithe. He did not stay in the room with the others, but
lounged outside by himself, leaning against the front of the house in
the white cold sunlight.

In the meantime Bates, having searched the sheds and inspected with
careful eyes the naked woods above the clearing, came back
disconsolately by the edge of the ravine, peering into it suspiciously
to see if the girl could, by some wild freak, be hiding there. When he
came to the narrow strip of ground between the wall of the house and the
broken bank he found himself walking knee-deep in the leaves that the
last night's gale had drifted there, and because the edge of the ravine