watching the flames licking the burning logs. All at once he gripped the
arms of his chair, and muttered through set jaws: "God, I'd like to take
one more chance!" The girl darted a swift look at him, but he fell to
brooding again, evidently insensible to her presence. At length he stirred
himself to ask: "Can I hire a guide hereabout? We'll have to be going on
in a day or so."

"Constantine will get you one. I suppose, of course, you will avoid the
Katmai Pass?"

"Avoid it? Why?"

"It's dangerous, and nobody travels it except in the direst emergency.
It's much the shortest route to the coast, but it has a record of some
thirty deaths. I should advise you to cross the range farther east, where
the divide is lower. The mail-boat touches at both places."

He nodded agreement. "There's no use taking chances. I'm in no hurry. I
wish there was some way of repaying you for your kindness. We were pretty
nearly played out when we got here."

"Oh, I'm quite selfish," she disclaimed. "If you endured a few months of
this monotony, you'd understand."

During the rest of that day Boyd was conscious several times of being
regarded with scrutinizing eyes by Cherry. At dinner, and afterward in the
living-room while Fraser talked, he surprised the same questioning look on
her face. Again she played for him, but he refused to sing, maintaining an
unbroken taciturnity. After they retired she sat long alone, her brows
furrowed as if wrestling with some knotty problem. "I wonder if he would