do it!" she said, at last. "I wonder if he _could_ do it!" She rose,
and began to pace the floor; then added, as if in desperation: "Well, I
must do _something_, for this can't last. Who knows--perhaps this is
my chance; perhaps he has been sent."

There are times when momentous decisions are influenced by the most
trivial circumstances; times when affairs of the greatest importance are
made or marred by the lift of an eyebrow or the tone of a voice; times
when life-long associations are severed and new ties contracted purely
upon intuition, and this woman felt instinctively that such an hour had
now struck for her. It was late before she finally came to peace with the
conflict in her mind and lay herself down to rest.

On the following morning she told Constantine to hitch up her team and
have it waiting when breakfast was finished. Then she turned to Emerson,
who came into the room, and said, quietly:

"I have something to show you if you will take a short ride with me."

The young man, impressed by the gravity of her manner, readily consented.
Half an hour later he wrapped her up in the sledge-robe and took station
at the rear, whip in hand. Constantine freed the leader, and they went off
at a mad run, whisking out from the buildings and swooping down the steep
bank to the main-travelled trail. When they had gained the level and the
dogs were straightened into their gait, they skimmed over the snow with
the flight of a bird.

"That's a wonderful team you have," Boyd observed, as he glanced over the
double row of undulating gray backs and waving plume-like tails.