acquiescence.

Straining forward in his chair, listening, there came to Pete, across
the silence, the sound of skis.

He rose and hopped to the door, flinging it wide. He could not see
above the top of the drift which rose just beyond the roof to a height
of nine or ten feet, but listening intently, he thought he recognized
a familiar slight unevenness in the sliding of the skis.

"Bella!" he shouted, his boy-voice ringing with relief. "Bella! Here's
Hugh. He's come back."

Bella was instantly at his side. They stood waiting in the doorway.
Against the violet sky darkening above the blue wall of snow, a bulky
figure rose, blotting out the light. It half slid, half tumbled down
upon them, clumsy and shapeless.

"Let us in," panted Hugh. "Let us in."

Slipping his feet from the straps of his skis, he staggered past them
and they saw that he was carrying a woman in his arms.




CHAPTER III


"Shut the door," Hugh whispered, and laid his burden down on a big