So presently they all forthfared into the sun-bright, snow-blinding,
out-of-door world, and Virginia gathered up her courage and took her
dilemma by the horns.

"I believe I have seen everything now except that tent-place up
there," she asserted, groping purposefully for her opening.

Adams called up another smile of acquiescence. "That is our telegraph
office. Would you care to see it?" He was of those who shirk all or
shirk nothing.

"I don't know why I should care to, but I do," she replied, with
charming and childlike wilfulness; so the three of them trudged up the
slippery path to the operator's den on the slope.

Not to evade his hospitable duty in any part, Adams explained the use
and need of a "front" wire, and Miss Carteret was properly interested.

"How convenient!" she commented. "And you can come up here and talk to
anybody you like--just as if it were a telephone?"

"To anyone in the company's service," amended Adams. "It is not a
commercial wire."

"Then let us send a message to Mr. Winton," she suggested, playing the
part of the capricious _ingenue_ to the very upcast of a pair of
mischievous eyes. "I'll write it and you may sign it."

Adams stretched his complaisance the necessary additional inch and