anger receding rather than augmenting. It was something so entirely
new to meet a lady who had such an utter disregard for the rules of
politeness that obtain in any civilized society that Mr. Trenton felt he
was having a unique and valuable experience.

"Will you pardon me," he said, with apparent submissiveness--"will you
pardon me if I disregard your request sufficiently to humbly beg
forgiveness for having spoken to you in the first place?"

To this Miss Sommerton made no reply, and the canoe glided along.

After going up the river for a few miles the boatmen came to a difficult
part of the voyage. Here the river was divided by an island. The dark
waters moved with great swiftness, and with the smoothness of oil, over
the concealed rocks, breaking into foam at the foot of the rapids. Now
for the first time the Indians had hard work. For quite half an hour
they paddled as if in despair, and the canoe moved upward inch by inch.
It was not only hard work, but it was work that did not allow of a
moment's rest until it was finished. Should the paddles pause but an
instant, the canoe would be swept to the bottom of the rapids. When
at last the craft floated into the still water above the rapids, the
boatmen rested and mopped the perspiration from their brows. Then,
without a word, they resumed their steady, easy swing of the paddle. In
a short time the canoe drew up at a landing, from which a path ascended
the steep hill among the trees. The silence was broken only by the deep,
distant, low roar of the Shawenegan Falls. Mr. Trenton sat in his place,
while the half-breeds held the canoe steady. Miss Sommerton rose and
stepped with firm, self-reliant tread on the landing. Without looking
backward she proceeded up the steep hill, and disappeared among the
dense foliage. Then Trenton leisurely got out of the canoe.