Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/402

 238 THE FUR COUNTRY, Cape Esquimaux, at the foot of which she and her people had en- camped the year before. She knew now that she was but eight miles from the factory, and that she had only to follow the path she had so often traversed when she went to visit her friends at Fort Hope. Yes, this hope sustained her, but she had scarcely reached the beach when her forces entirely failed her, and she again lost all consciousness. But for Mrs Barnett she would have died. my rescue, and that God would save me by your means." We know the rest. We know the providential instinct which led Mrs Barnett and Madge to explore this part of the coast on this very day, and the presentiment which made them visit Cape Esqui- maux after they had rested, and before returning to Fort Hope. We know too — as Mrs Barnett related to Kalumah — how the piece of ice had floated away, and how the bear had acted under the cir- cumstances. " And after all," added Mrs Barnett with a smile, " it was not I who saved you, but the good creature without whose aid you. would never have come back to us, and if ever we see him again we will treat him with the respect due to your preserver." During this long conversation Kalumah was rested and refreshed, and Mrs Barnett proposed that they should return to the fort at once, as she had already been too long away. The young girl immediately rose ready to start. Mrs Barnett was indeed most anxious to tell the Lieutenant of all that had happened during the night of the storm, when the wandering island had neared the American continent, but she urged Kalumah to keep her adventures secret, and to say nothing about the situation of the island. She would naturally be supposed to have come along the coast, in fulfilment of the promise she had made to visit her friends in the fine season. Her arrival would tend only to strengthen the belief of the colonists that no changes had taken place in the country around Cape Bathurst, and to set at rest the doubts any of them might have entertained. It was about three o'clock when Madge and Mrs Barnett, with Kalumah hanging on her arm, set out towards the east, and before five o'clock in the afternoon they all arrived at the postern of the fort.
 * ' But, dear lady," she added, " I knew that you would come to