Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/245

Rh in great haste, for the ground was littered with things they had left behind. I took a pair of blankets and all the food I could carry and made my way again to the cabin, and once more I saw from the top of the ridge that someone was there, and I dared not go down. So I came on to this cave in which my husband and I had once found shelter from a storm. I knew this lake was a favourite hunting-ground of the Indians, and sooner or later I would be rescued. But no Indians have appeared, and the man my husband feared is still searching.

"I often see his canoe upon the waters of the lake. And today, when I was returning from a visit to some snares I had set, I found it drawn up in a cove close by. I saw that his tracks headed into the scrub, and I feared he had found my cave where the packet was hidden. I ran with all my might, but the packet was safe. And then you came and I thought it was he." The woman paused and glanced about her fearfully: "But he must be very near because his tracks lead to the ridge.

"But the packet!" cried Connie. "What is in the packet?"