Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/105

 man. He shrank from approaching this unnatural place. But the girl pressed on, and he followed, every hair tingling and each nerve aquiver, his muscles bunched for sudden flight. He was filled with all the apprehensions of a boy who enters at night a house alleged to be haunted.

The girl lifted a heavy wooden latch and entered, but Flash refused to be coaxed inside. He circled the cabin, examining it minutely, shoving his nose hard against the logs and breathing explosively in his effort to solve this strange mystery of the house that held no scent.

It was built of heavy logs. A woodsman could have told at a glance that it had been erected long ago and that only primitive tools had been used in its construction. The door was built of spruce planks slabbed out with an axe and swung on hinges of elk hide nailed on with wooden pegs. The roof was of lodge-pole logs five inches through and covered with a foot of dirt.

Satisfied at last that there was no lurking menace about this strange place, Flash went in to the girl.

The fireplace was built of flat stones cemented with clay which had baked hard. The furniture was of rough hewed pine with legs of seasoned