"Nothing much," he said. "I was thinking--human beings are sort of elastic, aren't they? After all I've been through the last few days--you don't know!--and then this--you dear one! It's a wonder the shock didn't kill me--but I feel fine! Just peaceful. I don't care what happens now."

It was Colina's turn to lavish her pent-up tenderness upon him then.

After a while she disengaged herself from his arms. "They will wonder what makes me stay so long," she murmured. "And my eyes are red.

Emslie will see when I go out."

Ambrose poured out water in his basin. "Dabble your eyes in this," he said. "When you're ready to go I'll call Emslie in. Coming in from the light, he won't notice anything. You can slip out ahead of him."

Colina bathed her face as he suggested. Catching each other's eyes, they blushed and laughed.

"We must decide quickly what we're going to do," she said hastily.

"First read that letter," said Ambrose.

She read it, leaning back against his shoulder. "A woman!" she said in a changed voice and straightened up. She read further. "She helped you escape!" Colina turned and faced him. "She believed in you, eh?"

she said, her lip curling.

Ambrose's heart sank. "Now, Colina--" he began. "Why, she never thought anything about it!"

Colina consulted the letter again. "She ran away with you!" she cried accusingly.

"Followed me," corrected Ambrose.

"She was in love with you!" Colina's voice rang bitterly.

"Are you beginning to doubt me already?" he cried, aghast. "Be reasonable! You know how it is with these native girls. The sight of a white man hypnotizes them. You can't have lived here without seeing it. Do you blame me for that?"

She paid no attention to the question. Struggling to command herself, she said: "Answer me one question. It is my right. Did you ever kiss her?"

Ambrose groaned in spirit, and cast round in his mind how to answer.

"You hesitate!" cried Colina, suddenly beside herself. "You did! Ah, horrible!" She violently scrubbed her own lips with the back of her hand. "A brown girl! A teepee-dweller! A savage! Ugh! That's what men are!"

An honest anger nerved Ambrose. He roughly seized her wrists.

"Listen!" he commanded in a tone that silenced her. "As I bade her good-by on the sh.o.r.e she asked me to. She had just risked death to get me out, remember--worse than death perhaps. What should I have done?

Answer me that!"

Colina refused to meet the question. Her a.s.sumption of indifference was very painful to see. She was not beautiful then. "Don't ask me,"

she said with a sneer. "I suppose men understand such women. I cannot."

Ambrose turned away with a helpless gesture. Colina moved haughtily toward the door. Within ten minutes their wonderful happiness had been born and strangled again.

"I don't suppose you will want to send my letter now," Ambrose said with a sinking heart.

Colina blushed with shame, but she would not let him see it.

"Certainly," she said coldly. "What has this to do with a question of justice?"

Ambrose, sore and indignant, would not make any more overtures.

"There's a postscript I must add," he said coldly, extending his hand for the letter.

"I cannot wait for you to write it," she said. "Tell me. I will add it myself."

"I think it likely," Ambrose said, "that Nesis"--Colina winced at the sound of the name--"has been spirited away from the Kakisa village.

There are two other villages, one on Buffalo Lake and one on Kakisa Lake, about sixty miles up the Kakisa River.

"They brought her up the river with me, so it is hardly likely she was sent down again to Buffalo Lake. I think she's at Kakisa Lake, if she's alive."

Colina bowed. "I will tell Germain Grampierre," she said. Her hand rose to the door.

Ambrose's heart failed him. "Ah, Colina!" he cried reproachfully and imploringly.

She slipped out without answering.

Ambrose flung himself on his bed and cursed fate again. He was not experienced enough to realize that this was not necessarily a fatal break.

All night he tried to steel his heart against fate and against Colina.

It was harder now. It was an utterly wretched Ambrose that faced the dawn.

While it was still early Emslie pa.s.sed him a note through the window.

Ambrose knew the handwriting, and tore it open with trembling fingers.

He read:

MY DEAR LOVE:

I was hateful. It was the meanest kind of jealousy. I was furious at her because she helped you at the time when I was on the side of your enemies. I have been suffering torments all night. Forgive me. I am going to find Nesis myself. That is the only way I can make up for everything. I love you.

COLINA.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.

COLINA'S ENTERPRISE.

Upon leaving Ambrose, Colina despatched his letter across the river by Michel Trudeau. She then dressed for dinner.

To-night was to be an occasion, for beside Inspector Egerton they had Duncan Seton, inspector of Company posts, and his wife.

The Setons had come down with the police. Seton was to run the post at Fort Enterprise while John Gaviller and Gordon Strange were absent at the trials.

Colina, buoyed up with anger, dressed with care. She saw herself self-possessed and queenly at the foot of her own table's favorite picture of herself.

Nevertheless, the reaction was swiftly setting in. She couldn't help having a generous heart, nor could she put away the picture of Ambrose and his miserable, untasted supper.

At the last moment her courage failed her. She knew the conversation would have to do solely with the coming trials. She knew Inspector Egerton's style in dealing with Ambrose. She could not face it.

She sent down-stairs the time-honored excuse of young ladies and, tearing off her finery, flung herself, like Ambrose, on her bed.