Listers Great Adventure | Page 7

expect you saw the heads at the
packer's house. Still, one understands they stay North until the frost
begins."
She got up, and when they set off Grace looked regretfully across the
lake, for she would sooner have gone home on board the fishing bateau.
She was puzzled. The bays on the lake were numerous, and islands
dotted the winding reaches, but it was strange the young men had gone
to the wrong spot. They knew the lake and had told Barbara where to
meet them. In the meantime, however, the important thing was to get
home.
Darkness crept across the woods, and as she stumbled along the uneven
trail Grace got disturbed. She felt the daunting loneliness, the quiet
jarred her nerve. The pines looked ghostly in the gloom. They were
ragged and strangely stiff, it looked as if their branches never moved,
and the dark gaps between the trunks were somehow forbidding.
Grace did not like Canada. Her cultivation was artificial, but Canada
was primitive and stern. In the towns, one found inventions that
lightened labor, and brought to the reach of all a physical comfort that
in England only the rich enjoyed, but the contrasts were sharp. One left
one's hotel, with its very modern furniture, noisy elevators and
telephones, and plunged into the wilderness where all was as it had
been from the beginning. Grace shrank from primitive rudeness and
hated adventure. Living by rule she distrusted all she did not know. She
thought it strange that Barbara, who feared nothing, let her go in front.
They came to a pool. All round, the black tops of the pines cut the sky;
the water was dark and sullen in the gloom. The trail followed its edge
and when a loon's wild cry rang across the woods Grace stopped. She
knew the cry of the lonely bird that haunts the Canadian wilds, but it
had a strange note, like mocking laughter. Grace disliked the loon when
its voice first disturbed her sleep at the fishing camp; she hated it

afterwards.
"Go on!" said Barbara sharply.
For a moment or two Grace stood still. She did not want to stop, but
something in Barbara's voice indicated strain. If Barbara were startled,
it was strange. Then, not far off, a branch cracked and the pine-spray
rustled as if they were gently pushed aside.
"Oh!" Grace cried, "something is creeping through the bush!"
"Then don't stop," said Barbara. "Perhaps it's a wolf!"
Grace clutched her dress and ran. At first, she thought she heard
Barbara behind, but she owned she had not her sister's pluck and fear
gave her speed. She must get as far as possible from the pool before she
stopped. Besides, she imagined something broke through the
undergrowth near the trail, but her heart beat and she could not hear
properly.
At length her breath got labored and she was forced to stop. All was
quiet and the quiet was daunting. Barbara was not about and when
Grace called did not reply. Grace tried to brace herself. Perhaps she
ought to go back, but she could not; she shrank from the terror that
haunted the dark. Then she began to argue that to go back was illogical.
If Barbara had lost her way, she could not help. It was better to push on
to the camp and send men who knew the woods to look for her sister.
She set off, and presently saw with keen relief the light of a fire
reflected on calm water.

CHAPTER III
BARBARA VANISHES
Grace's arrival was greeted by a shout, and when she stopped in front of
the dining-tent a group of curious people surrounded her. The double
roof of the big tent was extended horizontally, and a lamp hanging

from a pole gave a brilliant light. Grace would sooner the light had
been dim, for she was hot and her clothes were torn and wet with dew.
Besides, she must tell her tale and admit that she had not played a
heroic part.
"Where's Barbara?" Mrs. Cartwright asked.
"I don't know. Harry Vernon did not meet us and we started home by
the loggers' trail. I lost Barbara by the pool. Something in the bush tried
to creep up to us; a wolf, I think--"
"Oh, shucks!" remarked a frank Winnipeg girl who did not like Miss
Hyslop. "In summer, you can't find a wolf south of Broken Range.
Looks as if you were scared for nothing, but I can't see why Barbara
didn't beat you at hitting up the pace."
Others asked questions, and when Grace got breath she tried to satisfy
their curiosity. Some of the group looked thoughtful and Mrs. Vernon
said:
"Nothing can have hurt Barbara, and if she has lost her way, she cannot
wander