“That is no answer. Can you use them?” asked the inspector, brusquely.
“I have never tried,” said the lad, in a tone of deprecating apology. Then he coughed so long and badly, that all Nell’s pity was stirred on his behalf.
“If your assistant could operate for me, I would go with you, sir; and I can ask the baggage-clerk to find you a pair of snow-shoes,” she said eagerly, for the prospect of a few miles’ run on snow-shoes was alluring to her, after her long days of imprisonment in the warm, stuffy little office.
The inspector’s face, which had been gathering a frown of portentous blackness, instantly relaxed into a more genial expression.
“That will do very well. Robertson is quite capable of looking after your office, but it is plain that he would be of no use at all on snow-shoes. Can you be ready soon?”
“At once,” replied Nell, slipping on her coat and cap. Then, running out, she found the baggage-clerk, and asked him to bring a pair of snow-shoes for the inspector’s use.
In less than ten minutes they were off, speeding up the narrow valley by the side of the Roseneath track, and before they had gone a quarter of a mile, Nell found that she was by far the more expert on snow-shoes, and exulted accordingly.
“I suppose you are a country girl, Miss Hamblyn?” remarked the inspector, in a tone of query, as he succeeded in overhauling her again, after she had stood still to permit him to overtake her.
“Yes, or I might not have known how to use snow-shoes at all,” she replied, with a laugh. She was a little breathless from the sharp exercise in the keen air, and her cheeks were flushed to a bright red from the same cause.
“I would always rather have to do with young people brought up in the country. It is not merely that physically they are more vigorous, but mentally they have more grasp and capacity,” he said, as they went side by side up a long slope, in a part of the valley which ran like a deep crease between the wooded heights on either side.