"Yes, that is it. In that clearing we have been camped for ten days. My uncle must be crazy with anxiety to know what has become of me and—"
The man interposed.
"I will go there directly," he said. "It is now half after ten. That place is about seven miles or more from here across the range, fifteen or twenty by the river; I shall be back by nightfall. The cabin is your own."
He turned away without another word.
"Wait," said the woman, "I am afraid to stay here."
She had been fearless enough before in these mountains but her recent experiences had somehow unsettled her nerves.
"There is nothing on earth to hurt you, I think," returned the man. "There isn't a human being, so far as I know, in these mountains."
He nodded.
"But there might be another—bear," she added desperately, forcing herself.