"It is scarcely possible."
"Oh!" exclaimed the woman faintly at the dire possibility that she might not be found.
"I took an empty bottle with me," said the man, breaking the silence, "in which I had enclosed a paper saying that you were here and safe, save for your wounded foot, and giving directions how to reach the place. I built a cairn of rocks in a sheltered nook in the valley where your camp had been pitched and left the tightly corked bottle wedged on top of it. If they return to the camp they can scarcely fail to see it."
"But if they don't go back there."
"Well, it was just a chance."
"And if they don't find me?"
"You will have to stay here for a while; until your foot gets well enough to travel," returned the man evasively.
"But winter is coming on, you said the lake would freeze to-night, and if it snows?"
"It will snow."
The woman stared at him, appalled.