As in a dream she heard Morton speaking to Papiu and Donald: “It is snowing. We certainly are in luck. It’ll cover up all our tracks. Say, Don, isn’t it good to feel the snow again? We haven’t seen any in three years, have we?” And Donald’s hearty laugh came back in response. “It ain’t much of a snowfall,” he said, “but if things work anyway like they do at home, I guess we’re in for a good blizzard.”
She cuddled herself closer in the fur robe and felt happy in its comforting warmth. How long she lay there thus she did not know, but she rose up suddenly and looked about her in wide-eyed surprise. The wagon had come to a halt, and she heard the flaps at the rear of the vehicle being drawn aside. The Princess, too, had been aroused, and she, too, was staring with frightened eyes about her.
“Here we are, ladies,” came the cheery voice of Morton. He was standing outside, a lantern swinging from his arm. “Our first stopping place. You may come out now.” He assisted them in gallant style out of the wagon and led them to a wood-built shack. “Welcome!” he cried, laughing. They entered and found themselves in a low roughly built room in the center of which stood a table made of boards and by its side a crude bench.
Placing his lantern on the table he bade them be seated. He would bring them some food. Helène and the Princess looked about the place and shivered beneath their furs. It was cheerless and bare enough to satisfy the most fanatic of hermits. The yellow light from the lantern filled the distant parts of it with unearthly shadows. The two girls instinctively moved closer to each other.
John returned almost immediately carrying a promising looking basket from which he took out some snow-white napkins, a goodly supply of sandwiches, oranges, cakes, tin cups, a flask of wine and a carafe of water.
“There, ladies, is a feast for the gods, or, I should say, for the goddesses. Eat heartily because you will need all your strength. I will leave you now to yourselves. I shall be back in half an hour. Have no anxiety.”
The girls were hungry, and the food and drink were very welcome. Their appetite satisfied they felt both strengthened and cheered. Donald came in and introduced himself by addressing the peaked roof. They smiled and nodded kindly at him. He busied himself removing quickly the remains of the dinner and disappeared.
The Princess was smiling happily now. “Dear Helène,” she said, “I was very wrong. I ought to have known that you knew best. Please forgive me!”
Helène pressed her friend’s hand with happy tears in her eyes. “The Holy Virgin,” she said, “will protect us, and Mr. Morton is a gentleman.”
Punctual to the minute John came in and found them ready to continue their journey. Helping them into their place of refuge, he carefully closed the rear flaps and resumed his seat by the side of Papiu. Once more the cart took up its rumbling and the wheels their crunching. The road was hilly, and the four horses strained and pulled, urged on by the driver and a man who sat astride one of the leaders. The girls lay comfortably covered and snugly embedded on their couches, but the steep incline caused them to slip occasionally, and once Helène came to the floor of the wagon with a thud. Morton called in that they should put up the boards they would find near the end of their couches and brace their feet against it. Helène carried out his instructions, and could not help wondering at Morton’s forethought. He had thought of everything. He might be in the business of rescuing girls in distress.