“Oh—I see. There’s a girl, isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
Van Duyn reached for his glass and lapsed into surly silence.
But Percy Endicott was always voluble in the afternoon.
“You didn’t hear about Phil?”
“No—not another——”
“Oh, no, he hasn’t touched a drop for weeks. Got lost up there. I heard the story at Tuxedo from young Benson who just come down. He had it from a guide. It seems that Phil got twisted somehow in the heart of the Kawagama country and couldn’t find his way back to camp. He’s not much of a woodsman—hadn’t ever been up there before, and the guide couldn’t pick up his trail——”
“Didn’t he lose his nerve?”
“Not he. He couldn’t, you see. There was a girl with him.”
“A girl! The plot thickens. Go on.”