"We must make it," and the young man again drove his paddle with great determination into the water as he spoke. "Haven't I been counting the days for months, and lying awake at night thinking of this trip, and now that we may be late is too much to stand. What will she think if we're not there?"
"Don't worry, lad," the Ranger soothed. "We haven't lost yet, and I'm good for five hours of the hardest paddling of my life. How do you feel?"
"Feel? Why, fresh as when I left home. I could paddle at top-notch speed all night long for what's ahead of us. But we must be there by eight o'clock, or much of the fun will be lost. Do you think she'll be watching for us?"
"Sure. Weren't her letters full of it, and what she would say and do when she saw us?"
"Yes, I know that, Dan. But suppose she has changed? She has been there three years now, and has learned many things she did not know before, and might not want to go back with us. Three years make a big difference sometimes, you know. If she has changed much from what she was when we came out from the Yukon I shall be greatly disappointed. I can never forget that journey, for it was the happiest period of my life. We were a long time on the way according to the calendar, but very short to me. How bright and happy she was, and everything she saw was so full of interest to her. My, it was hard to leave her, and not see her again for three years. I don't know how I had the courage to do it."
"It was for the best, lad," Dan quietly remarked. "She, I trust, has gained much, and so have you. You've obtained a good foothold now in the country, of which any man might be proud. You've got much to live for."
"But I could not have done it without your help, Dan," Natsatt replied. "It's been a hard struggle I know, but what could I have done without you, and the thought of Owindia to urge me on. Sometimes when I was about discouraged the thought of her would come to my mind, and I said to myself, 'If I fail what will she think?' and that idea always filled me with new determination."
"She has meant much to both of us, lad. I was an old man when I crossed the mountains, and believed that my time was almost up. But when she came into my life it made all the difference in the world, and now I feel almost as young as ever."
"And you don't think she'll be much changed?" Natsatt queried. "You think she'll be glad to see us, and not be ashamed of our rough ways? If I thought she would I'd not go near where she is."
"Don't be a fool, lad. You're only talking nonsense. What kind of a woman do you think she is? Do you imagine she'd be untrue to her best friends? Not a bit of it. She's not like those skunks who deserted us in our time of need at the Post on the far-off Yukon River. They got their desert, though, when they went down in the Liard River. It served them right. No men could do what they did and get off scot free. But Owindia's not like them. Oh, no, don't you have the least fear about her."