"We needn't be in any hurry about it," he grinned. "We still have most of the one we got the other day."
"Then, why are you hunting?"
"I told you. I found what I was hunting—back there on the river. How about lunch? I'm hungry as a wolf."
The girl pointed to a sheltered spot in the lee of a spruce thicket, and while Brent scraped back the snow, she produced food from her pack.
"You must have figured on getting pretty hungry," teased Brent, eying the generous luncheon to which he had added his own.
Snowdrift blushed: "You brought more than I did!" she smiled, "See—there is much more."
"Oh, I'll come right out with it—I put that up for two!"
"And mine is for two," she admitted, "But you are mean for making me say it."
During the meal the girl was unusually silent and several times Brent surprised a look of pain in the dark eyes, and then the look would fade and the eyes would gaze pensively into the distance. Once he was sure that her lip quivered.
"What's the matter, Snowdrift," he asked abruptly, "What is troubling you? Tell me all about it. You might as well begin now, you know—because——"