When he thought of what lay in the hut they had just replaced under Mounted Police seal, he was distressed to the quick. When he pondered the distress and disappointment that must be hers when she learned the truth, that hidden strain of kindness within him promptly interposed barrier against his blurting out the facts, police fashion. He felt that he must temporize.
"You've come to the right camp, Miss O'Malley, but your brother won't be in to-night. In the morning——. But surely you did not mush from the Mackenzie alone?"
A small sigh, doubtless of disappointment at the further delay, passed her lips; but no exclamation came. Evidently she was a self-contained young person.
No, she explained readily, she had not come alone. The Rev. Luke Morrow and his wife were behind with another sled and they had traveled only from Wolf Lake. The Rev. Morrow, it seemed, was a friend and fellow churchman of her father, then stationed at Gold, British Columbia.
"Only mushed from Wolf Lake!" exclaimed Constable La Marr, stressing the only, although after one glance into her wonder face he was hating himself the more for having let the fox hunter get away from him.
The missionaries were having trail trouble, she continued. Being so near journey's end, she had dashed on with her lighter load, hoping to send her brother to help them into camp, as well as being the earlier to the reunion.
"Constable La Marr will go out at once," declared the sergeant. "How far are they?"
"Scarcely a mile. We were in sight of your flag when they spilled."
La Marr at once took the back trail, not waiting to go to the post for the worn police team nor, considering the distance, wishing to experiment with the girl's strange huskies.
At the moment Moira turned to quell an incipient dog fight; the sergeant turned quickly to Karmack.