"It isn't romantic eating," he laughed back. "As you will find if we come down to it. But if the worst comes to the worst it will save us from starvation."
"Then we will make pemmican," she said smiling, "or rather I shall. It will be another thing towards the completion of my education, and when this pilgrimage is over I shall demand a certificate from you, and set up as a guide for specially conducted parties to the wilds."
"I think I shall be able to give you one, quite conscientiously," Stane retorted laughingly. "You certainly are a very apt pupil."
"Ah! you haven't seen that hideous mess on the other side of the bluff. The fact is I shudder at the thought of viewing it again. But we must have the meat, I suppose."
Having rested a little, she turned and left the camp again and the man followed her with eyes that glowed with admiration. As he lay there he thought to himself that however she might shudder at the thought of a vilely unpleasant task, she would not shirk it, and as he reflected on the events of the past few days, there was in his heart a surge of feeling that he could not repress. He loved this delicately-nurtured girl who adapted herself to the harsh ways of the wilderness with so gay a spirit; and though a look of bitterness came on his face as he reflected that circumstances must seal his lips, in his heart he was glad that they should have met, and that she should be his pupil in the ways of the wild.
CHAPTER XIII
A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS
It was six weeks later. The dawn came less early, and nightfall perceptibly sooner.