Then the stillness was broken by a sound outside. Both of them heard it, and listened carefully.
"Crunch! crunch! crunch!"
Some one on snow-shoes was walking round the cabin. Whoever it was had halted by the door. Was he coming in? Half a minute passed during which they waited without moving, then Stane flashed a look at his companion. She was leaning forward, a look of curiosity and expectancy on her face, but not a single sign of fear.
He rose slowly from his seat, put the unfinished snow-shoe on the table, and crept towards the door. Whoever the intruder was he had not moved, and Stane had an odd fancy that he was listening there on the other side of the rough timbers. He meant to surprise him, but was disappointed in his purpose, for when he reached the door it was to find that the wooden bar had been dropped in position by Helen when they had re-entered the cabin. The bar fitted tightly across the door, and though he tried his best to move it without noise he failed. The bar stuck, and when at last he threw the door open, and stepped outside he knew that he was too late. He looked into the gathering night. His first swift glance was towards the dark shadows under the trees. There was no one there. He swung round towards the lake, and dimly through the darkness descried a figure retreating rapidly northwards. He looked closely, then suffering something of a surprise, gave a quick hail.
The retreating figure never paused, and never looked round, but kept on in a bee-line over the untrodden snow. Stane knew that it was useless to follow, and the bitter cold was already pinching his face and hands and chilling him to the bone. He turned and hurried into the hut, flinging the door to behind him, and as he did so, Helen rose to her feet.
"You saw him?" she cried in some excitement.
"No. I saw her!" answered Stane. "It was a woman."
Helen's surprise was as complete as his own had been. "A woman! Are you sure?"
"I do not think that I can possibly have been mistaken."
"But who—and why should she come here only to run away?"