A SURPRISE FOR AINLEY
"I will," answered Helen coldly, and without further preamble began the narrative of all that had befallen her from the time she had left her uncle's camp to inspect the beaver colony. Ainley listened for a long time without interruption. Much of the story he already knew, though the girl was unaware of the fact; much more he had guessed, but some things were unknown to him, and when she gave the account of Stane's accident at the deadfall and of the camp she had made there, he broke out in chagrin: "That explains how it was we never found you. We must have passed within a very few miles of you."
"You were once within a quarter of a mile of me."
"How do you know that?" he cried.
"Because I saw you and the Indian Joe pitch your camp on the shore of the lake."
"You saw——" he began, and then stopped staring at her with incredulous eyes.
"Yes! I watched you make your fire, and then I went back to camp, and put out my own fire."
"Why?" he demanded harshly, though he had already guessed.
"Because I was afraid you would discover me," answered the girl calmly. "And I, with a joyful heart, watched you departing in the morning."
Ainley rose suddenly to his feet. "Helen," he cried hoarsely, "do you know what you are saying? You are telling me that you were glad to be left alone in this god-forsaken wilderness with a man who was a discharged convict? I wonder what our world would think of that confession?"