"That is quite beyond me. It was so brutal a thing to do!"
"Some roaming Indian possibly," suggested Miss Yardely thoughtfully.
"But as you asked just now, why? Indians are not so rich in cartridges that they can afford to waste them on a mere whim."
"No, perhaps not," said the girl. "But I can think of no one else." She was silent for a moment, then she added, "Whoever did the vile thing frightened me badly. It is not nice to sit helpless in a canoe drifting out into such a wilderness as this." She waved her hand round the landscape as she spoke, and gave a little shudder. "You see I never knew what was coming next. I passed some islands and hoped that I might strike one of them, but the current swept me clear, and for hours I sat staring, watching the banks go by, and wondering how long it would be before I was missed; and then, I suppose I must have fallen asleep, because I remember nothing more until just before I was thrown into the water."
"It was a very fortunate thing you struck those rocks," said Stane meditatively.
"Fortunate, Mr. Stane? Why?"
"Because in all probability I should not have seen you if you had not; and a few miles below here, there are some bad rapids, and below them the river makes a leap downwards of nearly a hundred feet."
"A fall?" cried the girl, her face blanching a little, as she flashed a glance downstream. "Oh, that would have been terrible! It was fortunate that you were here."
"Very," he agreed earnestly, "and I am beginning to think that it was providential; though all day I have been cursing my luck that I should have been in this neighbourhood at all. I have no business here."
"Then why——" she began, and stopped as if a little afraid that her question was too frankly curious.