A quick light leaped in Stane's eyes and a smile came on his wan face.
"What are you smiling at?" demanded the girl laughingly. But he did not tell her how his mind had recalled the context of the passage she had referred to, a passage which declared that to live out of doors with the woman a man loves is of all lives the most complete and free. His reply was a mere evasion.
"I am afraid you will find it an exaggerated pleasure, Miss Yardely."
"Then it will be strictly for one night only," she said. "Tomorrow I shall build a shack of boughs and bark like one I watched an Indian building, down on the Peace river. It will be exhilarating to be architect and builder and tenant all in one! But for tonight it is 'God's green caravanserai' for me, and I hope there won't be any trespassers, wolves or bears and such-like beasts."
"There may be mice!" laughed Stane.
"Mice!" A look of mock-horror came on her face. "I'm mortally afraid of mice!"
"And Meeko may pay you a visit."
"The Lord have mercy on me! Who is Meeko?"
"Meeko is the red squirrel. He abounds in these woods and his Indian name means the mischief-maker."
"I adore squirrels," laughed Helen.