.......
“What are you going to do, Joy, when we land?” As she asked the question, Miss La Farge turned from contemplating the greyness of the winter seascape and looked at her foster-sister.
“I am going straight through to Regina to find out if anything has been heard of Roger Bracknell. If they have no news of him at the barracks, then we will go North and ourselves try and learn what has befallen him. He may have news for me, as I certainly have news for him.”
“Do you mean that we shall set out to search for him?”
“Just that, Babette. We know that he was going up the river, and I have a fancy he was following a trail which I myself noticed. You and I know the country well, and with the Indian George, we could look for him. At least we may learn something about him.”
“Yes,” replied Babette thoughtfully. “And if we find him, as you say, he may have news. You may learn what really happened to your hus——”
“Please! Please, Babette. Don’t call Dick Bracknell that. I can’t bear to think that I am bound to him at all.”
“No, and if he is dead, you are released! What do you really think, Joy?”
“I am in doubt. I have always been in doubt since that night. It was so strange that he should disappear. Sometimes I hope that——” She stopped, and after a pause continued, “It seems too dreadful a thing to say, but I cannot help feeling it. Dick Bracknell behaved shamefully to me. Apart from all that has happened since, I can never forgive the humiliation of my marriage. It is the simple truth that I should be glad to know that I was free, even if it were by Dick’s death. But I cannot feel that he is dead. Something tells me that he is alive. That we shall yet meet—”