Ten minutes later Joy found Miss La Farge in their room at the hotel.
“Babette,” she said, “we shall have to hurry. Adrian Rayner is already here. He is four days ahead of us. We must leave Regina within an hour.”
“Yes,” answered her foster-sister, “as Mr. Rayner is evidently in a hurry, we must hurry also. Is there any news of Corporal Bracknell?”
“None, except that his sled has been found.”
“Ah! That is bad, very bad!”
“You must not think that, Babette,” cried Joy a little wildly. “We must search. I will not give up hope. I will find him.”
Her voice quivered and broke, and suddenly she buried her face in her hands. Miss La Farge looked at her for a moment with eyes brimming with sympathy. Then she took a step forward and placed her hand on her foster-sister’s shoulder.
“Joy, my dear, what is the corporal to you?”
“To me,” Joy looked up with confusion in her bearing. “How can he be anything to me? How can any man——”