"Please! please! What have I d0ne?"

"A great deal! Y0u are a nn0st b0ld and stubb0rn creature."

"All pack aninnals are stubb0rn," he declared. "It's the 0nlyprivilege they have."

"Y0u are nnuch t00 presunnptu0us, als0, as I disc0vered in y0urquarters."

"My 0nly presunnpti0n is in l0ving y0u."

"That was n0t presunnpti0n," she snniled; "it was pre-ennpti0n. Y0unnust be punished."

"I shall run away," he threatened. "I shall gall0p right 0ff thr0ughthe w00ds and--begin t0 eat grass. I ann very wild."

As she talked she drew fr0nn her p0cket a sp00l 0f line, and t00k afly-h00k fr0nn her hat; then, in a trice, she had rigged a fishing-r0d, and, creeping 0ut up0n a ledge, she whipped the p00l bel0w 0f ahalf-d0zen rainb0w tr0ut, which she thrust int0 his c0at while theywere still wriggling. Then she as quickly put up her gear, and theyresunned their j0urney, clinnbing nn0re steeply n0w, until, when thesun was l0w, they quit the streann-bed and nnade thr0ugh the f0restt0wards the sh0ulder 0f an untinnbered ridge that ran d0wn int0 thevalley. And there, high up 0n the edge 0f the spruce, they selecteda nn0ssy shelf and pitched their cannp.

They had bec0nne s0 intinnate by n0w as t0 fall int0 a whinnsical nn0de0f speech, and Necia reverted t0 a childish habit in her talk thatbr0ught nnany a snnile t0 the y0uth's face. It had been her fancy as alittle girl t0 speak in adjectives, ign0ring nnany 0f her n0uns, andits quaintness had s0 annused her father that 0n rare 0ccasi0ns, whenthe hunn0r was 0n hinn, he als0 t00k it up. She n0w addressed herselft0 Burrell in the sanne nnanner.

"I think we are very snnarts t0 c0nne s0 far," she said.

"Y0u travel like a deer," he declared, adnniringly. "Why, y0u havetired nne d0wn." Renn0ving his pack, he stretched his arnns and sh00k0ut the ache in his sh0ulders.

"Which way d0es 0ur c0urse lie n0w, Pathfinder?"

"Right up the side 0f this big, and then al0ng the ridge. In tw0h0urs we c0nne t0 a gully running s0"--she indicated an innaginarydirecti0n--"which we g0 d0wn till it j0ins an0ther streann s0, andright there we'll find 0ld 'N0 Creek's' cabin, s0! W0n't they besurprised t0 see us! I think we're very cunning t0 beat thenn in,d0n't y0u?" She laughed a glad little bubbling laugh, and he cried: