It was not a moment to analyze emotions. Nina Ide, in her ingenuous declaration of Elva Barrett's motives in seeking him, had made his heart for an instant blaze with joy. For that instant he forgot the shame of the baseless babblings of the sick man, the awful mystery of Elva Barrett's disappearance. The blow of it--that Elva Barrett was gone--that she was somewhere in those woods alone, or worse than alone, had stunned him at first. Groping out of that misery, striving to realize what it meant, he had faced first the hideous thought that she might believe him mean enough to seek revenge. Then came the dazzling hope that Elva Barrett so loved him that she adventured--imprudently and recklessly, but none the less bravely--in order to make her love known. Then over all swept the black bitterness of the calamity. "But you must have some suspicion--some hint how she was taken or how she went!" he cried. "In Heaven's name, Miss Nina, think! think! You heard some outcry! There was some hidden rock or stump to jar the sled! The man did not search along the road far enough! She must be lost--lost!" and his voice rose almost to a shriek. "There was no cry, Mr. Wade. And I went back with the man. We searched; we called--we even went as far as the place where we covered ourselves with the blankets. We could find no track, and the snow was driving and sifting. The man does not know it was Elva Barrett," she added. He suddenly remembered the driver's statement. "She came in Kate Arden's clothes," confided the girl. "Those who saw her ride out of Castonia, Mr. Wade, thought it was Kate Arden. And Kate Arden, in Elva Barrett's dress, is sitting now beside John Barrett, holding his hand, and his daughter's face has soothed him. He thinks it is his daughter beside him. They are so like, Kate and Elva. We waited until we had made sure. It was my plan. And Kate obeyed me. I don't know what she is thinking of. She is sullen and silent, but she took the place by his bed when I told her to. Then it could not be said that John Barrett's daughter had come seeking Dwight Wade." Even in this stress he could still feel gratitude for the subterfuge that checked the tongues of gossip. "I wish father had more authority over me," sobbed the girl. "He wouldn't have let us come on such a crazy errand if I hadn't bossed him into it." The lament was so guilelessly feminine that Wade put aside his own woe for the moment to think of the girl's distress. "This will be your home until I can send you back, Miss Nina," he said, gently. "I will have old Christopher bring in your supper and mend your fire." "And about her, Mr. Wade?" she cried. "I'm going," he said, simply, but with such earnestness that her eyes flooded again with tears. CHAPTER XXI THE MAN WHO CAME FROM NOWHERE "He hadn't a word for no one, not even for me or Mike, And whenever we spoke or tried to joke, he growled like a Chessy tyke."