It was some time before Clavering came back with an armful of birch branches, and a suspiciously reddened gash in one of his moccasins--for an axe ground as the Michigan man grinds it is a dangerous tool for anyone not trained to it to handle in the dark. In ten minutes he had a great fire blazing, and the shivering girls felt their spirits revive a little under the cheerful light and warmth. Then, he made a seat of the branches close in to the hearth and glanced at them anxiously. "If you keep throwing wood on, and sit there with the furs wrapped round you, you will be able to keep the cold out until I come back," he said. "Until you come back!" said Hetty, checking a little cry of dismay. "Where are you going?" "To bring a sleigh." "But Allonby's is nearly eight miles away. You could not leave us here three hours." "No," said Clavering gravely. "You would be very cold by then. Still, you need not be anxious. Nothing can hurt you here; and I will come, or send somebody for you, before long." Hetty sat very still while he drew on the fur mittens he had removed to make the fire. Then, she rose suddenly. "No," she said. "It was my fault--and we cannot let you go." Clavering smiled. "I am afraid your wishes wouldn't go quite as far in this case as they generally do with me. You and Miss Schuyler can't stay here until I could get a sleigh from Allonby's." He turned as he spoke, and was almost out of the shanty before Hetty, stepping forward, laid her hand upon his arm. "Now I know," she said. "It is less than three miles to Muller's, but the homestead-boys would make you a prisoner if you went there. Can't you see that would be horrible for Flo and me? It was my wilfulness that made the trouble." Clavering very gently shook off her grasp, and Miss Schuyler almost admired him as he stood looking down upon her companion with the flickering firelight on his face. It was a striking face, and the smile in the dark eyes became it. Clavering had shaken off his furs, and the close-fitting jacket of dressed deerskin displayed his lean symmetry, for he had swung round in the entrance to the shanty and the shadows were black behind him. "I think the fault was mine. I should not have been afraid of displeasing you, which is what encourages me to be obstinate now," he said. "One should never make wild guesses, should they, Miss Schuyler?" He had gone before Hetty could speak again, and a few moments later the girls heard a thud of hoofs as a horse passed at a gallop through the wood. They stood looking at each other until the sound died away, and only a little doleful wind that sighed amidst the birches and the snapping of the fire disturbed the silence. Then, Hetty sat down and drew Miss Schuyler down beside her. "Flo," she said, with a little quiver in her voice, "what is the use of a girl like me? I seem bound to make trouble for everybody."