Philippe Papineau rode nearly all the way on the toboggan, sparing the dogs only in the hardest places on rising ground. The animals had been well-fed on the previous night and the trip around the trapping line had not been a hard one. It represented but a mere fifty miles or so, over which they had only hauled one man's food in three days, with his blankets and a small shelter-tent he used when forced to stop away from one of the small huts he had built on the line. In fact, there had been little need of three dogs, but Papineau had taken them because it kept up their training. In the pink of condition, therefore, the team bade fair to equal Stefan's best performances. The Frenchman was within sight of the smokestack rising from Carcajou's sawmill when he opened his eyes, widely. A pair of horses was coming along the old road, drawing a big sled. As the old lumber trail was used only by dog-teams, as a rule, this surprised him. A moment later he clucked at his dogs, which drew to one side, and the horses, from whose shaggy bodies a cloud of steam was rising, came abreast of him. The sled stopped. "Hello there, Papineau!" called one of the men. "Going in for provisions? Thought you hauled in a barrel of flour last week." "Uh huh," assented Philippe, non-committally. "Is that fellow Ennis over to his shack?" asked McIntosh, the squaw-man. "Uh huh," repeated the settler. "D'ye happen to know whether there's a--a young 'ooman there too?" "Vat you vant wid dat gal?" asked Papineau this time. "We're just goin' visitin', like," Pat Kilrea informed him. "It's sure a fine day for a ride in the country. And so that there young 'ooman's been up there a matter o' three-four days, ain't she?" "I tink so," assented Philippe. "D'ye know who she is?" asked Mrs. Kilrea, a severe looking and angular woman. "Sure, heem gal is friend o' Hugo," answered the Frenchman, simply. "Mebbe you better no go to-day. Hugo heem seek. I got to 'urry, so good-by." He lashed his dogs on again, while Pat cracked his whip and the party went on. Mrs. Kilrea was looking rather horrified, thought Sophy McGurn. Her turn was coming at last. There would be a scene that would repay her for her trouble, she gleefully decided. As they went on at a steady pace, over a road which none but horses inured to lumbering could have followed without breaking a leg or getting hopelessly stalled in deep snow, Philippe hurried over to the station and got Joe Follansbee to send a telegram. The young man would have given a good deal to have made one of the party but his official duties detained him. "Who wants a doctor?" he asked, curiously. "Hugo," answered Papineau, impatiently. "You don't h'ask so moch question, you fellar. Jus' telegraph quick now an' h'ask for answer ven dat _docteur_ he come, you 'ear me?"