As the hours passed, the realization of her impending departure seemed to grow, like a horror, in her thoughts. She still made her pathetic effort to be gay. It would not do for these men to know the truth, so she laughed often and her words were joyous. She fought back the tears that burned in her eyelids. She could only play the game; there was no way out. She could conceive of no circumstances whereby her fate would be altered. She knew now, as well as she knew the fact of her own life, that she had been trapped and snared and cheated by a sardonic destiny. For the moment she wished she had never fought her way back to the cabin with Bill after yesterday's adventure, but that side by side in the drifts, they had yielded to the Shadow and the cold. Through the dragging hours of afternoon, Harold seemed restless and uneasy. He smoked impatiently and was nervous and abstracted in the hours of talk. But the afternoon died at last. Once more the shadows lengthened over the snow; the dusk grew; the first, bright stars thrust through the gray canopy above them. Virginia went to the work of cooking supper,--the last supper in this little, unforgettable cabin in the snow. Both Bill and Virginia started with amazement at the sound of tapping knuckles on the door. Harold's eyes were gleaming. XXIX Harold saw fit to answer the door himself. He threw it wide open; Virginia's startled glance could just make out two swarthy faces, singularly dark and unprepossessing, in the candlelight. She experienced a swift flood of fear that she couldn't understand: then forced it away as an absurdity. "We--we mushin' over to Yuga--been over Bald Peak way," Joe said stumblingly. "Didn't know no one was here. Want a bunk here to-night." "You've got your own blankets?" "Yes. We got blankets." "On your way home, eh? Well, I'll have to ask this lady." Harold seemed strangely nervous as he turned to Virginia. He wondered if this courteous reference to her was a mistake; could it be that she would object to their staying? It would make, at best, an awkward situation. However, he knew this girl and he felt sure. He half-closed the door. "A couple of Indians, going home toward the settlement on the Yuga," he explained quickly. "They've come from over toward Bald Peak and were counting on putting up here to-night. That's the woods custom, you know--to stay at anybody's cabin. They didn't know we were here and want to stay, anyway. Do you think we can put 'em up?" "Good Heavens, we can't send them on, on a night like this. It is awkward, though--about food----" "They've likely got their own food." "Of course they can stay. Bill can sleep on the floor in here--you can take the two of them with you into the little cabin. It will be pretty tight work, but we can't do anything else. Bring them in."