“Wouldn’t it be wiser to put off our wedding until you come back?  It will cost you such a fearful lot to take me too,” she said, feeling that she must take a common-sense, prudent view of the situation, although the prospect of going with him set her nerves tingling with delight.

“No, no, sweetheart, I am not going to leave you behind,” he said, holding her hand in a pressure that hurt her.  “If I go to England I will take my wife along with me; if that can’t be managed I will stay where I am.”

Katherine laughed.  “It is all very well to be so positive, but I don’t see how it is to be managed.  It is one thing for me to marry and just go over the river to live, because then I can always come to help when I am wanted,” she said, the mirth dying out of her face, and leaving it with a troubled look; “but it is quite another matter to marry and go straight away to England.”

“Nevertheless, it may have to be done,” he said; adding, with a smile:  “Don’t be so conceited as to think the world can’t turn round without your help in pushing it.  Here comes Mrs. Burton; let us ask her opinion.”

“Upon what?” said Nellie, who came out from the bedroom at that moment.

“Upon our getting married at the very earliest opportunity and going to England afterwards on a honeymoon trip, if we feel so inclined,” replied Jervis promptly.

Mrs. Burton looked considerably surprised, but she said quickly:  “The trip would do Katherine a lot of good, if you can afford the time and the expense, and we could spare her somehow.”

“Just my own opinion,” he answered, with a laugh.

CHAPTER XXX

Preparations

The weeks slid past at a faster rate when the snow began to melt and the water came over the rapids with a roar, and a rush that threatened to sweep everything before it.  Jervis went up to Ochre Lake a day or two after Katherine brought him that dirty fragment of paper, and offered to buy any more of the same kind of thing which the Indians might happen to possess, and pay for it liberally with tobacco.  But no one appeared to know anything about the scrap, and no one had any more fragments to offer in barter, so he had to go away with the mystery unsolved.  Then a week later, when Katherine and Miles went to the encampment with a sledgeload of provisions it was to find that the whole lot had vanished, leaving the dug-outs, in which they had existed so long, deserted.  There was no chance of tracing them, for the very next day it began to snow again, and after two days of uninterrupted snowfall it began to rain, and everyone realized that spring was coming.

There had been no trouble on the score of ’Duke Radford’s health in this second winter.  His mind was placid, though clouded still.  He was gentle and affectionate, and easily pleased, and he played with the two little girls as if he had been one of themselves.