“What is it, child?” he whispered, his heart choking suddenly.  “What has happened?”

“We must run away!  We must hurry!”

At the touch of his arms she had relaxed against his breast.  The last of her courage seemed gone.  She was limp, and terrified, and was looking up at him in such a strange way that he was filled with alarm.

“I didn’t tell him anything,” she whispered, as if afraid he would not believe her.  “I didn’t tell him you weren’t that man—­Mac—­McKenna.  He heard you and Brokaw go when you passed my room.  Then he went to the men.  I followed—­and listened.  I heard him telling them about you—­that you were a spy—­that you belonged to the provincial police....”

A sound in the hall interrupted her.  She grew suddenly tense in his arms, then slipped from them and ran noiselessly to the door.  There were shuffling steps outside, a thick voice growling unintelligibly.  The sounds passed.  Marge O’Doone was whiter still when she faced David.

“Hauck—­and Brokaw!” She stood there, with her back to the door.  “We must hurry, Sakewawin.  We must go—­to-night!”

David looked at her.  A spy?  Police?  Quite the first thing for Hauck to suspect, of course.  That law of self-preservation again—­the same law that would compel them to give up the girl to him to-morrow.  He found himself smiling at his frightened little companion, backed there against the door, white as death.  His calmness did not reassure her.

“He said—­you were a spy,” she repeated, as if he must understand what that meant.  “They wanted to follow you to Brokaw’s cabin—­and—­and kill you!”

This was coming to the bottom of her fear with a vengeance.  It sent a mild sort of a shiver through him, and corroborated with rather disturbing emphasis what he had seen in the men’s faces as he passed among them.

“And Hauck wouldn’t let them?  Was that it?” he asked.

She nodded, clutching a hand at her throat.

“He told them to do nothing until he saw Brokaw.  He wanted to be certain.  And then....”

His amazing and smiling composure seemed to choke back the words on her lips.

“You must return to your room, Marge,” he said quickly.  “Hauck has now seen Brokaw and there will be no trouble such as you fear.  I can promise you that.  To-morrow we will leave the Nest openly—­and with Hauck’s and Brokaw’s permission.  But should they find you here now—­in my room—­I am quite sure we should have immediate trouble on our hands.  I’ve a great deal to tell you—­much that will make you glad, but I half expect another visit from Hauck, and you must hurry to your room.”

He opened the door slightly, and listened.

“Good-night,” he whispered, putting a hand for an instant to her hair.

“Good night, Sakewawin.”