An immense satisfaction possessed David.  It was like something soft and purring inside of him.  He made no effort to explain things.  He was accepting facts, and changes.  He felt bigger to-night, as though his lungs were stretching themselves, and his chest expanding.  His fears were gone.  He no longer saw anything to dread in the white wilderness.  He was eager to go on, eager to reach Tavish’s.  Ever since Father Roland had spoken of Tavish that desire had been growing within him.  Tavish had not only come from the Stikine River; he had lived on Firepan Creek.  It was incredible that he should not know of the Girl:  who she was; just where she lived; why she was there.  White people were few in that far country.  Tavish would surely know of her.  He had made up his mind that he would show Tavish the picture, keeping to himself the manner in which he had come into possession of it.  The daughter of a friend, he would tell them—­both Father Roland and Tavish.  Or of an acquaintance.  That, at least, was half truth.

A dozen things Father Roland spoke about that night before he alluded to Tavish.  David waited.  He did not want to appear too deeply interested.  He desired to have the thing work itself out in a fortuitous sort of way, governed, as he was, by a strong feeling that he could not explain his position, or his strange and growing interest in the Girl, if the Missioner should by any chance discover the part he had played in the haunting though incidental encounter with the woman on the train.

“Fear—­a great fear—­his life is haunted by it,” said Father Roland, when at last he began talking about Tavish.  He was seated on a pile of balsams, his legs stretched out flat on the floor, his back to the wall, and he smoked thoughtfully as he looked at David.  “A coward?  I don’t know.  I have seen him jump at the snap of a twig.  I have seen him tremble at nothing at all.  I have seen him shrink at darkness, and then, again, he came through a terrible darkness to reach my cabin that night.  Mad?  Perhaps.  It is hard to believe he is a coward.  Would a coward live alone, as he does?  That seems impossible, too.  And yet he is afraid.  That fear is always close at his heels, especially at night.  It follows him like a hungry dog.  There are times when I would swear it is not fear of a living thing.  That is what makes it—­disturbing.  It is weird—­distressing.  It makes one shiver.”

The Missioner was silent for some moments, as if lost in a reverie.  Then he said, reflectively: 

“I have seen strange things.  I have had many penitents.  My ears have heard much that you would not believe.  It has all come in my long day’s work in the wilderness.  But never, never have I seen a fight like this that is being made by Tavish—­a fight against that mysterious fear, of which he will not speak.  I would give a year of my life—­yes, even more—­to help him.  There is something about him that is lovable, that makes you want to cling to him, be near him.  But he will have none of that.  He wants to be alone with his fear.  Is it not strange?  I have pieced little things together, and that night—­when terror drove him to my cabin—­he betrayed himself, and I learned one thing.  He is afraid of a woman!”