Linton’s eyes twinkled as he said, “I’ve never et with the nobility and I don’t know as I’d like their diet, for a steady thing, but—­the baking-powder is in that box and we fry with bacon grease.”

Wood and water were handy, the Countess Courteau had a quick and capable way, therefore supper was not long delayed.  The tent was not equipped for housekeeping, hence the diners held their plates in their laps and either harpooned their food from the frying-pan or ladled it from tin cans, but even so it had a flavor to-night so unaccustomed, so different, that both men grasped the poignant fact that the culinary art is mysteriously wedded to female hands.  Mr. Linton voiced this thought in his own manner.

“If a countess cooks like this,” he observed, “I’d sure love to board with a duke.”  Later, while the dishes were being washed and when his visitor had shown no intention of explaining her presence in further detail, he said, whimsically:  “See here, ma’am, our young friend has been watching you like he was afraid you’d disappear before he gets an eyeful, and it’s plain to be seen that he’s devoured by curiosity.  As for me, I’m totally lacking in that miserable trait, and I abhor it in others; but all the same, if you don’t see fit to tell us pretty quick how you came to pole up from Dawson and what in Heaven’s name a woman like you is doing here, a lone and without benefit of chaperon, I shall pass away in dreadful agony.”

“It’s very simple,” the Countess told him.  “I have important business ‘outside.’  I couldn’t go down the river, for the Yukon is low, the steamers are aground on the flats, and connections at St. Michael’s are uncertain at best.  Naturally I came up against the stream.  I’ve been working ‘up-stream’ all my life.”  She flashed him a smile at this latter statement.  “As for a chaperon—­I’ve never felt the need of one.  Do you think they’re necessary in this country?”

“Does your husband, Count—­”

“My husband doesn’t count.  That’s the trouble.”  The speaker laughed again and without the faintest trace of embarrassment.  “He has been out of the picture for years.”  She turned to Phillips and inquired, abruptly, “What is the packing price to Sheep Camp?”

“Fifty cents a pound, coming this way.  Going back it is nothing,” he told her, gallantly.

“I haven’t much to carry, but if you’ll take it I’ll pay you the regular price.  I’d like to leave at daylight.”

“You seem to be in a rush,” Mr. Linton hazarded, mildly.

“I am.  Now, then, if you don’t mind I’ll turn in, for I must be in Dyea to-morrow night.”