Team and sleigh seemed to
vanish, and she saw her companion dimly for a moment before he was lost
in the sliding whiteness, too. Then a horrible fear came upon her.
It seemed a very long while before he reappeared, and thrust her in
through what seemed to be a door. Then there was another waiting
before the light of a lamp blinked out, and she saw that she was
standing in a little log-walled room with bare floor and a few trusses
of straw in a comer. There was also a rusty stove, and a very small
pile of billets beside it. Winston, who had closed the door, stood
looking at them with a curious expression.
"Where is the team?" she gasped.
"Heading for a birch bluff or Silverdale, though I scarcely think they
will get there," said the man. "I have never stopped here, and it
wasn't astonishing they fancied the place a pile of snow. While I was
getting the furs out, they slipped from me."
Miss Barrington now knew where they were. The shanty was used by the
remoter settlers as a half-way house where they slept occasionally on
their long journey to the railroad, and as there was a birch bluff not
far away, it was the rule that whoever occupied it should replace the
fuel he had consumed. The last man had, however, not been liberal.
"But what are we to do?" she asked, with a little gasp of dismay.
"Stay here until the morning," said Winston quietly. "Unfortunately, I
can't even spare you my company. The stable has fallen in, and it
would be death to stand outside, you see.
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