March had passed and April was nearing its end, when, one spring morning, Lashka asked permission to go down the creek several miles to Siwash Pete’s cabin.  Pete’s wife, a Stewart River woman, had sent up word that something was wrong with her baby, and Lashka, who was pre-eminently a mother-woman and who held herself to be truly wise in the matter of infantile troubles, missed no opportunity of nursing the children of other women as yet more fortunate than she.

Pentfield harnessed his dogs, and with Lashka behind took the trail down the creek bed of Bonanza.  Spring was in the air.  The sharpness had gone out of the bite of the frost and though snow still covered the land, the murmur and trickling of water told that the iron grip of winter was relaxing.  The bottom was dropping out of the trail, and here and there a new trail had been broken around open holes.  At such a place, where there was not room for two sleds to pass, Pentfield heard the jingle of approaching bells and stopped his dogs.

A team of tired-looking dogs appeared around the narrow bend, followed by a heavily-loaded sled.  At the gee-pole was a man who steered in a manner familiar to Pentfield, and behind the sled walked two women.  His glance returned to the man at the gee-pole.  It was Corry.  Pentfield got on his feet and waited.  He was glad that Lashka was with him.  The meeting could not have come about better had it been planned, he thought.  And as he waited he wondered what they would say, what they would be able to say.  As for himself there was no need to say anything.  The explaining was all on their side, and he was ready to listen to them.

As they drew in abreast, Corry recognized him and halted the dogs.  With a “Hello, old man,” he held out his hand.

Pentfield shook it, but without warmth or speech.  By this time the two women had come up, and he noticed that the second one was Dora Holmes.  He doffed his fur cap, the flaps of which were flying, shook hands with her, and turned toward Mabel.  She swayed forward, splendid and radiant, but faltered before his outstretched hand.  He had intended to say, “How do you do, Mrs. Hutchinson?”—­but somehow, the Mrs. Hutchinson had choked him, and all he had managed to articulate was the “How do you do?”

There was all the constraint and awkwardness in the situation he could have wished.  Mabel betrayed the agitation appropriate to her position, while Dora, evidently brought along as some sort of peacemaker, was saying:-

“Why, what is the matter, Lawrence?”

Before he could answer, Corry plucked him by the sleeve and drew him aside.

“See here, old man, what’s this mean?” Corry demanded in a low tone, indicating Lashka with his eyes.

“I can hardly see, Corry, where you can have any concern in the matter,” Pentfield answered mockingly.

But Corry drove straight to the point.

“What is that squaw doing on your sled?  A nasty job you’ve given me to explain all this away.  I only hope it can be explained away.  Who is she?  Whose squaw is she?”