They walked along in silence.  He saw that she was excited, and that he had completely missed his stroke; but he did not see how to mend the situation.

“Oh! there is Philip, going to fish,” said Elizabeth at last, as though nothing had happened.  “I wondered what could possibly have got him up so early.”

Philip waved to her as she spoke, shouting something which the mountain echoes absorbed.  He was accompanied by a young man, who seemed to be attached to the hotel as guide, fisherman, hunter—­at the pleasure of visitors.  But Elizabeth had already discovered that he had the speech of a gentleman, and attended the University of Manitoba during the winter.  In the absence of Anderson, Philip had no doubt annexed him for the morning.

There was a pile of logs lying on the lake side.  Philip, rod in hand, began to scramble over them to a point where several large trunks overhung deep water.  His companion meanwhile was seated on the moss, busy with some preparations.

“I hope Philip will be careful,” said Delaine, suddenly.  “There is nothing so slippery as logs.”

Elizabeth, who had been dreaming, looked up anxiously.  As she did so Philip, high perched on the furthest logs, turned again to shout to his sister, his light figure clear against the sunlit distance.  Then the figure wavered, there was a sound of crashing wood, and Philip fell head-foremost into the lake before him.

The young man on the bank looked up, threw away his rod and his coat, and was just plunging into the lake when he was anticipated by another man who had come running down the bank of the hotel, and was already in the water.  Elizabeth, as she rushed along the edge, recognized Anderson.  Philip seemed to have disappeared; but Anderson dived, and presently emerged with a limp burden.  The guide was now aiding him, and between them they brought young Gaddesden to land.  The whole thing passed so rapidly that Delaine and Elizabeth, running at full speed, had hardly reached the spot before Anderson was on the shore, bearing the lad in his arms.

Elizabeth bent over him with a moan of anguish.  He seemed to her dead.

“He has only fainted,” said Anderson peremptorily.  “We must get him in.”  And he hurried on, refusing Delaine’s help, carrying the thin body apparently with ease along the path and up the steps to the hotel.  The guide had already been sent flying ahead to warn the household.

Thus, by one of the commonplace accidents of travel, the whole scene was changed for this group of travellers.  Philip Gaddesden would have taken small harm from his tumble into the lake, but for the fact that the effects of rheumatic fever were still upon him.  As it was, a certain amount of fever, and some heart-symptoms that it was thought had been overcome, reappeared, and within a few hours of the accident it became plain that, although he was in no danger, they would be detained at least ten days, perhaps a fortnight, at Lake Louise.