“Home-coming,” he explained to Keith, after he was done.  “Cabin’s just over that bulge.  Be there in ten minutes.”

In less than ten minutes Keith saw it, sheltered in the edge of a thick growth of cedar and spruce from which its timbers had been taken.  It was a larger cabin than he had expected to see—­twice, three times as large.

“How did you do it alone!” he exclaimed in admiration.  “It’s a wonder, Andy.  Big enough for—­for a whole family!”

“Half a dozen Indians happened along, an’ I hired ’em,” explained Duggan.  “Thought I might as well make it big enough, Johnny, seein’ I had plenty of help.  Sometimes I snore pretty loud, an’—­”

“There’s smoke coming out of it,” cried Keith.

“Kept one of the Indians,” chuckled Duggan.  “Fine cook, an’ a sassy-lookin’ little squaw she is, Johnny.  Her husband died last winter, an’ she jumped at the chance to stay, for her board an’ five bucks a month.  How’s your Uncle Andy for a schemer, eh, Johnny?”

A dozen rods from the cabin was a creek.  Duggan halted here to water his horse and nodded for Keith to go on.

“Take a look, Johnny; go ahead an’ take a look!  I’m sort of sot up over that cabin.”

Keith handed his reins to Duggan and obeyed.  The cabin door was open, and he entered.  One look assured him that Duggan had good reason to be “sot up.”  The first big room reminded him of the Shack.  Beyond that was another room in which he heard someone moving and the crackle of a fire in a stove.  Outside Duggan was whistling.  He broke off whistling to sing, and as Keith listened to the river-man’s bellowing voice chanting the words of the song he had sung at McCoffin’s Bend for twenty years, he grinned.  And then he heard the humming of a voice in the kitchen.  Even the squaw was happy.

And then—­and then—­

“Great god in heaven—­”

In the doorway she stood, her arms reaching out to him, love, glory, triumph in her face—­Mary Josephine!

He swayed; he groped out; something blinded him—­tears—­hot, blinding tears that choked him, that came with a sob in his throat.  And then she was in his arms, and her arms were around him, and she was laughing and crying, and he heard her say:  “Why—­why didn’t you come back—­to me—­that night?  Why—­why did you—­go out—­through the—­window?  I—­I was waiting—­and I—­I’d have gone—­with you—­”

From the door behind them came Duggan’s voice, chuckling, exultant, booming with triumph.  “Johnny, didn’t I tell you there was lots bigger lies than yourn?  Didn’t I?  Eh?”

XXV

It was many minutes, after Keith’s arms had closed around Mary Josephine, before he released her enough to hold her out and look at her.  She was there, every bit of her, eyes glowing with a greater glory and her face wildly aflush with a thing that had never been there before; and suddenly, as he devoured her in that hungry look, she gave a little cry, and hugged herself to his breast, and hid her face there.