The Long Portage

Vernon Lisle was fishing with a determination that did not spring altogether from love of the sport. The water of the British Columbian river in which he stood knee-deep was icy...

Dawn was late the next morning; the light crept slowly through bitter rain, and when Lisle and his companions had breakfasted sumptuously for the first time during several days...

They spent the greater part of a week on the portage, crossing here and there a little lake; and then came out one evening on a river that flowed, green and tranquil, beneath a...

Two days passed uneventfully, though Nasmyth was conscious of a growing uneasiness during them; and then one evening they landed to search another beach. They had less difficult...

In a few more days they left the river, abandoning the canoe and tent and a portion of their gear. Ascending to higher levels, they crossed a rugged waste, which, fortunately fo...

Dinner was over, and Millicent's elderly companion had discreetly left them alone, when the girl led Nasmyth into her drawing-room. It was brightly lighted and was tastefully de...

Nearly a year had passed since Nasmyth's return when Lisle at length reached England. Soon after his arrival, he was, as Nasmyth's guest, invited to join a shooting party, and o...

It was about nine o'clock in the evening, and Gladwyne's somewhat noisy guests were scattered about his house and the terrace in front of it. Several of them had gathered in the...

Nasmyth's dinner was over and he lay, pipe in hand, in an easy-chair in his smoking-room, with Lisle lounging opposite him. They had been walking up partridges among the higher...

It was early in the afternoon when Lisle arrived at Millicent's house and, after a glance at its quaint exterior, was ushered into her drawing-room. There he sat down and looked...

The little room in Marple's house, where the Crestwicks were staying, was hot and partly filled with cigar smoke which drifted in filmy streaks athwart the light of the green-sh...

Millicent was sitting in a window-seat with a paint-box beside her and a drawing of a water-ouzel upon her knee. It was a lifelike sketch, but she had a great capacity for pains...

It was late at night, but Gladwyne sat, cigar in hand, in his library, while Batley lounged beside the hearth. A wood fire diffused a faint aromatic fragrance into the great hig...

A few days after his interview with Bella, Lisle overtook Millicent as she was walking up a wooded dale. She looked around with a smile when he joined her and they fell into fri...

The afternoon was calm and hazy, and Lisle lounged with great content in a basket-chair on Millicent's lawn. His hostess sat near by, looking listless, a somewhat unusual thing...

Evening was drawing on when Bella strolled aimlessly down the ascending road that led to Marple's residence. On one hand of the road there was a deep rift, filled with shadow, i...

Gladwyne spent the first few days that followed Lisle's visit in a state of dread and indecision. He had allowed the Canadian to understand that he would endeavor to prevent Cre...

It had been dark some time and the night was raw, but Jim Crestwick strolled up and down the drive to Marple's house, thinking unusually hard. In the first place, part at least...

Some weeks had passed since the accident and Lisle was lying one afternoon on a couch near a window of Nasmyth's sitting-room. Two or three Canadian newspapers lay on the floor...

Clarence had gone away with Batley when Lisle called on Mrs. Gladwyne. She was leaving home for a visit on the following day and he wished to say good-by, and, if an opportunity...

It was a bright day when Lisle took his leave of the Marples. They gave him a friendly farewell and when he turned away Bella Crestwick walked with him down the drive.

It was snowing in the northern wilderness and the bitter air was filled with small, dry flakes, which whirled in filmy clouds athwart the red glow of a fire. A clump of boulders...

"Because the freighters should leave the Hudson Bay post to-morrow with their dog-teams. It's the only chance of sending out a letter I may get for a long while, and I want to w...

Lisle was living luxuriously in Victoria when Nasmyth's answer reached him by mail. Though it was still winter among the ranges of the North, the seaboard city had been bathed i...

The sun had just dipped behind a black ridge of hills, and the lake lay still, mirroring the tall cedars on its farther shore. A faint chill was creeping into the mountain air,...

"Well," he continued, "I'd better explain that the main difficulty attending any expedition into an almost uninhabited region is to keep it supplied with food and means of shelt...

Millicent had no intention of going to sleep among the rocks, but after a while she grew drowsy, and when at length she raised her head with a start the moon hung over the hills...

The evening was dull and gloomy, a gray sky hung over the desolate hills, and Millicent, sitting alone on a rocky slope, felt troubled and depressed. Beneath her, the long hollo...

The sense of security which Millicent experienced on announcing her engagement was not permanent and in a few days the doubts that had troubled her crept back into her mind. She...

By degrees the light got clearer, the scattered black cedars grew into definite form, and a strip of foaming water showed in the depths of the chasm. Lisle walked some distance...

Lisle had with some difficulty been dressed in dry clothes, and he lay with his eyes shut on a couch of cedar sprays beside a fire, when Batley rose and turned to Nasmyth.