a changed girl, that The Lifter could not help noticing it.

'I suppose you are lamenteen because your sweetheart is away to-day?'

'I am not, Lifter. I feel just as happy with you as with him. But
mind do not tell him that I said so.'

'Oh, you need not trouble about that. I am too cunneen to run risks
with Joe.'

Then the party ascended the stream, and found several still pools of
water varying from myrtle to coffee brown in colour. Each such piece
of still water had a congregation of foam bubbles; and no sooner was
the cast made than the float went down like a stone.

In the delightful excitement Roland frequently forgot the perils
that surrounded him; was often quite oblivious to the fact that he
was in the toils of a den of robbers. Strange to say he had come to
think less of the blood upon his own hands since hearing the history
of Markham Swamp, and finding himself a prisoner among the horrible
fiends.

Having caught five or six dozen speckled trout the party returned to
the lair. That evening the chief and Joe returned, the face of each
dark and threatening. There was no hilarity, and supper was eaten in
silence. Then the robbers smoked for an hour, while the girls
repaired torn garments. Nancy did not raise her eyes from her work;
but there was in her face a new light, the light of Hope.