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loneliness; but now his
dismal croak was no longer heard. A snipe, belated in his feeding,
ran along the sandy shore uttering his tweet-tweet, and his little
cry, breaking in so softly on the silence, seemed only to make more
deeply felt the great vast stillness of the night.
    Joe's arm was around Nell. She had demurred at first, but he gave no
heed to her slight resistance, and finally her head rested against
his shoulder. There was no need of words.
    Joe had a pleasurable sense of her nearness, and there was a delight
in the fragrance of her hair as it waved against his cheek; but just
then love was not uppermost in his mind. All day he had been silent
under the force of an emotion which he could not analyze. Some
power, some feeling in which the thought of Nell had no share, was
drawing him with irresistible strength. Nell had just begun to
surrender to him in the sweetness of her passion; and yet even with
that knowledge knocking reproachfully at his heart, he could not
help being absorbed in the shimmering water, in the dark reflection
of the trees, the gloom and shadow of the forest.
    Presently he felt her form relax in his arms; then her soft regular
breathing told him she had fallen asleep and he laughed low to
himself. How she would pout on the morrow when he teased her about
it! Then, realizing that she was tired with her long day's journey,
he reproached himself for keeping her from the needed rest, and
instantly decided to carry her to the raft. Yet such was the novelty
of the situation that he yielded to its charm, and did not go at
once. The moonlight found bright threads in her wavy hair; it shone
caressingly on her quiet face, and tried to steal under the downcast
lashes.
    Joe made a movement to rise with her, when she muttered indistinctly
as if speaking to some one. He remembered then she had once told him
that she talked in her sleep, and how greatly it annoyed her. He
might hear something more with which to tease her; so he listened.
    "Yes—uncle—I will go—Kate, we must—go. . ."
    Another interval of silence, then more murmurings. He distinguished
his own name, and presently she called clearly, as if answering some
inward questioner.
    "I—love him—yes—I love Joe—he has mastered me. Yet I wish he
were—like Jim—Jim who looked at me—so—with his deep eyes—and
I. . . ."
    Joe lifted her as if she were a baby, and carrying her down to the
raft, gently laid her by her sleeping sister.
    The innocent words which he should not have heard were like a blow.
What she would never have acknowledged in her waking hours had been
revealed in her dreams. He recalled the glance of Jim's eyes as it
had rested on Nell many times that day, and now these things were
most significant.
    He found at the end of the island a great, mossy stone. On this he
climbed, and sat where the moonlight streamed upon him. Gradually
that cold bitterness died out from his face, as it passed from his
heart, and once more he became engrossed in the silver sheen on the
water, the lapping of the waves on the pebbly beach, and in that
speaking, mysterious silence of the woods.
*
    When the first faint rays of red streaked over the eastern
hill-tops, and the river mist arose from the water in a vapory
cloud, Jeff Lynn rolled out of his blanket, stretched his long
limbs, and gave a hearty call to the morning. His cheerful welcome
awakened all the voyagers except Joe, who had spent the night in
watching and the early morning in fishing.
    "Wal, I'll be darned," ejaculated Jeff as he saw Joe. "Up afore me,
an' ketched a string of fish."
    "What are they?" asked Joe, holding up several bronze-backed fish.
    "Bass—black bass, an' thet big feller is a lammin' hefty 'un. How'd
ye ketch 'em?"
    "I fished for them."
    "Wal, so it 'pears," growled Jeff, once more reluctantly yielding to
his admiration for the lad. "How'd ye wake up so early?"
    "I stayed up all night. I saw three deer swim from the mainland, but
nothing else came around."
    "Try yer