"But," objected Maud Kingsford, "consider! You know nothing of this stranger; he may be a blackleg, an escaped murderer or desperado, or all sorts of things."
"No, no! Carenna knows. She has sent word that I can trust this man, and she knows. She is too fond of me to let me get mixed up with any doubtful character. Dr. Lorien, too, and Harry have seen him, and talked with him, and think well of him; so Matava says. I shall know more when I see them in a day or two. Meantime, I shall keep the canoes and Indians, and risk it."
Then he rushed off to have a further talk with Matava, and, as he said, see about getting the Indian "some grub."
Jack and Maud, left alone, looked at each other in dismay. It had been one thing to talk vaguely of what they would do in case Leonard should take what at the time seemed a very unlikely step. It was quite another to be thus suddenly brought face to face with it.
Maud turned very pale and seemed about to faint. She felt keenly how hard it would be to see her lover depart upon an adventure of this uncertain character, the end or duration of which no one could even guess at. But she recovered her self-possession with an effort and, looking steadily at Templemore, said,
"What you said you would do for our sakes is to be very quickly put to the test, it seems. You--will--go, Jack?"
"Yes," he answered firmly; "since it is your wish."
"You must," she answered. "It is hard to lose you; it will be hard for us both. But go--and go with a good heart. Be sure I will be a daughter to your mother while you are away."
He took her hand in his and pressed it to his lips.
"For your sake, dear Maud, I shall go," he said. "For your sake and for my mother's; in the hope that some success may result; but not--Heaven knows--for the mere sordid hope of gain."
Two days later Dr. Lorien and his son arrived in Georgetown and, after taking rooms at the Kaieteur Hotel, went at once to call upon the Kingsfords. This haste was, in reality, prompted by Harry, whose thoughts were bent upon his hopes of once more seeing the pretty Stella; but the ostensible reason that he urged upon his father was somewhat different, and had to do with the message of which they were the bearers from the white stranger they had met in their travels.