His perplexity increased.

On the farther shore the forest came down to the river's edge in a black wall of spruce and balsam.

Beyond that edge of the wilderness he knew that no part of Prince Albert intruded.

It was possible that across from them was a squatter's cabin; and yet if this were so, and the girl was going to it, why had she told him that she was a stranger in the town?
And why had she come to him for the assistance she promised to request of him instead of seeking it of those whom she knew?
He asked himself these questions without putting them in words, and not until they were climbing up the frozen bank of the stream, with the shadows of the forest growing deeper about them, did he speak again.
"You told me you were a stranger," he said, stopping his companion where the light of the stars fell on the face which she turned up to him.

She smiled, and nodded affirmatively.
"You seem pretty well acquainted over here," he persisted.