But Frank was a favorite.

They waited half a day to give Frank the chance of recovering his strength." There he stopped.

There the imprudence into which his fondness for Clara had led him showed itself plainly, and closed his lips.
It was too late to take refuge in silence.

Clara was determined on hearing more.
She questioned Steventon next.
"Did Frank go on again after the half-day's rest ?" she asked.
"He tried to go on--" "And failed ?" "Yes." "What did the men do when he failed?
Did they turn cowards?
Did they desert Frank ?" She had purposely used language which might irritate Steventon into answering her plainly.

He was a young man--he fell into the snare that she had set for him.
"Not one among them was a coward, Miss Burnham!" he replied, warmly.
"You are speaking cruelly and unjustly of as brave a set of fellows as ever lived! The strongest man among them set the example; he volunteered to stay by Frank, and to bring him on in the track of the exploring party." There Steventon stopped--conscious, on his side, that he had said too much.