He seemed diffident, but it was evident that he did not wish her to go, and once more she felt that he aroused her curiosity.
"That," she observed, "is not exactly an answer.

Why should I stay below ?" Weston was relieved at this, for it seemed preferable to him that she should be the one to raise the personal side of the question.
"Well," he said, "for one thing my employer is your father." It occurred to the girl that the qualification might as well have been left out.

It was too suggestive, since it conveyed the impression that the fact he had mentioned was not the only one that influenced him; but she had noticed already that Weston was not a finished diplomatist.

She became more curious as to why he was especially concerned about her safety, though, as a matter of fact, he could not have told her, because he did not know.
"Major and Miss Kinnaird are his guests," she observed.
Weston recognized the reproof in this, and stood silent a moment or two until she spoke again.
"Are you afraid my nerve may not prove equal to Miss Kinnaird's ?" she asked.
Weston smiled and answered without reflection.
"No," he said, "that certainly wasn't troubling me.

When the pinch comes you could be relied on." He was conscious that he had gone too far, and, as often happens in such cases, immediately went further.
"There is something about you that makes me sure of it." "Well," said Ida, coldly, "it is very probable that the pinch won't come at all." She turned away and left him; and Weston frowned at the supper dishes he had carried down to the lake.
"I dare say that looked very much like a gratuitous impertinence from--the packer," he observed.
He awakened at four the next morning; and the mists were steaming among the pines when the Indians ferried the party across the lake.
Then for a couple of hours they went up steadily, between apparently endless ranks of climbing pines, with odd streams of loose gravel sliding down beneath their feet.