Though it had been over a week since she had said good-bye to Tom Gray, aside from a brief letter written to her on the train just before his arrival at a little town some miles from the lumber camp, she had received no further communication from him.

Within herself she argued that she had really no cause for alarm.

No doubt Tom had been too busy to write.

Perhaps he had written her, but, due to the isolation of the camp, had encountered difficulty in mailing a letter to her.

She would have liked to put the situation before Emma, yet loyalty to love forbade her to speak of it even to this trusted friend..