io TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



trip, and showed them our route so far as we knew 

 it ourselves by the map. And this time our friends 

 threw no cold water on our schemes. They~looked 

 at one another. "A splendid trip, isn't it?" said 

 Cecily meditatively. 



Then like a bombshell came, " May we go too?" 

 from Ralph. 



The silence of intense surprise fell on Cecily and 

 myself. 



" May we go too?" repeated Ralph. 



" We are going," said his fidus Achates firmly, 

 and that seemed to settle it. 



Next morning we arranged matters. We four 

 would go together to Alaska, and yet not together. 

 That is to say, in some ways the expeditions would 

 be separate, in others amalgamated. Our camps 

 should at times be one camp, at others, when it suited 

 us, they should be distinct. There should never be 

 any demanding the same hunter at the same time; 

 no seeing too much of each other. 



We bestowed the accolade of commander-in-chief 

 of the trip on the one time Leader of the opposition 

 shoot of Somaliland days, but reserved to ourselves 

 the right of vetoing any command he might make. 

 What Mrs. Grundy thought of the whole arrange- 

 ment I do not venture to say. In the wild such a 

 personage does not exist, and we only thought of 

 the wild. How it called us, how it never ceases to 

 call if once you have answered ! Besides, women 

 who have passed the rubicon of thirty let it be 

 " wropt " in mystery how long since do not need 



