for that. It was the
only mercy, she felt, that had been vouchsafed to her.

No, long before her capture, a deep undermining of regret had set in.
She had been without realisation of it, perhaps. But it had been there.
In yielding to the demands of those she served, in her self-confidence
she had forgotten the woman in her. She had forgotten everything but the
crazy ambition which had blinded her to all consequences. Yes, even in
the excitement of the work itself she had forgotten everything but the
achievement she desired. But through it all, under it all, the woman in
her had been slowly awakening, and an unadmitted regret at the
destruction of work which meant the whole life of another had been
stirring. Then, when the leading tongues of the guns had flashed out,
and human life, even the life of dogs, had yielded to the demand of her
cause, the last vestige of her dreaming had been swept away, and she
told herself it was murder, _murder at her bidding_!

Now her soul was afire with the bitterness of repentance, with
passionate self-accusation. Murder had been done through her. Murder!
The horror of it all had driven her well-nigh demented when she gazed
from the distance while the two men disposed of Arden Laval's body under
the snow. The dogs? They had been left where they fell. The living had
been cut loose from their trappings to roam the forests at their will,
while the dead had remained to satisfy the fierce hunger of the savage
forest creatures. Even the sled had been destroyed, and its wood used to
make fire that the living might endure on those pitiless northern
heights. The memory of it all was days old now, but its horror showed no
abatement. The agony was still with her. She felt that never again could
she know peace.

So she had moved away out from camp, as she had done at every stopping
they had made on the long journey from the highlands down to Sachigo.
Somehow it seemed to her impossible to do otherwise. She felt she must
hide herself from the sight of those others who were her captors, and
who, in their hearts, she felt, must deeply abhor the presence of so
vile a creature in their camp.

How long she had been standing there, while the men prepared the mid-day
meal, she did not know. It was a matter of no sort of consequence to her
anyway. Nothing really seemed of any consequence now. Her jaded mind
was obsessed by a horror she could not shake off. There was nothing,
nothing in the world to do bu