to
learn for two years. It was this man--Blake--who was the mysterious
white leader of the Kogmollocks, and responsible for the growing
criminal record of the natives along Coronation Gulf. And he had just
confessed himself the murderer of Olaf Anderson! His finger trembled
for an instant against the trigger of his revolver. Then, staring into
Blake's face, he slowly lowered the weapon until it hung at his side.
Blake's eyes gleamed as he saw what he thought was his triumph.

"IT'S your one chance," he urged. "And there ain't no time to lose."

Philip had judged his man, and now he prayed for the precious minutes
in which to play out his game. The Kogmollocks who had taken up their
trail could not be far from the cabin now.

"Maybe you're right, Blake," he said hesitatingly. "I think, after her
experience with Bram Johnson that she is about willing to return to her
father. Where is he?"

Blake made no effort to disguise his eagerness. In the droop of
Philip's shoulder, the laxness of the hand that held the revolver and
the change in his voice Blake saw in his captor an apparent desire to
get out of the mess he was in. A glimpse of Celie's frightened face
turned for an instant from the door gave weight to his conviction.

"He's down the Coppermine--about a hundred miles. So, Bram Johnson--"

His eyes were a sudden blaze of fire.

"Took care of her until your little rats waylaid him on the trail and
murdered him," interrupted Philip. "See here, Blake. You be square with
me and I'll be square with you. I haven't been able to understand a
word of her lingo and I'm curious to know a thing or two before I go.
Tell me who she is, and why you haven't killed her father, and what
you're going to do with her and I won't waste another minute."

Blake leaned forward until Philip felt the heat of his breath.

"What do I WANT of her?" he demanded slowly. "Why, if you'd been five
years without sight of a white woman, an' then you woke up one morning
to meet an angel like HER on the trail two thousand miles up in nowhere
what would you want of her? I was stunned, plumb stunned, or I'd had
her then. And after that, if it hadn't been for that devil with his
wolves--"

"Bram ran away with her just as you were about to get her into your
hands," supplied Philip, fighting to save time. "She didn't even know
that you wanted her, Blake, so far as I can find out. It's all a
mystery to her. I don't believe she's guessed the truth even