only an axe against his pistol I can't get that man's face out of my
memory."

Seaforth's face was somewhat awry just then. "You can tell your story
without a blush--if you think it necessary, but I have not the courage
to tell mine--and the silence may cost me very dear," he said.

Alton seemed a trifle bewildered. "When you can I'll listen, but
there's nothing you could tell me would make any difference between you
and me."

Seaforth laughed mirthlessly. "I'm glad of that, but it wasn't you I
was thinking of just then," he said. "Still it seems to me that we are
both a little off our balance this morning, and may be sorry for it
afterwards."

Alton rose up and moved somewhat stiffly towards the window, where he
leaned against the log casing, looking out greedily upon the sunlit
valley. Then he limped back to the table and rested both hands upon it.

"I figure it's because I haven't used it, but this leg doesn't feel the
same as it used to," he said. "Did it strike you that I walked kind of
stiffly?"

Seaforth knew that the moment he feared had come, but he felt his
courage fail him and turned his head aside. "I was not watching you,"
he said.

Alton, who appeared a trifle perturbed, sat down, and glanced at the
partly finished meal upon the table disgustedly. "Tell them to take
those things away, and bring me something a man can eat. Then I want
my long boots and the nicest clothes I have."

"They will not be much use to you. You're not going out for another
week, anyway."

Alton laughed a little. "Well," he said, "we'll see. Bring me a good
solid piece of venison, and take those things away."

He made an ample meal, dressed himself with wholly unusual
fastidiousness, and when Seaforth left him for a few moments strode out
of the room. One leg felt very stiff and he clutched the balustrade a
moment when he came to the head of a short stairway, then stiffened
himself, and, putting all the weight he could on the limb that was
least useful, stepped forward resolutely to descend it. His knee bent
suddenly under him, he clutched at the rails, and missed them, reeled
and lost his balance, and there was a crash as Seaforth sprang out of
his room. He was in time to see his comrade rise and lean against the
logs at the foot of the stairway very white and grim in face, and
shivered a little as he went down.

"What's the meaning of this, Charley ?" said Alton with an ominous
quietness. "I just put