l pass swiftly, dear. You will be quite safe. I will be near
you and watch over you."

I reassured her, anxiously explaining how much better it would be if we
waited a little.

"One year!" she repeated, and it seemed to me her voice was toneless.
Then she turned to me in a sudden spate of passion, her face pleading,
furrowed, wretchedly sad.

"Oh, my dear, my dear, I love you better than the whole world, but I
hoped you would care enough for me to marry me now. It would have been
best, believe me. I thought you would rise to the occasion, but you've
failed me. Well, be it so, we'll wait one year."

"Yes, believe me, trust me, dear; it will be all right. I'll work for
you, slave for you, think only of you, and in twelve short months--I'll
give my whole life to make you happy."

"Will you, dear? Well, it doesn't matter now.... I've loved you."

* * * * *

All that night I wrestled with myself. I felt I ought to marry her at
once to shield her from the dangers that encompassed her. She was like a
lamb among a pack of wolves. I juggled with my conscience. I was young
and marriage to me seemed such a terribly all-important step.

Yet in the end my better nature triumphed, and ere the camp was astir I
arose. I was going to marry Berna that day. A feeling of relief came
over me. How had it ever seemed possible to delay? I was elated beyond
measure.

I hurried to tell her, I pictured her joy. I was almost breathless. Love
words trembled on my tongue tip. It seemed to me I could not bear to
wait a moment.

Then as I reached the place where they had rested I gazed unbelievingly.
A sickening sense of loss and failure crushed me.

For the scow was gone.

CHAPTER XVI

It was three days before we made a start again, and to me each day was
like a year. I chafed bitterly at the delay. Would those sacks of flour
never dry? Longingly I gazed down the big, blue Yukon and cursed the
current that was every moment carrying her farther from me. Why her
sudden departure? I had no doubt it was enforced. I dreaded danger. Then
in a while I grew calmer. I was foolish to worry. She was safe enough.
We would meet in Dawson.

At last we were under way. Once more we sped down that devious river,
now swirling under the shadow of a steep bank, now steering around a
sandspit. The scenery was hideous to me, bluffs of clay with pines
peeping over their rims, willow-fringed flats, swamps of niggerhea