und as I stood dumb. "Our little country home!"

What I saw was a small round cave, the glow of a fire under a shaft that
led all betraying smoke heaven knew where into the side of the hill, and
two spruce beds with blankets. The permanent look of the place was the
last straw on my own blind idiocy of never suspecting Macartney, and I
burst out, "Why the deuce, with all you knew, couldn't you have brought
Paulette here and hidden her?"

"Charliet said we should have." Collins nodded when I stared. "Oh, yes,
there's more to that French Canadian than just cook! He's been in the
know about us here all this time, or we'd have been in a nice hole for
grub. Mind, I don't say he's brave----"

"He was under his bed when I wanted him to-night," I agreed with some
bitterness.

"Was he?" Collins exclaimed electrically. "He was here, giving us the
office about you! He tore down and told us you'd got Hutton, and we'd
better light out and help you: but when we turned out it looked more as
if Hutton had got _you_! When you and Miss Paulette rushed out of the
kitchen door you must have run straight into an ambush of his men, and
I guess one of them landed you a swipe on the head. Anyhow, Dunn and I
met a procession with you frog-marched in the middle of it, that was
more than we could manage without guns. So we kind of retired and let
the men cork you into Thompson's stope to die. And you bet they did it.
Not six of us could have got you out, ever, if we hadn't known a private
way."

I cursed him. "My God, stop _talking_! It's not me I want to hear about.
Where was Paulette? D'ye mean you followed me and left her--left a
girl--to Macartney? I--I've got to go for her!"

But Collins caught me as I turned. "Macartney hadn't got her--she wasn't
there! We hoofed Charliet off to find her, first thing; he'll bring her
here, as soon as it's safe to make a get-away. We'd have brought her
ourselves, only the show would have been spoiled if Hutton had spotted
us. And we had to hustle, too, to get back here and waltz you out of
Thompson's mausoleum. It'll be time enough for you to go for Miss
Paulette when she doesn't turn up. You're not fit now, anyway." I felt
him staring into my face. "Had anything to eat all day, except a hard
ride and a fight?" he demanded irrelevantly, in a voice that sounded
oddly far off.

I shook my head; and the smell of coffee smote my famished nostrils as
he took a tin pot off the fire. I knew how nearly I had