ing stroll, and suddenly laughed as he saw me glance at
his stockinged feet. "By golly, I've left my boots in the shack, and I
haven't any others--but it was worth a pair of boots! I stubbed my toe
on Miss Wilbraham's little revolver she must have dropped on the passage
floor, and I've got it. Also, let alone her lost toy-dog gun, I got all
her ammunition and her rifle, while she was grabbing in Miss Paulette's
trunk.

"'Taffy went to my house,
Thought I was asleep.
I went to Taffy's house,
And stole a side of beef'

--as I learned when I was young. Come on, Stretton; I bet we'll be
top-sides with Macartney-Hutton yet!"

"He's out, looking for me----" but Paulette's sentence broke in a gasp.
"Why, it's Collins!" She stared incredulously in the candlelight.

"Just that," imperturbably. "Stretton can tell you all about me
presently, Miss Paulette. For now I imagine you'd sooner see a fire and
something to eat. Put her in between us, Stretton, Indian file, and
we'll take her down."

Women are queer things. Tatiana Paulina Valenka had tramped the bush
most of the day before looking for a dead man, had found him--a sight no
girl should have looked on; had run for more than her life with me, and
been through God knew what since; and she walked down that unknown, dark
passage with Collins and me as if nothing had ever happened to her. She
greeted Dunn, too; and then, as he and Collins disappeared to fetch down
our snowshoes and rifle, went straight to pieces where she and I stood
safe by their fire. "Oh, oh, oh, I thought you were dead! I saw them get
you. I can't believe--can't believe----" she gasped out in jerks, as if
she fought for her very breath, and suddenly dropped flat on Dunn's old
blanket. "Oh, Nicky," she moaned, "don't let me faint--now. _Nicky!_"

There was something in her voice--I don't know--but it made me dizzy
with sheer, clear joy. She had said my name as if I were the one man in
the world for her, as if I had risen from the dead. But I dared not say
so. I knew better than even to lift her head where she lay with closed
eyes on Dunn's blanket, but I got Collins's old tin cup to her lips
somehow and made her drink his strong coffee till it set her blood
running, as it had set mine. After a minute she sat up dizzily, but she
pushed away my bread and meat. "Presently--I'd be sick now," she
whispered. "How did you get--out of Thompson's stope? And where--I mean
I can't understand, a