"I want
to go to him. You have no right to keep me here."

"But you don't even know where he is," Jarrold reminded her slyly.

Brodie and Benny had given over their whispering and came back to the
fire, where Brail and the Italian looked up at them sharply. Here was
another guarded conference among the four; Gloria, though she could
watch them, was unable to hear what they were saying. Jarrold began to
grow uneasy, so soon is distrust bred amongst those who have found
treasure.

Brodie made a last remark and laughed; the others laughed after him, and
the four looked toward Jarrold and Gloria. Brodie, leaning back, caught
up a bottle and drank, and thereafter passed the bottle to the man
nearest him. Gloria was quick to see that he had set his rifle away
somewhere against the rock wall in the shadows. Only Brail still clung
to his gun; if he should set it aside--if there should come a moment
when she could slip to the cave's mouth--in the outside dark, despite
the deep snow, she would at least have a chance to escape from them.
Even though she had nowhere to go, she longed wildly to be away from
them. When their eyes roved toward her she thought that she would rather
be dead, out in the clean, white snow, than here.

She wondered if these men were as utterly callous as they seemed.
Gratton, so newly dead, appeared forgotten. They laughed and drank, they
smoked and spat, they soiled her with their eyes and their talk, quite
as though they had neither knowledge nor memory of manslaughter done.
Benny alone, for a brief period, appeared nervous. She wondered what he
was doing; he had rolled back his coat-sleeve; he was jabbing at his
bare forearm with something which now and then caught and reflected the
firelight. After a long time she heard a long sigh from Benny; he pulled
down his coat-sleeve. The others laughed again.

"It's time we had a little talk," said Brodie out of a short silence.
"Without anybody's skirt listening in. Leave her back there, further
from the front door, Jarrold. Where she can't get an earful, and where
she can't make a getaway; you come on over here a minute."

Gloria made no resistance but sank down limply where Jarrold left her
and watched him as he slouched over to the fire. She sought to hear
their words, to read the looks on their faces. But she caught only a
monotonous mutter, unintelligible but evil, and saw only the bottle
passing from one to the other. Brodie finished it and hurled