ened, his flesh blanched and a visible
trembling seized his limbs.

"What do you want?" he contrived to stammer.

Strong disgust seized Garth again; so despicable an adversary shamed his
own manhood. He shifted his gun significantly.

"Get up!" he said.

Mabyn dragged himself to his hands and knees. It was some moments before
he could control himself sufficiently to stand upright.

"What are you going to do with me?" he kept muttering.

Garth stepped backward. "Come outside!" he commanded.

Mabyn obeyed, making a circuit of the walls for support. His eyes were
always riveted on the gun; and however slightly it was moved, he
experienced a fresh spasm of fear.

"Face about!" ordered Garth; "and walk to the mouth of the creek!"

Mabyn became even paler. His skin was like white paper on which ashes
have been rubbed, leaving streaks and patches of gray. "Would you shoot
me in the back?" he said shrilly. "An unarmed man! I will not turn my
back!"

"Then walk backward!" said Garth, with his laconic start of laughter.

Mabyn went like a crab down the rise, with his head over his shoulder, a
ludicrous and deplorable figure. He was unable to drag his eyes from the
gun, consequently he stumbled and lurched over every obstacle. Once he
fell flat; and a sharp scream of fright was forced from him. Garth
sickened at the sight, while he laughed. He had to give him a minute in
which to recover himself.

Mabyn, scarcely coherent, ceaselessly begged for mercy. "Do not kill
me!" he whimpered. "I _can't_ die! Oh, God! Not like this! I never had a
chance! You kill Natalie if you kill me--the breed will fix her!--and my
mother! You'll have three murders on your soul! I _can't_ die yet!"

"Get up!" commanded Garth.

Reaching the edge of the water, he ordered him into the dugout.

Mabyn fell on his knees on the stones. "Not in the water! Not in the
water!" he shrilled. "Kill me here!"

"No one is going to kill you," said Garth with scornful patience. "Do
what you're told, and you'll not be hurt!"

Mabyn darted a furtive look of hope and suspicion in Garth's face. He
got up.

"What are you going to do with me?" he muttered.

"Put you on the island," said Garth coolly.

"I'll starve," he whined.

"Food will be brought you regularly, as long as you obey orders," said
Garth.

Mabyn, his extreme terror subsiding, showed an inclination to temporize.
"Let me get a few things," he begged. His eyes wandered to the hill over