t give you
up! If you do not wish to come, we will stay. I will stay with you. The
world is less to me than are you. I will be a Northland wife to you. I
will cook your food, feed your dogs, break trail for you, lift a paddle
with you. I can do it. Believe me, I am strong."

Nor did he doubt it, looking upon her and holding her off from him; but
his face had grown stern and gray, and the warmth had died out of his
eyes.

"I will pay off Pierre and the boatmen, and let them go. And I will stay
with you, priest or no priest, minister or no minister; go with you, now,
anywhere! Dave! Dave! Listen to me! You say I did you wrong in the
past--and I did--let me make up for it, let me atone. If I did not
rightly measure love before, let me show that I can now."

She sank to the floor and threw her arms about his knees, sobbing. "And
you _do_ care for me. You _do_ care for me. Think! The long years I
have waited, suffered! You can never know!" He stooped and raised her
to her feet.

"Listen," he commanded, opening the door and lifting her bodily outside.
"It cannot be. We are not alone to be considered. You must go. I wish
you a safe journey. You will find it tougher work when you get up by the
Sixty Mile, but you have the best boatmen in the world, and will get
through all right. Will you say good-by?"

Though she already had herself in hand, she looked at him hopelessly.
"If--if--if Winapie should--" She quavered and stopped.

But he grasped the unspoken thought, and answered, "Yes." Then struck
with the enormity of it, "It cannot be conceived. There is no
likelihood. It must not be entertained."

"Kiss me," she whispered, her face lighting. Then she turned and went
away.

* * * * *

"Break camp, Pierre," she said to the boatman, who alone had remained
awake against her return. "We must be going."

By the firelight his sharp eyes scanned the woe in her face, but he
received the extraordinary command as though it were the most usual thing
in the world. "_Oui, madame_," he assented. "Which way? Dawson?"

"No," she answered, lightly enough; "up; out; Dyea."

Whereat he fell upon the sleeping _voyageurs_, kicking them, grunting,
from their blankets, and buckling them down to the work, the while his
voice, vibrant with action, shrilling through all the camp. In a trice
Mrs. Sayther's tiny tent had been struck, pots and pans were being
gathered up, blankets rolled, and the men stagger