or himself. Their purpose is to go on until they
meet the winter patrol, so that they may be able to give direct
information to the Mounted Police themselves. Now before they do that,
a good deal of time may be lost, for the winter patrol has hardly
started as yet, and it may go in a new direction so that they'll miss
it at first. With the best of luck, they'll have to travel three
hundred miles, a ten days' journey, before they fall in with it. While
they're searching for it, we shall be able to slip by them and get
out. If you'll promise to stand by me I'll release you. If you won't,
I shall leave you here and go on myself. But I warn you fairly, no
man, unless he leaves the gold behind him, can make that journey by
himself with any hope of surviving. Our last chance, whether we want
to reach El Dorado or merely to save our lives, is to stick together
and persuade ourselves that we are friends."

"I'll stand by you," Spurling said; "I'm no more anxious to die by the
rope or starvation than you are yourself. But what are we to do with
the half-breed woman--your wife? To leave her behind us, free to go
where she chooses, would be suicide."

Granger eyed him angrily, for he did not like the sinister whisper in
which he had asked that question. He might just as well have said,
"Shall I shoot her while you go outside and scrape out her grave?" But
to have paid attention to it just then would have brought them to high
words at the outset; so he said, "We can't take her with us, for she
is soon to have a child. But I think, when I have explained things to
her, she'll give us her promise to keep our secret, and we shall be
able to trust her word."

"Humph! You think that? Well, knock off these chains."

Granger brought the lantern nearer and was stooping to his work, when
Spurling stopped him, laying his hand upon his shoulder. "Hist! What's
that?" he said. Granger listened. He could distinctly hear the crunch
of footsteps on the snow, moving stealthily away from the cabin.
Running to the door, he caught sight of a woman's skirt, disappearing
round the corner of the store, and recognised the shadow which was
flung behind as Peggy's. She must have heard all that they had said.

Spurling waited till his chains were off and he was able to stand
upright, a free man. Then he asked significantly, "And now what are
you going to do with her?"

"That is my business," Granger retorted hotly.

"But I think that it is also mine."