, John, if you knew all that I have suffered you
would pity me. God knows I've repented for what I did with drops of
blood. If I'd only thought before I acted, I might have known that I
stood to gain nothing by it. What good was the gold to me when I got
it? I could only hide it, and wealth is not wealth when you have to
keep it secret to yourself."

He paused exhausted, and fell back drooping in his chair. Granger's
pity had been aroused. "Druce," he said, "I have promised that I will
help you; you must be content with that."

Spurting clutched at his hand and pressed it to his lips. "And there
are things which you need not tell him?" he questioned. "Say that
there are things that you will not tell."

"There are things that I will not tell," Granger repeated. "I will not
tell him that I have seen you, and will refuse to give him help."

Spurling's eyes had again sought out the west and the intervening
stretch of sky, where from the east the reflected light of dawn had
already begun to spread.

"I don't like the look of it," he muttered; "I can feel that he is not
far behind. Every time I look up-river I expect to see him, a dull
brown shadow, hurrying down between the banks of white. I must be
going; while I stay I cannot rest."

So, when all had been got ready and Granger had supplied him with a
new outfit and an untired team of dogs, he accompanied him out on to
the Point where the dawn was breaking. Then he told him of a cache
which Beorn had made at the mouth of the Forbidden River, which he
might open, and from which he could get supplies if his own ran short.
He went with him a mile down the ice, that he might guide him round a
part of the trail which was rotten and unsafe to travel. At parting,
Spurling grasped his hand; pointing back to the danger spot he
whispered, "That is one of the things which you need not tell." Before
he could answer him, he had lashed up his dogs and was on his way
northwards. It was then that the thought of a final test flashed
through Granger's mind. "Spurling, Spurling," he called, "did you know
that Mordaunt was a woman and not a man?"

Whether he had heard Granger could not tell, for he did not halt or
turn his head; driving yet more furiously, urging his huskies forward
with the whip and shouting them on, he vanished round the bend.

Granger stood gazing after him, listening to the last faint echo of
his cries; then he turned slowly and walked through the half-light
back