n the backs of their hunches. And his
proposition to Mercer was made on the spur of one of those moments when
the spirit of a hunch possessed him. His morning had been one of
unexpected excitement, and now he leaned back in an effort to review it
and to forget, if he could, the distressing thing that was bound to
happen to him within the next few hours. But he could not get away from
the thickening in his chest. It seemed growing on him. Now and then he
was compelled to make quite an effort to get sufficient air into his
lungs.

He found himself wondering if there was a possibility that the girl
might return. For a long time he lay thinking about her, and it struck
him as incongruous and in bad taste that fate should have left this
adventure for his last. If he had met her six months ago--or even
three--it was probable that she would so have changed the events of
life for him that he would not have got the half-breed's bullet in his
chest. He confessed the thing unblushingly. The wilderness had taken
the place of woman for him. It had claimed him, body and soul. He had
desired nothing beyond its wild freedom and its never-ending games of
chance. He had dreamed, as every man dreams, but realities and not the
dreams had been the red pulse of his life. And yet, if this girl had
come sooner--

He revisioned for himself over and over again her hair and eyes, the
slimness of her as she had stood at the window, the freedom and
strength of that slender body, the poise of her exquisite head, and he
felt again the thrill of her hand and the still more wonderful thrill
of her lips as she had pressed them warmly upon his.

AND SHE WAS OF THE NORTH! That was the thought that overwhelmed him. He
did not permit himself to believe that she might have told him an
untruth. He was confident, if he lived until tomorrow, that Mercer
would corroborate his faith in her. He had never heard of a place
called the Valley of Silent Men, but it was a big country, and Fort
Simpson with its Hudson Bay Company's post and its half-dozen shacks
was a thousand miles away. He was not sure that such a place as that
valley really existed. It was easier to believe that the girl's home
was at Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Fort Good Hope, or even at Fort
McPherson. It was not difficult for him to picture her as the daughter
of one of the factor lords of the North. Yet this, upon closer
consideration, he gave up as unreasonable. The word "Fort" did not
sta