re you mad?"

"I was almost mad, when I first made the discovery," said Gregson, as
cold as ice. "But I am sane now. His scheme was to have the government
annul your provisional license. Thorpe and his men were to destroy this
camp, and kill you. The money on hand from stock, over six hundred
thousand dollars, would have gone into Brokaw's pockets. There is no
need of further detail--now--for you can understand. He knew Thorpe,
and secured him as his agent. It was merely a whim of Thorpe's to take
the name of Lord Fitzhugh instead of something less conspicuous. Three
months before Brokaw came to Churchill he wished to get detailed
instructions to Thorpe which he dared not trust to a wilderness mail
service. He could find no messenger whom he dared trust. So he sent
Eileen. She was at Fort o' God for a week. Then she came to Churchill,
where we saw her. The scheme was that Brokaw should bribe the ship's
captain to run close into Blind Eskimo Point, at night, and signal to
Thorpe and Eileen, who would be waiting. It worked, and Eileen and
Thorpe came on with the ship. At the landing--you remember--Eileen was
met by the girl from Fort o' God. In order not to betray herself to you
she refused to recognize her. Later she told her father, and Thorpe and
Brokaw saw in it an opportunity to strike a first blow. Brokaw had
brought two men whom he could trust, and Thorpe had four or five others
at Churchill. The attack on the cliff followed, the object being to
kill the man, but take the girl unharmed, A messenger was to take the
news of what happened to Fort o' God, and lay the crime to men who had
run up to Churchill from your camp. Chance favored you that night, and
you spoiled their plan. Chance favored me, and I found Eileen. It is
useless for me to go into detail as to what happened after that, except
to say this--that Eileen knew nothing of the proposed attack, that she
was ignorant of the heinousness of the plot against you, and that she
was almost as much a tool of her father as you. Phil--"

For the first time there came a pleading light into Gregson's eyes as
he leaned across the table.

"Phil, if it wasn't for Eileen I would not be here. I thought that she
would kill herself when I told her as much of the story as I knew. She
told me what she had done; she confessed for her father. In that hour
of her agony I could not keep back my love. We plotted. I forged a
letter, and made it possible to accompany Brokaw and Eile