e goes."

"Our company aren't good enough, eh? Then off you goes."

"Very well," said the young man, rising quickly; "but there is no need
for a quarrel. I will go at once, and I thank you for what you have
done."

"But we haven't done yet," cried the man addressed as Leggy. "Now,
boys."

There was a sudden rush, and in an instant the young fellow was seized
and thrown upon his face; then, in spite of his desperate struggles, he
was turned over, his weapon seized, and everything of value dragged from
his pockets.

"Quiet!" snarled the leader in the attack, "or I'll soon quiet you."

"You dogs! You scoundrels! Help! Thieves!"

"Louder, my lad, louder. Call police: there's some over yonder in
Canady. Haul off that fur coat, lads. It'll just fit me, and I'll have
his cap and gloves. That's right. Now then, my whippersnapper, off you
go!"

Set free, the young man, in spite of his bubbling rage, felt the madness
of further resistance, and the uselessness of wasting breath; so he
sprang to his sledge, to begin lashing it fast with the rope.

"Hands off there!" roared the chief scoundrel, taking aim at him. "Now
then, run for it, and get yourself warm before we begin to shoot."

"I'm going," panted the victim, "but I must fasten up my traps."

"You ain't got no traps. They're ourn," cried the man. "We give you a
chance for your life, so cut at once."

"What! Send me away like this?" cried the young man, aghast. "It's
murder! Let me have my blankets, man."

"Run!" shouted the scoundrel, and he shook his pistol.

"You coward!" cried the victim.

"Run!" was roared again.

Feeling that the gang into whose hands he had fallen probably meant to
hide their crime by silencing him for ever, the victim turned and ran
for his life, and as he ran he felt a sharp pang in the arm.

A heavy fall checked the victim's panic flight, and as he lay panting
and wet with the perspiration which had started from every pore, he
realised that one of the bullets had taken effect, ploughing his left
arm, which throbbed as if being seared with a red-hot iron.

But the bodily agony was as nothing to the mental anguish which he
suffered. Death was before him if he lay there--death in a painless,
insidious form, no doubt; but still, death in all its horror to one so
young and strong.

He knew that he must rise and keep moving if he wished to prolong his
existence, and he rose to his feet, raging now against the cowar