s promptly swept aside.

"I tell you it don't cut any ice. I move in a week That's fixed!"

For some moments Steve became deeply absorbed again. Then the watching
man saw the decision in his eyes waver, and his lean hand move up to his
head, and its fingers pass wearily through his long hair.

Then, quite suddenly, a harsh exclamation broke from him.

"Tchah!" he cried. "What's the use?"

With a great effort he seemed to pull himself together. He raised his
eyes, and the pitiful half smile in them wrung the Scotsman's heart.

"Say, Doc, I'm--kind of glad it was you handed me--this. It's hurt you,
too. Hurt you pretty bad. Yes," he went on wearily, hopelessly, "pretty
bad. But I got to thank you. Oh, yes. I want to thank you. I mean that.
For all you've done to help me. But I can't talk about it. I just can't.
That's all. I don't guess you need to read the stuff I've written now.
You see I'll need to make another report."

"Why?"

Ross's interrogation broke from him almost before he was aware of it.

"Why?" Steve's eyes widened. Then they dropped before the questioner's
searching gaze. "Yes," he went on dully. "I'll need to make a fresh one.
There's things--Say," he cried, with sudden, almost volcanic passion.
"For God's sake, why did you get around? Why didn't you leave me to the
dog's death that was yearning for me?" He laughed harshly, mirthlessly.
"Death? There was better than that. I'd have been crazy in days. Plumb,
stark crazy. And I wouldn't have known or cared a thing."

CHAPTER XII

REINDEER

It was the hospital hut at the police headquarters at Reindeer. A
cheerless, primitive place of healing, severe but adequate, as were
most things which concerned the lives of the riders of the plains and
the trail.

Steve was in occupation of the officer's ward, with its single bed, and
its boarded floor bare of all covering and scrubbed to a chilly
whiteness. For days he had contemplated its hygienic lack of comfort.
For days his weary, ceaseless thought had battered itself against
kalsomined walls, while his body, made feverishly restless, had sought
distraction between the hard Windsor chair at the only table, and the
iron bed-cot which seemed to add to his mental sufferings.

He had met his superior. He had supported the official half hour of
congratulations upon work successfully accomplished and a fortunate
escape from disaster without a sign. He had yielded to the post doctor's
ministrations