out just then,
but he wasn't anxious for Angela to be conscious of that desire.

"Did you get me?--get out!"

Meredith fidgeted. Then to his horror Angela said slowly:

"I beg that you will stay, Mr. Meredith."

The latter began to retreat to the settee. But he never got there. He felt
a hand of steel grip him by the shoulder, and looked round to find a pair
of infuriated eyes blazing down on him.

"You ain't wanted here, you dirty tinhorn!" yelled Jim. He ran him to the
door, opened it, and then shot him into the passage. When he came back
Angela was standing exactly in the same place. Her face was white with
indignation.

"How dare you--you brute!" she said. "I'll have you put out!"

"Sit down!" thundered Jim.

It was the first time he had ever addressed her in that way and she felt
decidedly uncomfortable. She dropped leisurely on to a chair.

"Now then, listen! I've got my wind back agin. Oh, I ain't going to
start--recriminations--_some_ word, that! It's plain business between me
and you. In the first place, we're broke. Did you git that?"

"What!"

"Stoney--clean bust. Wal, money never did cut much ice with me, but it did
with you. You've squandered a hell of a lot of money on things that didn't
matter, and now here's old man Ruin come to say How-do."

Angela regarded him in astonishment.

"You mean to say--you've lost all your money?"

"Oh no. I only lost some of it. You lost the other. Don't talk. I don't
suppose you have any notion of what you've spent in less than six months.
Anyway, it's done, and squealing won't help matters.... I jest came to
tell you to pack up. Me and you's going to make some more money."

She jumped up.

"What are you talking about?"

"You will pack a box or two with things that are essential for a trip to
Alaska."

"Alaska!"

"Jest that. We're joining the stampede--you and me. I'll call for you
to-morrow morning at ten. Stampedes don't allow for no waste time. First
come first served."

She suddenly burst into laughter. The whole thing was so ridiculous. He
imagined she was going to accompany him into the frozen wastes of Alaska
to dig gold. It was excruciatingly funny. But when she looked again at him
she didn't feel like repeating the laugh. She had never seen such fixity
of purpose in any man's expression. He seemed to have added more inches to
his colossal height.

"You must be mad!" she said. "I'm sorry you have lost the money, but----"

"You'll be read