flung down the shovel and devoted hours to thinking over
the position. When the pale sun began to sink behind the multicolored
peaks he came to a decision and tramped back to the shack. A meal was
awaiting him, spread on a clean white cloth. He noticed that the knives
had been cleaned, and that a bowl of water was heated ready for a wash,
which he badly needed. It was a pleasant but astonishing change. For the
first time it brought a real sense of "home." He half regretted the
decision made but an hour before, but he meant to go through with it, hurt
how it might.

"Angela," he said. "We're packing up to-morrow."

She looked at him queerly.

"Where to?"

"Dawson."

"And then----"

"The break-up is coming, and there'll be boats out to San Francisco."

"I see. We are going back?"

"That's about the size of it."

"Because you have failed?"

He tightened his lips and his eyes flashed.

"Nope. I ain't failed. I'll never let this thing beat me. I'll git gold if
I stay till I'm fifty----"

"But you said we were----"

"I kind o' got it mixed. I meant that you should go home. See here, I've
got enough dollars to get you back to England--and it's about time."

She put down her knife and fork, and he saw a queer light gathering in
her eyes. He had expected a look of joy and triumph, but it wasn't that.

"Listen," she said. "A year and a half ago you made a business deal. You
bought me, with my own consent, for fifty thousand pounds----"

"Cut that out," he muttered. "I ain't sticking to that--now."

"But I am."

"Eh!"

"That night when I escaped from you, by a mean trick, I was glad
enough--in a way. But out there, in that cruel wilderness, I came to see
that a business transaction, properly conducted, is a sacred affair. When
one buys a thing, it belongs to one until someone else can pay the price.
That's the position, isn't it?"

"Nope. I can give away my property if I wish."

"Not in this case."

"Hell I can!"

"Hell you can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because--I can't accept anything from you. Food is a different matter.
You fixed the conditions yourself--'fifty-fifty' you called it. And
that's how it stands."

He jerked his chair back and strode up and down the shack. This unexpected
swing of the pendulum upset all his arrangements. He feared she did not
understand the true state of affairs.

"Things is different--I've failed," he growled.

"_We've failed_--you mean."

"And I'm broke."

"_We'r