dden hell. They swayed backward and forward,
panted, sweated, like some cyclopean, many-legged monster rising from the
lower deeps. The slush-lamp went over, drowned in its own fat, while the
midday twilight scarce percolated through the dirty canvas of the tent.

"For the love of Gawd, Jan, get yer senses back!" pleaded Red Bill. "We
ain't goin' to hurt yeh, 'r kill yeh, 'r anythin' of that sort. Jes'
want to hang yeh, that's all, an' you a-messin' round an' rampagin'
somethin' terrible. To think of travellin' trail together an' then bein'
treated this-a way. Wouldn't 'bleeved it of yeh, Jan!"

"He's got too much steerage-way. Grab holt his legs, Taylor, and heave'm
over!"

"Yes, suh, Mistah Lawson. Do you press youah weight above, after I give
the word." The Kentuckian groped about him in the murky darkness. "Now,
suh, now is the accepted time!"

There was a great surge, and a quarter of a ton of human flesh tottered
and crashed to its fall against the side-wall. Pegs drew and guy-ropes
parted, and the tent, collapsing, wrapped the battle in its greasy folds.

"Yer only makin' it harder fer yerself," Red Bill continued, at the same
time driving both his thumbs into a hairy throat, the possessor of which
he had pinned down. "You've made nuisance enough a' ready, an' it'll
take half the day to get things straightened when we've strung yeh up."

"I'll thank you to leave go, suh," spluttered Mr. Taylor.

Red Bill grunted and loosed his grip, and the twain crawled out into the
open. At the same instant Jan kicked clear of the sailor, and took to
his heels across the snow.

"Hi! you lazy devils! Buck! Bright! Sic'm! Pull 'm down!" sang out
Lawson, lunging through the snow after the fleeing man. Buck and Bright,
followed by the rest of the dogs, outstripped him and rapidly overhauled
the murderer.

There was no reason that these men should do this; no reason for Jan to
run away; no reason for them to attempt to prevent him. On the one hand
stretched the barren snow-land; on the other, the frozen sea. With
neither food nor shelter, he could not run far. All they had to do was
to wait till he wandered back to the tent, as he inevitably must, when
the frost and hunger laid hold of him. But these men did not stop to
think. There was a certain taint of madness running in the veins of all
of them. Besides, blood had been spilled, and upon them was the blood-
lust, thick and hot. "Vengeance is mine