f the whip the yellow-faced leader leapt forward in his traces. Then
he answered him and cried, "He killed the woman I loved, and he shall
pay the price though I follow him to Hell."

So far as is known, these were the last words which Strangeways ever
said.

CHAPTER VIII

THE LAST OF STRANGEWAYS

Granger returned to his shack and, closing the door, sat down beside
the stove in his accustomed place. He commenced to fill his pipe
slowly, stretching out his legs as if he were preparing for a long
night of late hours and thoughtfulness. But he could not rest, his
whole sensitiveness was listening and alert; the muscles of his body
twitched, as if rebuking him for the delay which he imposed on them.
He was expecting to hear a cry; whose cry, and called forth by what
agony, he did not dare to surmise, only he must get there before it
was too late. Somewhere between his shack and the Forbidden River he
must get before the agony began. He rose up, and putting on his capote
and snowshoes hurriedly, went out following Strangeways' trail. He had
no time to realise the folly of his action--this leaving of his store
unguarded and setting forth without an outfit at a season of the year
when, perhaps, within a week the ice would break. He did not consider
how far he might have to follow before he could hope to come up with
Strangeways; nor what Strangeways would think of and do with him if,
turning on a sudden his head, he should see the man who had lied to
him coming swiftly up behind. He would probably shoot him; but Granger
in his frenzy to save Strangeways' life did not think of that. His
brain was throbbing with this one thought, that if he did not catch
him up before he reached the Forbidden River, he would have seen the
last of him alive which any man would ever see in this world, unless
that man were Spurling.

So now there were three men spread out across the ice, two of whom
followed in the other's steps. The first man was racing to preserve
his own life, the second was pursuing to take it, and the third was
following with all his strength that he might save the pursuer's life
from danger. Of these three the last man alone had no fear of death.
The other two were so eager to live, and one of them took such delight
in life! Yet, Strangeways was rushing to his destruction as fast as
that evil yellow-faced beast, tugging at the traces with might and
main, could take him--to where beneath the ice, or in some fores