ter all," Spurling continued
sneeringly. "You've postponed it a long time; it was at Drunkman's
Shallows that you were going to do it first. Your excuse then was that
you weren't John Granger, but your baser self. You were always a good
hand at excuses. And pray who are you now?"

"Throw away that revolver," shouted Granger, in a voice that was thick
with anger.

Spurling tossed it a couple of yards away.

"No, that won't do. Throw it into the river. Don't rise to your feet;
crawl to it on your hands and knees."

Spurling looked at him surlily to see whether he dared disobey, then
did as he was commanded. There was a flash of silver as the weapon
spun through the air, a commotion of spray, as though a fish had
risen, and a distant and more distant shining as it sank down and
settled on the river-bed.

"That's right. Now let me tell you, Druce Spurling, that you're a fool
for your pains. If either you or I are to be alive this time next
year, however we may feel towards one another at present, we've got to
act as though we were friends. There'll be time enough for quarrelling
when we've seen the last of Murder Point, and have passed out over the
winter trail with our gold, and know that we are safe. Why, you fool,
we've been here nearly four months and we've already got more gold
than we can take with us; it's October, and the river may close up
almost any day."

Spurling began to mutter something about how, if it weren't for
Granger, _he'd_ be able to get out all right.

"What's that you're saying?" Granger interrupted him. "I've heard that
tale ever since we set out and I'm sick of hearing it. You fancy that
the Mounted Police think that you are dead, and have ceased to search
for you, and that I'm the man they're after now. You say that I'm
known in the district, and that you are unknown, except by that
half-breed who caught sight of you as you went by God's Voice;
therefore you argue that I am a danger, a hindrance to you. You'd like
to get rid of me, so that you may get out with the gold, in safety, by
yourself. It's the same old trick that you tried to play me in the
Klondike; you want to reach El Dorado without me. You swine! Do you
know why it is that the Mounted Police are after me? It's because I
took pity on you, remembering old times, and tried to prevent your
being hanged--that's why. And you make it an excuse for deserting me.
I've not told you that before, and I can see that you don't believe me