et, and Spurling could not
be in very excellent condition for such a journey--to be thrown into
an out-house and left there for a fortnight, with back bent double and
arms and legs bound, is not the best kind of training.

Before doing anything rash he would talk to Peggy, and find out how
much she knew about it. Following her into the shack, he made fast the
door and threw himself on the pile of furs which had been his couch.
The lamp was not lighted, but the stove was red-hot and scattered an
angry glare. He called to her; she came to him timidly from the far
end of the room and sat down beside him. He commenced abruptly by
telling her that the man who was chained out there in the cabin was a
murderer. Did she know that? She nodded. How did she know that? She
shuddered, and pointed with her hand out of the window in the
direction of the bend.

He did not gather what she meant, but for the present he let it pass.

And did she know that there were a thousand dollars offered for
Spurling's capture? She shrugged her shoulders, and again gave her
assent. Then, raising himself on his elbow, he asked her plainly, "Is
that what Eyelids has gone to get?"

She smiled down at him as though she were owning to something worthy;
"I hope so," she said.

"Why do you hope so," he asked in a hard voice; "because of the
money?"

She drew back from him as though he had affronted her. "No, not for
that," she said, speaking slowly.

"Then why?"

"Because he is trying to take you away from me."

"And you think that when the Mounted Police have hanged him that it
will be all right, and I shall stay here?"

She did not answer him, but he knew that she was thinking of her
child. "Whether Spurling escapes or is taken," he said, "will make no
difference to my doings. I cannot stay; they are hunting for me,
because they think I also am a murderer."

She turned sharply round. "But we are doing this to save you; we
thought that you agreed and understood. When you have given them this
man, they will pardon you, and you will be allowed to stay."

"Who told you that? Was it Antoine?"

"Robert Pilgrim."

He laughed in her face. "Bah! Robert Pilgrim!" he exclaimed. "He told
you that, and you believed him! Why, you little fool, he doesn't care
a curse what happens to Spurling, whether he's caught or gets away;
it's me that he's anxious to put to death. But he couldn't have told
you that when we were in hiding on Huskies' Island, or you