'd have
betrayed us then."

"He sent word to us by a messenger while you were away. But, if I had
known, I shouldn't have betrayed you then, for this man seemed to be
at that time your friend."

"Then why have you done so now?"

"Because he has become your enemy and you hate him; and because there
is no other way of saving you for my child and for myself. He is
trying to take you away from me." She spoke in a fierce strained
whisper, kneeling, with her hands spread out before her, and her head
thrown back.

"You haven't saved me," he said, rising to his feet angrily; "all
you've done is to place the rope about my neck."

CHAPTER XIX

THE HAND IN THE DOORWAY

He picked up a lantern and, having lighted it, left the shack. Going
round the out-building of the store, he made his way through the snow
to the cabin where Spurling was imprisoned. As he placed the key in
the padlock, he could hear the rattle of the chains of the man inside.
Having opened the door, he halted on the threshold, afraid and ashamed
to enter. There was dead silence. Lifting the lantern above his head,
he could make out the figure of Spurling, crouched like a beast on
knees and hands, with eyes which watched him doubtfully.

"They have gone," he said.

Spurling did not answer, but followed his every movement.

"They have gone," he repeated; "but they have not gone to the
Forbidden River--they have gone in the direction of God's Voice."

Then Spurling spoke. "Thank God," he said, "for they'll hang you as
well."

Granger placed the lantern on the floor and sat himself down.
"Spurling," he said, "we both of us have some old scores to pay off;
at the present moment, I happen to have the upper hand. But this is
not the time to settle them. For instance, you have never told me the
name of the woman whom you shot in the Klondike."

Spurling broke in furiously, saying, "I have told you already, that
it was not a woman I murdered, but a man."

Granger waved him aside with his hand. "I'm not asking you her name,"
he said. "We've not got the time to quarrel, for there is still a
chance of our saving ourselves. It'll take Beorn and Eyelids at least
four days to reach God's Voice and come back. But I don't think
they'll touch at God's Voice at all; they'll skirt it and go farther
south. They won't trust Robert Pilgrim, lest he should claim a part of
the reward. If I know Eyelids, it's the thousand dollars he's after,
and he wants it all f