ays Rocky,
when they struck that section last fall. 'Let's make a camp then,' says
Harry. An' me all the time thinkin' they was lookin' for gold. Ain't ben
a prospect pan washed the whole winter."

Linday's anger mounted. "I haven't any patience with fools. For two
cents I'd turn back."

"No you wouldn't," Daw assured him confidently. "They ain't enough grub
to turn back, an' we'll be there to-morrow. Just got to cross that last
divide an' drop down to the cabin. An' they's a better reason. You're
too far from home, an' I just naturally wouldn't let you turn back."

Exhausted as Linday was, the flash in his black eyes warned Daw that he
had overreached himself. His hand went out.

"My mistake, Doc. Forget it. I reckon I'm gettin' some cranky what of
losin' them dawgs."

III

Not one day, but three days later, the two men, after being snowed in on
the summit by a spring blizzard, staggered up to a cabin that stood in a
fat bottom beside the roaring Little Peco. Coming in from the bright
sunshine to the dark cabin, Linday observed little of its occupants. He
was no more than aware of two men and a woman. But he was not interested
in them. He went directly to the bunk where lay the injured man. The
latter was lying on his back, with eyes closed, and Linday noted the
slender stencilling of the brows and the kinky silkiness of the brown
hair. Thin and wan, the face seemed too small for the muscular neck, yet
the delicate features, despite their waste, were firmly moulded.

"What dressings have you been using?" Linday asked of the woman.

"Corrosive, sublimate, regular solution," came the answer.

He glanced quickly at her, shot an even quicker glance at the face of
the injured man, and stood erect. She breathed sharply, abruptly biting
off the respiration with an effort of will. Linday turned to the men.

"You clear out--chop wood or something. Clear out."

One of them demurred.

"This is a serious case," Linday went on. "I want to talk to his wife."

"I'm his brother," said the other.

To him the woman looked, praying him with her eyes. He nodded
reluctantly and turned toward the door.

"Me, too?" Daw queried from the bench where he had flung himself down.

"You, too."

Linday busied himself with a superficial examination of the patient
while the cabin was emptying.

"So?" he said. "So that's your Rex Strang."

She dropped her eyes to the man in the bunk as if to reassure herself of
his identity, a