to the Yukon in a golden
shower. Porportuk seized her wrist as she thrust the scoop a second time
into the heap.

"It is mine," she said calmly. Porportuk released his grip, but he
gritted his teeth and scowled darkly as she continued to scoop the gold
into the river till none was left.

The crowd had eyes for naught but Akoon, and the rifle of Porportuk's man
lay across the hollow of his arm, the muzzle directed at Akoon a yard
away, the man's thumb on the hammer. But Akoon did nothing.

"Make out the bill of sale," Porportuk said grimly.

And Tommy made out the till of sale, wherein all right and title in the
woman El-Soo was vested in the man Porportuk. El-Soo signed the
document, and Porportuk folded it and put it away in his pouch. Suddenly
his eyes flashed, and in sudden speech he addressed El-Soo.

"But it was not your father's debt," he said, "What I paid was the price
for you. Your sale is business of to-day and not of last year and the
years before. The ounces paid for you will buy at the post to-day
seventeen dollars of flour, and not sixteen. I have lost a dollar on
each ounce. I have lost six hundred and twenty-five dollars."

El-Soo thought for a moment, and saw the error she had made. She smiled,
and then she laughed.

"You are right," she laughed, "I made a mistake. But it is too late. You
have paid, and the gold is gone. You did not think quick. It is your
loss. Your wit is slow these days, Porportuk. You are getting old."

He did not answer. He glanced uneasily at Akoon, and was reassured. His
lips tightened, and a hint of cruelty came into his face. "Come," he
said, "we will go to my house."

"Do you remember the two things I told you in the spring?" El-Soo asked,
making no movement to accompany him.

"My head would be full with the things women say, did I heed them," he
answered.

"I told you that you would be paid," El-Soo went on carefully. "And I
told you that I would never be your wife."

"But that was before the bill of sale." Porportuk crackled the paper
between his fingers inside the pouch. "I have bought you before all the
world. You belong to me. You will not deny that you belong to me."

"I belong to you," El-Soo said steadily.

"I own you."

"You own me."

Porportuk's voice rose slightly and triumphantly. "As a dog, I own you."

"As a dog you own me," El-Soo continued calmly. "But, Porportuk, you
forget the thing I told you. Had any other man