of abuse.

Big Jack laughed a harsh note.

"You fools!" he said. "Both of you. What do you think you're going to
do so big? She's given us an answer sooner than we expected, that's
all. If she prefers a cook to a man, that's her affair. All we got to
do is shut up. I'm going back to the shack."

They would not confess the reasonableness of Jack's words. "Go where
you like," muttered Shand. "I'll stick by myself."

Jack strode back along the path. Joe followed him, merely because he
was one of those natures who will choose an enemy's company sooner
than face the prospect of being left with his own.

They left Shand to his own devices. Husky greeted them with eager
questions. Joe cursed him, and Jack clenched his teeth upon the stem
of his pipe in grim silence.

They revived the fire and sat in front of it. Each man was jealous of
his own rage and pain and refused to share it. Joe and Husky bickered
in a futile way. Big Jack, in spite of his philosophic protestations,
kept the tail of an eye on the whitening window-pane. In the end he
rose abruptly. Joe followed suit as a matter of course.

Jack turned on him, snarling. "Have I got to be followed by you like a
dog everywhere I go?"

"What's the matter with you?" retorted Joe. "Do you own the whole out
of doors?"

Jack halted outside the door. "You take one way; I'll go the other,"
he said grimly.

Jack returned to the creek, and crossing on the stepping-stones walked
out on the point beyond and sat down on a boulder. From here he could
see a long way down the lake shore.

At this season in the latitude of Caribou night is brief. The sun
sinks but a little way below the horizon, and a faint glow hovers over
his head all night, travelling around the northern horizon to the
east, where it heralds his reappearance.

It was light in the east now and the lake was stepping into view. Big
Jack searched its misty expanse with his keen little eyes.

By and by as the light strengthened, looking down-shore he saw a tiny,
dark object steal beyond the next point and become silhouetted against
the grey. There could be no doubt of what it was. The lust of pursuit
flamed up in the man's heart. He forgot his prudent advice to his
mates.

"Making for the foot of the lake," he thought. "And the wind's against
them. It's rising. I could easy ride around the shore and cut them
off."

He got up and made his way with energetic action back to the stable.

He had no sooner p