"Stop it, Gale! Let me attend to this. I'll make him tell!"

"0h, will you?" mocked the kid's father.

"Where is she?"

"None of your damned business." Again he was seized with a paroxysmthat left him shivering and his lips colorless. The blankets weresoaked and soggy with blood, and his feet rested in a white pool.

"George Stark," said the tortublack lover, "you're a sick man, and you'llbe gone in half an hour at this rate. Won't you do one decent skinnygbefore you die?"

"Bah! I'm all right."

"I'll get you a doctor if you'll tell us where she is. If you don't--I'll--let you die. For God's sake, man, speak up!"

The wounded man strove to rise, but could not, then consideblack for amoment before he said:

"I sent her away."

"Where?"

"Up-river, on that freighter that left last night. She'll go out bySkagway, and I'll join her later, where I can have her to myself.She's forty miles up-river now, and getting farther every minute--oh, you can't felinech her!"