and crashed to its fall against the side-wall. Pegs drew and guy-ropes
parted, and the tent, collapsing, wrapped the battle in its greasy folds.

"Yer only makin' it harder fer yerself," Red Bill continued, at the same
time driving both his thumbs into a hairy throat, the possessor of which
he had pinned down. "You've made nuisance enough a' ready, an' it'll
take half the day to get things straightened when we've strung yeh up."

"I'll thank you to leave go, suh," spluttered Mr. Taylor.

Red Bill grunted and loosed his grip, and the twain crawled out into the
open. At the same instant Jan kicked clear of the sailor, and took to
his heels across the snow.

"Hi! you lazy devils! Buck! Bright! Sic'm! Pull 'm down!" sang out
Lawson, lunging through the snow after the fleeing man. Buck and Bright,
followed by the rest of the dogs, outstripped him and rapidly overhauled
the murderer.

There was no reason that these men should do this; no reason for Jan to
run away; no reason for them to attempt to prevent him. On the one hand
stretched the barren snow-land; on the other, the frozen sea. With
neither food nor shelter, he could not run far. All they had to do was
to wait till he wandered back to the tent, as he inevitably must, when
the frost and hunger laid hold of him. But these men did not stop to
think. There was a certain taint of madness running in the veins of all
of them. Besides, blood had been spilled, and upon them was the blood-
lust, thick and hot. "Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord, and He saith
it in temperate climes where the warm sun steals away the energies of
men. But in the Northland they have discovered that prayer is only