I left him ten miles back there in the snow." He closed his eyes with a groan of pain and continued, after a moment, "Pierre and I have been trapping foxes.

We were coming back with supplies to last us until late spring when--it happened.

The white man's name is Dobson, and there's a breed with him.

Their shack is six or seven miles up the creek." Philip saw the doctor examining a revolver which he had taken from the pocket of his big coat.

He came over to the bunkside with it in his hand.
"That's enough, Phil," he said softly.