"Give me your arms, Rod! There! Can you hold the gun ?" He straightened himself, staggering under the other's weight, and set off on a half-trot for the distant tamaracks.

Every muscle in his powerful young body was strained to its utmost tension.

Even more fully than his helpless burden did he realize the peril at their backs.
Three minutes, four minutes more, and then-- A terrible picture burned in Wabi's brain, a picture he had carried from boyhood of another child, torn and mangled before his very eyes by these outlaws of the North, and he shuddered.

Unless he sped those three remaining bullets true, unless that rim of tamaracks was reached in time, he knew what their fate would be.

There flashed into his mind one last resource.