Excerpt: ...Croisset leaned down with his black eyes gleaming like coals. "Do you know what I would do if I was her, M'seur?" he said in a low voice, and yet one filled with a threat which stilled the words of passion which the engineer was on the point of uttering. "Do you know what I would do? I would kill you--kill you inch by inch--torture you. That is what I would do." "For God's sake, Croisset, tell me why--why--" Croisset had found Howland's pistol and freed his hands, and the engineer stretched them out entreatingly ...
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Excerpt: ...Croisset leaned down with his black eyes gleaming like coals. "Do you know what I would do if I was her, M'seur?" he said in a low voice, and yet one filled with a threat which stilled the words of passion which the engineer was on the point of uttering. "Do you know what I would do? I would kill you--kill you inch by inch--torture you. That is what I would do." "For God's sake, Croisset, tell me why--why--" Croisset had found Howland's pistol and freed his hands, and the engineer stretched them out entreatingly. "I would give my life for that girl, Croisset. I told her so back there, and she came to me when I was in the snow and--" He caught himself, adding to what he had left incomplete. "There is a mistake, Croisset. I am not the man they want to kill!" Croisset was smiling at him again. "Smoke--and think, M'seur. It is impossible for me to tell you why you should be dead--but you ought to know, unless your memory is shorter than a child's." He went to the dogs, stirring them up with the cracking of his whip, and when Howland turned to look back he saw a bright flare of light where the other sledge had stopped. A man's voice came from the farther gloom, calling to Croisset in French. "He tells me I am to take you on alone," said Croisset, after he had replied to the words spoken in a patois which Howland could not understand. "They will join us again very soon." "They!" exclaimed Howland. "How many will it take to kill me, my dear Croisset?" The half-breed smiled down into his face again. "You may thank the Blessed Virgin that they are with us," he replied softly. "If you have any hope outside of Heaven, M'seur, it is on that sledge behind." As he went again to the dogs, straightening the leader in his traces, Howland stared back at the firelit space in the forest gloom. He could see a man adding fuel to the blaze, and beyond...
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