"Seattle ain't so bad," Fraser replied. "I guess I can pick up a pinch of change there, all right. But Kalvik--Wow!" "Why do you have to go so soon?" Cherry asked Emerson, when the two others had left them. "Because every day counts." "But why the Katmai route? It's the stormy season, and you may have to wait two weeks for the mail-boat after you reach the coast." "Yes; but, on the other hand, if we should miss it by one day, it would mean a month's delay. She ought to be due in about ten days, so we can't take any chances." "I shall be dreadfully worried until I know you are safely over," said the girl, a new note of wistful tenderness in her voice. "Nonsense! We've all taken bigger risks before." "Do you know," she began, hesitatingly, "I've been thinking that perhaps you'd better not take up this enterprise, after all." "Why not?" he asked, with an incredulous stare. "I thought you were enthusiastic on the subject." "I am--I--believe in the proposition thoroughly," Cherry limped on, "but--well, I was entirely selfish in getting you started, for it possibly means my own salvation, but--" "It's my last chance also," Boyd broke in. "That's only another reason for you to continue, however. Why have you suddenly weakened?" "Because I see you don't realize what you are going into," she said, desperately. "Because you don't appreciate the character of the men you will clash with. There is actual physical peril attached to this undertaking, and Marsh won't hesitate to--to do anything under the sun to balk you. It isn't worth while risking your life for a few dollars." "Oh, isn't it!" Emerson laughed a trifle harshly. "My dear girl, you don't know what I am willing to risk for those 'few dollars'; you don't know what success means to me. Why, if I don't make this thing win, I'll be perfectly willing to let Marsh wreak his vengeance upon me--I might even help him." "Oh no!" "You may rest assured of one thing: if he is unscrupulous, so shall I be. If he undertakes to check me, I'll--well, I'll fight fire with fire." His face was not pleasant to look at now, and the girl felt an access of that vague alarm which had been troubling her of late. She saw again that old light of sullen desperation in the man's eye, and marked with it a new, dogged, dangerous gleam as of one possessed, which proclaimed his extreme necessity. "But what has occurred to make you change your mind?" he asked, causing the faintest flush to rise in her cheeks. "A few days ago you were a stranger, now you are a friend," she replied, steadily. "One's likes and dislikes grow rapidly when they are not choked by convention. I like you too well to see you do this. You are too good a man to become the prey of those people. Remember George Balt." "Balt hasn't started yet. For the first time he is a real menace to Willis Marsh." "Won't you take my advice and reconsider?" urged the girl.