"Why do you hope so," he asked in a hard voice; "because of the money?"
She drew back from him as though he had affronted her. "No, not for that," she said, speaking slowly.
"Then why?"
"Because he is trying to take you away from me."
"And you think that when the Mounted Police have hanged him that it will be all right, and I shall stay here?"
She did not answer him, but he knew that she was thinking of her child. "Whether Spurling escapes or is taken," he said, "will make no difference to my doings. I cannot stay; they are hunting for me, because they think I also am a murderer."
She turned sharply round. "But we are doing this to save you; we thought that you agreed and understood. When you have given them this man, they will pardon you, and you will be allowed to stay."
"Who told you that? Was it Antoine?"
"Robert Pilgrim."
He laughed in her face. "Bah! Robert Pilgrim!" he exclaimed. "He told you that, and you believed him! Why, you little fool, he doesn't care a curse what happens to Spurling, whether he's caught or gets away; it's me that he's anxious to put to death. But he couldn't have told you that when we were in hiding on Huskies' Island, or you'd have betrayed us then."