From out in the night it was answered by the sharp
barking of a dog and the shout of a second voice.
"Why should I go?" he asked. "I told you a few moments ago that I had
come prepared to fight, Meleese. I shall stay--and fight!"
"Please--please go!" she sobbed, striving to pull him nearer to the
window. "You can get away in the storm. The snow will cover your trail.
If you stay they will kill you--kill you--"
"I prefer to fight and be killed rather than to run away without you,"
he interrupted. "If you will go--"
She crushed herself against his breast.
"I can't go--now--this way--" she urged. "But I will come to you. I
promise that--I will come to you." For an instant her hands clasped his
face. "Will you go--if I promise you that?"
"You swear that you will follow me--that you will come down to the
Wekusko? My God, are you telling me the truth, Meleese?"
"Yes, yes, I will come to you--if you go now." She broke from him and he
heard her fumbling at the window. "I will come--I will come--but not to
Wekusko. They will follow you there. Go back to Prince Albert--to the
hotel where I looked at you through the window. I will come
there--sometime--as soon as I can--"
A blast of cold air swept into his face.
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