Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/166

148 "Not till I have to, though!" he gasped, as he staggered on. "I'll never lie down! When I'm done, I'll fall! And when they find me, they'll know I went the limit.... A man's got to die

game!" And then—a cool current of air fanned his tortured wrists, he hurled the blazing blanket from his head, and pitched headlong onto the gravel. He was out of the bush! Dimly, before him, he could see the river. Puny and thin, after the mighty roar of the fire, sounded in his ears the cry of a child. Instantly the boy was on his feet, staggering across the gravel bar, upon the outer edge of which he could make out blurred forms. He forgot his own suffering—forgot the pain of his