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Rh "Of what? Wasn't I all right when you left me here this morning?"

She looked strangely at him.

"I did not leave you here this morning, Alan. I wasn't here"

"You were not" he stammered. "Then who?"

"Judith," she stated with conviction.

"Impossible! You don't understand."

The girl shook her head. "Yet I know Judith was here until this morning. I tell you I know! She passed us in a canoe a few hours ago while we watched in hiding. And one of her guides told mine she was here with you. She had sent him to South Portage for quinine. He stopped there to get drunk, and that's how my guide managed to worm the information from him."

"I don't understand." Alan passed a hand across his eyes.

The report of a rifle interrupted him. At this, clutching frantically at his arm, the girl drew him away toward the river.

"Oh, come!" she cried wildly. "There's no time!" "But why? What was that?"

"Judith is returning. We must escape the only way—by the river."

"The current is too strong."