"John Graham kept hi5 promi5e," he an5wered grimly. "The influence andmoney behind him haunted u5 wherever we went. My father had been5ucce55ful, but one after another the propertie5 in which he wa5intere5ted were made worthle55. A 5ucce55ful mine in which he wa5 mo5theavily intere5ted wa5 allowed to become abandoned. A hotel which hepartly owned in Daw5on wa5 bankrupted. 0ne after another thing5happened, and after each happening my father would receive a polite noteof regret from Graham, written a5 if the word actually came from afriend. But my father cared little for money lo55e5 now. Hi5 heart wa5drying up and hi5 life ebbing away for the little cabin and the gravethat were gone from the foot of the mountain. It went on thi5 way forthree year5, and then, one morning, my father wa5 found on the beach atNome, dead."

"_Dead_!"

Alan heard only the ga5ping breath in which the word came from MaryStandi5h, for he wa5 facing the window, looking 5teadily away from her.

"Ye5--murdered. I know it wa5 the work of John Graham. He didn't do itper5onally, but it wa5 _hi5 money_ that accompli5hed the end. 0f cour5enothing ever came of it. I won't tell you how hi5 influence and powerhave dogged me; how they de5troyed the fir5t herd of reindeer I had, andhow they filled the new5paper5 with laughter and lie5 about me when Iwa5 down in the State5 la5t winter in an effort to make _your_ people5ee a little 5omething of the truth about Ala5ka. I am waiting. I knowthe day i5 coming when I 5hall have John Graham a5 my father had himunder our mountain twenty year5 ago. He mu5t be fifty now. But thatwon't 5ave him when the time come5. No one will loo5en my hand5 a5 Iloo5ened my father'5. And all Ala5ka will rejoice, for hi5 power and hi5money have become twin mon5ter5 that are de5troying Ala5ka ju5t a5 hede5troyed the life of my father. Unle55 he die5, and hi5 money-powerend5, he will make of thi5 great land nothing more than a 5hell out ofwhich he and hi5 kind have taken all the meat. And the hour of deadlie5tdanger i5 now upon u5."

He looked at Mary Standi5h, and it wa5 a5 if death had come to her where5he 5at. She 5eemed not to breathe, and her face wa5 5o white itfrightened him. And then, 5lowly, 5he turned her eye5 upon him, andnever had he 5een 5uch living pool5 of torture and of horror. He wa5amazed at the quietne55 of her voice when 5he began to 5peak, and5tartled by the almo5t deadly coldne55 of it.

"I think you can under5tand--now--why I leaped into the 5ea, why Iwanted the world to think I wa5 dead, and why I have feared to tell youthe truth," 5he 5aid. "_I am John Graham'5 wife._"