The face before him was drawn and white; but there was no time for questions.  Hard hands seized his arm.

“Ray, do you know of a canoe anywhere—­up or down this river?”

“There’s one at the landing.  None other I know of.”

“Think, man!  You don’t know where we can get one?”

“No.  Old Hiram’s canoe was the only one.  What’s the matter?”

“Do you think there’s one chance in a million of getting down through those rapids on a raft?”

Ray’s eyes opened wide.  “A raft!” he echoed.  “Man, are you crazy?  Even at this high water a canoe wouldn’t have a chance in ten of making it.  The river’s falling every hour—­”

“I know it.  Do you suppose there’s a canoe in town?”

“No!  Of course there isn’t—­one that you could even dream about shooting those rapids in.  Besides, by the time we got there and packed it up—­it would take two days to pack it the best we could do—­the river would be too far down to tackle the trip at all.  And it won’t come up again till fall—­you know that.  Tell me what’s the matter.  Has Beatrice—­”

“Beatrice has gone down, that’s all.”

“Then she’s dead—­no hope of anything else.  Only an expert could hope to take her through, and there’s nothing to live on Back There.  What’s the use of trying to follow—?”

Neilson straightened, his eyes searching Ray’s.  “She’s got food, I suppose.  And she’s got an expert paddler to take her there.”

Ray’s face seemed to darken before his eyes.  His hands half closed, shook in his face, then caught at Neilson’s shoulders.  “You don’t mean—­she’s run away?”

“Don’t be a fool.  Not run away—­abducted.  The prospector I told you about—­Darby—­was the old man’s partner.  He’s paying us back.  Heaven only knows what the girl’s fate will be—­I don’t dare to think of it.  Ray, I wish to God I had died before I ever saw this day!”

Ray stared blankly.  “Then he found out—­about the murder?” he gasped.

“Yes.  Here’s his letter.  Take time—­and read it.  There’s no use to try to act before we think—­how to act.  If I could only see a way—­”

Ray read the letter carefully, crumpling it at last in savage wrath.  “It’s your fault!” he cried.  “Why didn’t you save her for me as I’ve always asked you to do; why did you let her go out with him at all?  I’ll bet she wanted to go—­”

“I’d rather she had, instead of being taken by force!” The older man—­aged incredibly in a few little minutes—­slowly straightened.  “But don’t storm at me, Ray!” he warned, carefully and quietly.  “I’ve stood a lot from you, but to-day I’d kill you for one word!”

They faced each other in black disdain, but Ray knew he spoke the truth.  There was no toying with this man’s wrath to-day.

“And if you’d let me croak this devil like I wanted to, it wouldn’t have happened either.  But there’s no use crying about either one.  The girl’s a goner, sure; she’s deep in the rapids by now.”