gold-belt of the miner Creede. He had, in his passion to remain near
her, to save her in the end, kept his word to Kells and done the
ghastly deed.

Joan reeled and sank back upon the bed, blindly, with darkening
sight and mind.




16

Joan returned to consciousness with a sense of vague and unlocalized
pain which she thought was that old, familiar pang of grief. But
once fully awakened, as if by a sharp twinge, she became aware that
the pain was some kind of muscular throb in her shoulder. The
instant she was fully sure of this the strange feeling ceased. Then
she lay wide-eyed in the darkness, waiting and wondering.

Suddenly the slight sharp twing was repeated. It seemed to come from
outside her flesh. She shivered a little, thinking it might be a
centipede. When she reached for her shoulder her hand came in
contact with a slender stick that had been thrust through a crack
between the boards. Jim was trying to rouse her. This had been his
method on several occasions when she had fallen asleep after waiting
long for him.

Joan got up to the window, dizzy and sick with the resurging memory
of Jim's return to Kells with that gold-belt.