He was just beginning to think of the questions he had wanted to ask, a dozen, half a hundred of them--more definitely who she was; how and why she had come to Athabasca Landing; her interest in Sandy McTrigger; the mysterious relationship that must surely exist between her and Inspector Kedsty; and, chiefly, her real motive in coming to him when she knew that he was dying.

He comforted himself by the assurance that he would have learned these things had she not left him so suddenly.

He had not expected that.
The question which seated itself most insistently in his mind was, why had she come?
Was it, after all, merely a matter of curiosity?
Was her relationship to Sandy McTrigger such that inquisitiveness alone had brought her to see the man who had saved him?
Surely she had not been urged by a sense of gratitude, for in no way had she given expression to that.

On his death-bed she had almost made fun of him.

And she could not have come as a messenger from McTrigger, or she would have left her message.