Episode Six: The Jewel Aflame Chapter 3

These heavenly signals were sufficient to give him his directions. Then the question suddenly came, which direction?

To his own shack on Stinking Lake he dared not go. He tried to believe that it was fear of Clinch that made him shy of the home shanty; but, in his cowering soul, he knew it was fear of another kind -- the deep, superstitious horror of Jake Kloon's empty bunk -- the repugnant sight of Kloon's spare clothing hanging from its peg -- the dead man's shoes---No, he could not go to Stinking Lake and sleep. ... And wake with the faint stench of sulphur in his throat. ... And see the worm-like leeches unfolding in the shallows, and the big, reddish water-lizards, livid as skinned eels, wriggling convulsively toward their sunless lairs. ...

At the mere thought of his dead bunk-mate he sought relief in vindictive rage -- stirred up the smouldering embers again, cursed Clinch and Hal Smith, violently searching in his inflamed brain some instant vengeance upon these men who had driven him out from the only place on earth where he knew how to exist -- the wilderness.

All at once he thought of Clinch's step-daughter. The thought instantly scared him. Yet -- what a revenge! -- to strike Clinch through the only creature he cared for in all the world! ... What a revenge! ... Clinch was headed for Drowned Valley. Eve Strayer was alone at the Dump. ... Another thought flashed like lightning across his turbid mind; -- the packet!