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diff --git a/40017.txt b/40017.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 74454d1..0000000 --- a/40017.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7159 +0,0 @@ - THE STAMPEDER - - - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Title: The Stampeder - -Author: S. A. White - -Release Date: June 17, 2012 [EBook #40017] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAMPEDER *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - -[Illustration: Cover] - - - -[Illustration: "Rex gazed into the rolling eyes, the wild, distorted -visage of the Corsican, and felt himself shoved to the very brink of the -crevasse." _Page 173._]] - - - - - THE - - STAMPEDER - - - BY - - S. A. WHITE - - - - ILLUSTRATED - - - - - TORONTO - WILLIAM BRIGGS - 1910 - - - - - Copyright, Canada, 1910 - by William Briggs - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - -"Rex gazed into the rolling eyes, the wild, distorted visage of the -Corsican, and felt himself shoved to the very brink of the crevasse" . . -. . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ - -"The two teams raced side by side, the leaders snapping at each other" - -"From the Indian's extended palm the yellow flash of native gold filled -Britton's startled eyes" - - - - - THE STAMPEDER - - - - CHAPTER I. - - -Britton's steam-yacht tore out its lungs in protest at the black smudge -of a coasting vessel reeling straight across its bows. - -The siren bellowed thrice in a choking fury of warning and denunciation -till the echoes boomed over the Algerian harbor and floated high up to -the Mustapha Superieure, where English lords slept at peace in luxurious -hotels. - -Disconcerted by this tremendous volume of sound, the coaster vacillated, -veered and yawed as if under some drunken steering-hand, to leap forward -unwarily and bury her weather-beaten prow in the white side of the -_Mottisfont_. - -The terrific impact swept the yacht's forecastle clear of snoring -sailors, and, after shooting the temporary owner headlong from his -berth, commenced to polish the companionway passage with his features, -an operation which he instinctively though not wholly wakefully resented -by a frantic grasping for something substantial. - -The effort was rewarded when his fingers clutched the lower stairs, and -Rex Britton staggered to his feet. Every light below was out, and the -man so roughly aroused stood dazedly wondering if a horribly real -nightmare held him in its grip. - -Then, like a flash, intelligence permeated his shaken brain, and all the -faculties stirred again. He remembered the grinding crash and clambered -on deck in his pyjamas! - -Upon the bridge loomed the figure of the captain, frantically banging at -the engine-room signals, but the bell refused to sound. A medley of -curses vibrated in the humid night air, emanating partly from the lower -deck, and partly from the bows of the coaster as the Berber sailors gave -free vent to their displeasure. - -"Daniels-Captain Daniels!" roared Britton, "what the deuce is this -turmoil?" - -"An accident, sir," was the reply. "A coasting vessel has rammed us. -I'm afraid we're badly hit; and the signals are out of business. We'll -reverse in a moment if the engines are not disabled." - -He waved a sailor down with the order to the engine-room. The big yacht -trembled under the mighty strain and began to creep backward, inches at -a time, since the nose of the other craft was tightly wedged in its -vitals. - -Britton was beside the captain in a moment, with a perfect stream of -questions as to details and responsibility. - -"The coasting steamer was entirely at fault, sir." Daniels gravely -assured him. "She cut across our bow in spite of three warnings. -Judging by her careening, the wheelsman was very drunk!" - -An increased throbbing of the _Mottisfont's_ engines made the whole hull -shiver, and the yacht scuttled backward from the coaster like an immense -crab. - -"She sinks! she sinks!" rose the cry from the sailors on the poop. - -"What is sinking?" cried Britton, excitedly; "not the yacht!" - -"No, the coaster," said Captain Daniels. "She has no water-tight -compartments." - -The terrified wail of the Arab crew proclaimed the inrush of the water -as the steamer listed at an alarming rate to starboard. The officers -shouted orders which were smothered in the tumult, for an uncontrollable -panic seized passengers and sailors. Pandemonium in its wild, selfish -authority ruled on the coaster's decks, and Britton, from the bridge of -the _Mottisfont_, could view the mad, strenuous struggle for safety. A -feminine cry startled him in its piercing shrillness. - -"Good heavens!" he exclaimed, "there are women there, and those brutes -of Berbers will trample them to death. Quick, man! Drive the yacht in -close and throw out the ropes." - -Daniels instantly obeyed, observing: "It's dangerous work, sir, and -she's liable to drag us down when she founders, which may be any moment -now!" - -"Doesn't matter," said Britton, curtly. "We're bound to help them even -if this was their own doing. Have you lowered the launch?" - -"Mr. Ainsworth and Mr. Trascott have it, sir." - -"The smaller boats?" - -"They're out, sir, trying to take some of the passengers off. Why in -the name of Neptune don't they lower their own?" - -The _Mottisfont_ was larger than the steamer, and overtopped it as they -drew in again. Britton leaned forward and listened to the tumult on the -smaller vessel. - -"I'm afraid they're fighting for their own boats," he said, quickly. -"The panic's getting worse." - -The hubbub was redoubled. A woman's scream, sharp and piteous, was cast -despairingly on the night. Britton muttered something like an oath, and -swinging down from the bridge he ran forward with all speed. - -"Anyone in the turret?" he yelled to the group of sailors straining on -the ropes. - -"No, sir," answered the first mate. "The lookout was thrown to the deck -when we struck. His shoulder is broken." - -"Go up yourself," ordered Britton. "See if the searchlight works, and -turn it on the coaster. We are only groping like blind men in the dark." - -Turning to the second mate, he added: "Fire that brass cannon at -intervals to call out the harbor boats. I see the usefulness of it -after all!" - -Leaving the mates to execute his orders, Britton sprang to the taffrail -and vaulted at hazard down into the struggling mass of humanity that -surged over the steamer's forehold. He landed squarely upon an Arab's -back, knocking that swarthy individual into the lee scuppers, but -without pausing to unravel the puzzling Algerian profanity which was -thus elicited, Britton pushed his way aft. - -He could feel the vessel rock to the roll of the water in the hold as -the weight above was continually and suddenly shifted, and he knew that -with one of those evolutions she would roll a little too far. There -would be no recovery, and the steamer would turn turtle. - -About the stern-davits a struggle raged. The forward boats were stove -in with the force of the collision, and only four were left intact. The -brown-skinned Berber sailors endeavored to lower them, and blue-coated -officers vainly attempted to keep them back and to preserve order among -the demented people. - -One boat got away as Britton came up. The yacht's searchlight, pricking -out of the gloom, showed the craft to be full of Arabs, while women and -children were wailing in supreme terror upon the foundering vessel. - -The crowd swayed to the rail as another boat was slung from the davits. -Rex grasped the arm of a man in marine uniform. - -"Where's your captain?" he demanded, harshly. - -"I am the captain," said the man, helplessly; "but what can I do? The -passengers have gone mad! The Berbers are beasts!" - -Britton flung aside the arm he had seized with a gesture of repulsion. - -"Do?" he cried, in fine scorn. "You might at least try! You act like a -baby. This rush must be stopped-" - -Boom! rang the _Mottisfont's_ cannon. Its message reverberated like -hollow thunder over the great bay. Two score whistles rose in answer -from the inner reaches of the harbor. - -Boom! The whistles shrieked anew, and the riding lights of the vessels -plunged into activity. - -"You hear!" exclaimed Britton. "If that rush isn't stopped half of -those on board will be drowned by the swamping of the boats, with a -hundred harbor craft coming to the rescue. Come on, sir-be a man!" - -Rex took hold of a heavy piece of broken stanchion and made a flying -leap into the knot of Berbers stamping about the stern davits. - -"Back, men!" he shouted in a voice that soared above every other noise. -"Be calm! There'll be a hundred boats here in a minute, with room for -all of you. Let the women forward at once!" - -A female figure sprang to the davits at his words, but the Arabs roared -their dissent and charged in a body. Britton had a vision of a girlish -form with an ethereal face and pale-gold hair, tossed rudely in the rush -of men. She lost her footing suddenly and went down with a suppressed -scream. - -Snarling like an enraged animal, Rex leaped in front of them. - -Crack! sounded his stanchion on the foremost head. Crack! crack! He -pierced their ranks and dragged out the luckless woman. Shielding her -with one arm, he was carried back against the ship's side by the -pressure of the frantic throng. - -"Are you hurt?" he found time to whisper. - -"No-only frightened," she sobbed. The nervous strain was too much for -her. - -Britton made her kneel down under the rail behind him, and, with his -legs protecting her from the trampling, he faced the angry Arabs again. - -They had hesitated a little, daunted by the impetuosity of his attack. -The Englishman's blood was now thoroughly aroused. Away back in his -line of ancestors there had been knights of the old regime; there were -soldiers of the empire among the later generations; and his grandfather -had fallen at Waterloo. The fighting, bulldog strain was in him, and -only sufficient baiting was required to bring it into evidence! - -Boom! sounded the _Mottisfont's_ cannon for the third time. Across the -mysterious stretch of bay the shout of rowers answered. - -"They're coming!" exclaimed Britton, triumphantly. "You pack of fools, -have you no sense?" - -A growl was the reply. Whether fear had driven out their understanding, -or whether the rough fellows were actuated by a desire of revenge for -the blows inflicted by the Englishman, they rushed upon him once more. - -"Ah! you will have it, will you?" he cried, exulting in the mere thrill -of battle. "Then lay on, you rabble!" - -He stood in the central focus of the steam-yacht's searchlight, with -muscle action unhampered and with bare feet gripping the deck firmly, -while his enemies strove to reach him. His stanchion rose and fell like -a flash as he circled in and out, avoiding the blows of his adversaries, -and every time he struck a man went down. Once a sinewed Moroccan -locked with him, and he felt the sting of steel in his shoulder, but a -jolt on the fellow's neck from Britton's other arm stretched him -senseless, while the knife clattered over the rail into the sea. - -Crack! crack! The sound of his club grew monotonous; the soft, warm -trickle of something down his left shoulder filled him with a strange -disgust for the combat; he felt ashamed of himself standing in pyjamas -on the lighted deck of another ship and striking down Berbers with a -stanchion. - -Since it was wholly necessary, the Englishman wondered at the sense of -shame. Perhaps it was an odd trick which the wounded nerves in his arm -were playing him. - -Only three or four Arabs opposed Britton now. He ran at them with hands -placed wide on his stanchion, like a wand, and swept them aside. The -captain of the steamer stepped through into the cleared space on the -after-deck. - -"Give your orders," said Britton, with a sigh of relief. - -He turned to the woman by the rail and raised her up as the feminine -contingent was passed to the side and lowered into the harbor boats -which were already alongside. - -"You may enter one of them now," he said, marvelling vaguely at her -perfect face. She touched his arm with a movement of gratitude, but her -fingers came away wet and sticky. - -"Someone slashed you!" she exclaimed in concern. "Let me see. Oh, let -me bandage it. And I was the cause of your wound!" - -"It is only a flesh wound-" began Britton. - -"Madam, the boat!" interrupted the anxious captain. - -"I'll wait," answered the woman. "This man is wounded-the man who saved -all of us. Can't you do something? See! he's weak!" - -She gave an alarmed cry as the Englishman staggered. He saved himself -by clutching the rail. - -"It must-have been those-those circles I cut among the rascals," he -laughed unsteadily. "They make me dizzy." - -"You're evading," she said quickly; "it's the Berber's knife." - -With a strong effort Britton summoned his will-power to control his -weakened nerves, and roughly dashed a hand across his eyes. It was with -a great sensation of relief that he felt his returning steadiness of -muscle, and he glanced at the rope ladders which filled the waiting -boats with fleeing people. - -"We had better be getting down," he advised. "The steamer will not float -long." - -Even as he spoke, the coaster lurched alarmingly. Rex grasped the -woman's arm and drew her quickly to the rail. - -A thrown rope whipped his cheek, and he caught it skilfully, peering -below at a small boat which swayed to the roll of the steamer. - -"For God's sake, Britton, come off that old hulk," shouted someone. -"She's sinking fast!" - -Rex looked downward with the pleased expression on his own face -contrasting strangely with the anxious countenances of the two occupants -of the launch. - -"It's my friends, Ainsworth and Trascott, from the yacht," he explained -to the woman at his side. - -"I was beginning to wonder why they hadn't showed up. You see they must -have been out before I awakened, for they had taken the launch to the -rescue." - -"Come off!" commanded Ainsworth, peremptorily. "Can't you see you're -last, you two mooning fools? The old coffin will drop in a minute." - -They could hear Trascott's mild protest at Ainsworth's trenchant -phrasing of the situation, and Britton laughed. - -"Trascott's a curate," he said, disengaging a rope ladder for their own -use, "a very orthodox, English curate! Sometimes he doesn't approve of -his friend's strenuous speech. You'll have to overlook it, though. -Ainsworth is a lawyer, and he thinks he has us in the witness-box." - -They were descending the rope-ladder as he spoke, the lady going first, -and Cyril Ainsworth heard the last part of his host's comment. - -"It's no witness-box you're in, Britton," he growled. "It's a bally old -tub, and you needn't think because you're dressed in beautiful, silk -pyjamas that you must stay there till you have to swim. If I were the -lady, I would vigorously object to getting wet." - -Ainsworth emphasized his tirade with a swift revolution of the -engine-crank. The curate cast off the rope, and they puffed away from -the water-logged vessel. Gleaming white against the inky color of her -side was the nameplate-_Constantine_. - -Britton pulled an overcoat and a pair of sea-boots from a locker and put -them on. - -"That's better," grunted the lawyer. "You don't look so much like a -posing matinee idol in crimson jersey and biceps!" - -Britton apparently did not hear him, being intent upon the denouement of -this harbor tragedy. Under the _Mottisfont's_ powerful search-light -everything stood out nakedly clear for rods around. The stricken vessel -rolled in a last, pitiful struggle, listed too far for the recovery of -her equilibrium, turned turtle and sank like a stone. - -"There's the end of incompetence," rasped Ainsworth, while the lady -beside Britton gave a sympathetic cry, and the fleet of boats flying -from the vortex peril with their human cargoes echoed in choruses of -dismay. - -"Had you friends?" Britton asked of the woman. - -"No,-only my maid and baggage," she answered. "My name is Morris, Maud -Morris-and I was travelling alone." - -"To Algiers?" - -"Yes, to Algiers-at least temporarily." - -"Then the inconvenience is not considerable," Britton said. "We will go -on board the yacht, and I can find your maid in the morning." - -"Ah! you are too generous," murmured the lady. "You have already done -more than a woman can repay, and I have not even attended to your wound. -Does it pain much?" - -"Very little," replied Britton, lightly. "I believe I shall hold you to -your promise to bandage it, and I believe it will get well very soon." - -She laughed a low, sweet laugh which harmonized with her pale beauty, -and Britton felt some unexplained fascination as her green-blue eyes -held his. - -The launch bumped the _Mottisfont's_ side abaft of the great hole which -the _Constantine's_ prow had torn. The occupants surveyed the black, -yawning break somewhat ruefully before they stepped on deck. - -"What the deuce will the Honorable Oliver Britton say when he finds his -nephew has smashed up his floating palace?" asked Ainsworth, -meditatively. - -"My honorable uncle will never see it till it is restored to its -original state," Rex answered. "And the Moroccan Steamship Company, -owners of the _Constantine_, will pay for the restoration." - -"What a legal beacon you might have been!" sighed Cyril, generously. -"But this pin-scratch they gave you in the arm!--who pays the -doctor-bill?" - -"That is my affair," said the lady of the adventure, very sweetly, "and -it is time it was given attention." She took Britton's sleeve and drew -him to the companionway. There Rex paused and hailed the bridge. - -"Daniels, get us in close to the eastern jetty at once and anchor there. -We don't know how badly we're damaged, so moor right under it." - -"Aye, aye, sir," the captain answered. - -"And send me the steward," Britton added. - -"Here he is, sir! Bannon, go forward." - -The portly form of the steward joined the two by the stairs. - -"Bannon, have your wife prepare a stateroom for Miss Morris at once," -said Britton, "and bring us some linen strips for bandages." - -"You're hurt, sir?" said the steward. - -"Only scratched! Water and linen is all I want." - -Bannon brought it as directed, and having given the simple necessaries -to the lady, Britton dived below to reappear some minutes later in -yachting trousers, shirt and shoes, with his left sleeve rolled up to -the shoulder and his duck coat on his other arm. He had washed the -knife-wound while in his bath-room, but it bled afresh, and the lady -hastened to staunch it. - -Trascott assisted her by the use of much cold water. When the flow of -blood was stopped, she called into requisition some healing ointment -which Bannon had brought on his own authority and then bound the limb -neatly with linen. There was something exquisite in the sensation for -Britton. The soft touch of her fingers, the near fragrance of her -person and the electric glow of awakened sympathy combined to influence -him and awake strange thrills to which he was not at all subject. - -She felt the throb of his pulse as she held his wrist down to straighten -the bandage, and the knowledge of its origin flushed her cheek. An -instant she looked up at him inquiringly, almost with the spirit of -challenge, but her lashes drooped under the tensity of his glance. - -Virility was Britton's most salient attribute. When the man in him was -stirred, it moved strongly, and the proximity of so fair a vision would -have excited a less impressionable person, one with less of Britton's -youthful and unbounded faith in women! - -The steward disappeared about his business. Trascott and Ainsworth -loitered away. Britton and the woman were left alone with that magnetic -bond of touch binding them. With the man, the impression lasted for -many a day! A new, uncurbed power was loosed within him, and the woman -felt the trend of its might. It thrilled and awed at the same time. -She shifted her hands to a final arrangement of the bandage. - -"I think it will do," she murmured in a confused way. - -Britton shook himself out of a wild dream, slowly fastened his -shirt-sleeve and donned his coat. - -"We will go below," he said, taking her arm and guiding her down the -companionway. The stewardess met them in the passage and led the way to -the stateroom she had prepared, disappearing therein. - -"Good-night," she said, extending both hands. "I haven't found much -opportunity to thank you. To-morrow I shall tell you more." - -Britton took her fingers, and the mad blood leaped in his veins again. - -"To-morrow," he cried gladly. "Ah! yes, there are many to-morrows, for -you stay at Algiers." - -"Many to-morrows!" she exclaimed with a happy laugh, as she turned into -the stateroom. "That is a sweet way of putting it. Many to-morrows!-I -like that idea." - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - -"It's hell,-isn't it, Trascott?" asked Ainsworth, dismally. - -"My dear fellow," protested the shocked curate, "such liberty of -expression, to put it mildly-" - -"Fudge!" interrupted his friend. "You divines all agree as to the -existence of an infernal region. Why shouldn't I introduce a comparison -if I choose? If you don't like its rugged exterior you can at least -appreciate the sentiment. It's hell-isn't it?" - -"Well, well, it's decidedly unpleasant," grumbled Trascott. - -"It's a bally shame!" said the lawyer, tritely. "Britton takes us away -on his uncle's yacht for a cruise of the African shore of the -Mediterranean. Witness our cruise! We get as far as Algiers and there -his two long-suffering comrades have to stagnate while he plays the -gallant to a blonde will-o'-the-wisp whom he made a show of rescuing. -He found her maid, installed her at the Hotel de --, attended to her -remittances from England in her stranded position and played the modern -hero role to a triple curtain call-which he is certainly getting!" - -"Of course the yacht had to be repaired," put in Trascott, as if it was -his kindly duty to find some extenuation. - -"Of course!" echoed Ainsworth sarcastically, waving a hand to where the -_Mottisfont_, quite intact, rode proudly at anchor. - -The two men were standing on the harbor piers above the landing-stages, -and they had a good view of the vessel. Behind them the capital of -Algeria rose precipitously up the sides of an immense hill a mile in -length at the base by five hundred feet in height. The foot of the -picturesque city was the sprawling sea; the head was the Casbah, the -ancient fortress of the Deys. Up on the hill reposed the old or high -town with its quaint Moorish edifices, while sloping below to the rim of -the port lay the lower, new, or French town filled with government -buildings, squares and streets, together with lines of warehouses and -wharves, dotted here and there by mosques that looked strangely out of -place amid the European architecture. - -Blocked out against the harbor water from their conspicuous stand, the -two friends were very dissimilar in appearance. Ainsworth's was the -short, squat figure, Trascott's the tall, lanky one. The lawyer, in -spite of the disadvantage of height, probably weighed more than the -curate. His stockily-built body filled out his gray tweeds, while the -black garments of Trascott hung loosely on his hollow frame. A gray cap -of the same material as his suit was jauntily perched on the lawyer's -head, but his companion wore the familiar and inevitable round, dark -hat. - -Still, if Trascott's form lost dignity beside Ainsworth's, that dignity -was more than regained when it came to a comparison of faces. The -lawyer had a gray-eyed, regular countenance, smooth and unmarked by any -dissipation, but it lacked the shading that beautified his friend's. The -curate's features, though more rugged in casting, had the high lights of -earnestness glowing in his brown eyes, the deeper tones of endeavor -blending in the moulding of the chin, while the shadows of -responsibility rested in the firm curve of his lips. - -Cyril Ainsworth, with his unchanging mask of precision, was the keen, -well-oiled machine which cut straight to the core of things in the -performance of its work. Bertrand Trascott was the living actor of a -great belief, the exponent of a mighty drama calculated to uplift and -regenerate his fellow-beings. Each had his part in the work of the -present-day world, and, strange to say, men loved the machine-like -precision of Ainsworth almost as well as the generous heart of Trascott. - -The lawyer again called the curate's attention to the yacht with another -motion of his hand. - -"The yacht had to be repaired," he snapped. "It took three days to -splice the timbers and rivet the plates. We should then have proceeded -with our cruise. There was no impediment, for the steamship company -settled the damages in full. Yet here we have been for two weeks-and so -has the woman! At this rate we may be here for two months-and so may -the woman!" - -They sat down upon the piers for their after-supper smoke, having fared -sumptuously on board the _Mottisfont_, in an effort to reconcile -themselves to the inertia under which they chafed. The soft dusk began -to glide in from the sea and enfold the dark wharves in misty wreaths. -One by one the riding lanterns of the harbor vessels shone out like -stars in a fog, and the rhythm of an Arab sailor song came swelling over -the broad bay. - -The two friends smoked in silence as the dusk grew deeper. Presently -the beacon light flashed up on Matifou ten miles away, sending out its -nightly warning to the ships at sea. A thousand lamps flared in the -lower town, and far up the hill the boulevard lanterns starred the gloom -with their fiery eyes. - -"Can you tell me the space of time an Algerian romance requires?" asked -Ainsworth, finally. - -Trascott's cheery laugh was the only answer. - -"In England," the lawyer mused, "I would give them six weeks. In this -southern climate, where the blood runs hot, the climax must come in less -time, but just how long only Britton knows." - -Trascott tapped his pipe upon the pier, refilled it and settled back -with a sigh. - -"Do you think this affair is really serious?" he asked, with a certain -earnestness and anxiety. - -"Serious!" Ainsworth snorted, "it's the most serious thing that ever -happened him. Do you understand Britton's disposition? He's a -whole-hearted fellow full of generous and chivalric impulses, with a -belief in the goodness of all the feminine sex. He has run against -nothing to knock those notions into chaos. Do you think he can view -that fine-looking woman unmoved? Do you think that she is going to pass -by Reginald Britton, the heir to Britton Hall and old Oliver's estates? -Not if I know anything, Trascott! And mark me, I don't like the woman. -She's fair enough for a lord-but I don't like her. Please remember -that, Trascott." - -The curate started, for he had earlier confessed to himself a similar -dislike of the blonde beauty who had taken the yacht and Britton and the -port itself, as well as the great English hotels, by storm. However, he -was too fair-minded not to combat such an antipathy so far unwarranted. - -"Why do you not like her?" he asked, seeking perhaps in Ainsworth's -attitude a solution of his own state of mind. - -"Intuition, I suppose," the lawyer answered gruffly. "When I see a lady -travelling alone, except for her maid, coming apparently from nowhere -and heading for a destination wholly indefinite, I always regard her -with suspicion. What has Britton learned about this woman? He knows her -name is Maud Morris. He knows she can madden him with those eyes and -lips. That is the extent of his knowledge. Does he know her home, her -county, her family, her support? No! I have questioned Britton, not to -mention warning him-" - -"You have!" exclaimed the curate, "and what did he say?" - -"Told me to go to that infernal region I mentioned. He can't listen to -sound reason. They never can!" - -"Ah, well," sighed Trascott, "I intended dropping a hint, but since -you've anticipated me without result-" - -"Might as well talk to a log!" Ainsworth cut in. "I shall be glad when -the thing has run its course and we get out of here. This Algerian -scenery palls on me! If something would only happen to hasten the -climax, it might cheer my heart. I believe I shall hire some dogs of -Arabs to abduct the fair princess and let Britton play the rescuer -somewhere out on the Djujuras." - -"It may not be necessary," said Trascott. "He's going to that dance -to-night." - -"Yes," muttered the lawyer, "he's been dressing and fussing ever since -supper. There's the launch now!" - -The gasoline craft spluttered and danced over the waves to the pier -where Ainsworth and the curate were smoking. - -"You lazy duffers," Britton cried, "aren't you going up?" - -He stepped out of the launch, a tall, handsome figure in his evening -clothes and top-hat. His paletot hung on his left arm, which was now -entirely well, and as he faced his friends they both thought how -singularly powerful he looked. Broad of shoulder and deep of chest, it -seemed as if the frames of the other two men together would have been -required to equal his bulk. His straight, finely-cut features and blue -eyes held an expression unmistakably aristocratic. - -"Aren't you going up?" he repeated. - -"We'll look into the reading-room later on," replied Ainsworth. "I -don't care to dance, and it disagrees with Trascott's digestion." - -"See you there, then," was his farewell. "Don't forget you can get all -you want to eat in the dining-room for the sum of six francs." - -A _fiacre_ pulled up near the wharf at his hail. - -"Hotel de --," he said, jumping in with an object-lesson of alacrity. - -The driver accepted the hint and dashed away at a swift pace through the -lower town till the long ascent which led up to Mustapha Superieure -compelled him to walk his animal. - -The last two weeks had passed for Rex Britton as a single day. Not a -minute of the whole time dragged, for the reason that he had spent every -available minute with Maud Morris. He considered the sojourn, which he -had lengthened day by day, as Paradise-the direct antithesis, in fact, -of Ainsworth's view! He had pursued the wild dream of that first night -on the harbor with all his passionate persistence till it suddenly -ensnared him in its tangible and compelling reality. - -The lawyer back on the pier was wishing for something to hasten the -climax. In spite of his faculty of shrewd observation, Ainsworth did -not dream of how deeply Britton was already involved with the woman whom -he, Ainsworth, mistrusted. - -It would take a wise man indeed to time and trace the development of a -romance when the setting lies between the pagan Djujuras and the -legend-steeped Mediterranean. Britton would have been filled with -dismay had he stopped to inspect, analyze and adjudge his actions during -those two weeks. His impulses were at riot under the sway of a heavenly -elixir which the woman held to his lips; he never looked back; his mind -was centred on the days ahead, planning a wonderful permanency for the -exotic, filmy atmosphere of present experiences. - -As the _fiacre_ climbed the Mustapha Superieure Britton could possess in -vision the whole expanse of the port, the wharves dimly lighted and busy -with the night-labor that the volume of trade enforced, the illuminated -vessels in the wide anchorage and the mingling gleams that marked the -Mustapha Inferieure. - -Britton knew every nook of the climbing city, old, by almost a thousand -years, in story and conflict. With the lady of pale-gold beauty he had -explored all the charming retreats of both towns. They had loitered in -the Place Royale amid the orange and lime trees, finding pleasure in -watching the cosmopolitan crowds which thronged that oblong space in the -centre of the city. The traits of character disclosed by -representatives of so many different nations-Moors, Jews and Arabs, -Germans, Spaniards, French, Corsicans, Italians and Maltese, and scores -of other races-proved very interesting to the English observers. - -The mild, balmy Algerian evenings seemed temptations to roam abroad, and -the two had grown accustomed to promenade the Bab-el-Ouad and the -Bab-azoun, which ran north and south in a parallel direction for half a -mile. Those walks down the dim vista of flanking colonnades beneath an -ivory moon, the same that lighted the Sahara caravans through the desert -tracts, intoxicated senses and blood alike. - -They had delved into the _djamas_, or superior mosques, the _mesjids_, -or inferior ones, and the _marabouts_, which were the tombs or -sanctuaries of the ancient Moorish saints; they had plunged into the -market rabbles on the Squares de Chartres, d'Isly and Mahon, lolled in -the Parisian-like boulevards and arcades of the new town, sat upon the -flat-roofed, prison-windowed houses at sunset to catch the tang of the -sweeping sea-wind on their faces, journeyed in the yacht as far as the -lighthouse on Cape Matifou and the forbidding brow of Cape Caxine, or -stretched their land-legs in the ascent of the narrow, jagged street -called the Casbah that led up to the old Moorish fortress of the same -name perched high on the steep, and commanding all Algiers. - -Standing on the height of the Mustapha Superieure where the _fiacre_ had -left him in front of the hotel piazza, Britton felt as if under some -binding spell which the land of the sheik had cast upon him, a spell -from which he would not willingly escape, for the delicious, cobwebby -fetters only thrilled instead of chafing. - -Dismissing his driver with a liberal fee, Britton ran lightly up the -steps of the magnificent hostelry, resplendent with blazing lights and -ornate structural patterns designed to rival the architectural beauties -of the other fashionable resorts that contested for the patronage of the -most select people who came to stay at Algiers. - -The obsequious concierge, stationed in the hall to look after -new-comers, directed a servant to appropriate Britton's coat and hat and -bowed the Englishman toward the reception-room with a flood of welcoming -French. - -The reception-room-which some took the liberty of calling the -morning-room-was a cosy, oak-panelled, damask-hung chamber where hotel -inmates and visitors could meet or wait for friends. It gave one the -impression of being very well appointed with rugs, round tables, -leather-covered chairs, cushioned divans, pictures, mantels and -window-seats. - -At Britton's entrance the solitary occupant of the reception-room rose -from a divan. She came forward with a glad, excited light beautifying -her face, the filmy, silver-colored gown she wore sweeping gracefully -about her slim, exquisite figure. - -Quite close to Britton she paused and took hold of the lapels of his -coat, smoothing them with her soft white fingers. - -Had the lawyer been there to see, this action would have settled once -for all the question of Britton's relation to Maud Morris. In her -movement was the suggestion of intimate possession never to be mistaken -for anything else. It told more than could be expressed in whole -chapters of explanation. - -"The dance has begun," she murmured, looking up, her eyes soft and -shining beneath the burnished gold of her hair, "and everybody has gone -either to take part or to watch. You are somewhat late, aren't you?" - -"Yes, I am late," Britton said softly-"later than I thought, but I am -glad, for my tardiness lets me meet you like this!" He nodded around -the empty room. - -She smiled into Britton's dancing eyes. He laid his hands gently upon -hers, and the touch brought the delicate rose to her cheek, but the -concierge's rapid French jabber warned them. Someone was approaching the -reception-room. She slipped a hand in Britton's arm and turned to the -door. - -"Let us go to the concert-room," she said simply. - -Britton bowed courteously as an attache from the British Consulate -entered with a party of ladies, and they went out amid the customary -admiring stares. - -They passed the rooms whence came the rattle of ping-pong, the whirr of -billiards or the almost noiseless shuffle of bridge, and finally came to -the ballroom. A ravishing Hungarian waltz swelled up from the palm -screens which hid the orchestra; a hundred couples tripped the glassy -floor-space, the conventional black-and-white attire of the gentlemen -lending an effective contrast to the wonderful, daring toilettes of the -ladies. - -Everybody portrayed supreme happiness as well as a nice consciousness of -what was correct, and everybody seemed to be trying to outdo everyone -else in the ardor of enjoyment. - -Not least by any means among the joy-seekers was Rex Britton. - -His arm encircled his companion's waist and they stepped out, the -handsomest couple in the room, swaying a second to the time of the -orchestra. Then they glided away, captivated by the pulsating strains -of the waltz, and lost themselves in the maze. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - -Ainsworth shook his billiard-cue with unmistakable emphasis in the -stranger's face. - -"Get out," he cried irascibly. "You're drunk, and I don't want to talk -to you!" He pushed his annoyer rudely away, but the latter returned to -the attack, whereupon Bertrand Trascott intervened. - -"Have patience, Cyril," he begged. "The man evidently has a reason for -his persistence. Now, sir, what is it? We would like to go on with our -game." - -The stranger who had circled in to the corner-table in the billiard-room -of the great hotel and stopped their play presented an uninviting and -ludicrous appearance. - -His head and shoulders reminded Trascott of those of a dissipated -Austrian virtuoso whom he knew well and whose brilliance had become very -spasmodic on account of relapses to the same vice which apparently ruled -the stranger. The resemblance was quite close, embodying the -uncontrolled, tremulous chin and lips surmounted by a fiercely-curled -wisp of moustache, the hawked nose, narrowed eyes and prominent, bony -cheeks, with a pair of puttied ears sprouting from his hair like old -mushrooms in the grass, while a pinched, sunken neck failed to fill his -peaked shoulders. - -Trascott thought that if both the Austrian virtuoso and the portly -butler who had come to be looked on as an institution at Britton Hall -were cut in two, and the upper half of the virtuoso pieced to the lower, -corpulent section of the Honorable Oliver's servant the result would be -the prototype of the stranger who had undertaken to tack among the -billiard-tables. - -"What do you want?" he asked the man, with more severity. - -The questioned one surveyed Trascott for a space, recognized his -curate's cloth and decided he had no business with him, for his eyes -flashed aggressively upon the lawyer, who was again preparing for the -execution of the stroke that the man had spoiled. - -Ainsworth's back was turned, so the intruder jogged his right elbow for -attention with the result that the lawyer's ball, deflected at right -angles, leaped across the next table and spread confusion among a group -of Frenchmen playing there. - -This second interruption of the stringing of a long break and the titter -of idle observers, combined with the French stares of contempt, was not -at all conducive to the regaining of Ainsworth's equanimity. - -"By gad, sir, get out of here," he admonished, "or I'll very soon have -the concierge throw you out!" - -"You?" asked the stranger, with a belligerent glare. - -"Exactly!" Ainsworth answered emphatically. He looked as if he would -quite gladly exempt the concierge from consideration and perform the -operation himself. - -Trascott had been roaming the room in search of an hotel servant who -could lead this obstinate fellow away; there being none about, however, -he compromised on a marker and returned to the intruder. - -He still concentrated his attention on the lawyer with that same -belligerent glare, though in his eyes a rising flicker of apprehension -betrayed the inward reflection that he had somehow caught a Tartar in -this smooth-faced, perfectly-fed man with coat off and billiard-cue in -hand. - -"You're Britton?" he inquired in a thick, heavy voice. - -"I'm nothing of the sort," the irate lawyer returned. - -The stranger took a step nearer and leaned his hip against the -billiard-table. - -"You deny it?" he snarled vindictively. "The assistant concierge -informed me that you were Britton." - -Ainsworth flourished the cue in his hand suggestively. - -"Then the assistant concierge is an ass, like yourself," he said. -"There are two of you, and this hotel is no place for such a team." - -Trascott pushed forward the marker he had procured. - -"Come, monsieur," said the marker. "I think there are better places -than this for you." - -The stranger whirled and savagely struck away the persuading fingers -with which the polite Frenchman had grasped his arm. - -"Look out for yourself," he stormed, "or I'll have the manager pack you -off to-morrow, my fine fellow. Let me tell you that you can't turn men -of my standing into the street. I have engaged rooms and paid for them -in advance, and I'll go where I d-d please in this hotel-and do what I -please also!" - -"No, you won't, my friend," warned Ainsworth, tapping him on the -shoulder with quiet determination. "You won't come in here twice to -insult me and interrupt my play. Just keep that in your muddled mind!" - -"I was informed that you were a certain Britton I was searching for," -said the other bluntly, in the spirit of rude apology. - -"Do I look like Britton?" cried the lawyer, testily. "I stand five feet -six, while Britton stands six feet one. I weigh one hundred and fifty -pounds; Britton weighs two hundred and ten. Britton dances in the -ballroom with the ladies and brings them ices, but I play billiards with -a curate. I ask you again, do I resemble him? No, you say. And I'll -tell you something else, too! Britton wouldn't have suffered your -impudence for this length of time. He's a quick-blooded beggar, and -he'd have jolly well twisted your neck by now." - -"Will you come out, sir?" begged the marker, making a second attempt, at -the importunations of Trascott. - -The stranger eyed him and raised a hand as if to strike, then diverted -the hand to his waistcoat pocket and threw his card on the table. - -"Take that card to the manager as my complaint, and tell him to dismiss -you," he said, somewhat haughtily. "I'm Christopher Morris, promoter of -the Yukon Dredging Company." - -The servant took the pasteboard, a little awed. Ainsworth had not caught -the stranger's surname, but he snapped at the mention of his especial -enterprise. - -"The Yukon Dredging Company!" he exclaimed suspiciously. "If you are -the promoter of that scheme, I warn you to watch out for me. I'm -Ainsworth, the law-machine, and I'm convinced that the Dredging Company -is a mere swindle. Be careful! I'll put the Crown after you at the -very first opportunity." - -The object of his censure sniffed in scorn, but Ainsworth continued: - -"You invited my antagonism. Now perhaps you'll regret it. If anything -angers me, it is the loss of my self-respect, and those Frenchmen took -me for an idiot. But you sound decidedly out of place next the Sahara, -my friend. You should be at the Arctic end of a different continent. -What are you hunting in Algiers-floating capital?" - -"No," was the answer. "I am hunting my wife. I arrived but an hour ago -from Tangier, where the cursed doctors quarantined me for a chill which -they insisted on calling fever. When after twenty days' hammering at -their thick heads I convinced them of their mistake, they let me out, -and I found my wife had hurried away to escape infection." He laughed, -and with a cold, indignant significance intensifying his words, -repeated: "Hurried away to escape infection!" - -"Your wife," echoed the puzzled lawyer. "What has that to do with your -offensive attitude? What has that to do with Rex Britton?" - -"They tell me that in finding Britton I shall find my wife!" - -Understanding rushed upon Ainsworth, and he, as well as Trascott, was -stirred to fiery excitement. He shook the man roughly by the shoulder. -"Your name?" he breathlessly demanded. "What did you say was your name?" - -"Morris-Christopher Morris," was the answer. "My wife's name is Maud, -and the devil gave her the prettiest face in England." - -Ainsworth passed his hand across his forehead. His face held the first -expression of dismay that the curate had ever seen there. To Trascott -it was evident that the lawyer's unconcealed mistrust of the woman -concerned had not extended to such an unforeseen contingency as now -existed upon the statement of Morris. - -The barrister was not looking at the curate and could not see the -accompanying signs of extreme agitation in the latter's countenance. -The former seemed to be weighing a doubtful point in his mind, and when -he spoke it was as to himself in a musing, philosophical manner. - -"This is either a drunken hallucination, insanity, or the truth," he -said, softly. "Let us have a test!" He dropped a vesta match upon the -green baize of the table. - -"Pick that up," he said to Morris. - -The man stared an instant and obeyed. Ainsworth watched him closely. -His fingers went down with disconcerting steadiness, closed unerringly -over the match and returned it to the barrister. The latter raised -appealing eyes to his friend and said: - -"He drinks, but he is not overly drunk now. I'm afraid it is the truth." - -Trascott, his earnest face all troubled and his lips compressed in a -grim line, shook his head. - -"This is something like what I feared," he groaned. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - -Morris mumbled something of repeated apology and made a movement to -leave the room. - -Ainsworth stopped him. - -"I'll find Britton," he said. "This mess has to be straightened out, -and it wouldn't do for you to wander round till you meet him and raise -Cain before a lot of women. I'll bring him here in a minute." - -"You're kind," grunted the other, sarcastically, "but I'll wait for -you." - -The lawyer hastened out, peering into the different rooms in search of -the man he wanted. He suspected that he would find the woman with -Britton, and as he sought, unheeding acquaintances or greetings, he came -upon the couple in the dining-room. - -They were standing at the buffet, chatting and laughing and partaking of -the six-franc supper which Britton had mentioned to his friends. The -dining-hall was full, and Ainsworth hesitated at the door. He had a -peculiar and intense hatred of scenes, and he knew that this company, -consisting partly of bored aristocracy and partly of different gradings -of the vulgar rich, was ready to stare and laugh at an unconventional -act, as, for instance, the interruption of someone's luncheon. - -Britton espied him at the door, and cut short his vacillation by -beckoning him over, making room for him at the same time. Ainsworth -approached them grimly. - -"Have you not had lunch?" Britton inquired cheerily. "Come, there's -room here. We'll wait for you." - -"I couldn't eat a bite," said the lawyer, truthfully. "I wanted to -speak to you for a moment, if you're through. That's all." - -He avoided the eyes of Maud Morris and did not attempt to address her -directly. - -"There's the after-lunch dance, you know," objected Britton. "It's a -matter of etiquette with these people." - -"Can't you let it go?" asked the lawyer, sharply. - -His tone awakened his friend's scrutiny. "What's the matter?" he asked. -"How long do you want me?" - -"It may be some time," answered Ainsworth. "I wish you would come -immediately." - -Maud Morris smiled full upon the lawyer and forced him to meet her -glorious eyes. - -"Just one round," she pleaded prettily, with a nod towards the ballroom. - -At that moment Ainsworth was transformed, in his own mind, into the grim -master of life. The other two were the trifling, wayward children to -whom chastisement would presently come. It did not matter if, in their -ignorance, they coveted those few turns together; they could have their -gambols just on the eve of disillusionment! It might help the cure of -Britton's malady when Ainsworth would afterwards remind him of the -incident. - -"By all means," he said sarcastically. "It will satisfy these -sticklers." - -They swept merrily into the adjacent ballroom, and Ainsworth followed as -far as the entrance. The occasion struck him with a certain grim humor, -and he chuckled silently as he stood in the alcove watching the couple -circling to the orchestra's music. - -They floated slowly, as in a delightful dream, round the immense and -gorgeously-decorated salon, the woman looking upward ecstatically, with -her face aquiver with light, and whispering with both lips and eyes. -Britton, oblivious to the irony of the situation, had forgotten even -Ainsworth. He was plunged in the joy of the moment, and the watching -lawyer could imagine what words he was murmuring in the meshes of her -hair. - -Then, in the midst of his ironical judgment, a pang of something nearly -akin to pity moved Ainsworth. For an instant he debated with himself -the issue if this amour should prove genuine on both sides, but the -thought was immediately dismissed by his cynical reasoning as -improbable. The man was in earnest, but the woman was a siren, in -Ainsworth's critical view. - -One round of the ballroom floor was all the enjoyment they allowed -themselves, for the lawyer significantly stepped out when they reached -the entrance curtains. Britton looked at him vaguely and contracted his -brows in a half-frown when he remembered. - -He led the lady to a settee and bent over her for a moment. - -"You will come back soon?" she whispered with a shade of wistfulness. - -Britton pressed her fingers on her fan under pretence of examining it. - -"Yes," he promised, glorying in the depths of her eyes, "I'll come back, -not soon, but at once. Our dance isn't finished, you know." - -He strode across the room, tall and elegant, and smiling over his -shoulder so that the woman's heart leaped oddly as she watched him. - -"Now, Ainsworth," he said, laying a hand on his comrade's arm, "what do -you want with me? You'll please hurry, won't you?" - -The lawyer drew Britton's arm tightly through his own and turned across -the main promenade. - -"That woman's married," he said with brutal directness, "and I'm taking -you to her husband." - -Britton whipped out his arm from Ainsworth's grasp and held it upraised, -as if to deliver a blow, while a red wave of denunciation flamed over -his fine features. - -"You-" he began, and halted, for the grim, set look in his companion's -eyes carried undeniable conviction. - -"Strike me if you like," Ainsworth observed harshly, "but come this way -with me." - -Britton's fist fell to his side, and he drew his whole frame rigidly -erect in a sort of convulsive movement. In spite of his great strength -he staggered a little, and his face was ashy-white. - -He turned irresolutely back towards the entrance of the dancing salon, -but Ainsworth took his arm again. - -"No, this way," he urged, and led him as he would a boy. - -People marked his rigid muscles and pallid skin, and murmured -compassionately at the apparent stroke of illness. - -"Hello, old chap!" cried one of his numerous acquaintances, shouldering -up, "what's wrong? Heat too much for you? By Jove, you're in a beastly -funk, and I don't wonder, for it's deuced close in here." - -The lawyer waved him aside, and they went on, while all the guests began -to complain of heat, and the assiduous concierge ran to open wider the -French casements on the lawns. - -Once or twice Ainsworth looked up at his companion. Britton's pallor -and tremendous calm, so suggestive of the latent volcanic powers, -alarmed the lawyer. - -"How do you feel?" he whispered sympathetically. - -"I feel nothing-absolutely nothing," responded Britton, in a dull, -passionless tone, and Ainsworth did not doubt him for a moment. - -"Where is your man?" he asked after a second, in the same listless and -unimpassioned voice. - -"Here, in this room," Ainsworth answered, entering the billiard parlors. -They skirted the tables and came where Morris stood with Trascott. - -"Here is the man Morris," he announced in a measured manner. "Morris, -this is Britton." - -As Ainsworth spoke, he braced himself to guard against a hundred ugly -possibilities which this meeting presented. He scanned the lineaments -of the two men, alert to catch the nerve purpose dependent upon each -one's expression, and in thus studying the features of Morris he lost -sight of the latter's hands, which were thrust loosely in the pockets of -his coat. - -The husband's narrow eyes glittered; his lips were drawn back over his -teeth in a wolfish snarl; all his capability for extreme hate seemed to -be given free scope as he centred ferocious glances on the stony -countenance of Rex Britton. - -The other occupants of the room instinctively felt that the atmosphere -held some vital and dramatic portent. They stopped their play and gazed -wonderingly on the group over by the corner table. - -There the two principal figures glared at each other without uttering a -word, the one standing upright with set face and folded arms, the other -crouching like a beast ready to spring in rage. - -Ainsworth had never felt such a tense moment, even in his pleadings -before tightly-packed courts of law. He was involuntarily forced to -hold his breath in suspense, and a band of steel seemed to rim his -chest. Trascott, with his habitual, comforting sanity, offered no -speech. He recognized arbitration to be as futile as it was -inconceivable. Things must run their course. Only he was ready, like -Ainsworth, to guard against deadly violence following the outbreak. - -For some moments Morris crouched and glared, a malicious quiver running -through him. Then if any of the men had watched where his right hand -was hidden they might have seen the cloth of the pocket poked forward by -something cylindrical inside. - -A stunning report, coming apparently from nowhere, shook the windows. -Britton reeled, as a tuft of hair floated off from above his temple, and -jumped like the recoil of a spring upon his would-be murderer. He dealt -two sharp, quick blows before the weapon could be pulled again, and the -thing was all over. - -Morris lay in a quiet heap, with threads of white smoke drifting up from -the powder-blackened hole in his pocket. - -Britton rubbed the red welt along his scalp and nodded gravely to -Ainsworth. - -"You're my counsel in this matter, of course," he said. "Attend to -whatever explanations are needed! Trascott, will you come with me?" - -They elbowed out through the motley, clamorous, ever-increasing crowd -that the pistol-shot had gathered. - -"What do you mean to do?" asked the curate, anxiously. - -"The hardest thing I ever did," Britton answered pitifully. "I want -you, because I doubt if I can do it alone. I'm afraid of myself, -Trascott!" - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - -They sought the concierge and met him, all flustered, coming out of the -office by the side entrance on his way to the room of tumult which they -had just quitted. Britton added to his cares by despatching him with a -message to Maud Morris in the ballroom. - -"Tell Mrs. Morris that I am waiting in her drawing-room," he said. "Ask -her if she will take the elevator at once and see me on an important -matter." - -The concierge made expressive gestures with his hands. - -"Not Madame Morris," he suggested, somewhat puzzled. "Monsieur means -Mademoiselle!" - -"Ah! yes, of course," returned the Englishman, quickly, "A mere slip of -the tongue! My message is for Mademoiselle, for Miss Morris. You will -find her on that large settee just at the entrance of the salon." - -He smiled grimly at the precise classification which to-morrow would be -of a different value. The ghost of the smile lingered on his lips, as, -disdaining the lift, he pulled Trascott towards the stairs. - -"Let us walk up," he begged. "It will give me time to think." - -Trascott moved beside him automatically and left Britton to his own -reflections. That, he thought, was undoubtedly the surest way to -victory. - -Their ascent was slow and silent, their footfalls deadening to an odd, -mysterious void on the thickly-padded steps. The mounting sensation, -the absence of noise from his movements, seemed to lift Britton away -from himself. His personality was effaced, in the physical sense, and -the basic impulses which influenced his course of existence lay bared -before an inner tribunal. - -The vaster issue remained with him; the moral measure applied to his -strength alone; the portentous effects of the next few minutes would be -essentially moulded at the dictum of his emotional tendencies. The -present exigency could be neither flouted nor shunned. This difficulty -of another's evolving, augmented in no small measure by his own unseeing -folly, demanded immediate and decisive solution. Apology was cowardice -and parley an affront to Britton's frank fibre, and both of them smacked -of guilt. - -The suite of rooms taken by Maud Morris was situated on the first floor -just to the right of the public hall, near the landing. She had at her -disposal a luxurious drawing-room, a more luxurious boudoir, and bath -and sleeping apartments. - -Trascott stopped at the stair-head and folded his arms, signifying his -exclusion from the approaching developments. - -"I don't think you will have any need of me," he ventured reassuringly. - -Britton vouchsafed no reply. The swift momentary reaction he -experienced did not disturb the hard, emotionless mask of his features, -and the sudden, peculiarly human revolt stirred by his unsatisfied -heart-hunger was crushed with a tremendous summoning of will-power. - -He swiftly traversed the corridor and entered the drawing-room. - -It was empty, and a poignant chagrin struck Britton, inflicting pain -scarcely definable from that of humiliation and disgrace, as he realized -that perhaps Maud Morris, detecting impending exposure, had suddenly -clutched seclusion as a safeguard with that wanton spirit and careless -indifference of the time-hardened trifler. - -But Britton was wrong in this thought! - -While he paced a few steps in indecision, the boudoir curtains parted, -and through the soft, shaded illumination of the room Maud Morris looked -out at him. - -"I am waiting for you," she called, with a tremulous smile which -indicated the fluttering state of her feelings, yet left the origin of -that uncertainty in doubt. - -If it was a bait, Britton snapped like a deluded fish. The sudden -presentation of the less disagreeable side of the situation weakened his -guard. He acted before he reflected, and stepped forward into the -boudoir. - -The tapestry fell in place behind him, and with its silken swish Britton -felt the error he had unthinkingly committed. This boudoir, which -enthralled with its essentially feminine appointments, was the worst -place in the world for rallying stern resolutions and formulating -all-embracing decisions such as Britton proposed to make. The place -could only shake his sincere purpose. The drawing-room, in graver -setting, would have been far safer for him! - -He put a rigid curb upon his impulses, and attempted to shut out the -powerful charm of low-burning rose lights, Bohemian color, and lavish -decoration, but a stronger influence than these laid its hold upon him, -that delicate, indefinable, alluring fragrance which is found only -within woman's precincts, and which attracts mightily, like woman's -love, because of its tender, subtle elusiveness. - -Then, more compelling than the sense-conquering color-effect, more -entrancing than the pervading perfume, was the magic of Maud Morris -herself. To Britton's mind, in moments wholly calm and lucid, he -thought he had never seen perfections of face and form which approached -hers. Such beauty as she possessed was technically matchless, but, in -general, there are intervals when fascination flags and any existing -flaws in the object of admiration force attention. - -When Britton was cursed with these critical flashes, as he was -accustomed to inwardly express it, he could detect a lack of -something-it might have been soul-behind the level splendor of her blue -eyes, but if he tried to fathom these depths and define this missing -attribute, the mere outward splendor, like the crystal sheen of deep, -clear water, was dazzling enough to make him dizzy and engulf him, and -the effort at introspection went unrewarded. - -So Britton stood wrestling with the spell of environment, hurling mental -refusals upon the suggestive enticement of the boudoir atmosphere and -battling against the magical allurement of the woman who was the climax -in the dainty sphere of exotic loveliness. - -She seemed framed in the shell of the room as if it had been especially -designed to harmonize with her charms. Her pale, silver-colored gown -swept about her feet, leaving her figure in a contour of marvellous -grace; the arms and bosom, full and rounded, came out from it, white as -ivory; her face, beautiful as a rare orchid, with the crowning glory of -her hair above, was one to weaken a strong man. - -Harassed by a flood of doubts and regrets, Britton gazed at her with -wide, darkened eyes, the shame of his position vying in torture with the -pang of his loss. He had come to judge, to condemn and to scorn, but -his capacity for this was submerged in painful realization of the black -void of the future through which he must walk. - -Maud Morris recognized the facing of a crisis in his attitude, and she -nervously clasped her slim fingers as she read something of what was -passing in his mind. - -"Rex, you know!" she cried, with a sort of of awed inspiration tinged by -an inflection of fear. - -"Yes, I know," he answered despairingly. "I know everything! God help -me-and you!" - -There was no reproach in his words, rather a prayer. The thing before -him was too beautiful to curse. He had plainly misjudged his strength -and underrated his task. The animated presence of her he loved filled -both his physical and mental vision with impressionistic power. The -passion which he thought had died at the instant of Ainsworth's -announcement grew in magnitude as a spring torrent grows with a rush of -sorrowful rain. It mastered him, crushed his scorn and turned -condemnation upon his own head. To the great credit of Britton's -manlier qualities a phase of unconscious heroism ruled as the foremost -factor in his new solution of the problem. - -"Good-bye," he said with a near approach to kindness, "and forgive me if -you can. I think I am the one to blame." - -He held out his hand before turning to leave the boudoir. Maud Morris -snatched it rather than took it, apprehension in her eyes. - -"Good-bye, Rex?" she whispered. "You can't go from me. Think of how -we've cared. Think of the invisible ties." - -Britton's mouth hardened, showing his disgust. Her speech came nearer -rousing him to voluble contempt than any inherent feeling. - -"Ties!" he exclaimed severely. "Ignominy upon a marriage bond is no -tie. It is rather a matter of expiation!" - -His words had the intonation of farewell, and he laid one hand on the -portieres, but Maud Morris rushed forward with a cry, holding him with a -passionate caress which was either the height of consummate acting or -the essence of mad desire. - -Her touch thrilled Britton for one vivid, insane moment, and he stood -like a man in a dream listening to her vociferous pleading. - -"Take me with you!" she cried. "Biskra is two days by rail, Sidi Okba -two hours more by carriage-then the desert! The Sahara, Rex, do you -hear? No one shall ever find us!" - -Britton's brain swung slowly back through bewilderment at the mention of -detail, and he stared at her with a gradual horror growing in his eyes -as his idol ground itself to dust. - -"The desert, dear,-and oblivion," she murmured again. - -A hundred scenes flashed before his sight. One stood out-the picture of -Trascott waiting for him, his fine face plunged in anxiety and a strong -prayer in his generous heart. This psychic vision completed Britton's -revulsion, and he violently pushed the woman away. - -"The desert-and hell for us both!" he fiercely cried. "Let me get out -of this!" - -In that moment of repulse Maud Morris assumed her true character, and -Britton read behind her eyes for the first time. She did not lack a -soul; the soul leaped out at him, but it was as the advance of a -serpent, malignant and revengeful. Her beauty lost itself in a hard, -bright mask of undistinctive flesh and eyes. - -"If you go, I'll ruin you!" she warned, in a voice hoarse with jealous -fury. "I'll spoil you for the dear eligibles from one end of England to -the other!" - -Britton gazed at her transformation before answering, and wondered why -he had loved her. - -"Your husband will do that," he said at last. "I hardly expect to keep -out of court." - -"Reflect!" she said harshly. "He cannot do it as I can." - -The knots of the portiere cords would not yield to Britton's pull, and -he tore the silken curtains down in a heap upon the floor. Their -clinging folds seemed symbolic of their siren-like owner, and the man -shuddered as he dropped them from his fingers. - -"You will not reflect?" - -"The enormity of your proposal precludes reflection," said Britton, -witheringly. - -"It's war then?" Her tone was steely. - -"It's war, if you put it that way," he wearily responded; "but hadn't -you better spare your own name?" - -She laughed shortly. - -"Mine will not count," she said mockingly. "The public will sympathize -with the deluded wife. While holding me blameless, English society will -haul your reputation over the cobblestones till there isn't a shred of -it left." - -Britton regarded her silently for a long, comprehensive minute, and went -swiftly out of the boudoir. She followed, still reluctant to give up -the battle. - -"There is another consideration-the attitude of the Honorable Oliver -Britton in this disgrace," she said, using the last and most cruel -weapon of all. "Do you know what your uncle will do? If you don't, I -can tell you!" - -Britton paled perceptibly, as he met the battery of her eyes, upon the -drawing-room threshold. He made a denunciatory wave of his hand and -closed the door sharply. - -Trascott had no words. He gave Britton a fervent finger-clasp and a -bright smile of relief and thankfulness. No elation he had ever felt at -the rescuing of some poor wretch from the English slums compared with -his joy at Britton's personal victory. - -They used the elevator. At the bottom of the lift, Ainsworth waited -beside a servant who held their coats and hats. - -"Well, what is it?" questioned Britton, earnestly. - -"He says it's law, as soon as they reach home," replied Ainsworth, -grimly. "Have you any thought of cruising in other parts?" - -Retreat was repugnant to a strong man like Britton. He shook his head -decidedly. - -In fifteen minutes they had reached the wharf and boarded the -_Mottisfont_. She rode at a single anchor chain, and twin coils of -grayish smoke issued from her double funnels. - -It was the second watch, and the mate held the bridge. Britton called -to him. - -"Have you a head of steam?" - -"Plenty, sir," the mate replied. - -"Then weigh your anchor!" - -"Aye, aye, sir. Where away?" - -"Home to New Shoreham!" - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - -The case of Morris _versus_ Britton, as developed in the judicial -courts, was one of those neurotic society flurries that never fail to -arouse interest and promote discussion from highland to sea-down. - -Complete details of all legal proceedings, together with copious comment -on the demeanor of complainant and defendant, as well as irrelevant -addenda concerning such things as dress and facial expression, can be -found in the back files of a certain aristocratic journal, but nothing -edifying is to be gained by perusal of this voluminous report. The -circulation of the sheet in question was given sudden and tremendous -impetus, yet this proved merely temporary, for the revengeful note -obtruded, the personal animosity broke forth, overstepping all limits of -honor and fair play, so that those who had not heretofore followed -public topics over-closely wondered what was the editor's quarrel with -the defendant. But his quarrel was not with the nephew; although through -the nephew he hoped to reach the uncle, the Honorable Oliver Britton, -who was abroad, representing England in a consular capacity. - -The name of Britton, of Britton Hall, was high enough and proud enough -and old enough to afford a splendid target for the batteries of ignominy -which were masked within the publishing offices of the warring journal, -and the fact that the Honorable Oliver Britton had once humbled by -personal opposition the political aspirations of the editor was what -made the reputation-shelling process so destructive. Still, in spite of -the deliberate use of his heaviest artillery, the man behind the fire of -words did not foresee the startling result of such drastic measures. - -When, after months of fighting through successive law-courts, the -celebrated action came to an end, the journal's editor had to announce, -much to his chagrin, that the final verdict was dismissal with a -division of costs. This decision, the report intimated, was due -entirely to that matchless legal machine, Ainsworth. - -However, the enemy of the Britton name enjoyed the satisfaction of -knowing that his vitriolic pen had done more than he dared to hope, for -he soon had the supreme delight of stating that, owing to the disgrace -involving the family name, the Honorable Oliver Britton had resigned his -post as Consul at a foreign court. Furthermore, the powers that appoint -had placed another in the post in the diplomatic service which, it was -understood, was being reserved for Rex Britton till his return from the -holiday cruise that his honor-graduation at Oxford had earned. - -And, later, the journal announced what it had not foreseen, the news -that the Honorable Oliver Britton had returned from the Continent, -violently quarrelled with his nephew and disinherited him. It gloated -over the cruel truth that of all the Brittons, who had for generations -counted thousands of pounds upon their rent-rolls, a Britton now stood -penniless, except for a paltry three hundred guineas left out of his -patrimony, nearly exhausted by the long legal battle; gloated over him -because the gentleman's hand must turn to labor, the ambitious trusts of -educational and diplomatic posts being denied him on account of the -name-smudge. - -There the journal's report and comment ends, except for an item telling -that Christopher Morris and his wife had gone to America. - -The night Rex Britton quarrelled with his uncle, he went out from -Britton Hall, down white gravel walks between clipped hedges, under the -massed oaks in the familiar grove, and along green Sussex lanes to the -depot. There he telegraphed Ainsworth to get Trascott to meet him at -the former's rooms, as new developments had arisen which occasioned his -departure from what he had considered home since his boyhood days. The -night express took him up and whirled him away to London. - -Trascott was with a dying woman in the slums, so it was evening of the -next day before the three friends could get together in Cyril -Ainsworth's rooms. The curate came in, weary and depressed, and with a -gravity of bearing caused by association with the near presence of -death. - -"The uncle has cut the nephew out of the will and kicked him off the -estate," Ainsworth plunged, giving Trascott a terse summing-up of Rex -Britton's explanations. "He has left three hundred pounds of money, -three mountains of pride, and the strength of three bulls. He's off to -Canada and the Yukon!" - -Trascott stilled his surprise and bent earnestly over the table. - -"I'd stay," he advised pointedly. "You can live down the disinheritment -and open the barricaded doors of position. I'd stay in England and live -it down." - -Britton was sullen and decided. "No," he returned, "I'm out of England -till I can buy back everything I've lost. Understand? I'm disappearing -from the dearly beloved public which takes such an interest in my -misfortune and in my future. Isn't that what victims of circumstance -try? I'll be welcomed as the prodigal nephew when I return-if I ever -do!" - -"Don't be cynical," Trascott warned. "It's dangerous in your case." - -"What would you have me do?" Rex exclaimed warmly. "Shall I turn -gamekeeper or valet? And don't think I'm priggish! I dare be menial, -but, by Jove, I won't be a slave! Independency is my obsession. That's -why I'm for this new gold-trail." - -And the gold-trail held its persistent lure in spite of any arguments. - -Two weeks later he sighted Newfoundland from the decks of an Allan -Liner, passed through the waters of Belle Isle, chafing on Labrador's -iron coast, caught up Heath Point on bleak Anticosti, and won the -river-stretch of four hundred and thirty-eight miles to Quebec. Twelve -hours more and the liner anchored in the port of Montreal. - -Rex Britton had hunted for three seasons in the Laurentians, and at -Montreal he hastened to find two comrades of the chase who had always -been members of his party. One was the voyageur, Pierre Giraud, and the -other a plainsman, Jim Laurance, who had drifted up from some place in -the Southern States. Britton inquired for them in their old haunts. - -"Pierre?" cried a French riverman, at his question; "Pierre an' Jim -Laurance? Dey bot' gon' on de Yukon. Beeg strik' dere-ver' beeg -strik'." - -Further enquiry elicited the information that Jim Laurance was keeping a -road-house at Indian River, on the Dawson Trail, while Pierre Giraud was -some place in the land of gold without his whereabouts being definitely -known. - -On hearing this news Britton dallied no further, but crossed the -continent alone, caught a Puget Sound boat and steamed north. All the -way up people talked insane things of a new strike east of Juneau, and, -like a fool, he listened. Like a fool, also, he rushed in hot haste with -the van of the stampede which followed the boat's touching at Juneau. -The lure of gold faded somewhat for him when they reached the -much-touted valley and found that not a hundredth part of what had been -reported was true. - -Though hope was lessened in immense proportion, still Britton staked -with his fellows, only to have his ardor dampened still more. The -bedrock of his claim was as clean of yellow grains as a well-swept -floor, and while his neighbors struck pay-gravel of moderate richness, a -curse of bad luck blanked his own efforts. - -Twice more he did the same thing, once on Admiralty Island and again at -Glacier Bay below Mount Crillon. Each time he reported his ill-success -to Jim Laurance by letters which he sent with in-going steamers to Dyea, -whence they were borne onward over Chilcoot by the Dawson mail-carriers. -And Laurance, deprived of the satisfaction of replying on account of -Britton's itinerancy, sat in his road-house at Indian River and waited -for the Englishman to come to him. He held as a truism his own saying -that the Dawson Trail knew every leg in the Yukon at some time or other, -and he did not doubt for an instant that Britton's legs would presently -appear, straining through the weary miles like the countless pairs of -limbs he had seen stamping over the route which led to the Mecca of the -gold-lands. - -Having wasted the summer months and a great part of his money in three -futile stampedes, Britton found himself upon the Dyea beach at the -approach of winter, with another _ignis fatuus_ luring him on the inward -trail. A tremendous rush was on to Forty Forks, east of Lake Marsh, -where, it was said, a prospector had kicked over glistening nuggets with -the soles of his hobnailed cruisers. The wildest reports of wealth were -circulating, as usual, and men went forward in mad haste to locate on -the creek before the white breath of winter should blot out the face of -the land. - -Britton, grown wary through bitter experience, cut the reports down to a -sounder basis of common sense, sifted out apparent exaggerations and -discrepancies, and decided that Forty Forks was at least worth trying -for, although, when he remembered three successive defeats, he -misdoubted the issue. - -Dyea was in a ferment. Boat-loads of passengers and baggage crowded the -beach and camp, and this tangled rabble resolved itself into a perpetual -stream of in-going Klondikers heading over the pass to take advantage of -the yet open waterway from Linderman. - -The tang of first frost was in the gray morning air as Britton pushed -along the rough, bouldered wagon-road which runs up the Dyea Valley. -Hundreds went, like him, on foot, while those blessed with a full -money-belt procured what teamsters' wagons were to be had and lashed -ahead in frantic haste that soon brought Canyon City in sight. From -there to Sheep Camp the travel was more congested; the weaker men -already began to lag; the first strain of the race told on the -physically unfit. - -All the way on to the Scales Britton passed faltering fellows, singly or -in groups of twos and threes. They cursed him in a despairing way for -his stalwart legs and sturdy back, and he came to recognize that here at -last was a country where they measured a man according to his manliness, -uninfluenced by extraneous attributes. - -Where the trail ascended Chilcoot, the footing grew worse, and a mighty -climb confronted those who would cross the pass. Britton's strength -here stood him in good stead, for in addition to the arduous toil of the -ascent there arose the handicap of a bitterly cold wind which began to -filter through the mountains, carrying ominous snow-flurries. The icy -blast numbed the climbers' muscles and sapped their energies, and as if -conscious of its power, the northland loosed its lungs and blew a -brawling storm down from the higher plateaus. - -Minute by minute the shrieking wind increased in velocity, whirling -sleet and snow in the faces of the toiling men, till their persons were -encrusted, and the mountain path grew white and obscure. A gold-seeker -slipped upon a rock ahead of Britton and rolled back against his legs. -Rex pulled him up and turned him round. "Say, old friend, what do you -call this?" he gasped. - -"Holy road to Nome!" blasphemed the other, rubbing his bruised limbs. -"Don't you know a blizzard when you meet one? Keep your mouth shut in -this cold, or you won't make the pass." - -It was indeed a blizzard of the roaring, ramping type that only the -Yukon knows, and it increased to diabolical fury as the toilers reached -the steepest pitch of the mountain. Men went down beside the trail in -sheer exhaustion, and the agony of their position appealed more strongly -to Britton on account of his inability to render any lasting aid. This, -of all the northern trails, was the Iron Trail where none but the strong -could survive. - -Seeing old-timers and hardened sourdoughs fall behind filled Britton -with a glow of pride in his own capabilities. He understood that he was -one of the fit to whom reward must finally come, and the thought -instilled new hope. - -Over towering Chilcoot he climbed, in the teeth of that memorable -blizzard which froze a score of gold-seekers between the Scales and the -divide from Crater Lake. Nothing but his magnificent physique and -indomitable purpose carried him on, and when he staggered across the -little glacier which sloped to Crater Lake he had won his way to the -front, and was once more in the van of a stampede. As Britton thawed -himself in the camp there beside a grizzled Alaskan who had followed -every strike from Nome to Klondike City, the old-timer regarded him -admiringly. - -"You're the hot stuff, mate," he averred, "when you can heel old Larry -Marsh over Chilcoot in that there hell-warmer. You're some stampeder, -too! Wasn't you in the front 'long of me at Juneau and Glacier Bay?" - -"I believe I remember you," Britton said, "although it did us precious -little good to be in the front." - -The old man warmed his hairy paws for the tenth time and shook his gray -locks. - -"Don't whine! Never whine, friend," he remarked. "You get experience, -grantin' nothin' else. You're sure some stampeder, and I reckon they'll -be namin' you 'long of Larry Marsh-him that named Marsh Lake!" - -And forthwith Britton's name travelled widely in fulfilment of the -old-timer's prophecy; they began to designate him as one of their -stampeders, that much-respected minority of men who have the grit and -the power to stay in the lead of the maddest of all mad races-the -gold-rush. - -The halt at Crater Lake Camp was, of necessity, very short. The -stragglers were limping in, frost-bitten and exhausted, telling of some -who would never come in, when Marsh and Britton again hit the trail. -Dead men nor mountains, frosts nor blizzards, sufficed to stay the -stampede. - -The lower levels were strangely quiet after the bellowings of the windy -pass, and the cold did not bite so keenly. - -The rush passed on by Deep Lake and Long Lake, where fat purses could -buy the assistance of pack-trains of mules as far as Linderman. When -they reached the shore of this lake, they were twenty-eight miles from -Dyea, with the giant bulk of Chilcoot looming between, its rugged head -still wrapped in the swirling white blizzard. - -From the head of Lake Linderman the boats, bought or built for different -individuals, plied on the water-route which led by Lake Marsh and the -Forty Forks onward to Dawson. There were small barges, but their -sailings were very uncertain and could not be depended on in a rush. -Each man who dared the waterway before the very maw of winter had to buy -or make his craft at Linderman. - -Here on the shore a motley throng congregated, with Marsh and Britton in -the front ranks. Some Nevada capitalists who had lost their horses along -the trail and hired Indian packers to carry their goods over the pass at -sixty cents a pound, clamored for boats to a stocky Dane, who appeared -to be a perfect genius at turning out freshly sawn planks as the -finished product, ready seamed and caulked, with mast stepped, and -altogether seaworthy. However, something else beside clamor and a -profligate show of money was necessary for the securing of the vessels, -and that was time. Work as they might, the boat-builders could not -supply the demand, and any with skill in carpentering fell to toiling of -their own will in order to get boat after boat away and thus hasten -their own turn. They were pitting human celerity and skill against the -unceasing advance of winter. The freeze-up was approaching with chill, -unpitying certainty to snuff out delayed hopes by the close of -navigation, and through superhuman effort the gold-seekers thought to -forestall the frost's advent. - -Every day the march of Arctic feet could be defined more clearly; every -night the snow-line slid a little farther down the hills; north-east -squalls blew up at unexpected hours; and the rivers strained their -waters through arrays of icy teeth stuck along the margins. - -Amidst the turmoil of Linderman, when others had done with exhortations, -expostulations, and entreaties, through the universal desire for speed, -Larry Marsh drew one Danish boat-builder aside and conferred with him. - -Whatever magic he used or whatever service of old needed repayment, -Britton did not know, but he saw the Dane hand over a newly launched -skiff to the gray Alaskan. - -"Hey! you," the latter called to him, "come and steer this boat. You're -the man for me!" - -Britton threw in his outfit with glad promptitude, and they shoved off -through the seething shore ice, which was ground to fragments as quickly -as it formed. - -"Keep her head straight," warned Larry Marsh. "I'll 'tend to this here -sail." - -He busied himself with the squaresail, a large sheet that caught the -sweeping wind and whirled them down Lake Linderman like a flash. - -A mile portage connected Linderman with the next lake, Bennett. The -swift water was not navigable for large boats in the ordinary way, so -Britton brought the skiff to in a manner which showed he was a skilful -sailor and which Marsh did not fail to note. - -"You've held a tiller before now, I'll warrant," he said. "Most -greenies would have piled the boat up on them boulders in the rapid. -Let's pack the outfits across and line her down to Bennett!" - -Accordingly, having first portaged their goods, they lined the skiff -carefully through foaming white-water down to Lake Bennett, where they -again embarked. From the Police post at the head of the lake the -sergeant was watching a Government courier struggling in with a -Peterborough through the gale that raged. Britton and Marsh saw him -also as they staggered under their press of sail. - -"He's in trouble," Rex cried. "Hadn't I better run closer?" - -The courier was paddling mightily, but the squall which had caught him -half way up Bennett proved too strong. It was gradually defeating him -in spite of his desperate efforts. - -"It'll swamp him in a minute," Marsh declared, eyeing the helpless man. -"I guess you'd better run past." - -The skiff bore in toward the canoe just as a huge, white-capped wave -threatened to bury it. The stout fellow met it bravely with a sweeping -stroke. The spray hid the Peterborough's nose for an instant, and it -seemed as if the craft would never rise. - -"She's under!" shouted Britton. - -"No, she lifts," cried his companion. "See, on the wave-top! By -heavens, it's mountain-high! Snap!-there goes his paddle." - -The blade had broken clean in two under the tremendous strain. The -Peterborough spun round like a cork on the crest of the surf; the -courier grasped for his spare paddle, knotted to the thwarts, but -another wave capsized him before he could dip it. - -Britton brought the boat's head round, and the skiff drifted past the -spot. The drenched man clung desperately to the careening, upturned -Peterborough. Britton jammed the tiller hard to windward, and Marsh -cast a rope. It missed. - -"Here," said Rex, "keep the helm down, and I'll catch him as we drift." - -Old Larry took his place. Britton stretched himself on the gunwale, -like a cat, and grabbed the drowning courier's collar as they rocked -alongside. A powerful jerk, and the soaked fellow lay shivering in the -bottom of the skiff! - -He was a Corsican and spoke bad English. While they reeled down the -thirty miles of Bennett before the screaming gale, he patted Britton's -shoulder in gratitude. - -"I must ask thanks-much thanks for you," he kept reiterating. - -They beached the courier at an Indian camp by Cariboo Crossing and drove -on through Tagish Lake. The wind veered and baffled them, and the seas -gave them hours of icy baling. Britton did not count the tacks they -made, but it must have been a hundred before they reached Tagish Post, -where the boat was put in for good. The Englishman was not at all sorry -to see it permanently tied up and to be free of its cramped quarters, -although the skiff had served them such a good turn. - -He stretched his toil-stiffened muscles and stamped about on the -ice-piled beach, the Alaskan following suit. Rex thought the latter's -face had a wan, tired look, and he realized how wearing were these -desperate drives in the teeth of overwhelming hardships. - -"I reckon we've got the rest beat by a long shot," Marsh observed. -"Nevada coin-slingers ain't in it with us! I know a short trail to -Forty Forks by skirtin' Lake Marsh, so we can snooze at the Post -to-night and hit it in the mornin'." - -They slept in comfort for once, sheltered at Mounted Police -headquarters, but before sunrise they were afoot and circling the first -headland of Lake Marsh. Some hours after, the other boats began to -arrive, and the land-rush was renewed with fresh vigor. - -"What do you think of my namesake?" asked the Alaskan, as they turned -east from Lake Marsh's shore. - -Britton looked at the sullen sweep of white-crested water with the -rubble of ice rattling on every wave, at the thickening films over the -inlets, and at the ever-descending snow-line on the bleak ridges. - -"I think it will be closed before thirty-six hours," he said. - -It was a tyro's guess, and for the only time within the knowledge of -Larry Marsh the tyro's guess came true. The next evening he saw the -freeze-up and the death of many a man's hopes. The death of their own -hopes crept round in a different way. - -A mile below Forty Forks they met Jack McDonald, or "Scotty," as he was -generally termed, a famous dog-musher of the Yukon, a skilled -prospector, and a friend of Marsh. - -"Headin' for the strike?" he asked in his broad Scotch accent. "Then ye -maun turn aroun'. 'Tisna worth a dang." - -Britton's eager look faded. Larry Marsh glanced up with sharp disgust. - -"'Scotty'," he said, "you're not joking?" - -"Joke, mon!" exclaimed McDonald. "I cam' frae Le Barge tae look ower -the groun', an' yon dinna seem like a joke. I tell ye 'tisna worth a -dang." - -Marsh believed the announcement because it was uttered by the Scotchman. -He relied on McDonald's judgment as he would on his own, and he turned -about on the trail. - -"That's gospel if 'Scotty' says so," he observed to Rex. "It's no use -of us wastin' time. Back-trail's the word!" - -Britton was loath to give up so near the goal when his expectations were -so summarily scattered. - -"It's only a mile to the new camp," he said. "I think I'll go on and -have a look. One never can tell what may turn up." - -Larry Marsh shouldered his pack-sack again. - -"All right," he grunted. "Where you goin', McDonald?" - -"South o' Le Barge," the Scotchman answered. "I had a trace there before -I cam' awa' on this fool trip." - -"I'm with you," cried Marsh, "and we'll follow it to the end." To -Britton he added: "Come with us, and we'll put you in right if anything -goes!" - -The idea seemed vague and forlorn, and Rex shook his head. - -"I'll glance over the Forks anyway," he decided. - -They took the back-trail, and he tramped on. A week at Forty Forks was -convincing enough! He returned to Tagish Post, a very downhearted man, -and the first person he saw was the Government courier, Franco Lessari, -whom he had pulled out of Lake Bennett. - -"I ask much thanks-for you, much thanks," the Corsican greeted with a -new show of gratitude. "For your kind heart I repay-so little. Listen! -Far up Samson Creek, I tell you for go on the north branch. Look there -for gold!" - -Britton smiled indulgently. It was only another of the five hundred -kindly hints which had been given him by well-disposed people; for -well-disposed people never think that these vague pieces of information, -very often acquired simply by hearsay, waste a man's time, by sending -him off on false and useless scents. Britton had had plenty of such -news, and he thought no more of it till he heard it whispered about the -Post that there was something big on Samson Creek. - -He learned, too, that Franco Lessari had quitted the Government service -to go prospecting, and that lent more significance to what the Corsican -had told him. When he went to bed that night, he counted the contents -of his slack money-belt. There remained about enough to purchase a team -of dogs, with some dollars left over for supplies. With his present -means he could go on one more stampede. If he failed to strike -anything, he would be stranded. Success or failure depended upon which -direction he took. There was another rumor in the air, the tale of -riches in the Logan Valley, and he did not know which way to turn. In -his strait he remembered the fatalistic beliefs of the Arabs in Algiers, -and flipped a coin to decide whether he should go on or turn back. - -It fell heads-to go on-and Britton accepted the decision. Larry Marsh -and McDonald had gone south of Lake Le Barge, so he purchased his dogs -from another musher and set forth next day. The frost held lakes and -rivers with two-foot ice, and the snow had fallen heavily for a week. - -He worked across the frozen lakes; ranged the jammed curves of Thirty -Mile River; and reached the ice bridges of the White Horse. The -travelling was tedious, and he saved his dogs, going into camp every -night at six. - -At the Mounted Police post on the Big Salmon, Britton rested half a day, -and then mushed along, undeterred by a filled trail, to the Little -Salmon, Pelly, and Selkirk, making halts where he must. - -Between Selkirk and Stewart River, when Britton pulled out at dawn, he -could discern another team travelling behind him at a considerable -distance. He watched it with interest because it was the first company -he had seen on the trail since leaving Big Salmon, but the sled did not -appear to come any nearer no matter how slowly he himself mushed. - -"Who's behind?" asked the keeper of the roadhouse at Stewart River, when -Britton passed through. - -"Don't know," Rex answered. "He will not come close enough for -examination." - -"A shirker!" was the man's judgment on the laggard team, as he watched -the Englishman's sturdy figure breaking the way to Sixty Mile. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - -Where the heavy trail from Sixty Mile forged toward Indian River, Rex -Britton halted his dog-train and eyed with an odd glance, half relief, -half reproach, the dog-sled which was now rapidly approaching from the -rear. - -"Humph!" he growled through his fur hood, "the gentleman of the -rear-guard has a conscience after all. He apparently knows the -unwritten law of the Yukon that travellers take turns in breaking the -trail." - -A fresh fall of snow had buried the Dawson route, and, unlucky as usual, -Britton had found it his task to pack the loose stuff all the way from -the Big Salmon. The other dog-train that had mushed behind him since -morning had not offered to do its duty till now. The four o'clock gray -was showing in the sky. Night lurked in the river shadows. Britton -breathed his dogs a little longer and waited. - -The sled behind was drawn by a five-dog team like his own, but the -huskies appeared far fresher. - -"Been nursing them while I've done the work!" was his -exclamation-"mighty good driver, too. By George, it's a woman!" - -Britton's wide eyes strained to catch the detail of the figure. As the -distance lessened, his supposition was proven true. He saw the novel -sight of a five-dog team being urged at full speed over that lonely -trail by a mere slip of a girl. - -"Gaucho, you lean beggar!" he cried to his leader. With a jump the -animal tautened the traces to the shrill menace of the lash. The -runners coughed a little in the sagging snow, and Britton was off down -the slope. - -"You see it's a girl, you old wolf," he whimsically explained. "We -can't let her break a trail. No-not if we were dropping!" - -Nevertheless his team travelled in a surly fashion. The skin on the -backs of their necks crinkled at the shriek of his whip. They snarled -and fought in their harness despite the punishment which followed. The -rear sled gained steadily. Soon a voice like a clear silver bell hailed -Britton. - -"Wait!" she commanded. "I'll take my turn. Your dogs are weakening. I -should have come to the front sooner, only I must travel all night and -need to spare my team." - -"I'm all right," Britton shouted back. "Laurance's cabin is my stop. -The huskies will last." - -"I insist," the girl cried, urging her animals so that they nosed the -packs on Britton's sleigh. - -"And I refuse," he called over his shoulder. "You shouldn't be on this -trail anyway. It's not safe to travel alone. You're surely not mad -enough to attempt a night trip?" - -The girl straightened her shoulders haughtily, and the face, framed in a -white-furred hood, took on a dignity which would have been lost on the -man had not the physical beauty of the countenance forced its -impression. - -"Let me pass!" she tersely commanded, pulling her dogs into the powdery -snow at one side of Britton's packed trail. - -"Pass me, then," he said, a little nettled, and forced his team to -topmost speed. - -Invited into a race, the girl soon showed the mettle of herself and of -her animals. Before Britton reached the river-arm, she drew abreast. -The trail sloped downward, and the dogs had but little to stay their -lope. The two teams raced side by side, the leaders snapping at each -other. - -[Illustration: "The two teams raced side by side, the leaders snapping -at each other."] - -"They'll fight in a minute and pile us both up," the girl cried -excitedly. - -Britton, gazing on her face, was struck with an old, poignant pain. For -a second, he thought it was Maud Morris. The features were there; the -same teeth, the same rose-hued cheeks, the same sunny hair about the -temples! The resemblance was remarkable, and, forgetting the swift -descent, Britton stared. - -Gaucho, over-zealous to maim the rival leader, stumbled, and a spill -seemed imminent, but Britton's skilful lash sorted him out, thereby -increasing the momentum of the train till the teams rushed neck and neck -again. - -"It's a dead heat," he said grimly. "We had better slacken speed before -we cross the ice or neither sleigh will go any farther." - -"Agreed," smiled the hooded beauty, reining in. Her color was -heightened by the ride, and, as she pushed the furry fringes from her -mouth to admit of freer breathing, Britton could have sworn it was the -face of Maud Morris. Only, the eyes had a serene depth of expression -which bespoke soul and purity. Therein lay the difference! - -"Say," he began, confusedly, "you're like-you're the perfect mould of -someone I know. Her name is Morris. Ah! I have it now! Such likeness -can't exist without sisterhood. You're a sister of Maud Morris!" His -voice was intense in its eagerness. - -"I am not!" came the decidedly staccato answer, tinged with contempt. -"Be careful," she added warningly. "There's a jam on this arm." They -were sweeping the frozen river-bed, bumping over the jutting -ice-boulders piled chaotically in a bend of the stream. - -Britton took the lead, swinging briskly across the jam. The girl -shouted a warning at his evident carelessness. - -"Do be cautious," she begged. "The fresh snow masks the water-holes in -treacherous bridges, and the current here is very swift." - -Britton loped on without heed. The girl screamed, a second later. -Without warning one runner of the foremost sled cut across a snow-arched -slush-hole. Britton pitched backwards, splashing through the sloppy -mask as a stone drops through scummy ooze. - -The girl was at the place in three dog-leaps. A dull blotch of open -water showed where the man had disappeared. She jerked her sled -sidewise, as an anchor for her weight, grasped a runner with one hand, -and lowered her body as far as possible, searching with despairing -glances for a reappearing head. She gave a low cry of agony when -nothing showed, and began probing wildly with her whip. Its butt-end -fell across the taut ropes of Britten's sled, and, looking up, the girl -saw the dogs in a heap, well-nigh strangled with the tension on the -collars. There was something on the other end! - -She grasped the ropes and pulled with all the strength of one arm. -After what seemed an age of straining, Britton's black gauntlet pierced -the slush. The lines were twisted tightly round his wrist, and the girl -frantically seized it. However, the effort was useless. By the -passiveness of the limb she knew him to be either stunned or drowned, -and past helping himself, while her strength could not stir him. - -Relaxing her grip, she pulled herself up the side of the hole, ran to -Britton's team, and lashed it into activity in spite of the cramping -collars. In terror the huskies responded with their supreme efforts, but -they could not draw out their master. - -In hysterical sobbing now the girl brought her own dogs, hitched them -ahead, and slashed the double team till the cruel whip flayed their -hides. To her blows she added prayers breathed between terrified sobs. - -At last the string of tortured dogs broke out the sagging, anchoring -thing, and Britton's senseless body rolled into view with startling -suddenness. The animals, at the quick release, dragged it clear of the -river before the girl could stop them. - -Laurance's cabin showed just around the bend. In a new lease of strength -the feminine rescuer rolled the man's body on his sleigh. Calling to -her own team to follow, she made a dash for the shelter of the cabin. - -The headland reeled away; the ice-gaps ran past till she drew up with a -swirl in front of Laurance's. A group of suspicious huskies, guarding -the door, howled dubiously and charged on the strange teams. The girl -cracked skulls here and there in a frantic fashion. The fear that they -might spring on the inert man possessed her, but in a second the clamor -reached Laurance by his fire. - -The door clanged back. Several oaths, puncturing the icy air like -pistol-cracks, were swallowed in a ridiculous gurgle when the old -Klondiker recognized the strange form as that of a woman. - -"He's drowned!" she screamed. "Help him, for God's sake!" - -"Who?" bellowed Laurance, rushing out and kicking dogs right and left. -"By me oath, it's Britton, Rex Britton! Where'd you come on him, eh?" - -"He fell in the river-jam!" she cried in unsuppressed irritation. -"Don't talk-don't question! Do something! It's time that counts. -You're losing time, man!" Her voice filed off in an upper break which -told of racked nerves. - -Laurance gripped Britton in his arms and made the house with some little -difficulty. Rex was a heavy man, and a bulky fellow seems twice his own -weight when the muscles are so lax. - -"I don't think he's drowned near so much as stunned," Laurance observed, -as he laid the body in a bunk behind the stove. "Something's hit him a -hefty blow there." He touched Britton's forehead where a dark bruise -showed. - -"Nary a drown," he continued triumphantly, as he ran a hand under thick -Arctic clothing to feel the breast. "His heart's a-beatin'. His ribs -heave some, too. Nary a drown, I tell you. The crack on the coco done -the job, miss. I'll bring him round all up-to-date in a minnit or two." - -The girl's convulsive sobbing made Laurance look up in surprise. - -"Don't you go for to take on so," he begged. "You go quiet your nerves -and make summat hot in the kitchen room, for the cook's away. I'll -dry-fix Britton, and he'll drink pints of scaldin' tea when he wakes." - -The girl obeyed, eager to do anything that would help. She busied -herself over the tea-making, and warmed some soup, made from moose -shoulder, which she found in the rough cupboard. At intervals, however, -her anxiety overcame her, and she called to Laurance in the next room -with questions as to Britton's condition. Reassuring replies came back -in the Klondiker's quaint vocabulary, replies that made her smile when -she could take her mind off Britton's danger, since Laurance declared -there was no need to fear. - -By the time she had the tea and soup ready, Laurance came into the -kitchen. - -"He's come to-sort of dazed, though," was his announcement. "Got them -things hot?" - -"Steaming!" she answered, turning from the stove. The action brought -her face in close range of Laurance's eyes. The tears were dried, -disfiguring sobs gone. The sparkle of the eye and the fire-tinged cheek -made a rare sight. The old Klondiker gazed for a speechless minute, -while the girl's color deepened. - -"Say, now," he stammered at last, "if I'd never set eyes on the Rose of -the Yukon, I'd take me oath as you was her. Blast me if you don't -resemble her like a twin. Where're you from?" - -"Dawson!-don't bother me," the girl replied quickly. "You are sure he -will be perfectly safe? I wouldn't like to think-you see, I believe it -was my fault. I tempted him to race. He will take no harm?" - -"Nary a bit," said Laurance, promptly. "He'll be as right as a trivet -when he gets outside a good hot meal." - -"Then give him these as soon as you like!" She indicated the tea and -soup, and added: "I'll thank you to tell him I'm sorry I was the cause -of his accident. Just tell him I'm sorry." - -Laurance caught up the boiling liquids in their respective vessels and -darted into the next room. Rex Britton's senses were gradually steadying -themselves. The hollow, rocky feeling was passing away. In a dry suit -of Laurance's he half reclined on the Alaska bunk, while the Klondiker -proceeded to administer to his needs by dipping out the necessary -nourishment. - -"Where's the girl?" asked Britton, awkwardly. - -"Out in the kitchen! Say, isn't she a Jim-Cracker from -Jim-Crackerville, eh? What's her name?" - -"Don't know!" said Rex. "Why didn't you ask her?" - -"Bless me,-I-forgot," admitted Laurance. "However, son, seein' as you're -summat interested, I'll attend to this here enquiry-" - -A jingle of bells and the movement of a dog-train outside clattered an -interruption. - -"Hello!" exclaimed Laurance, jumping up. "Someone else blew in, eh? -Must be me day at home." He crossed quickly to the door and flung it -open. - -"Who's arrived?" demanded Britton. - -"H-l!" cried Laurance, in a non-committal fashion, and dashed into the -yard. - -Vociferous shouting drifted in to Britton, and when the Klondiker -reappeared, he asked with a shade of anxiety: "Anything wrong out -there?" - -"She's gone," spluttered Laurance. "She's hiked with that bloody fast -team of hers." - -Britton leaped from the bunk to the doorway. Around the bend of the -trail the girl's outfit was disappearing. Full of a strange thrill of -disappointment and sense of indignity, he turned the blame on Laurance. - -"You blasted fool!" he roared, angrily. - -"'Tain't my fault," the Klondiker threw back. "How'd I know she was -goin' to vamoose? Must ha' thought we wasn't respectable inhabitants." - -"She said she intended to travel by night," explained Britton. "I told -her it wasn't safe, but she laughed. I'm going after her!" - -Jim Laurance put his back to the door with a certain grim determination. - -"No, you ain't," he said, quietly. "Sift some sense into your cracked -head. Them dogs are gee-whiners. Yours wouldn't catch 'em in a year. -No, siree! That girl knows what she's a-doin'. She's been on trails -afore this, and don't you forgit it." - -Britton sat down upon his bunk again, convinced of the futility of -trying to overtake the splendid team of the unknown beauty. Laurance -came back from the door and replenished the fire. His friend drank the -rest of the soup and tea in an absent manner. - -"How do you shape?" asked Jim. - -"Better," Rex grunted. - -"Feel like a square meal? It'll skeer off the cold better'n slops. -They're all right to prick your blood up, but they don't last like a -stomachful of bull moose. Heh?" - -"Hardly," Britton agreed. "Bring out your solid grub." - -Laurance dived into the kitchen, returning with a big platter of -moosemeat and a tremendous slab of pilot bread. He put on a fresh pot -of tea, and they fell to, munching in silence while dark crept under the -door and into the cabin corners. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - -When the meal was finished, the cabin was wrapped in gloom. Laurance -opened the stove door in order to save the expense of lighting a candle. -In the Yukon smaller things than candles count for much. The firelight -blocked out the two men's figures in a ruddy smudge of color. Britton's -massive frame showed larger by a half than the wiry figure of Jim -Laurance. But though not bulky, the latter's muscles were of steel. His -grizzled face was surmounted by stubby, iron-gray hair which met the -up-creep of a disreputable beard in front of his rat ears. The stolid -monochrome of a countenance was relieved only by the flash of two -piercing blue eyes and the cherry-red hue of a snub nose. His lips were -seldom seen; they clung incessantly to his pipe-stem under cover of the -ragged whisker-growth. - -Britton's face, on the other hand, was a finely moulded one; the -harrying conditions and bitter routines of the North appeared to have -only conserved and augmented its strength. A broad forehead, dark, fine -hair above, regular features, with chin and cheeks clean-shaven, and -white, even teeth showing when he smiled, made a pleasant picture in the -flame reflection. His muscle-corded shoulders, sturdy neck, and square -chin gave evidence of combined physical and mental strength. - -For a time the men smoked in silence, staring into the coals, each busy -with his own thoughts. Presently Britton spoke. - -"Perhaps she'll stay at Ainslie's camp for the night," he said, more to -himself than to his companion. - -"Got the girl on your brain yet?" chirped Laurance, mockingly. "Kind of -heroine of a fair romance, ain't she? Sort of angelic saviour sent for -your special benefit, heh? 'Spose you'd a-dropped into that hole if she -hadn't been around? Own up, now-honest Injun!" - -"Can't say," evaded Britton. "I was thinking only of her safety. We're -all pretty rough characters up here, but there are some d-d rough ones -on this trail. At Stewart River they told me that someone was robbing -caches by night between there and Dawson." - -"The bloody cache-thief, or thieves," Laurance broke out-"they'll swing -if we catch them! Anderson's cache, near Ainslie's camp, was -sandpapered clean two nights ago-not a speck of anything left. It's -jumping-off time for the man who did that-when they spot him!" - -"Suppose now-well, I'd hate to think of the girl meeting one of that -breed," Britton ventured. - -"Don't you fear," laughed Laurance. "The man as puts hand on her will -catch a whole-fledged, fire-spittin' Tartar. What did I see in her neat -little belt when she loosed her coat in front of me fire? An -ivory-heeled shootin'-iron, if you ast me. Don't worry, son. Wimmen as -carries them things can use 'em. If you met her on the trail and was on -evil bent she'd plug you quicker'n scat. You're d-d right. She can go -through-if she wants to." - -Something like a sigh heaved from Britton's wide chest. Laurance -thought there was relief in it. - -"On course," he bantered, "you was thinkin' of her safety. You certain -had nary a thought of them red cheeks, them eyes, them lips-whoo!" - -"Drop that!" Britton curtly ordered. "You know women aren't in my -line." - -"Where've you been these last weeks?" Laurance asked, suddenly changing -the subject. - -"Following a fool stampede up Forty Forks, beyond Lake Marsh." - -"Hard luck again?" - -"The worst." Britton's disconsolate tone told more than his brief -answer. - -"What's your latest idea?" his friend asked after a doubtful pause. - -"I've word of something on Samson Creek. I'll outfit at Dawson and try -for it. The Government courier gave me the hint at Tagish Post. I -pulled him out of a cold bath he was taking in Lake Bennett once. He -didn't forget it." - -"Humph!" Laurance growled, reaching for more wood and stoking up after -the old-timer's fashion. - -"It's my last stampede," Britton continued in an odd, tense voice. "I'm -nearly down and out, and I'm staking all. If I fail this time, it's -back over this cursed trail to Dyea on beans and horsehide. I'll wash -dishes in the scullery of a Puget Sound boat or do something of the -like. If I fail, Laurance, I'll have seen the last of the Yukon." - -"What brought you here, son?" asked Laurance, kindly. He leaned forward -and put a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "What brought you to this -God-forsaken Yukon?" he repeated. "I've heard of you playin' a -hard-luck game on four stampedes. You've took the bumps right along -like a vet'ran, but summat's agin you. You wasn't bred to this here. -Your hands is too fine-shaped. Your head's too keen. Your speech is -high-flown. Rex Britton, you turned your back on a better place in -England than you'll light on here. I'm certainly certain of that. Tell -me why you come, son?" - -A new light gleamed in Britton's eyes. His stern countenance softened -as under the influence of some far-away dream. He got up and paced the -floor for a little. Finally, he flung himself back in the chair with an -air of resignation. - -"I've never told anyone here," he said, "but I'll tell you, Jim. -Perhaps I don't need to say it; of course, it was a woman. The old, old -story! I'm a strong man, Laurance, and I'd scorn to hold the feminine -sex responsible for my vicissitudes. Still, as the philosophers have -it, 'In the beginning it was a woman.' We'll go to the starting line. -Listen! - -"My family was one of the best in the old land. It consisted of three -members, parents and myself. Both parents are dead-as you know. After -graduating from college, I commenced a tour of the Orient, for -recreation mostly. The patrimony left me was small, but I was heir to -my uncle, who owns Britton Hall, the Sussex estate, and a post in the -foreign diplomatic service was waiting for me when I should come back. - -"Getting quickly to the point, I rescued a wonderfully attractive woman -on a sinking vessel in the harbor of Algiers. I believe I cracked some -Berber skulls in the process, and got a knife-thrust through the -shoulder muscles in return. - -"She bound the wound, Laurance, and nursed it, lingering in Algiers for -that purpose. Our meetings were hourly, you might say! I had my -uncle's yacht at my disposal, and all the delights of the capital -invited our participation, so you may judge that the days and nights -passed very pleasantly. - -"I had friends there whom I should have considered, but I neglected them -in the other fascination; for it was fascination, Jim-the kind of -beautiful web that the spider spins." Britton paused with a snappy -intake of breath while Laurance, unwilling to interrupt, swung the stove -door to and fro with a moccasined foot. - -"You know the atmosphere of romance surrounding any such happening," -Britton finally went on. "The lady was beautiful, marvellously so, in -fact, and well versed in worldly artifice. I was still young enough to -have the rainbow focus on life. The days went quickly in the -picturesque port. The girl-she told me she was twenty-four and -unmarried-remained in the place, recuperating from the shock of her -accident. What's the use of elaborating, though! You know how a love -dream grows, Jim Laurance. You must have had one somewhere in your own -old, grizzled existence. Algiers is sunny. The flowers are fragrant -there. Love feeds on sun and flowers, moon and mountains, starry -nights, and all that. I was young, Laurance, and she was old in the -craft. Could you blame me for being such a fool? Sometimes I hardly -blame myself. - -"For nearly a mouth things developed. We were engaged. That city by -the Mediterranean became a Paradise for me. Then-then-" Britton's -voice broke away in bitterness. - -"Then what?" his friend prompted. - -"Her husband came hunting for her!" - -"H-l!" Laurance gritted. His feet fell to the floor with a bang. "She -duped you!" he added, softly. - -"Sheared the lamb," Britton, said, with severe, self-directed irony. -"The whole affair came out. Her husband tried to shoot me. Instead, I -laid him up for weeks. Then they came at me for damages, and the -she-devil framed a charge of seduction. I was the sensation of courts -and yellow journals for half a year. When I got clear at last, the -attendant circumstances worked their effect. The thing smirched my name -and killed my diplomatic chances. It ruined my life when it was -brightest with promise. It caused my uncle to disinherit and wash his -hands of me. That's why I cut the Isles, Laurance. That's why I'm -here." - -Britton rose to his towering height, with clenched hands, as if he were -beginning the fight with the North, as if he were storming the Yukon's -iron fastness for the first time. Laurance could picture him thus, -setting foot on bleak Dyea beach. The old Klondiker took his pipe out -of his mouth and forgot to replace it. In lieu of that he reached a -knotted fist to Britton's palm. - -"Son, I'm sorry," he said. This from a hardened Alaskan was much, for -in that country, as a rule, no one is sorry for any person but himself. -There, in a running fight, it is every man for his own interests, and -the devil take the laggards and the weak! - -"Do you love her?" Laurance ventured, a second later. - -"I'm cured," Britton laughed, bitterly. "Hasn't the draught been strong -enough?" - -The old man returned his pipe-stem to his lips. "Better a good -burn-out," he mumbled, "the rubbish won't catch sparks agin. What was -her name?" - -"Maud Morris, wife of Christopher Morris," his friend answered. "I saw -a man who knew them when I came through Winnipeg. He told me that -Morris had gone all to pieces through drink and fast living. At that -time they had come direct to Seattle. I don't know where they are -now-and don't care to know!" - -Britton settled back in his seat and refilled his pipe. The recounting -of his story had been in some measure a relief, although the old taste -of rancid memory remained. - -"You're well out of it, son," Laurance observed, after another vigorous -stoking of the stove. "You're bloody well clear, though you've stumped -through such a hard-luck siege. I hope your last deal pans out some -better. I'd hate to see you fall down. You're too good a man." - -"Have you met Pierre Giraud lately?" Britton inquired. "I wonder if -he'd join me. We've tramped many a trail together." - -"Pierre's due here to-night," Laurance said quickly. "He won't join -you, though. He has a fine thing toting the goods of some Dawson big -gun out to Thirty Mile River. His royal nibs is going out-bound for the -States-and he has Giraud under contract to pack him along." - -"Too bad," Britton mused. "Pierre's worth three ordinary men en route. -Many's the mile we've paddled, and many's the moose we've missed. _Bon -camarade_ is Giraud, if there was ever one." - -"I saw him beat two blaggards on the stampede into Nome," Laurance began -reminiscently. "The guys started in to argue the right of way with -Pierre. Weighty beggars they was, too, but Giraud put 'em both out of -action in ten seconds. Shiftiest man on the route, less it's yourself, -Britton." - -Rex shook his head as disclaiming the honor. Outside a shrill howl broke -the night silence and started a hundred echoes. Rex lifted his head -sharply. - -"What's the matter with the husky?" he asked. "The moon's not up." - -"Someone's coming," Laurance answered, listening intently to a musical -sound. - -The faint tinkle of bells grew clearer. The rushing sound of a laden -dog-train made the cabin walls vibrate. - -"_Arretes!_" commanded a leonine voice in the yard, and the noise died -suddenly. - -"It's Pierre," cried Laurance, jumping to his feet. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - -The door was kicked open without ceremony, and Pierre's head popped in. - -"Hello, you young cheechako!" yelled Britton, gaily. - -"_Hola! mon camarade_, you tam ole stampeder!" cried Giraud, rushing in -with outstretched hands. "By de gar, Ah nevaire t'ink Ah find you here. -Ah s'pose you seex hondred mile back-_saprie_, yes." He pulled off his -Arctic hood, disclosing a veritable voyageur's head, handsome, debonair, -crowned with coal-black curls and lightened by the ever-changing play of -his fine eyes, sombre-hued as his hair. Pierre's face was full of a -certain reckless beauty, and riveted attention by his daring, -wilderness-bred fascination. Camaraderie spilled out of his infectious -laugh and his habitant speech. - -Thus the two friends remained, the one sitting, the other standing, -raking each other with volleys of cross-questions. They talked like a -pair of chattering jays, trying to gather in the threads of the more -recent incidents that had befallen each, till Laurance interrupted them. - -"Sit down and eat," he said to Pierre, "I'll unhitch your team." - -It was then the current of excitement, which Giraud appeared to have -difficulty in suppressing, burst to the surface. He sprang to -Laurance's side and caught his arm. - -"_Non, non!_" he exclaimed. "Wait wan leetle w'ile. Ah breeng news. -We want dat sled sure t'ing. De cache-thief-you hear of heem?" - -Laurance's keen blue eyes flashed. "Is he pinched?" he cried, eagerly. -"Have you seen him?" - -Britton rose from his chair in vague alarm. He was thinking of the girl -travelling alone over the trail. "Speak, Pierre," was his tart order, -"you know something. Out with it!" - -"You leesten den," Giraud began, excitedly. "Ah come by de cache on -Silver Hollow _apres_ de dark she fall. Wat t'ink Ah find? De cache -broken open. De stuff all gone to _diable_. Dat thief not ver' far -away-Ah know dat for sure t'ing by de tracks. Ah t'ink we get fresh -dogs here an' catch heem-catch heem!" Pierre jumped about and -flourished his brawny arms in emphasis. - -"Anderson he geeve reward," he continued. - -"How much?" Britton broke in, a new incentive gripping him. - -"Wan t'ousand tollars to de mans w'at catch dis _canaille_-" - -"Come on," roared his friend, jumping into his travelling-gear. "Come -on, Pierre; we'll pull down that thousand." - -He was at the door in a second, calling to his huskies. Giraud ran -after, boiling with impatience. - -"Hold on!" called Laurance. "Though I'd like to be in on this job, I -can't leave my cabin-not with Mister Feather-Fingers dabbling about, and -the cook's over at Stewart for grub." - -"Jove! I forgot that," said Britton, hooking up his team. "It's rather -a shame, Jim. We'd like to have you come." - -"Can't," Laurance grunted, dismally. "Still, you can have my dogs. -Snap 'em on ahead. If it comes to speedin', you'll catch a runaway -easier." He ordered the big animals out, and Rex prepared to harness -them ahead of his own. - -"It's a long string," he said, dubiously. "They'll take some managing." - -"Wait," commanded Pierre. "Ah feex dat. Ah have de double yoke." - -He pulled a double pack outfit from his sled and selected the harness, -tracing the dogs up in pairs. Three minutes more and they were gliding -over the trail, leaving Laurance watching from the mellow blur of his -firelit doorway. - -"Did you meet a sled drawn by five dogs?" Britton asked, as they sped -over the smooth plateau beyond Laurauce's. - -"_Oui_," answered Pierre. "Ah meet wan an' pass heem on de Grand -Reedge." - -"Stop?" - -"_Non_. De mans nevaire speak. He hurry, mebbe." - -"It was a girl!" said Britton, abruptly. - -"_Ciel!_" gasped Pierre, in surprise. "Wat tell _moi_? She drive lak -_diable_." - -"Yes," Britton assented, "the dogs were very fast. She had mine beaten -before we came to Laurance's. Of course, that was my stop." - -Giraud's elbow gave a warning prod to his companion's ribs as they slid -down Silver Hollow to the place which the voyageur had mentioned. - -It was a cache built after the manner of the North for storing purposes -or for preserving baggage for future freighting. Anderson had used it -for years and had never before experienced any trouble with pillagers. -Indeed, the inexorable law of Yukon miners was sufficient to make any of -the light-handed gentry think twice before opening a cache. This was -one of the crimes for which swift justice was meted. - -Britton and the voyageur examined the snow-bound hummock carefully, -lighting a torch to scrutinize the tell-tale tracks in the wind-screened -valley. The imprints were very fresh, and had evidently been made by -one man with a dog-train. - -During the momentary investigation Britton's thoughts revolved swiftly. -From the amount of goods stolen, he judged that the robber did not -intend travelling far. Probably he had in view some secret cache where -he could hide the plunder till an opportunity of getting rid of portions -of it should be presented. - -"Did you notice the little cache by the stream when you came over Grand -Ridge?" Britton asked. - -"_Certainement!_" Pierre answered. "She be not touched. Ah look for -dat." - -"Then the fellow must be working on the in-trail. He never passed -Laurance's. He never passed you. You're sure the fast five-dog team -was the only one you met?" - -"Tam sure," Pierre vigorously asserted. "Ah have de sharp eyes!" - -"In that case he must have left the route somewhere between Laurance's -and Grand Ridge. He wouldn't go far with such a bulk of stuff. We have -to find his track where he left the main trail. The moon's just up. In -ten minutes it will be as clear as day. This is our chance for five -hundred apiece. We earn it between here and Grand Ridge. Whip up those -dogs!" - -Britton's tone was exultant. To the spice of adventure in running down -a contemptible thief was added the lure of the reward which Anderson had -offered. He needed that five hundred! In fact, it would be like money -from home just at the critical juncture of his last stampede. His funds -were barely sufficient to provide a proper outfit for the arduous trip -up Samson Creek. This wind-fall-if the breeze held his way-would remedy -the deficit in the budget. - -Pierre, with all the craft of the old musher, had his dogs well in hand, -and the long walrus-hide whip sang out with a final snap at the ears of -the leaders that sent them loping like a whirlwind. The voyageur -scanned one side of their route for any signs of a dog-train having -turned off the beaten path. Britton watched the other side closely. -The brilliance of the moon turned the whole frozen expanse of country -into a white blanket, with here and there a soiled spot, which was the -dark-green of scrubby thickets. - -The rush of frosty air bit the men's cheeks. Odd little cadences, torn -out of fleeting space, whined shrilly in their ears. White smoke of -dog-breath blew back in cloud patches to mingle with the hoar of their -own lungs. The exhilarating, electrifying flight through the Arctic -atmosphere made the blood rush with all its virility through their lusty -veins. - -"We must be nearing Grand Ridge," Britton said at last, in a low tone. -"Nothing has left the trail on my side so far." - -"_Non_," muttered Giraud, "she be de same on dis side." - -Britton was lying out as far as possible, watching past the dogs as they -swung down by the little cache near the Ridge. Suddenly he uttered a -half-suppressed exclamation. - -"The rascal's left the trail here," he confided to Pierre. "Hold on; -we're past it. Rein in your dogs. There, off to the left! That's his -track. It leads down to the little cache. I can see something moving. -Maybe the beggar's looting it, too." He stood up, balancing himself -deftly in order to see the better. Acting on a swift impulse, he threw -his hands up to his mouth in trumpet-fashion and gave a loud hail. - -"Hello!-the cache," he bawled. "Who's down there?" - -An oath came back in answer. There was a scuttering through the snow, -the frantic cracking of a whip, whining of punished dogs, and the -desperate rush of a loaded sled. - -"Caught red-handed!" roared Britton. "Cut him off, Pierre. He's trying -to make the beaten trail." - -Giraud whipped his dogs up, running at an angle to the fugitive -dog-train. The plunderer had reckoned badly in trying this mode of -escape. His one team and laden sleigh struck only a snail's pace -compared with the speed of Pierre's double team and empty sled. The -voyageur's mad driving caught him before he reached the main trail. -Whooping aloud, Pierre drove his galloping animals right on top of the -other's dogs, anchoring them there in the loose side-snow to snarl and -battle in the traces. - -Britton and the voyageur leaped off and made for the piled-up packs on -which the strange driver was seated. Realizing that he was thus -suddenly brought to bay, the fellow rose to his feet and whirled the -butt-end of his whip aloft. "Stay back, curse you!" he cried. - -"Better give in," Britton warned him. "It's best for you." He jumped -upon the rear bundles of the sled. - -A vicious blow of the whip was the answer, but Rex was watchful. He -caught the descending wrist, back-tripped the ruffian with a swift leg -movement, and choked resistance out of him. - -"I think he'll be quiet now," he said to Pierre. "Strap his limbs. -That will do. Let's have a look at him." The moonlight failed to -reveal much of the man's appearance except that his face looked more -like that of a beaten dog than anything else. - -"Smells like a distillery," Rex commented, turning his nose away. "He's -been well primed for this job." - -"Were we tak' heem?" asked Pierre, more material in thought. - -Britton considered the matter for a short moment. - -"We'll have to take him back to Laurance's and watch him by turns," he -finally said. "I can pack the rascal on to Ainslie's Camp to-morrow and -collect my half of the reward from Charlie Anderson. He can pay you a -like amount on your return trip from Thirty Mile. How does that suit?" - -"_Bon_, for sure t'ing," Pierre returned. "Ah t'ink dat suit me bully. -Mak' de five hondred ver' easy." - -"Anderson will think it's well worth it for the return of his goods with -the gentleman on top," observed Britton. "Turn your outfit, and I'll -load this Whiskey-John into the empty sleigh. Whoa! Easy-that's -correct, _bon camarade_! Go ahead now. I'll follow with the -contraband." - -There was no jingle of bells, nothing but the sober plunging of the -sleds as the two dog-trains filed back to Laurance's cabin on Indian -River. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - -"So you've captured the condemned parasite!" cried Jim Laurance, as the -returning ones reached his yard. - -"_Certainement_! tam sure t'ing," Pierre assured him, with a burst of -good humor. "Wat Ah tell you?-we catch heem! _Saprie_, yes-on de -leetle cache _par le_ Grand Reedge-_n'est-ce-pas_, Rex, _mon camarade_?" - -"That's correct," laughed Britton, "we hit it just right! A little -later and we should have had a stern chase. Make a jail, Laurance, to -hold the rascal." - -"Roll him in by the stove," ordered Jim. "He won't give us any ha-ha. -I'll bet me best mukluks on that." Presently, as the man was taken -inside and the bonds loosed, he added: "Don't calculate for a minnit you -can vamoose-for you truly can't. Me Winchester'll stop such tom-fool -notions." Laurance pointed to the sinister-outlined rifle above the -door. - -When the light fell upon the captive's features, the two men who had -brought him in recoiled involuntarily. - -"_Le diable_!" hissed Giraud, as if some hideously unpleasant truth were -forcing its utterance in spite of him. - -"The devil!" echoed Britton; "that's it, Pierre. No more fitting -description could be given. Look at the high cheekbones, vulture-shaped -features, and hellish eyes. Good Lord, Jim, did you ever see such an -ugly man?" - -Rex backed to a seat and began to divest himself of his outer garments, -all the while regarding the cache-thief with critical eyes in which a -light of discovery was dawning. - -"Looks like a cross 'tween a 'Frisco wharf-rat and a Nome claim-jumper," -Laurance averred. "Say, mister, was you ever forty-second cook round a -scullery?-'cause you smells it!" - -The captive vouchsafed no reply. He sat with his Satanic-shaped head -buried between narrow shoulders. The firelight licked his face at -intervals, strengthening its horrible grotesqueness. - -"W'iskey mak' heem talk," Pierre declared. "Got de fire-wataire, M'sieu -Laurance?" - -"Yes," said Jim, "but it's too blasted dear to waste on that trash. I -wouldn't give him Seattle sas'priller. Don't matter a crow-bait whether -he talks or not. He'll get his own at Ainslie's to-morrer." - -Britton came to the stove and gazed earnestly at the huddled heap on the -floor. - -"Look up, man," he said roughly, but the bloodshot eyes refused to meet -his own. - -"It's no use," Rex continued, with a cynical laugh. "I know -you-Morris!" - -The sudden revelation had its effect. The man sprang up with a snarl of -rage. His eyes glittered malevolently--straight into Britton's now. He -appeared about to fly at his captor's throat. - -Pierre, ignorant of the cause of the thief's sudden activity, likened -him to a gaunt wolf at bay before a big bull moose. So the pair seemed. - -"I think he will talk," Britton said slowly. "He knows who I am now. -Yes-I think he will talk." - -"D-d if I do," came from the thief. The first words he had spoken -sounded like a husky's gurgle when the collar nearly chokes him. - -"Don't be so fast with denial," urged Britton, smoothly. "When you have -heard the option, perhaps your opinion will suddenly change." He looked -at Laurance for an instant, debating with himself. The Klondiker was in -a deep and apparently uninterested silence. - -"It's Morris, Jim! Christopher Morris-the man I spoke of, you remember? -His attitude just now is suspicious. I don't know how long he has been -in the Yukon, or what he is doing here, but I cannot understand his -present escapade. There's something behind it." Britton paused and -allowed his keen, searching glance to wander back to the repulsive -figure of Morris. - -"I was about to give you an option," he resumed. "I think Laurance will -second my guarantee of a lightening of the punishment the miners will -hand out. My proposition, in brief, is this: Tell us what you know, -what your game is, who is behind you, and what is their object-tell us -this, I say, and you'll only be flogged instead of hanged." - -Britton's meaning came out clear and sharp to the victim of drink. He -shivered a little and pulled himself to his knees. There was a hint of -supplication in the position, but this his captor ignored. - -Laurance coughed apologetically, in expiation of his silence. - -"You want to make sure of that?" he questioned. - -"Yes," answered Rex. "I know Morris through and through. In my long -battle in the courts I came to read the man like a book. I can sense -his subtleties and under-purposes. I learned to do that, Jim, in the -hardest school of the world-the law-courts. I am almost certain that he -is in league, or worse-in bondage. Shall we guarantee him this?" - -Laurance consulted his pipe for a long minute. Then he flashed up his -eyes in acquiescence. - -"Go ahead!" he grunted. "I guess we can make it even with Anderson." - -Britton confronted Morris once more, and drove his words home with -sledgehammer effect. - -"Take your choice!" he said. "Keep silent and hang-you know they'll do -it at Ainslie's-or speak and get off with a flogging. Which? And be -quick! We want to sleep here. Half the night has already gone." - -Morris, the derelict, instinctively felt himself on the edge of things. -His wits were not yet so liquor-dulled but that he could see the fate -awaiting him at the camp. He knew the stern code of the North-rough but -effective. Fortune had played him a miserable turn, and, if he did not -catch at the proffered hope, she would sing his death-knell, rollicking -heartlessly. - -He collapsed suddenly from his kneeling posture and half lay on the -rough floor within the stove's circle of warmth. - -"What do you want to know?" he asked doggedly. - -"Are you prepared to speak plainly and truthfully? No lies, remember!" - -"Yes, that is-" - -"No parleying," roared Britton. "I want some sleep for the trail -to-morrow. You have to tell all I want to know in five minutes or not -at all. Ready?" His words dropped bullet-like. - -"Go on," Morris cried, with an assumption of recklessness; "d-d if I -care. And hell take the other fellow. It's a case of life or death. -Open up, Britton!" - -"When'd you come?" - -"By boat last summer to Dyea and thence to Dawson." - -"Wife with you?" Britton's teeth ground over the sentence. - -"Yes," was the sneering answer. - -"For what did you come?" - -"Gold!" - -Rex Britton laughed harshly. "To be picked up anywhere, anyhow!" was -his comment. "By man and wife-mostly by the wife!" - -His tone, however, changed to a cold, metallic timbre when he asked: - -"Who planned this cache game?" - -"Simpson." - -"Good heavens!-he's here, eh? Still," with another harsh laugh, "I -might have known that when your wife was in the vicinity." - -Turning to Laurance, he explained: "Simpson is a lawyer-counsel for -Morris in the case against me-and an especial friend of Mrs. Morris." - -"What does Simpson want?" was his next question to the tool. - -"Money," said Morris. - -"That's a lie," cried Britton, advancing fiercely. "He wanted the goods -and supplies for a purpose. Money's procured by him in an easier way. -But stampeders' supplies have no pecuniary equivalent in Dawson now. -You see there hasn't been a steamer up-river for long enough. They tell -me Dawson has been lately iron-bound. Now let us know what Simpson was -going to do with the goods. You'll swing if you don't." - -"He's going to prospect." - -"Where?" - -"On-on Samson Creek, where the rest are going." - -"Big outfit for one man, isn't it? The contents of three caches!" -Britton's casual remark held a taunt and a hidden meaning. - -"He's taking men with him-to stake other claims for him. That's why-" - -"Ah! I see," Britton interrupted. "When does he leave?" - -"Right away." - -"Funny act, that," put in Laurance, with a smile and wink. - -"Yes," Rex agreed, the smile reflecting itself on his wholesome face. -"Morris, you're only a fool in this country, and you can't see much -significance in your statements. I take the liberty of telling you that -there is a great significance in those few words. Old-timers have no -difficulty in seeing far. Simpson, by the way, must have become more -rapidly acclimatized-or else he has been at the game in other mining -territories. Pierre, what motive has the man who organizes a toughs' -stampede ahead of the spring rush to ground which is partially staked?" - -"He t'ink he joomp de claims," asserted Pierre, promptly. "Dat tam sure -t'ing!" - -Laurance laughed at the sudden start and guilty shrinking of Morris. - -"Why, a kid could spot that," the old Klondiker assured him. "Simpson, -this law-juggler as Britton speaks of, gets the nerve to jump likely -claims on Samson Creek. It's just as well he's found out. If he had -per-sum-veered he'd surely got jumped hisself-at the jumpin'-off -station. I'm certainly certain of that! How-sum-do-ever, as me friend -here goes vamoosin' into Dawson shortly, he'll put a handspike in Mr. -Simpson's choo-choo gear." - -Britton got up and shook himself as a great, shaggy bear stretches its -muscles. - -"That's all for to-night," he yawned. "The saggy trail made me sleepy. -But take my advice, Morris, and cut away from Simpson. You're not bound -by ties unbreakable-yet you soon will be. And that's saying a good deal -if you stop to analyze it. Let's roll up, Pierre!" - -"_Oui_," cried Giraud, slinging out the blankets. "Ah dream w'at Ah get -wit' dat five hondred." In the height of his buoyancy he broke forth in -song, and, while Britton dropped to sleep, Pierre's voice rang up to the -ceiling in the tune: - - "En roulant ma boule roulante, - En roulant ma boule- - Derrier' chez-nous y-a-t-un 'etang - En roulant ma boule!" - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - -A great commotion stirred Ainslie's camp on the following afternoon. -The narrow passages, called streets, between ugly log and canvas -buildings were thronged with heterogeneous concourses of miners and -others. They moved back and forth along the pounded trail from -restaurants and stores to the bunk-houses, from bunk-houses to -dance-halls or riotous saloons, and an air of expectancy pervaded the -movements of everyone within the camp's confines. - -Outside Anderson's cabin the crowd began to concentrate, talking in -incessant murmurs, while all eyes were fixed upon the closed door. A -trial was going on inside. The news had spread through Ainslie's that -the cache-thief had been taken and was now up before a miners' meeting. -Word passed from man to man, and the throng continually grew in volume. - -Presently Anderson's door swung open. Those who had sat in tribunal -poured out with the prisoner in their midst. - -Jim Laurance inhaled a deep breath and drew the fur cap down over his -damp brow as he slouched along beside Rex Britton. - -"That was a close thing," he growled. "Don't ast me no more to stick in -me chin for a slim-finger! I don't much fancy these free-for-all -fights." - -It was evident that the discussion inside had waxed hot and that only a -slender margin saved the neck of Chris Morris. - -The latter walked, with bent head, inside the solid phalanx of grim -miners, among whom burly Charlie Anderson was chief. The face of Morris -showed ashy gray in fear, and his eyes rolled back like a negro's as he -shambled along, gazing at the ground, because the thought of looking for -an avenue of escape was worse than futile. - -The waiting mass of people gave vent to long-suppressed expectancy when -Morris appeared. A loud shout rose up, and everybody rushed after the -cordon which surrounded the cache-thief. It moved to the centre of the -camp, where a large hitching-post, bearing a red cloth sign advertising -Laggan's dance-hall, stood up at the side of the winding trail that -served for Main Street. - -The impatient spectators ranged themselves in lines that broke and -shifted as they strove for better vantage-ground. Some, to obtain a -clearer view, ran and climbed upon the low roofs of the log cabins, upon -the verandah of the dance-hall, and the porch of a store just opposite. -Women were mixed in with the male gathering, some with knee-length -skirts and fringed leggings, and others dressed outright in men's -garments. - -On every hand was unpitying condemnation for the thief. He was scowled -at and spat upon, for pillaging is considered the most contemptible -thing in the North. - -When the cordon halted at the hitching-post, Morris received a rude -jostling from the crowd till Charlie Anderson forced the encroachers -aside. - -"Lynch him! Lynch him!" was the cry, vociferated in a deep, guttural -roar which made Morris tremble. - -Anderson shook his head and bellowed at the bystanders. - -"No, boys," he shouted, "we're going to do as Laurance says and give him -a chance. Make room, there!" - -The sullen onlookers obeyed, leaving an open spot at the post which held -Morris and another man, a thick-set fellow with a walrus-hide whip in -his hand. Tense silence oppressed the spectators, contrasting -strikingly with their former growls of impatience. - -"Strip!" commanded the hard voice of Anderson. - -Morris removed his outer coat, or parka, and a woolen vest. - -"Go on," was the curt order. - -The buckskin shirt came off, and the thick Arctic undergarment. He -stood, bare to the middle against the cutting breeze, shaking from both -cold and fright. - -"Now," said Anderson, nodding to the stout man with the whip, before he -stepped back among the gaping people. - -The man tied Morris to the post by his wrists, took up a position four -feet from the prisoner, and applied the whining lash. - -Half a dozen times it descended, flaying the flesh, while not a sound -arose from the crowd. At the seventh stroke, Morris groaned, pitched -forward, and hung limply in his fetters. - -"That's enough," cried Britton, vehemently. "Can't you see he has -fainted?" - -A team of horses pulled up with a jangle of bells in the trail. Some -woman's gauntlet, flying through the frosty air, struck Rex a stinging -blow upon the cheek. - -"Ho! ho!" laughed a coarse fellow at his elbow, "so the Rose of the -Yukon's down on you, eh? Or maybe it's a love-tap." - -Rex looked between the disordered ranks of roughly-clad miners straight -into the flaming eyes of Maud Morris, where she sat behind Simpson's -spanking grays, in Simpson's luxuriously robed sleigh, beside the -fur-coated, well-groomed Simpson himself. - -Her furious glance transfixed Britton and then darted off, tangent-like, -to the clamorous group on his left, where three miners had revived -Morris with a stimulant and assisted him to an erect posture. - -The bare back of Chris Morris was a raw, red patch, and he quivered -convulsively as the sifting hill-wind bit into the bleeding stripes, -while his custodians replaced shirts, vest, and parka upon his body. - -Maud Morris's second glove followed the first, striking Britton rudely -in the mouth. - -"You beast!" she screamed impotently. "This is your doing, I hear!" - -Rex ground the gauntlets into the beaten, tobacco-stained snow under his -feet. - -"Be thankful that Morris lives," was his heated answer. "They swore he -must swing and fought against the commuting of his sentence. It was a -tight pinch, but Laurance and I managed to pull it off at last." - -The miners led Morris past and bade him take the trail. - -"Hit it fur the high places," they said, "an' don't never show yer mug -in this camp agin, or, s'help us, we'll shoot ye like a dawg!" - -It was justice, the stern, unsmoothed judgment of the North, and Morris, -the derelict who had reached the lowest limit of his downward -tendencies, stumbled along the trail in the direction of Dawson, a -marked man in the eyes of all. - -His wife by law looked to Britton as he had last seen her in her boudoir -at the big English hotel on the Mustapha Superieure in Algiers. Her face -was the same bright, hard mask of hatred, and her soulless eyes burned. -He noted that she was looking older, her stamp becoming more brazen, her -beauty lessening, because the dust of fascination no longer blinded his -vision. The presence of the girl he had met by Indian River dwelt in -Britton's mind, a presence moulded in a confusingly exact counterpart of -Maud Morris. He remembered her fresh, childish innocence and pretty -modesty, and he knew that in outward perfections alone the counterpart -equalled the original. While he surveyed the woman before him, he was -certain that the straightforward character of his unknown was as -different from Maud Morris's deceptive disposition as chastity is -different from shame. - -The knowledge was very consoling to a heart still void, and Britton -wondered, with an involuntary throb, if he would ever find the nameless -girl who had saved his life on the Indian River ice-bridge. - -"You look as if I were someone else with whom you are genuinely -pleased," Maud Morris said savagely, shrewdly reading his expression. - -Britton's whole countenance lighted as he smiled. - -"Do I?" he asked pleasantly. "That is because I have found your -superior!" - -She bit her lip to check an unwomanly expletive, and the mantling red in -her cheeks gave Britton full satisfaction. He strode to Grant Simpson's -side of the sleigh and tapped the sleeve of his rich, fur-lined -overcoat. - -"By the way, Simpson," he warned, "don't try that game on Samson Creek. -It was quite a frame-up you planned for those who have already staked -in, but Morris gave it all away." - -Grant Simpson squirmed among the bear robes in a startled fashion, and -his thin, effeminate face lost color. - -"What do you mean?" he demanded, scanning Britton narrowly. - -"Only this-if you dare show your nose on the Creek for any reason -whatever, I'll tell the miners things that will make them swing you -higher than Moosehide Mountain. Of course, Morris can't go in on any -strike now. They wouldn't countenance it for a moment!" - -Simpson's awe gave way to blind anger. He struck at Britton with his -silver-mounted whip, to find it promptly torn from his grasp. Rex -touched the grays on the flanks with it, and the team dashed down the -Dawson trail with Simpson sawing on their heads. Britton laughed -harshly as they went, and slowly broke the whip to bits. - -"Simpson and Miss Vanderhart have given the chump a lift," said a miner, -watching in the roadway. - -Rex saw that the occupants of the sleigh had taken up Morris and -concealed him among the fur robes. - -"Who did you say?" he asked the miner. - -"Simpson and Miss Vanderhart," the man repeated. "They're big guns at -Dawson. Know them?" - -Britton laughed again at the alias, as he scattered the whip fragments -with his toe. - -"Yes," he said meditatively, "I know something of them." - -Just then Laurance swung out with his dog-train, starting back to Indian -River. - -"I'm off, son," he cried to Britton. "Are you goin' to bolt for Dawson? -It's five hours from here!" - -Rex nodded at the sleigh, gliding leisurely along the trail in the -distance, and observed: - -"I'll wait! I'm not anxious for their company on the route, and morning -will suit me as well. So she's the Rose of the Yukon!" - -"Sure!" said Laurance, putting his dog-whip in his armpit in order to -light the inevitable pipe. "Kind of romantic fiction, ain't it, to find -she's your angelic ideal? Haw, haw!" - -"She's not, for there's no bandage over my eyes now," Britton declared, -with conviction. "But, by heaven, there is an ideal," he continued in -strange triumph evoked without volition, "and I feel in my bones as if -I'll meet that ideal some time again." - -"Um!" puffed Jim Laurance. "Again? Yes, I may say again! But take an -old-timer's advice, son, and see that you stick to one search at a time. -You understand?" - -"I couldn't forget that if I wished to," Britton replied, smiling rather -bitterly. "I'm going up Samson Creek at once. If that search doesn't -prove worth while, there won't be any necessity for the other." - -Laurance gripped Britton's palm tightly, saying: "You know where to come -if stranded, son." - -The negative motion of Britton's head showed the pride that prompted his -refusal; and Laurance shook out his leader. - -"Best luck!" he cried cheerily. - -"For what?" Britton whimsically asked. - -"For the gold and for-the-the other," Jim Laurance called over his -shoulder. "Why, d-n me, you deserve 'em both." - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - -Loping out of Ainslie's through the cold Arctic dawn, Britton made -Dawson under five hours. Thanks to the recommendation of Charlie -Anderson, he was able to secure from an outfitter a portion of the -provisions that were being so scrupulously reserved because famine -threatened in the distance with empty claws closing over the golden -city. - -He did not run across Morris, his wife, or Simpson, but he had the -pleasure of eating dinner in a restaurant run by Pierre Giraud's wife, -Aline. The place was a neat, clean eating-house, called the Half Moon, -situated near the North American Transportation & Trading Company's -store, and Pierre's wife proved to be a bright-eyed, buxom woman, young -and attractive after the type of the French-Canadian maids. Rex thought -it was the best meal he had had in a long time, with the additional -virtue of having a dainty server, and he told Aline Giraud so. - -"_Vraiment_," she cried, laughing gaily at his praise, "M'sieu' ees -reech in w'at you call-compleement!" - -"Yes, but that is about the extent of my riches," Rex chuckled, as he -took his departure. - -News of the Samson Creek find was freely circulating in Dawson City. -Some claims had been staked in the fall, and hazy descriptions of the -valley's wealth were in the air. The Arctic temperature of the Yukon -winter kept many from going out to locate, but a mysterious rumor arose -that there was a claim-jumping scheme afoot, and Britton found that it -had already travelled ahead of him. The rumor, quite indefinite in -itself, startled the people of Dawson from their apathetic state. -Miners who had, at the approach of frost, forsaken the valuable -auriferous workings for the city's beer-saloons drew on their meagre -stores of supplies and stampeded to their holdings, ready to prove, even -in gun-fights as a last resort, that possession was not nine points but -the whole of the law. - -Learning that so many prospectors had rushed out the night before, -Britton loaded his camp stove, sleeping-bag, and tent upon his sled, -securely lashed on the provisions, consisting mainly of bacon, beans, -flour, and dried apples, and made all haste away. - -Samson Creek was a tributary of the famous Eldorado, and on account of -its proximity to fully exploited fields offered great promise of pay -dirt. - -Britton took the ice-trail up the frozen Klondike, veered off to the -right, and rounded the great, cone-shaped, snow-laden mountain in whose -chasms the most noted gold streams, including the Bonanza, have their -origin. He travelled fast, unimpeded by snow-crust on the white, -glistening surface of the river, and on nearing the south branch of the -Samson, overtook many who had started out before him. - -"Got anything staked?" panted a miner, as Britton went by. - -"Not yet," Rex answered. - -"Then you can't get in," the man said. - -"Why?" Britton cried impatiently. - -"Why?" echoed his informant. "Ge-mima!-why? Look there!" - -They had topped the glacial slope of the watershed and paused for breath -upon the crest, overlooking the creek's bed. Britton beheld the valley, -freshly staked as far as his eye could reach, with endless processions -of men moving upstream. - -"Get in?" said the miner. "Not much! I must hike down and see nobody -squats on the claims I took last fall." - -The man moved off, and Britton, angry disappointment raging within him, -stood and watched the burden-bearing lines below. - -Over on the west where the mountains bulked up so huge and taciturn, the -ruby sunset was coloring the summits. Dull, spotless snow-cornices and -shining ice-fields gleamed with rosy hues that gradually deepened to -rich crimson, as if some Titan hand had poured over them a flood of -ancient wine. The glacier tips scintillated like the steel sabre-wall -of a cavalry column, and the scraggy hemlocks on the peaks quickened -with sapphire glints against their sober green. - -Britton watched the magnificent panorama hold its glory for some -moments; then all turned shaded and blue in a trice as a sheer rock -precipice capped the lens of the sun. - -He turned away, dejectedly, toward the north branch, remembering the -hint of Franco Lessari, the courier. He crossed South Samson, -intercepting scores of men who mushed dog-teams, dragged Yukon sleighs, -or bore great loads on their wet backs. They strained in single file up -the beaten river-path-low-browed, cruel-looking fellows who might have -been thugs and who cursed those that delayed them; eager-faced, unbroken -fools who had come in by steamer in the heat of summer, housed -themselves warmly in Dawson when the frost fell, and had yet to learn -the smiting wrath of a Klondike blizzard; luckless gamesters whom a -winning turn never blessed; and shrewd old pioneers, suspicious of -everyone, noting everything with keen, wilderness-trained eyes, and -pushing on indefatigably to conserve their fall stakings. Along the -sinuous river course heaps of boxes and sacks and caches of food marked -the journey; overweighting baggage, thrown down to await more convenient -handling, blotched the ice with unsightly disorder; discarded trifles, -pack rubbish, and the snarl of sleigh and tent ropes littered all the -route. - -By dark Britton camped on North Samson, four miles away. There, for -three days, he burned holes in doubtful-looking gravel, enduring -uncomplainingly the manifold discomforts of tent life with the mercury -fifty below. - -Meanwhile, the influx to the south continued, and, all the explored -stream being taken, the overflow reached the northerly branch. Rex -watched them come, more motley and dishevelled than ever, unwilling to -back-trail to Dawson and yet with a secret dread gnawing at their -hearts, the fear of winter's lash whose torment the ache of hunger might -assist. He saw them arrive, as bitter and despairing as himself, and -with them staggered Franco Lessari, dragging the most meagre of meagre -outfits. - -Lessari had no sleeping-bag, only blankets. and thin ones at that; he -did not carry a tent, depending upon the snow hut dug in the river -drifts, and his food was a bag of coarse beans and dried salmon. - -"Ah," he cried delightedly, on seeing Britton, sitting between his tent -flaps, "you listened at me? But come to-morrow after me. Where I say, -you dig!" - -He was moving farther up-stream, but Rex called him back. - -"Look here," he began, full of commiseration for the pathetic figure -plainly in worse circumstances than himself, "you might as well bunk in -beside me. There's plenty of room in the tent, and we'll prospect -together wherever you say. If you're going to share a good thing with -me, I must make some return. Come along! Throw in your packs." - -Gratitude showed in the Corsican's brown, harrowed face as he wrestled -with his limited English vocabulary in the attempt to thank Britton for -the generous offer, of which he reluctantly took advantage. - -"You are so much kindness," he sighed repeatedly. - -In the morning they shifted their camp another mile up North Samson to a -certain bend near an icy ravine, called Grizzly Gulch, where, Lessari -said, a trapper had declared he had found good gold-signs. For three -days more they burned out the beach and excavated the frozen gravel -without success. The trapper must have been mistaken, or they had -struck the wrong spot. They branched out with their operations and -covered the dip of the ravine in all directions, but their ill success -proved unvarying. - -The bed of the gulley lay pock-marked with burned holes, and the dump -outside the tent grew large. It was after weeks of this trying toil -that Rex Britton discovered Lessari's one vice. - -Rex came in one night from a late probing in Grizzly Gulch to find an -Indian of the Thron-Diucks keeping company with the Corsican by his camp -stove. Both men were joyously drunk, and they hailed Britton as a -welcome returned prodigal. - -The Thron-Diuck held up an empty bottle which had, no doubt, been dearly -bought from some trafficking miner, and lamented the absence of whiskey -in woeful Indian jargon. Lessari jumped to his unsteady feet, -attempting to embrace Britton and dinning in his ears a hopelessly mixed -tale of gold. - -"Gold, gold, gold!" he would cry, dancing aside to pat the Indian on the -back. "Him tell where gold for give him whiskey." - -"Yes, Mis'r," the Thron-Diuck volunteered, ingratiatingly. "Give -whiskey! Me tell where big gold come from-heap much gold." - -Britton laughed mockingly. - -"That tale's too old," he said. "I've heard of the combination of the -drunken Indian, the bottle of whiskey, and the golden valley ever since -I started on these cursed northern trails. Now, if you want to sleep by -our fire, you'll have to stop shouting. I wouldn't turn a dog out upon -a night like this, but you must be quiet. Understand?" - -He made Lessari sit down, and kicked the Indian's emptied bottle out of -the tent. - -"You'd sell your big gold pretty cheap," he commented drily. - -"Think me lie?" the vagrant cried aggressively. - -Rex could see that he was at that stage peculiar to red men's -intoxication when they will sell their bodies or souls to satisfy the -abnormal craving of their unbridled natures. The whiskey's flame licked -through his veins, and there was no checking the thirst for fire-water -which only drunken insensibility could satiate. - -"I think you are imagining things," Rex replied, "and I have no whiskey -to spare in barter. A mouthful of what you two wasted might have been -useful some time in saving a life in this deadly cold." - -"Me no lie," the muddled Indian persisted. - -"You do," said Britton, with pointed sternness. - -The Thron-Diuck's fingers fumbled in his rags for an instant and came -forth closed. - -"Think me lie!" he shouted dramatically. "Heap big gold-like that!" - -From the Indian's extended palm, the yellow flash of native gold filled -Britton's startled eyes. - -[Illustration: "From the Indian's extended palm the yellow flash of -native gold filled Britton's startled eyes."] - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - -"Gold! Gold! Gold!" screamed the excitable and drunken Corsican, as he -danced about the tent. - -At the bright gleam of the yellow metal, Rex had sprung forward and -grasped the precious specimen from the Thron-Diuck's hand. - -"Where did you get this?" he demanded, breathlessly. - -A look of cunning overspread the Indian's coppery features, and -discolored teeth were displayed in his gaping grin. - -"Give fire-water," he said, fawningly, "then me tell." - -Britton examined the piece of ore from every angle in the candle-light -and recognized a wonderful sample of alluvial gold. It weighed probably -eight ounces, and Rex trembled in excitement not to be repressed. There -was no doubt of its origin, and he knew that the carousing rascal must -be speaking the truth. The glacier-worn edges of the specimen told that -it had come from a heavy deposit, a place of "big gold." - -"Where did you get this?" Rex hoarsely repeated, his hands shaking as if -weighted down with golden pounds instead of ounces. - -"Bring whiskey, then me tell where heap much gold come from," was the -Indian's laconic response. - -"No, you won't," said Britton. "You'll tell first, and then you may -have the fire-water." - -He dived into a small kitty-bag wherein he kept some few medicinal -mixtures, whipped out the solitary flask, which he was accustomed to -carry against a possible dire emergency of the rigorous trails, and held -it enticingly before the candle flame. - -The liquor sparkled in the light, and the poor red wretch smacked his -lips and clawed at it. Rex held him off. - -"Afterwards-afterwards," he said with decision. - -"Ha!" exclaimed the tantalized Indian, "go heap long way up the White -River-" - -"The Klondike?" interrupted Rex. - -"Yes, as you call, Mis'r," answered the Thron-Diuck, gesticulating -frantically with lean, bony fingers like talons. "Go heap way up -Klondike; find ice-hills with much frozen springs; there big gold where -him be!" His claws pointed at the sample in Britton's fist. - -"You mean the headwaters of the Klondike-its source?" questioned Rex, -earnestly. "You're sure of that? For heaven's sake don't make any -mistake!" - -The Indian shook his whole body and stamped in anger. - -"Me no mistake," he declared. "Me no lie. Go heap way up where you say, -Mis'r, to-to-" - -"To the headwaters," prompted Britton. - -"Yes, to big chief waters! There five hills like heap big beaver houses -all by one dam. White River run through. There place of heap big gold!" - -Rex wiped the beads of perspiration from his forehead. - -"This is the way I understand you," he said. "Listen and tell me if I'm -right! The place lies straight up the Klondike at its headwaters, right -in the middle of five beaver-house hills which the stream cuts through. -Is that correct?" - -"Right, heap right," replied the Thron-Diuck, overjoyed at being -properly understood. He reached for the whiskey again, but Britton was -not yet done. - -"Wait till I draw a sketch," he said quickly, "and you shall mark these -hills in the exact spot." - -Rex found his map of the Klondike River in his breast pocket and drew -the stream on a larger scale upon a sheet from a notebook. At the -river's mouth was a deserted Indian village, lately occupied by -Thron-Diucks who had moved back into the fastnesses of the snowy -mountains, and no other trace of habitation marked the frozen waterway, -which lost itself in bleak heights away to the north, unexplored except -by Indians and a few venturesome white trappers. - -"Now," said Britton, when he had outlined the sketch, "show me exactly -where these hills stand from the source or headwaters of the river." - -The Indian touched his talons to the drawing just below a group of low -mountains, named on the map the Klondike Hills. - -"How far below?" Rex questioned very earnestly. - -"Half day, as you call, Mis'r," the Thron-Diuck answered. "Half day -with heap good dogs!" - -"So?" cried Britton, warming to the scent of the treasure. "How many -hills on this side of the stream?" - -The Indian located three with as many dabs of his skinny forefinger and -showed where the other two hills lay across the river. Rex marked them -with small circles, mentally calculating by the scale their distance -from the source and thus knowing their position at least approximately. - -The Thron-Diuck regarded his handiwork with satisfaction. - -"Heap right," he said triumphantly, "Mis'r heap smart man! Give -fire-water, Mis'r; you got much big gold!" - -Rex passed over the flask without further parley. - -"Yes, it's yours," was his final word, "but heaven help you if you have -deceived me as to the position of this stuff!" - -Lessari lurched forward to share the Indian's draught, but Britton -pushed him rudely back upon his bed. - -"You go right to sleep," he ordered, "and get fit for the trail in the -morning." - -Rex sat beside him to enforce the obeyance of the order till the -Corsican dropped into slumber, while over beside the camp stove the -Thron-Diuck lay in stupefaction. - -The thermometer registered forty-eight below when Britton and Lessari -mushed out of the North Samson valley at sunrise. The Indian, now -partly sobered and conscious that he had sold a well-guarded secret of -his tribe, promptly proceeded to efface himself despite the inducements -Britton offered him to act in the capacity of guide, so that the two -travelled alone. - -As they advanced upon the lonely trail which snaked northward to where -the Klondike's source was somewhere hidden in unknown hills, the -atmosphere grew keener with intense cold. A merciless, cutting frost -fell in fine showers till the two men were covered with a hoary coating -which scintillated like glaring tinsel. The icy powder stopped their -ears and choked their nostrils, chilling every breath they took. - -Lessari unfitted by his natural temperament for such a climate as the -Yukon, had always found his respiration labored in winter, and, since he -had contracted a severe cold from his soaking in Lake Bennett, his -plight was now worse than ever. - -Owing to the pressure on his chest he was forced to breathe through the -open mouth. Britton pleaded with him not to do this, but the finer -fibred Corsican could not endure the strain on his nasal passages and -relapsed into breathing between parted lips. As a result, he soon -chilled his lungs and began to cough with a dry, hacking sound which Rex -heard with foreboding dread. - -The mercury dropped lower with every mile they mushed. Icicles formed -on their eyebrows, noses and chins, while thin films of ice encased -their cheeks, prohibiting any speech. - -A thickness of hoar-frost decorated the loaded sled, and the hairy backs -of the five dogs were white with it. At intervals they shook themselves -roughly in the harness, sending ice particles flying in all directions. - -Mingled with this rattle and the grinding song of the sleigh was the -leader's "gruff! gruff!" as he blew the congealed snow from his nose. - -Camp was made at noon outside an immense ravine which Rex knew by -hearsay to be the great canon of the Klondike. After an hour's rest and -a good meal they entered it, finding a precipitous-sided gorge of -stupendous size and beauty. - -The gigantic gray walls, seamed and full of wide cracks, sloped upward, -forming an almost complete arch overhead that admitted a dull glow of -light to mingle with the white sheen of the ice below. Great icicles -hung by thousands from the rock-crevices, while eternal drippings -through the cavern-like roof had formed immense ice columns resembling -unsmoothed marble pillars. - -The scene before Britton and Lessari looked like a weird, uncanny ice -forest full of frozen trunks and clammy, oozy nooks where underworld -spirits and grotesque goblins might be expected to reside. The hollow -booming of the mighty river, straining in its imprisonment, filled the -whole place with a resounding roar, and the force of the fettered -torrent shook the coated cave walls till the icicles fell and scattered -their rainbow hues upon the floor. - -Rex thought this canon was the most potent symbol of a potent land that -could be imagined. It impressed him vividly with the awesome magnitude, -the salient ruggedness, the terrible power of the country of which it -was an emblem. - -His dog-train swayed with shrieking runners among the massed ice-pillars -and emerged from the gorge into a wider valley where the hills rose -naturally bright in the sunshine with the welcome blue sky resting upon -their peaks. - -Britton could see that the Klondike River was the main recipient of the -long trains of ice which slid with snail-like motion from the crests of -the glaciers. Frozen gullies full of these moving, mile-long torrents -broke in upon the larger river and piled the junction points full of -massive, chaotic ice-bridges which were painfully difficult to cross. - -Lessari stumbled upon one huge jam and went down among the sharp, -crystal fragments. He gasped when he regained his feet, and the dry, -hacking cough became more convulsive. Seeing that he was nearly spent, -Rex beckoned for a few minutes' halt, though having hopes of reaching -mountainous shelter before nightfall, he did not wish to delay very -long. - -While they rested on a high ice-bridge quite a distance above the -Klondike Canon, they heard a thin, hissing wail far back in its depths. - -"Sled!" exclaimed the listening Corsican, breaking into speech without -thinking of the consequence. - -At his effort the icy casing which covered his cheeks snapped in -showering splinters, gashing the skin in a dozen places. He groaned in -pain while the blood trickled down his face. - -Britton thawed his mouth free by the warm pressure of his fur gauntlets. - -"You're right, Lessari," he said. "It sounds like a dog-train coming -through the canon. Surely that cursed Indian hasn't been spreading the -news! Or perhaps someone has trailed us from Samson because they think -we know of a find up this way." - -Britton's tone was angry as well as disappointed. He had not undertaken -the dangerous and arduous trip up the Klondike for the purpose of -showing the way to some trailers who might contest the ground with him. -If any rough characters were following because they suspected he had -knowledge of a gold deposit, Rex knew he would have to fight for what he -found, and fight, no doubt, with the odds against him. - -"We'll wait and see who is tracking us," he grimly observed to Lessari. - -The whining sound of a dog-train continued, borne through the cold void -with clear persistence. Rex strained his eyes on the distant mouth of -the canon to mark who came out, but he watched in vain. The noise -ceased as suddenly as it arose, and though they dallied another fifteen -minutes, nothing could be seen. - -"That's odd," commented Britton. "Wasn't it a dog-sled, Lessari?" - -"Sound like him much!" answered the Corsican, in an awed voice. He was -somewhat superstitious, and he nursed his cut face apprehensively, as if -it were responsible for the strange incident. - -"I could have sworn to that as the shriek of runners," Rex declared, -"but it may have been ice. In any event we can't stop longer. Ho! -there-mush, mush!" - -They forged on, climbing to a still higher altitude and meeting with a -frigid air that reached to the very marrow of their bones. Lessari -weakened, and Britton made him take to the sled for the rest of the -afternoon while he himself continued his heart-breaking tramp beside the -dogs, surmounting all obstacles, no matter how formidable, with that -intrepid grit and unbroken muscle-strength which was his heritage. - -The short, sub-Arctic day closed in swiftly, shrouding everything with a -heavy fog, and night caught the two travellers among the black river -boulders. - -It was a desolate place of incomparable bleakness in which they were -forced to camp, but when the stove was set going inside the pitched tent -and they had infused some heat into their frost-tried bodies, the -outlook seemed more cheerful. - -The next day saw a repetition of their hardships and trials. Lessari -declared himself strong enough to keep his feet, but Britton forced him -to ride behind the dogs. The Corsican lay wrapped in robes, and the -spasms of coughing that wrenched his frame told about how fit he was to -travel the trail afoot. There were places so rough and so hard to scale -that he could not stay upon the loaded sled while the dogs dragged it -over. At such points he was compelled to walk, and Rex had to assist -him. - -They had penetrated into the timbered regions which flanked the -Klondike, and the way grew wilder although there was some solace of -shelter. According to Britton's estimate of the Thron-Diuck's directions -the place of the five mountains could not be many miles distant, and, -even in that soul-chilling waste, his blood warmed every inch of his -body when he thought success might soon reward his strenuous stampedes. - -With the reaching of the forested stretches, grizzly tracks were seen in -profusion, indicating that these hungry prowlers were finding the severe -weather very hard, for they had covered vast distances in search of -food. - -As they traversed mile after mile, making rapid progress without -hindrance of blistered ice, Britton began to think that his hopes of -camping that night among the five beaver-house hills would be realized. -Every time they rested for a moment to give the dogs a breathing spell, -he eagerly scanned the sketch which he had made. From the contour of the -river and the position of the mountains he tried to judge exactly how -far he had advanced. Each scrutiny, thus indulged in, gave fresh hope -and assurance, and he would dash on with greater speed than was -generally attained on the Fields. - -The steep granite headlands gave place to more sloping bluffs, and when -Britton's dog-train swept round the river's curve past the first long -belt of pine forest, there loomed at a probable distance of six miles -the tops of five hills set in a circle. - -"It's the place," he shouted joyfully. "By heaven, it's the -place-Lessari!" - -But Lessari, his endurance worn out by the continual jolting, had rolled -from the sled in a dead faint. He could not be revived easily, so -Britton had to pitch the tent, light a fire, and attend to him. - -The Corsican came to, weak and trembling, and when Rex had given some -nourishment, Lessari looked at him with dazed, troubled eyes. - -"I am much sorrow," he said confusedly. "Your journey I spoil! Put me -on the sled, and it somehow we can reach." - -Britton felt a twinge of conscience for a selfish wish as he heard these -words from a man who was courageous to the core though obviously unable -to continue. - -"No," he gravely replied, "you haven't spoiled the journey. We can well -rest here and go on to-morrow. Make your mind easy, Lessari!" - -The Corsican, still lamenting the check to their advance, fell into an -exhausted sleep, while Britton, the selfish desire recurring -involuntarily within him, chafed silently as he watched from a distance -the peaks of his far-sought gold Mecca. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - -Five dead dogs, their stark bodies clearly outlined on the snow by a -sparkling aurora, met Britton's startled gaze when he stumbled sleepily -out of the cramped quarters of the tent. A cry of something like despair -escaped him as he ran to examine them, turning the gaunt carcasses over -and over. - -Lessari heard the shout of perturbation and shuffled forth from under -the flaps. - -"What wrong have you?" he asked anxiously. - -Rex stood aside and showed the corpses of their faithful animals. - -"They're killed," he said briefly, "and you know what that means for -us!" - -White horror grew in the Corsican's brown face till it was blanched to a -sickly hue. He fully realized that the loss of the dog-team had buried -them alive in a frozen wilderness whose relentless cruelty would slowly -crush their lives. In a dazed way, he fingered the bodies. - -"Not any marks-not any marks," was his vacant observation. - -"No," agreed Britton, who controlled himself with difficulty, "they have -been neither knifed nor shot, yet some man's hand has done it. Gaucho -and the rest of the huskies appeared as well last night as they ever -did. No, Lessari, it wasn't an epidemic or even the bitter frost." - -"How they are killed, then?" the Corsican inquired petulantly. - -"That's the mystery," Rex woefully ruminated, aloud. "I wonder if that -snake of a Thron-Diuck followed us and perpetrated this deed! You -remember we heard what we thought was a dog-train coming behind us -through the Klondike Canon?" - -"Ah! yes," responded his companion, "that I recall-curse him!" -Lessari's eyes were vindictive and full of a strange wildness as he -stared at Britton. - -"Of course that is only a supposition," said Rex, judicially, "but I -know how jealous the Indian tribes are of gold-laden creeks. The -Thron-Diucks know a good many secrets, but they will not divulge them, -and fearing the wrath of his fellows if we located on this deposit, the -red wretch may have repented his bargain and taken steps to prevent our -profiting by it." - -"Look for tracks!" exclaimed the Corsican, on sudden inspiration, but -Britton shook his head. - -"No use," he lamented, pointing to the pine-banked curve of the river, -shining like glass, "the ice is too clean!" - -"Curse him! Curse him!" exploded Lessari, again, growing more violent -of speech. - -"There's no use in cursing, either," Britton said seriously. "We're -facing death, Lessari, but we must keep alive as long as possible. We -have a tent and some food, and we'll make a strong fight." - -The Corsican studied his dubious expression. "Go back?" he asked. - -"It can't be done," said Rex. "Our provisions will not last half the -time required to make the journey on foot, and there is nothing to shoot -over those barren stretches." - -"Go on where gold is, then?" Lessari inquired dismally. - -"Yes," Britton answered, "our path lies over those five hills. We have -only two chances, Lessari, and they are mighty slim! There is the -chance of stumbling on the encampment of these Thron-Diuck Indians-they -have retired somewhere in these mountains-and the possibility of finding -game in the pine forests. The way lies yonder, and, if we find gold -there, we'll stake it in case a miracle should bring us out of this -trap." - -Rex stirred the nose of his dead leader with the toe of his shoepack as -he finished speaking, and Lessari saw him bend quickly. - -"See that!" Britton exclaimed in quivering anger. He held out something -between his fingers, and the Corsican recognized a piece of frozen -whitefish covered with reddish powder. - -"Poisoned!" he ejaculated with renewed horror. - -"Yes, someone has fed them poisoned whitefish," said Rex, vehemently. -"Gaucho had this in his teeth!" - -Lessari broke out in a flood of denunciation. Britton quelled his own -indignation and began untying the tent-ropes. - -They thawed their canvas shelter from the banked ice and snow by means -of several brush fires and loaded the sled. Any articles which could be -dispensed with and which unnecessarily impeded them were cast away. The -outfit was reduced to a minimum, and Rex packed all the remaining -provisions carefully in one large sack. He preserved, too, the food -intended for the dogs, for he thought they might easily find themselves -in such straits as to be glad of it. - -When all was securely lashed on the heavy Yukon sleigh, the two men -harnessed themselves in the traces and started laboriously toward the -circle of hills six miles away. For Lessari, they were six long and -excruciating miles. He was weak and unfit, and though Britton took the -heavier portion of the toil, the tramp told rapidly on his companion. - -The river curved with such a sweep that they struck overland to shorten -the distance. They bridged wide gullies full of blistered ice and -swerved erratically with the loaded sled among rugged rocks and slippery -hummocks that barred their path. Lessari continued to mutter and -complain during the whole six miles, his mumblings toward the end -becoming somewhat incoherent. - -When they slipped down a long ravine which opened on the river right in -the middle of the circling hills, the Corsican was staggering along with -protruding tongue. - -"You're fagged!" Rex exclaimed, noticing his plight. "Better rest here -a minute!" - -Lessari's answer was a vicious pull on the sleigh rope that nearly took -Britton off his feet. They moved on because the Corsican would accept no -delay, and Rex saw that the other's motive power was a sort of delirium -which instilled unlimited feverish energy. - -The pair of toilers emerged at last from the black rift and climbed an -ice-capped ridge which fell like a sloping watershed in a southward -direction. Around them the five beaver-house mountains rose strangely -dome-like, the great river apparently losing itself in the bowels of the -thousand ice chasms which furrowed the base of the valley-beds. - -"This is the Klondike's source," Rex murmured as he contemplated the -scene, "and it looks cold enough to kill you." - -"Yes," sighed Lessari, "you have it right. But the gold-the gold is -warm. Here I feel it!" He put his hand to his breast, and smiled -contentedly. - -"It's all that's keeping you warm," Rex gruffly commented. The -observation quickly altered Lessari's expression, and he glared with a -wild impenetrable look as they proceeded to skirt the fringing line of -gravelled granite which was the shore of the now glacier-like stream. - -Here the detached ice lay scattered about in huge blocks, an impediment -to their feet, where it had glided with the shining rubble from the -farther plateaus. In the shallow cup that the five hills formed, they -met with a long, treacherous crevasse whose yawning depth of three -hundred feet effectually cut off any further progress in a direct line. -The great abyss seemed to possess a fascination for Lessari, and he trod -dangerously near the edge to peer over. - -"Don't do that!" Britton sharply cautioned, pulling him back. "A slip -of your moccasin would put you at the bottom. We'll have to leave the -sled here and see if there is any way round!" - -The immense crevasse dipped from an overhanging glacier on one of the -five mountains and slanted across the granite ridge they had been -skirting. The two men left the Yukon sleigh standing, blocked, above -the deep split and followed along the edge, searching for a place to -cross. The slant of the ravine became more, acute, and, where the sides -were jagged and shelved, they clambered down lower and lower till the -whole formation suddenly broke upon a vast cavern that nosed into the -river-bed and opened on the other side where the way was passable though -extremely hard. - -"It's rough going, but we must get across," Rex said, turning round to -Lessari. - -The latter was handling some rusty-looking pebbles which he had kicked -out of the black cavern floorway. - -"Ironstone!" he grunted scornfully, gazing at the cave side where -similar fragments with glacier-worn edges stuck out. - -"Let me see," cried Britton, hastily jumping forward. Lessari dropped -the stones in his hand, and Britton's heart leaped at the weight of -them. - -"Ironstone!" he exclaimed, his voice all trembling. "My God, Lessari, -it's gold!" - -"Santa Virgin!" the Corsican screamed-"Gold!" He snatched frantically -at the precious pebbles, chattering madly. - -"I'm positive it is," Rex said excitedly, "but the flame-test will soon -tell." - -He produced a bit of candle from his coat and lit it with unsteady -fingers. While Lessari held the specimens, he applied the flame to -them. The heat singed the Corsican's hands, but he did not seem to feel -any pain. Presently the rusty red covering of the pebbles disappeared -as fine dust in the blaze, and Lessari gripped pure alluvial gold. - -"Santa Virgin!" he screamed again. "We're rich! We're rich!" - -Rex was off immediately, running about the cavern walls, making a hasty -survey with his candle end. The walls, like the floor, were studded -here and there with peeping corners of the precious ore for which he had -endured two thousand miles of pitiless Yukon trails. Unbounded wealth -lay within his grasp, and, with the triumph of the moment, he forgot -that he was a millionaire in a death-trap. - -"Go up for a spade, Lessari," he cried. "It is a mighty deposit-'big -gold,' as the Thron-Diuck said." - -The Corsican started up as a faint, rushing noise sounded above, like -ice sliding upon ice. - -"What's that?" asked Britton anxiously. - -They listened, but heard no further echo. Rex appeared ill at ease. - -"We're among glaciers, Lessari," he said, "and we must be careful. An -avalanche might easily bury us in a hole like this. Get that shovel -quickly!" - -Lessari climbed up the lip of the ravine and disappeared, while Britton -pottered about, speculating, as well as exulting, over the magnificent -find. It was a showing that gave promise of surpassing such far-famed -creeks as the Eldorado and Bonanza, and Rex gloated over his prospects. -Standing in that deep cavern under the Klondike's bed, his thoughts went -back to the green Sussex lands, Hyde Park in the London season, and the -foaming Channel swells under the _Mottisfont's_ bows. He thought of the -estates this buried gold would buy, the power it would bring, the -restoration to public favor it would effect, and he laughed mirthlessly -at the idea of purchasing his way into quarters of society and diplomacy -which had closed their doors to him after his Algerian escapade. - -A shrill cry from Lessari above interrupted his cogitations. He -scrambled out of the cavern and clawed his way up the slippery side of -the rift. - -The Corsican was staring down into the abyss where they had left the -sled. On his face there rested a look of terrified bewilderment, and he -pointed into the gloomy depths. - -"Gone!" he wailed-"gone down!" - -Britton looked around for the sleigh, but it had vanished. A sharp fear -assailed him as he dashed to Lessari's side and saw the mark of the -runners on the powdered edge of the ravine where the laden sled had -taken the leap. - -"That's what we heard slide," Rex groaned, "and it has all our food!" - -He went mechanically to the exact spot where the Yukon sleigh had stood. -There lay the piece of granite which had blocked the runners, with the -print of a husky's foot-pad in a minute snow-pocket at its side. Rex -showed it to the Corsican, a swift, ominous wrath mantling his -countenance. - -"By heaven, Lessari, this is too much!" he cried. "It has been done -purposely like-like the poison! There's a hand in the dark somewhere, -and it means murder!" - -The Corsican's harrowed senses appeared incapable of comprehending the -statement. - -"Starving-and rich!" he muttered wildly. "Rich-and starving!" He walked -without fear to the brink of the chasm and began to lower himself over -the rock with his hands. - -"Here!" Rex roared in terror, rushing up. "What do you mean?" - -"Stay back!" snarled the Corsican. "I go down to eat." - -"The gold has turned your head!" Britton exclaimed. "You couldn't get -down there for all the food on earth. Why, man, it's three hundred -feet!" He sprang with a lithe movement and dragged the Corsican from -his perilous position. - -Lessari gave an inhuman cry and closed with Britton. Rex saw his eyes -as they struggled and knew, with a feeling of chill horror, that they -were the eyes of a madman. - -"Ha!" gasped the demented fellow. "This time you go!" - -He strove to throw Britton into the gulf, for resistance had resulted in -giving his mania a different trend. The delirium gave him the strength -of six men, and Rex found himself being gradually pushed into the -crevasse. He strained and tugged with all the mighty power of his -shoulders and corded arms, but it was of no avail against the frenzied -Lessari. He tried another tack! - -"Cool yourself, Lessari," he said soothingly, "and we'll get this sled." -They could never get it, but he hoped the artifice might serve! Even -that attempt at reason proved useless, for the Corsican redoubled his -efforts. The eternal cold, his illness, the death of the dogs, the -fever of the gold-finding, and the loss of their provisions had all -combined to drive him mad. - -"Devil!" he screamed, "you threw the food down!" And Rex knew he was -indeed demented. - -Fighting every inch of the way, Britton was forced toward the abyss. -Three feet from it, he felt the necessity for desperate action. Watching -his opportunity, he tripped Lessari on the iced rock, and they both fell -heavily. Rex wound his arms about the Corsican, putting forth the last -ounce of strength; that grip of steel would have held a giant, but it -could not hold a madman. Lessari tore himself free and gained the -uppermost position, with hands on Britton's throat. - -Rex gazed into the rolling eyes, the wild, distorted visage of the -Corsican, and felt himself shoved to the very brink of the crevasse. He -wrenched violently at Lessari's wrists and arms, but they were as iron -rods, and the movement brought his head out over the rim of the rock. - -In one fleeting vision he saw the white, rising ice-fields cutting into -the blue sky, with glacier-capped peaks banking up behind; he saw three -of the five circling hills, their frozen gorges shining emerald in the -sun; then, as Lessari's wolfish face came closer to his own and his arms -were pressed down, the fingers felt the revolver butt in his belt. - -In sheer despair he grasped it as a drowning man snatches at an oar. -Its report cracked out and rattled in a hundred blatant echoes down the -gorge. Lessari uttered a gasping groan and lurched to one side, his -fingers lax and weak. - -Britton wormed his shoulders back from the edge of the abyss, shifting -the Corsican's weight with his legs, and arose in safety. His lungs -were heaving with the tremendous strain like those of a spent -Channel-swimmer, and the cords of his throat were taut. - -When he turned over the limp form at his feet, he looked into Lessari's -dead face. - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - - -Back in Dawson, on the evening of the same day when Britton stood alone -with the awful Klondike solitude at the edge of Five Mountain Gulch-as -it came to be named afterwards-when he faced at once the icy phantom -Cold, the grisly skeleton Starvation, and the devil-faced thing Remorse, -when he halted with death at his feet and its dread power pervading the -desolate snows about him, there occurred, in the golden city, a -strikingly different scene, a scene palpitating with warmth and life. - -A group of men, present at Grant Simpson's invitation, occupied one of -the ground-floor rooms of the Half Moon restaurant, engaged ostensibly -in doing justice to a very elegant and costly supper, but really killing -time in a luxurious way and waiting anxiously for the bell-note of -business which they knew their host intended to ring in on them. - -Simpson, with his accustomed lavish expenditure, had engaged the room to -the utter exclusion of other guests who might have dined at two of the -three tables which the chamber held; he had ordered that the trio of -tables be lined up and converted into one long feasting board which -could be covered with fine viands and drinks-principally drinks! The -catering was let to the hostess of the Half Moon, Aline Giraud, who was -a genius of management, all the more so since Pierre's absence on the -trails left every responsibility in her hands. That night she expected -him back from the completion of his baggage-freighting contract with -Laverdale, the big American mine-owner who was bound for Dyea and the -States, and Aline wished to have everything right. She wished the -supper that this well-dressed, money-burning lawyer was giving to be a -thing beyond criticism, and her every effort was devoted to making it -so. - -And the bill! She told herself the bill would be the best of it all. -It would be a thing to cheer Pierre's heart and cause him to dance, with -his cap thrown among the ceiling festoons. - -Simpson's was the dominating figure of the company present in the room -of the Half Moon where Aline Giraud served so assiduously with her -alert, graceful movements and her full, white arms. He seemed to hold -the key to some enterprise which claimed the attention of all under -their masks of good fellowship, but Simpson did not yet consider the -moment propitious for the unfolding of hidden plans. - -He sat at the head of his table, with his guests ranged in two lines on -either side, men well known in Dawson, the chief characteristic of whom -was money. That was why they were present! If they had not had money -to invest, they could have entered into no proposition with Simpson. - -Jarmand, the fat, wealthy broker with the currant-roll neck and the oily -insolence, was there; Fripps, the sour, thin, anaemic promoter, -maintained his usual unobtrusive but nevertheless certain presence; a -trio of capitalists of a somewhat similar stamp, keen-visaged but -rotund-bodied, quelled their impatience successfully, while they -secretly chafed at Simpson's dalliance, and awaited his proposition. -These men were inseparable in any business prospect; they worked -together, invested together, and stood or fell by a triumvirate -judgment; and since their names began with the same letter-Cranwell, -Crowdon, and Carr-they had been dubbed the three C's. - -Where the three C's went in, the financial project need not be strictly -legitimate. They had few scruples or qualms, and when they took hold of -a mining scheme or a real estate deal, wise men kept out. - -There were others present, probably a dozen in all, and among them Jim -Laurance, who had come with a great deal of misgiving and scepticism on -receipt of a letter from Simpson advising him of an opportunity of -getting in on the ground floor right under the scoops of a dredging -proposition. - -And in preparation for his demonstration of ideas and plans, Grant -Simpson bade them all enjoy themselves, setting the example himself with -a free hand on the ladle of the punch bowl. Many followed his example -from appetite; the three C's imitated, thinking of a relished business -dessert as a sort of solace. - -Famine might be threatening in the land of gold, but she had certainly -no embargo on liquors and cigars. Both were indulged in without stint. - -Blue, acrid wreaths of smoke filled the room, and the atmosphere became -very warm. No one would have guessed it was forty below in the street, -The two lines of guests at the table and the host at its head emptied -glasses and refilled, tossed them off and ladled up again. Small talk -hummed, and jests cracked out, more or less coarse in the intervals when -pretty Aline Giraud was absent from the room during the different -courses of the meal. - -Jim Laurance, the only temperate one in the company, sipped his simple -glass of punch sparingly, refusing the bottled stuff and the heavy -wines. He felt disgusted and sorry that he had come, but he had money -to invest if Simpson's thing suited him, and he settled himself to sit -out the revel. - -The roadhouse at Indian River had proved a good thing for Laurance. He -had struck his Klondike right on that creek, and he was sane enough to -know it. Instead of frittering away his coin on fool stampedes in hopes -of a mighty strike, he was satisfied to invest it in sound mining -securities and watch the dividends slowly grow. Such an enterprise, he -hoped, was in Simpson's mind. - -Simpson's wine, however, was more in Simpson's thoughts than the -enterprise. He had unwisely glutted his taste for beverages with a -tang, and he lost control of his manners as well as his senses, laughing -boisterously and telling unsavory tales. - -"Hi, there!" he would yell, skidding the empty punch-bowl down the table -to Jarmand. "Fill her up, Fatty. You're the doctor. Put in something -stiff-stiff enough to make your moustache stand! Something d-d stiff, -Fatty!" - -"That's it, Jarmand," gurgled Bonneaves, a young profligate and an -especial chum of Simpson's. "Mix us a regular old hair-raiser. We're -out for fun! Who's holding us down?" - -"No one! No one!" shouted three or four of the muddled men, stamping on -the floor and breaking into confused singing, which set up rumbling -echoes through the other parts of the restaurant and went far to -disturbing its customers. - -"Tell us a story, Simp," said Jarmand. "Old Simp's the boy for spicy -ones. Eh, men? You bet your liver-colored notes he is. Rip one off, -Simp, there's a good fellow!" - -Accordingly Simp ripped one off, a story that convulsed the drinkers but -which made Laurance's blood boil. The one-time plainsman, now an -Alaskan sourdough, sat very still, without the shadow of a smile upon -his face. - -Aline Giraud, accompanied by a waitress, an ugly, angular Danish woman, -brought in the meats. These were bear steaks, slices of moose flank, -and grouse in pairs, a veritable feast which would have fed a hundred -poverty-pinched wretches in the outlying camps. The thought came to -Laurance as he poised his knife and fork over the breast of a fat grouse -dressed with sage dressing in a wonderful brown gravy. - -"Seems hard to waste this here," he said simply, "when there's so many -poor cusses starvin' round the Fields." - -"To h-l with them!" cried Simpson, roughly. "What we have, we got. Eh? -We pay for it, and when you pay your way, the rest can go and be d-d to -'em. How's that?" - -"Right," nodded Bonneaves. "You're always right, Simp. You're a wise -old buck. Glad I've known you. You can show a fellow things. Here's to -you, Simp!" - -The talk grew louder and looser. As the gravies were being served, -Simpson and Jarmand, exchanging winks, attempted a double surprise. The -lawyer made a bungling effort to kiss Aline Giraud on the cheek, while -at the same time the fat broker leaned forward and pecked at the -waitress. The result was a startling surprise for Jarmand. The -ham-like hand of the Danish woman descended with a resounding smack on -the currant-roll neck of the broker. - -The seated company roared at Jarmand. Jim Laurance frowned at Simpson -and half rose from his chair, but Aline had succeeded in eluding the -lawyer and fled through the doorway, the angry red showing in her -cheeks. - -"That's one on you, Fatty," tittered his friends. "Beautiful throw-down, -that! Right place, too! Like another, Fatty? Better try again. Ho! -ho!" - -"Cheer up, old man," laughed Simpson, accepting the joke. "Better luck -next time. Walk into the punch there, Fatty; you have a weak heart." - -They walked into the punch till the third bowl failed to withstand the -charges, and a fourth had to be mixed. Some of the men, unable to -restrain their vivacity, arose and capered about the laden table, -singing and playing the fool perfectly, and stopping only to refill -empty tumblers. - -The Danish waitress, now secure in the triumph of her first quick -victory, held her ground undaunted, completing the serving of the -banquet in spite of the noise. Aline, no longer entering the room, -watched the progress of things through the doorway from the farther -chamber. Somehow, this fine supper over which she had spent so much -effort had not turned out as she had contemplated; things were getting -beyond her grasp; her eyes grew anxious wide, and startled. - -After all, she thought, it might not please Pierre. Even the bill would -never compensate for the disgusting clamor and the humiliation. - -Laurance had finished his single glass of punch and was drawing on his -short, black pipe. He disdained the long, fat cigars of Jarmand and the -three C's, and cursed the ill-smelling, coronet-banded cigarettes of -Simpson and Bonneaves. The oddest figure in the group himself, he felt -nothing but contempt for the others. The only thing about them he -respected was the business instinct of their sober moments, and there -seemed but little chance for a display of that now. - -The Alaskan waited till the fourth bowl of punch ran low, hoping that -Simpson would open his mouth to speak sound sense, instead of salacious -nonsense, and tell them why he had invited them to supper, but when the -concoction of a fifth bowl was begun, amid most uproarious hilarity, -Laurance inwardly fumed, making up his mind that he would not sit there -much longer. - -Unconsciously, he was frowning through the drifting haze of smoke at his -companions. There was no stern decorum present, nor any nicety of -attire. To be sure, Simpson, as host, and Bonneaves, to imitate his -model, wore dinner clothes, but the rest were dressed in the ordinary -dress which occupation demanded. The three C's were in black -broadcloth; Jarmand sported a suit of loud check pattern; Fripps favored -grey, as wrinkled and faded as his skin. The others of the company were -mostly mining men who had come in corduroys, with trousers stuffed in -knee-high cruisers, and had hung fur coats and caps on the pegs behind -their chairs. Laurance, travelling by dog-train to Dawson, wore the -musher's outfit of the trails. - -He looked rough and uncouth, but very much a man. His beard was -disreputable as ever; the iron-gray hair stood up stiffer and stubbier, -allowing his rat ears to be seen; his nose peeped out, cherry-red and -snub. He was lowering on the foolish antics of the rest of the men, and -his keen blue eyes were narrowed so much that they did not flash. - -"What's the matter with you, Laurance, old sport?" cried Bonneaves, -joyously. "Look as if you'd buried your best friend in the punch-bowl!" - -"Why," shouted Simpson, "if that's so, we'll resurrect him! Resurrect's -the word, boys. Eh? How's that?" He seized the bowl in both arms and -emptied it to the last drop in the array of glasses. Then he turned the -dish upside down on the table and hammered upon its bottom, while the -company roared as if he had done some extremely witty thing. - -"What say, Laurance?" asked young Bonneaves. "Feel any better?" - -"I feel like twistin' your cussed neck, young man," answered Laurance, -wrathfully. "What did I come here for? To eat a decent meal an' talk -business! I didn't come to swill meself-I'm certainly certain of that! -We're men anyhow, an' there's no call for us to act like a lot of calf -youngsters as can't pull the draw-string on their gullets. I say we're -here to talk business!" - -"H-l, yes," grunted Bonneaves, with the air of sudden recollection. -"You're right, sport, now I come to remember. Simp did bring us here -for a purpose, and that's no lie. Give us your scheme, Simp. Hot and -heavy and fast-that's the way!" - -Because their tastes palled a little, the others added their clamorous -entreaties. Their exhortations made a confused babel: - -"Hit it up, Simp! Uncork your oracle. Spread yourself quick, old boy. -What's the tune now? Time we talked, by gad!" And Bonneaves nodded -sagely at Laurance, muttering: "You're all right, sport. Simp's a wise -buck, but you're a wiser! See? Attention, you duffers!" He secured -order by pounding the board with the thick bottom of his tumbler. - -"Simp's going to spout," he announced authoritatively. Noticing that -the lawyer had engrossed himself with the opening of a champagne bottle, -Bonneaves hastily added: "Why, no! Rat me if he isn't going to swallow! -Here, Simp, that won't do. Put it away. Can't you see your friends are -waiting?" - -"I'm busy," protested Simpson, struggling with the cork. "It's all -about that Yukon dredging business anyhow. I've taken it off Morris's -hands since he's played the fool and disappeared, d-n him! I need -backing. That's what I need. I can't go it alone!" - -"What's the lay-out?" prompted Jarmand. "Put aside the bottle and get -down to business." - -Simpson flung away the opener as a useless thing and grasped a fresh -one. - -"Curse the bottle and curse the business," he fumed. "I'm busy, I tell -you. Here, I have the prospectus. Read it yourselves, and you'll save -my wind!" He drew some typewritten sheets from his breast-pocket and -flung them upon the cloth. - -What he had called the prospectus passed down the line at one side of -the table, up again, and down the other side, greeted with grunts of -approval by those still clear-brained enough to understand and with much -head-wagging from such as were incapable of comprehension. - -"Bully!" - -"Standard bred!" - -"Up to snuff!" - -"Neat as garters!" - -These were some of the comments from the appreciative assembly. - -Last of all, the prospectus came to Jim Laurance. At the top of the -sheet, in large typing, was the name, "Yukon Dredging Company." -Underneath that reposed the list of directors, picked, apparently, from -the group invited to supper. Jarmand's name appeared, and Fripps's, -Bonneaves's, and the names of the three C's. - -Laurance quietly read the sheets through, with their significance -vitally impressing itself on him, and when he finished, he saw that he -held the kind of thing which is circulated by thousands through the -mails for the catching of suckers. It was the universally familiar, -folded sheet that expounded the virtues of the greatest dredging -proposition in the world. - -"By gad," he cried, angrily shaking the prospectus in the air, "so this -is what you've hauled me over here to back up, eh? A cussed, dirty, -widow-an'-orphan robbin' swindle, if you ast me! An', gents, I give it -to you straight: you're a pack of low faro dealers, a bunch of -thimbleriggers, a handful of flimflammers if you put through that there -deal. You're a ring of thieves and d-d blacklegs, gents!" - -"Hold on there, sport!" yelled Bonneaves. "You go it too strong. We -won't stand for all that." - -"I can go lots stronger yet, young cocky-neck," warned Lawrence. "Why, -I ain't half goin'. You should see me fizz some time, me son, an' you'd -run your feet off for fear of bein' blowed up." He regarded the -youthful profligate grimly, shaking his stubby scalp and gray beard -aggressively, but in the corners of his eyes there lurked a humorous -expression. - -"Aren't you in on this?" asked Jarmand, rolling a wave of his oily -insolence down the table to Laurance. "Aren't you taking hold? There's -money in it!" - -The Alaskan eyed him squarely. - -"Not the kind of money I want," he said severely. "Not me own kind, by -a thousand yard shot! I don't want no widow's mites or orphan's -pennies; I don't steal no wimmen's savin's nor the hard-earned dollars -of some poor laborin' cuss as thinks the Yukon is one whoppin' lump of -gold an' all we got to do here is to file up our finger-nails and claw -it off in pieces. No, sir, count me out! An' I'll see some law-sharp -an' have you gents counted out, too. You don't work this here game so -easy. I'm certainly certain of that! You can't rob people so d-d -bare-faced. No, sir, you truly can't. Why, this here would be wors'n -jumpin' all the claims on Samson Creek!" - -Laurance's glance rested full on Grant Simpson as he uttered his bold -words, and the lawyer looked up with suspicious, drink-steeped eyes. - -"What the devil's wrong with this thing?" he demanded angrily. "What -puts your back up?" - -"Look here," snapped Laurance, pointing to the typewritten sheet. "You -claim to have one hundred miles river frontage, or 'bout ten thousand -acres, on Indian Creek. You bought it from the Government! Pretty lie, -if you ast me! Clear title from them, and all the rest of the -high-falutin's! Pah!-it turns me sick. For you haven't a yard-not one -d-d yard. I'm there, an' I know!" - -The Alaskan's vehemence drew the attention of everyone, drunk or sober. - -"An' you have two dredges at work, expectin' a third," he went on, -continuing to read from the prospectus. "That's a crackin' good Sunday -paper joke. What does it mean?" - -"Well," growled Simpson, "we will have. We intend to." - -"The devil you do," said Laurance. "You'll put the money in your pocket -an' keep it there. To h-l with your prospectus!" He tore the sheets in -half and threw the fragments on the floor. - -Simpson laughed. He viewed the whole affair with colossal unconcern. -In its time he could proceed with the venture at immense gain to himself -and the others. It must be postponed, in spite of it being the reason -for the assembly, because, just now, wine was a much more important -thing. - -"You don't have to plunge," he commented. "Stay out if you can't like -it." - -"Yes, but he doesn't need to give us extra work," interposed Jarmand, -expostulating about the torn prospectus. - -"Have an ice, Laurance." advised young Bonneaves. "It'll cool you -down." - -"I'll have nothin'," Laurance growled, reaching for his coat. "I don't -hanker after suppin' with them as I now know is thieves." - -At the host's call, the Danish waitress brought in the ices on a tray, -while Jim Laurance muffled himself in his coat. - -"Where's Aline?" Simpson asked, assuming the privilege of familiarity. - -"My mistress?" said the waitress. "She will serve no more. She will -not enter." - -"But she'll have to," cried Simpson, flushing with anger and obstinacy. -"Tell her to run in and serve immediately or I shall come after her and -kiss both her cheeks instead of one." - -The Danish woman flounced out, and Jarmand involuntarily put his fingers -to his fat neck. - -"You see," explained Simpson, "it isn't like as if I hadn't paid her for -the supper and for occupying her room. And, by the way, this isn't the -only room!" He nodded and laughed evilly, adding: "The hubby's on the -trails." - -Laurance's coat went off his back with a reverse of the motion which was -putting it on. The garment flew into one corner, and the owner's voice -rang out across the room like the clank of good steel. - -"By heaven, Simpson," he roared, "you can't throw one speck of mud on -Pierre's wife. You'll eat dirt for it. You're a d-d dago-hearted -liar!" - -Laurance sprang along behind the row of chairs to reach Simpson at the -table's head, but a hand caught his elbow as he passed the side door and -whirled him about. With the suddenness of an apparition, he saw Pierre, -in musher's dress, fresh from the trails, filling the entrance with his -bulk, so that the white face of Aline had to peer under the arm which -held Laurance back. - -"Dis for me, _camarade_," murmured Pierre, pushing the Alaskan behind -him. - -Giraud then walked quickly past the astonished men till he stood in -front of Simpson. Very deliberately he gazed at him. - -"M'sieu'," he said, "you wan coward. You wan dam coward!" And his open -palms gave Simpson a stinging blow on either cheek. - -The lawyer lashed out with both hands and feet, but Pierre grasped him -by the throat and shook him like a long rag. Bedlam broke loose! Chairs -and tables were overturned as the half-dazed revellers jumped up. -Aline's screams were mingled with the crash of glass and chinaware. -Jarmand, Bonneaves, and two or three more of Simpson's friends rushed to -his assistance, bent on violence toward Pierre, but Jim Laurance swung -on them sharply, with eight inches of blued, cylindrical steel -glittering in either hand. - -"Back there," he yelled, "every man-jack of you, or I'll plug you with -these gas-pipes!" - -The glinting light on the dull, ugly Colts daunted them no more than the -determined gleam in the eyes of the man behind. The rescuers fell aside -like gale-blown gravel and remained glued to the wall. - -Pierre Giraud set the lawyer on his feet. The voyageur's face was pale -and rigid. - -"M'sieu'," he said, "you lak wan feather in my hand. Ah no be go fight -wit' you dat way, 'cause dat not be fair. _Mais_ you geeve Aline wan -insult-de wors' insult dat man could geeve! An' Aline, she lak wan -leetle w'ite saint. M'sieu'," and he tapped Simpson's shoulder, "wan of -us be keel here. Ah keel you, fair, or you keel me. Tak' de choice of -dose!" He indicated Laurance's pistols. - -It was no orthodox duel. There occurred no pacing, no arrangement, no -seconding, no counting! Laurance put one weapon in Simpson's hand, -whipped the other over to Giraud, and stepped between the door-jambs, -screening the thing from Aline. - -Abruptly the shooting began, the revolvers spurting jets of flame -through the blue haze of the room, whose atmosphere thickened into -swirling wreaths with every report. - -It was a scene of the wildest disorder, with the overturned tables and -chairs and shattered glass below; lights above, swaying to the -explosions of the pistols; at the sides the lines of awed yet excited -men flattened against the walls; the anxious Laurance and the frantic, -white-faced wife in the side entrance; guests fleeing from the other -parts of the establishment with shrieks and clamor; and in the centre of -it all the two combatants manoeuvring in the mist of smoke to avoid -being hit, advancing and firing swiftly as they advanced. - -Simpson shot the faster, with wild, deadly, malevolent hatred; Giraud -directed his weapon with slower deliberateness, ruled by one earnest, -avenging impulse. The room rocked to the deafening reverberations of -the pistols; the bullets went pang-panging on the wainscoting; the jets -of flame turned to crossed spears stabbing through the smoke. - -In ten seconds the men were within gun-reach in the centre of the floor. -Simpson's sixth ball broke the skin on his opponent's neck, but Giraud's -fifth went hurtling through the lawyer's brain. - -Simpson sagged in a little heap of black tuxedo and white starch, his -brow stained with spurting red. Aline Giraud was sobbing on Pierre's -breast, but Laurance roused him roughly to an acceptance of realities. - -"Hit it, an' hit it quick!" Jim urged vociferously. "The Mounted will -be here on the run in a minnit. Gad, that firin' must wake up the whole -town. Where's the dog-train? Is it unhitched?" - -"_Non_," answered Pierre, speaking like a man in a dream, "she be in de -yard lak Ah left her." - -"Come on, then," whispered Laurance, pulling him out. - -Aline clung to him piteously, and Pierre embraced her with a swift, -despairing, passionate gesture. Then he put her from him with an effort -that was agony. - -"He'll come back," consoled Laurance, "as soon as this blows over. Come -on, Pierre. I hear runnin'." - -They were gone on the instant, leaving Aline Giraud with her sweet, -white face upturned in prayer and her hands clasped in an attitude of -fear, parting, and renunciation. - -When the uniformed men of the Mounted Police filled the room where -Simpson lay dead, Pierre was galloping his dog-team at full speed up the -ice-trail of the Klondike. - -"Hit it for the Thron-Diuck camps," Laurance had advised. "They're -somewhere in them mountains. An' lie low till I send you word by an -Indian." - -That was how Pierre, heading for the Thron-Diuck encampments near the -Klondike's source, found Rex Britton four days later, half dead from -starvation and exposure, with his last burned match in his pocket, -ravings on his tongue and delirium in his brain, about fifteen miles -from Five Mountain Gulch. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - -"Sergeant, this is the devil's own country!" exclaimed Cyril Ainsworth, -as he stood outside the Mounted Police post at the head of Lake Bennett. - -Sergeant Church laughed heartily. It was late spring and just about the -worst time for mosquitoes and black-flies. - -"Your introduction to the country hasn't been an exactly pleasant one," -he replied, "but it is better than the winter." - -"I can't see why men will bury themselves here," the lawyer complained, -"especially a man like Britton!" - -"He struck it rich," Church said. "He's worth two millions. Yes, -Britton's one of Dawson's big guns now!" - -"That's no reason for remaining coffined," Ainsworth snapped. "Why -doesn't he come back to England and live a civilized life? Then we -would know where to find him when he is wanted, without crossing an -ocean and a continent and traversing a God-forsaken wilderness as big as -the motherland!" - -A constable of the post came up from the lake. - -"The canoe's ready, sir," he reported, with a salute. - -Ainsworth and Sergeant Church moved toward the shore. The lawyer had -come in over the summer trail from Dyea, the White Pass Railway from -Skagway to Lake Bennett being as yet only a talked-of project, and his -many experiences had been not altogether comforting ones. - -"It is a pity you cannot wait for the steamer," Church observed. "Canoe -travelling is very hard when one is not accustomed to it." - -"D-n the steamer!" exploded Ainsworth. "I am told that these boats run -weeks behind their schedules. What use is that to a man on urgent -business? You inhabit a devil of a country, sir." - -Sergeant Church laughed again, wondering silently how Ainsworth's system -and precision would avail against the numerous unforeseen contingencies -of that broad Northland. - -They reached the landing, where a thirty-foot Peterborough waited in -care of two brawny Chilcoot men, named Dave and Pete, who had lost the -other sections of their respective cognomens, along with their former -identities, somewhere in the place of long trails. - -The canoe was a roomy one, moderately fast, and fairly light on the -portage, a necessity for the Dawson trip. Pete trimmed the packs in it -very carefully so as to give fine balance when he should take the stern, -with Dave in the bow and their passenger between them. - -"We put in the canned stuff an' the fly grease," volunteered Dave, with -a sly wink at Sergeant Church. - -The sergeant pulled furiously at his moustache to hide a smile, and -mumbled some comment on the adverse wind over Lake Bennett. - -The grizzled Pete, meanwhile, was scrutinizing Ainsworth's legs with an -unappreciative eye. The lawyer had thought that English riding breeches -would be a very suitable thing for roughing it on the canoe trip, and -had donned a tightly-cut pair, together with the accompanying leggings. - -"They'll git down the leggin' an' clean through them pants," Pete sagely -observed. - -"What?" asked Ainsworth. - -"The flies," answered Pete, "they'll make mosquito-nettin' of them -leg-o'-muttons. Git some overalls an' cruisers if you don't want to be -drilled like a honeycomb." - -Ainsworth recognized the wisdom of this advice, even if he resented its -criticism, and went back to the post with Church. When he appeared -again, he was attired in eighteen-inch cruisers, tough duck overalls, -and flannel shirt with vest, to keep the bloodthirsty black-flies from -stabbing through. - -"You look some Christian-like," commented Pete, in a low tone. Then -aloud he added: "You're fit to fight them black divils now! Let's hit -her up!" - -They did hit it up over Bennett, with Sergeant Church waving them -farewell from the post. - -Ainsworth had never been in a canoe, having ridden a ten-ton barge down -from Linderman, and the apparent unstability of the craft appalled him, -though he took particular pains to conceal his concern. It required -considerable effort to preserve an unruffled mien, and Pete noticed that -the lawyer's white fingers gripped the gunwale like a vise. Lake -Bennett offered a thirty-mile pull, and with every mile the blustering -headwind increased till it blew a smothering gale. - -"This ain't no tug-boat," Pete growled, at last. "Git out yon extra -paddle." - -Ainsworth gasped. He had not expected that he would be ordered to help -with the locomotion when he was paying his men ten dollars each a day -and a bonus if they landed him in Dawson by the date upon which it was -necessary for him to be there in Britton's interests. He began to wish -he had waited for the steamer, and he made a mild protest to the -grizzled stern paddler. - -"This isn't in the bargain," he said confidently. - -"No, nor this sea ain't in the bargain," returned Pete. "Paddle, durn -you! Do you want to git swamped?" - -The big, swinging waves drenched them, and Ainsworth fell to work with -the extra paddle. They made some headway thus, though the lawyer had to -alternately paddle and bail, but the gale grew worse and forced them to -creep along the shore. - -There the three men fought the squall, wading in the shallow water and -pulling and shoving their canoe through the pounding surf. It was -Ainsworth's first baptism, and the gods of the north had conspired to -make it thorough enough. - -That night they camped on Cariboo Crossing amid the black-flies and -mosquitoes. These made a specialty of dining upon Ainsworth. He was a -tender, fresh cheechako, much more inviting than the leathern-skinned, -calloused sourdoughs, Dave and Pete. - -While the Chilcoot men pitched the tent, Ainsworth batted the flies. -They came in ravenous swarms, bent upon participating in a treat, and -Ainsworth wrapped Cariboo Crossing and its environment in a haze of -sulphurous expressions. Because he was in shelter where the wind could -not reach them, the black pests covered his face and neck; they drifted -from the thickets like mist wracks and made the camping hour unbearable -for the lawyer. - -Presently, however, Pete had the stringing of the tent all finished; had -anchored the ends, ballasted the sides, and banked it about with moss to -keep out the pests at night. Then, as Dave made a couch of pulled -boughs for their passenger, he built a smoky fire. - -"Git in that," he said to the lawyer. "It'll fix 'em." - -Ainsworth found to his satisfaction that the dense smudge relieved him -of his winged assailants. He stood in it so long that Pete, smiling to -himself, built another fire, upon which he cooked bannocks and fried -fish caught in the lake. - -They ate their evening meal, protected by the smoke, and Ainsworth, -lying back with lighted pipe, watching Pete bake flapjacks for the next -day, experienced a comfortable, soothing sensation. The long twilight -of the Northland died, and the dark marched over Bennett. Upon the -clean rock they had picked as a camping place their twin fires shone -with a ruddy glow against the dark green of the shrubbery and blocked -out their canvas like some giant white moth among the bushes. - -Northern insects and lizards sang and crooned in voices strange to -Ainsworth; strange noises of the darkness echoed and ceased; the stars -wheeled slowly, and the crimson camp blaze faded to amber coals. - -"Put your head under the blanket an' keep her there," was Pete's -warning, as they turned in. - -Ainsworth tried to obey, but decided that the observance of such a -decree would result in suffocation. He preferred to endure agony and -live, for though the tent had been well prepared, it was impossible to -keep out all the mosquitoes. - -They sang in falsetto choruses above the sleepers' heads. Dave and Pete -could hear the lawyer's stifled imprecations and vicious slappings till -slumber overpowered them. - -By morning Ainsworth was pretty well chewed, and stupid with loss of -sleep. He bathed in the lake water while the others got breakfast, but -the experiment was painful. The flies feasted on him while he -undressed, whenever his head and shoulders rose above the surface, and -when he dressed again. It seemed that they recognized no intermissions -and countenanced no union hours. - -On Tagish Lake an exasperating headwind baffled the canoeists as on the -preceding day. Ainsworth soon caught the swing of the paddle, and his -blade flickered and dipped in time with those of the steerer and the -bowman. - -Striking the sweep of the rolling waves, he had to bail until they could -no longer make any advance. Along the shoreline they went overboard, -Dave hauling ahead with the towline, while the lawyer and Pete pushed on -the canoe through the nasty breakers. Hour by hour they struggled -strenuously and unceasingly, the surf soaking them to their necks. -Ainsworth did not like it, but the wet was better than flies. - -A halt was made at Tagish Post for rest and recuperation, after which -they pushed on with more favorable weather through Lake Marsh and -reached the head of Box Canon. The strip of water between it and the -foot of White Horse Rapids is treacherously bad, so they portaged where -they could not line, and skirted the famous chutes. - -Five Finger Rapids gave them a tough struggle, and snags capsized them -twice, but they accomplished the descent on the third attempt and -entered deep river water. Here the current ran tremendously strong, and -only where they could not tow did they use the paddles. Towing was -heart-breaking work, the ragged undergrowth, splintered rocks, and bays, -necessitating ugly wading, proving drains on their strength. They fought -the racing currents with the short, snappy Indian stroke and drove -through swirling whirlpools, called eddies, at the expense of all their -reserve power. At the Police post on the Big Salmon they slept like -dead men, and started late the next day. - -The rest of the canoe route into Dawson was not so trying. They made up -some lost time and reached Dawson City on the date Ainsworth had set as -the limit within which he had promised the bonus. - -"You win, men," Ainsworth said, as their trim craft rocked in the swell -of a steamer which had just cast off her shore-lines when they neared -the wharf. - -"We do, sure," grunted Pete, with a complacent smile. "When we -calculate on doin' somethin' by a set time, it's generally done, ain't -it, Dave?" - -"It is, sure," Dave agreed, his interest being more attracted by the -bustle on the landing than the discussion of what they had done. - -The bank was lined with Dawson's inhabitants, for the boat service was -the most vital part of their existence, and their attention hung on the -arrival or departure of every steamer. A mixed assemblage covered the -small dock, and in it were Indians, traders, capitalists, prospectors, -dog-mushers, and women. The boat itself carried a number of passengers, -and a great cargo of outgoing baggage and freight littered its decks. -The big paddle-wheels churned fiercely in the stream, and a dinning -clamor of farewell rose up from those on the shore as the Yukon boat -swung with the middle current. - -The Peterborough took the place alongside the wharf which the steamer -had vacated, and the three occupants at once became objects of -inspection. - -"Hullo, Dave! Hullo, Pete!" their friends among the crowd greeted. - -"Where ye bin?" asked Old Jim Parsons, a famous and ancient musher. -"Bin sort o' travellin' some, hain't ye?" - -"Runnin' against time," Pete grinned, "an' we win! Where's that big gun -you call Britton?" - -"Gone down the river just afore ye come," answered a voice in the -throng. "Seen him take his canoe! He ain't gone more'n five minutes." - -"Ah!" mused Ainsworth, "so he doesn't ride in a launch now!" - -Old Jim Parsons shuffled his feet irritably on the landing. - -"Launch!" he ejaculated in high scorn. "Don't ye know he's the best -blade on the river? No dod-blasted sputter-boat fur him!" - -The old musher's snort of indignation followed them down the stream, and -Ainsworth chuckled in a satisfied manner. After all, a man who -preferred his canoe to a launch was man enough to listen to sound -reason. - -They ran upon him suddenly in a little bay some distance down stream. -He had paddled easily, being out for an evening hour, and beached his -canoe on the shingle of a half-submerged river bar. He sat upon a rock -at the water's edge, smoking and looking into the depths. - -As they approached, Ainsworth discerned another figure near Britton. - -"He's not alone," he commented. "Do you know the person who is with -him?" - -Pete stared under his hand, for the evening sun slanted over the wooded -ridge with a dazzling glare which prevented easy vision. - -"No, by gad," he said in a loud whisper, "fur it wears skirts!" - -The bowman was startled, and his brown palm also shaded his dark eyes. - -"It does, sure," Dave gasped. His serenity was so disturbed that, he -thumped the gunwale with the paddle grip. - -"Blast you," snarled the outraged Pete, "do you want him to think we're -a pair of bloomin' skiff-rowers?" Dave subsided in discomfiture at the -deserved reprimand. - -Britton had caught the thump, and looked up. - -"Ye gods," he cried, "a miracle! A miracle has come to pass!" Beneath -his flippancy there ran a vibrant tone of delight. - -"Yes, a miracle of exertion!" Ainsworth asserted. "I've undertaken a -cursed journey for your sake, Britton; I have been pounded, devoured, -and drowned in the effort to get here by the thirtieth of July. Take my -word for it that I don't want another similar trip. It has been a -devilish task. Ask the men!" - -"It has, sure," the Chilcoot men said in one voice, without waiting to -be questioned. - -The Peterborough had drawn in close to the perpendicular rock upon which -Rex Britton sat, and they could not then see the woman who was sitting -on the lower beach near the other canoe where it rested on the bar. - -"And why this haste, O prophet?" Britton laughed. "And why this trip, -at all?" - -"When a man buries himself alive and his resurrection becomes necessary, -someone has to attend to that rising," Ainsworth said. "The someone is -very often his legal adviser!" - -Britton smiled with a touch of tenderness. He loved Ainsworth for his -odd, swift manners of action and speech and for his unalterable -fidelity. An inkling of the trend of events had come to him, but he -could not show it, and Ainsworth's solicitude was comforting. - -"Still, I am completely in the dark," he persisted. - -"Then you haven't much perception," the lawyer growled. "The Honorable -Oliver Britton is dead, and he has left you Britton Hall!" - -Rex sprang upright on the rock in his astonishment; then laughed -shortly, as he resumed his seat, stuffing nervously at his pipe. - -"That won't go down," he observed sardonically. "I remember what my -uncle said to me that last night in Sussex." - -Ainsworth leaned out of the packs in the middle of the canoe, speaking -in an eager, intense voice. - -"Can I read testaments?" he asked. "Do I know law?" - -"As none other in England," Rex replied softly. - -"Then believe what I have told you," the lawyer said. "I play with no -one, and I wish no one to play with me. Your uncle died last month of -pneumonia. Britton Hall is willed to you!" - -Rex thrust a muscle-wrapped arm over the rock. "Come up," he said, "and -tell me all about it. Tell me what they are doing at home. How's -Trascott and-and the old place?" His eyes were alight because the -sea-girt downs of Sussex still had a spell for him. - -Ainsworth stood up carefully in the centre of the Peterborough while his -men balanced it against the granite with flattened paddles. He put the -toe of one scarred cruiser in a crack of the perpendicular wall, and -grasping the outstretched hand, he was lifted to a seat beside Britton. - -"Trascott's fine," the lawyer said, "and the old place is as green as -ever. We both had a grand run over it with the hounds just before your -uncle was stricken. The fox was started in that bit of furze by Bowley -Creek, where we used to snare rabbits when you were a kid and I was -proud of my 'teens,' and went away with the pack in full cry over -Cranston Ridge. - -"A good many of the hunters came croppers at that marshy brook and high -hedge fence, but Trascott and I stuck on with the best of them. We were -first in at the finish beyond Bramfell Heath, and we got the brush." - -"It must have been a good run," Rex breathed. "I can see every stick and -stone of it now. Yes, I could ride it blindfold if I were back there." - -The lawyer put his hand on Britton's thick, brown arm. - -"You're going back with me," he said calmly. "It's not a matter of -desire but a case of responsibility; yet if you would rather follow -desire, there are enough attractions over home. - -"Who wouldn't want to be lord of the finest estate in the county? Then -there is the yacht-it goes to you-and the stables of hunters and polo -ponies; there is the London mansion which is part of the property; the -pheasants are a prime lot, and the trout streams have been lately -stocked." - -Ainsworth paused to let stirring memories work their effect. - -"And the responsibility?" Britton asked after a moment's silence. - -"That clinches things," Ainsworth declared. "It is incumbent upon you to -fitly fill your uncle's place. They want you back home! The servants -are awaiting their young master; the cricketers and polo players have -you already on the teams; the sailors rejoice because you will command -them; hostesses all over the county have sent me social invitations in -view of your return to England. You must go back, Britton, for the sake -of the Britton name. You must perpetuate the name and the lineage!" - -The lawyer became so earnest that he gestured with his arms in an -unaccustomed fashion, while Rex gazed thoughtfully at the broad river -swirls laving the white shore-line and spraying overhanging bushes. The -sun showed a half disc of crimson above a distant bluff, sending a last -flood of ruddy light over the spot where the two friends reclined; below -them the tired Chilcoot paddlers nodded in their motionless craft lying -close against the seamed wall of ironstone; the curve of the rock -shoulder still hid the woman, who had not moved from the beach. - -"Suppose I don't go back," ventured Britton, dreamingly. - -"If you don't, it all goes to the auctioneer's block. Your uncle put a -condition and a date in his will. You either take possession within two -months or they sell the estate for charity." - -Rex sprang up a second time, spurred by Ainsworth's announcement. - -"Sell Britton Hall!" he cried. "By my soul, they had better not think -of it. I would come from the grave to prevent that!" - -"Thank the Lord," breathed Ainsworth, in immense relief. "I haven't -labored in vain!" - -He arose also and seized Britton's hand. "Swear on this handshake!" he -ordered, and Rex took the vow. - -"Now that you have promised, I can tell you something else," the lawyer -observed. "I am glad that I did not have to use it as a means of -influencing you. Boy, listen! They want you to represent New -Shoreham." - -Ainsworth made the declaration with a tinge of paternal pride. - -"They want me!" Britton exclaimed. "I couldn't do it. I-why-" - -"Never mind," interrupted his friend, "I know your objections by heart, -the depreciation of your abilities and all the rest of it. Let that -pass, and give ear to common sense! The community of New Shoreham has -gone from bad to worse since Oliver Britton chucked its representation -for the diplomatic service. The name of Britton was a power there with -the lower classes and the aristocracy alike, but during the last few -years, its want has been felt. The place has been torn by political -strife, rival factions, and unscrupulous candidates. - -"They want a Britton to lead them again. After your uncle's retirement, -the big men pleaded with him to enter the arena once more, and I believe -he would have yielded to their entreaties had death spared him. - -"Now they clamor for you in his stead. Only a Britton will satisfy -them. Commercial interest as well as political prosperity hangs on that -name. Don't offer refusal! I won't hear of it; Trascott will not -listen to it; and no member of the place can bear its mention." - -Ainsworth's vehemence wakened the paddlers, and they slapped the water -idly with their blades. The crimson disc of the sun had vanished. The -river surface changed to a perfect violet hue. - -"It's a big thing," said Britton, slowly-"tremendously big, and it has -come like a Bennett wind!" - -"The day of nomination is the same date that your uncle fixed for the -condition of taking possession," Ainsworth remarked. "Thus there was a -double reason for my haste, and the reasons still hold. We must make a -start for home immediately. Delays may arise, and we can't run the -thing too fine." - -Rex knocked the dead tobacco from his pipe on the heel of his -prospecting boot. - -"Yes," he mused, "we'll go back to the downs, but my comprehension is -still slow." - -"If you serve well, they'll put the word 'Honorable' before your name," -his friend commenced in a lighter vein. "Then you know there's the -daughter of the Duchess! You used to be sweet on her when you were -attending Oxford." - -Britton started suddenly at a recollection, though not at the one -Ainsworth had prompted, and looked toward the river bar. - -"Yes, tell me what the woman is doing there," the lawyer begged, -following his glance. "I have refrained from asking any questions." - -"She is painting a sunset scene," Rex replied in a hard, overstrained -tone. "She likes to be quite alone when sketching." - -Then he called out: "Mercia! Have you finished?" - -"One moment, Rex," a bell-like voice answered from the shingle. "I am -nearly through." - -"Let us go down," Britton suggested, offering no explanation as to who -the lady was. - -They crunched down upon the gravel, and mental association of an -unconscious variety brought Ainsworth the remembrance of another woman, -the woman who had come across their course at Algiers. - -"Where are Maud Morris, her husband, and Simpson?" he asked. - -"Maud Morris is in Dawson," Britton replied. "The other two are dead." - -"Dead!" echoed the lawyer, in genuine amazement. - -"Yes," said Rex, "Morris succumbed from drink and exposure at Samson -Creek two days ago. He had taken some winter side-trip which was too -much for his constitution. They said his wife had the decency to go to -him on his death-bed." - -"And Simpson?" eagerly inquired Ainsworth. - -"Pierre Giraud shot him for insulting Giraud's wife, last winter." - -"Jove!" exclaimed the lawyer. "Your North believes in swift justice. -What was done with the voyageur?" - -"He escaped to the wilds," Rex said, "but returned later, and was -arrested by the Mounted Police." - -Ainsworth indulged in no comment because they had reached the woman -painter. She turned, smiling, at their footsteps, and the lawyer stared -dazedly at the image of Maud Morris. - -"Mercia," said Britton, "this is Ainsworth, the friend of whom I have so -often spoken. Ainsworth, let me present my wife!" - -The beautiful, girlish figure held out her hand, but the lawyer -recoiled, glancing angrily at Rex. - -"What trick is this?" he cried, but when he studied the sweet face -before him again, his senses received a shock. - -He bent forward, using his keen eyes more searchingly, and surveyed her -with a scrutiny well nigh rude. It gradually dawned on him that this -was not Maud Morris but someone moulded in her likeness with a purer, -intensified beauty. - -"Forgive me, forgive me!" he burst out impetuously. "I mistook you for -a woman who is-who is not fit to be any man's wife." He seized her both -hands now and pressed them respectfully and penitentially. - -Britton took his wife's arm with an air of jealous ownership while she -gazed up at him, a tremulous expression of wonder in her eyes as if the -action were new to her and unexplainable. - -"No," said Rex, somewhat passionately, "this isn't the other woman whom -you know, Ainsworth. Mercia is the soul which the other never had!" - - - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - -Lady Rossland's reception for the New Shoreham candidate on the evening -preceding the nomination day was a thing of note. - -For the space of ten hours, Britton had been out among his constituents -with Lord Rossland, Ainsworth, and Trascott, who had come down from his -London work to witness the honors bestowed upon his friend. At seven -o'clock, Rex returned alone to Britton Hall, the curate and the lawyer -having gone on with Rossland to his country-seat, where the function was -to be held. - -The strain of canvassing had been more wearisome than a day of Yukon -mushing, but dinner and a bath refreshed him. Upstairs, he called his -wife's maid. - -"At what time has your mistress ordered the carriage?" he asked. - -"Nine o'clock, sir,-if that will suit you." The maid spoke almost -timidly, as if she recognized some gulf between husband and wife, and -feared that their plans for the evening might conflict. - -"That will do very well," Britton decided. "Tell her I will await her at -nine." - -He crossed to his own suite and entered the bedroom, where Bassing, his -man, had laid out his clothes. He knew the room of old, and a glow of -possession thrilled him. The magnificence of its appointing was a -delight. The heavy furniture, the lofty fretted ceiling, the ponderous -chandelier, and thick Oriental curtains, unaltered in setting for three -generations, gave an impression of stability which had a far-reaching -effect. His grandfather had slept, as he himself slept, in the high -canopied bed with its massive carved corner posts, and ancestral pride -buoyed up Britton to the heights of egotism. - -He dressed slowly and carefully, with a due consciousness of the -relation between appearance and personality, and descended the stairs at -five minutes to nine. The carriage had not yet drawn up in the -driveway, nor had Mercia come from her apartments. By the door stood -Crandell, the footman who had served his uncle, and who regarded the -advent of the young master with satisfaction. - -For five minutes Rex waited, and the carriage wheels shrieked on the -gravel as the driver wheeled his horses sharply in front of the great -arched entrance. A silver-chimed clock pealed nine in the drawing-room, -and the soft rustle of Mercia's garments sounded on the stairway. - -Britton looked up involuntarily, his face flushing slightly. His wife's -beauty was a revelation to which no man could deny homage; she carried -herself with distinction enhanced by a peculiar, free rhythm of movement -which is a heritage of the life in the open. Her individuality seemed a -blending of youthful bloom with a certain mature, womanly power born of -the true conception of existence. - -And marring her sweet winsomeness, was a scarcely observable flaw, a -cold reserve maintained, apparently, not of inward intention but by the -outward pressure of circumstance. This unbidden attribute matched -Britton's unemotional, respectful attitude, presenting, as it were, foil -to foil in the guarding of a common neutrality. - -"Let me hold your cloak," he said deferentially. - -She suffered his help with a distant, though polite, acknowledgment, and -Crandell opened the door. The horses pranced impatiently upon the white -sand before the portico, and Mercia hurried out. Her husband followed -quickly, handed her in, and they dashed away. - -The drive to Rossland House was made practically in silence. Britton -spoke once, remarking on the hot night and predicting rain. - -Outside Lord Rossland's grand country-seat their equipage fell in line, -stopped at the steps, and let them down. They found themselves -traversing the length of the front hall, which opened on the splendid -reception-rooms. - -It was nearly twelve months since Britton had mingled with society of -this class, that is, of his own county, and he experienced the feeling -of an actor who plays an unfamiliar part. The sensation stamped his -bearing and augmented that chill reserve which had never been present -before he left England. He attempted to shake it off in the exchange of -greetings with Lord and Lady Rossland and others. In this he succeeded -to a certain degree, and when he had made the round of presentation as -the coming member, the contact with his fellows wore away the shyness. - -He was separated from his wife, and, flattered by Rossland's patronage -and amused by Ainsworth's ironic comment on everything they saw, -Britton's affability grew more marked. - -Toward the supper-hour he found Mercia again in the rooms, in company -with Lady Rossland. - -"Here is the truant," cried her ladyship, laughing. "We searched -everywhere for you, sir." - -"No truant, my dear," put in Lord Rossland. "I have been heaping his -responsibilities upon him." - -"But here is a responsibility he has forgotten-his wife," objected Lady -Rossland, in feigned reproach. "Reginald, take her in to supper. A -score of men have begged the honor, but I have been obdurate for your -sake!" - -Britton bowed ostentatiously, catching her ladyship's bantering spirit, -yet a shade of that cloudy reserve dampened his manner as he took his -wife's arm. They passed on to the supper-rooms, with the Rosslands -leading and his lordship's sister behind with Kinmair, editor and owner -of _The Daily Challenge_, one of the most powerful organs in London. -Kinmair, next to Lord Rossland, was Britton's staunchest supporter. - -They made a merry group at the profusely decorated tables, and because -the evening grew so warm in spite of wide open doors and swinging -casements, the quarter-hour's refreshment proved grateful. - -"Now," announced her ladyship, when they emerged from the roses and -palms, "you are thrown upon your own resources. There are the -galleries, the gardens, billiards, and cigars! You may play bridge -up-stairs, dance in the drawing-rooms, row upon the river, or interview -the spirit reader in the conservatory." - -Britton raised his eyebrows. - -"Ah!" he smiled, "-a new departure?" - -"It is all the rage in London now," explained Lord Rossland's sister, -Dora. "Everyone has a theosophist at their evening functions to give a -seance or read futures." - -Rex laughed a little, thinking of the great, tight-locked Yukon where -the issues of life and death prohibited any such toys or trifling. - -"I-I am afraid I am somewhat behind the times," he ventured, looking at -Mercia for a brief instant. - -"Then you shall be initiated into the mysteries at once," cried Lady -Rossland, "and I must conduct you to Madame Spiritualist. A politician -should know his future. Should he not, Mrs. Britton?" - -"If I were a politician, I should hardly dare to gaze on it," Mercia -smiled. "Disappointment might be lying somewhere in wait." - -"Men have no such fears," Lord Rossland blustered in his kindly way. -"If they had, they would never reach the top, and Britton has, I -believe, a brilliant career waiting for him. But, my dear, if you are -going to act as his guide, I shall take Mrs. Britton through the -galleries. She wished to see the paintings." - -"Thank you, yes," said Mercia. "I have heard of your famous pictures, -and I adore the art." - -"She has the great gift, Rossland," observed Rex, turning aside with her -ladyship, "and she may tell you things even about your own canvases." - -Kinmair and Lord Rossland's sister went into the garden among the -fountains, while Lady Rossland took her recruit to the conservatory. On -the way they passed the billiard-rooms and saw Ainsworth engaged in his -customary game with the redoubtable Trascott. Her ladyship smiled at -their earnest devotion to the stroke. - -"Your friends are fine men," she remarked appreciatively. "I doubt if -there are in England two grander representatives of their respective -professions." - -"I believe you," agreed Britton, with a sudden gravity approaching -severity, "but here we are." - -They had reached the conservatory, and Lady Rossland's nephew came out -with a slip of paper in his hand. Her ladyship bad commissioned him to -act as the theosophist's assistant and play the part of scout. He was a -slim, light-haired youth, and his aunt had insisted at his christening -that he should be named Guy. - -"Hello," said Guy, "your palmist has given me a list of guests for whom -she wants to gaze. Here it is! You're first on the paper, Britton. See? -Now go along and get through while I bring your successor." - -He pushed Rex inside and closed the door, taking his aunt away with him. - -"Now was that name on the list coincidence or design?" Britton asked -himself before he came to the end of the conservatory's corridor. - -One corner of the cool place had been curtained off with blue silk -hangings as a retreat for the spiritualist. Her tiny tent was closed -and lighted from within by a red-globed lamp which gave a subdued -effect. The pavilion was arranged thus to give the palmist the -advantage of illumination while her subject stood outside in partial -darkness. - -Rex felt awkward and ill at ease at the weighty sense of desolation -which filled the long, empty conservatory. His footsteps paused -uncertainly, but the waiting priestess heard them. - -"Come closer please," she said in a muffled tone that sounded disguised. - -Britton obeyed the summons with an increasing sensation of awkwardness -for which he was at a loss to account. He stood so near the soft -curtains that they brushed his body without weight, like fine cobwebs, -and he could perceive a small horizontal slit in the pavilion's side -which was not noticeable before. Set back of it, so as to block the -vision and prevent an inspection of the interior, was a Japanese screen -in weird colors. - -His mind was filled with an irritation aroused by the feminine whim that -had sent him to this place. The whole environment jarred on him as -possessing an illusion disproportionate to his mental vision. - -"Well?" he demanded in a voice which set the responsibility for his -coming on the head of the person within the gaudy pavilion. - -There was a noise inside that seemed like a smothered exclamation of -surprise together with a vague rustle of woman's garments, and the same -muffled tone as before became audible, though it seemed shaken and -difficult to control. - -"Extend your palms through the opening," was the subdued order of the -spirit reader. - -Rex hesitated. The incongruity of this dallying imbued a sort of -rankling disgust for its exponent and an ashamed opinion of himself. - -"You are a doubter?" the unseen spiritualist asked. Her inflection was -one of sarcasm. - -Britton laughed scornfully. "It is hardly worth while," he replied. - -"But still you belong to the sceptic class," the voice insisted. -"Please extend your hands. I promise you that you will be surprised at -my methods." - -Rex stirred his feet, the motion making an inordinately loud noise in -the deserted place. He listened when the echoes ceased, but young Guy -Rossland had not returned. He was doubtless having some trouble in -finding Britten's successor. - -"I promise to surprise you," repeated the palmist. - -"Surprise!-yes," Rex assented. "Convincing is a different matter. You -know I have not followed the fad." - -"Nevertheless, I think conviction is hard upon you," came the -declaration from the tent. "Will you give me a trial?" There was a -defiant note in the question. - -"That is but fair, now you speak of it," said Britton, mockingly. He -thrust his arms through the slit with a total lack of ceremony. - -A pair of soft, electric palms took his, and the current of the hidden -woman's presence flowed through every vein in his body. - -Rex stood immovable as if a secret shock had fixed his feet. He cried -out with an inarticulate exclamation because he knew the touch, but his -paralyzed vocal organs would frame no speech. A short, dramatic silence -succeeded his outcry. The drone of a clumsy, waking fly beat distinctly -on the panes; the creak of oar-locks on the river rose insistently -through the open conservatory windows; beneath the sills the gentle -plashing of the fountain water changed to a gurgle of wicked glee. - -In the silence, Britton was beginning to find his self-possession, when -the sorceress spoke, her voice now undisguised. - -"It's centuries and ages since we were so close, Rex," she said-and the -magnetic hands were glued to his in a melting, appealing touch. "Isn't -it ages and ages?" she continued passionately. - -Britten's answer was a cry like that of a trapped bear. He wrenched his -hands loose, swept away the intervening curtains, as he once swept the -silken portieres from an old-time boudoir, and stood face to face with -the siren it had held. She had taken off her veiled turban, and her eyes -shone like stars, with a former potent lure. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - -Everything whizzed about Britton for a few seconds. In the red glow of -light from the demolished pavilion, the floor throbbed and rocked like -the deck of a yacht, and the glass walls of the conservatory tilted up -sharply. Rex put a hand on the wire which had held the curtains and -steadied himself. - -"So it was design," he said harshly, accusingly. - -One glance at his face told Maud Morris that honeyed words could not -subjugate him. Appeal was rendered useless for her purpose; there -remained compulsion. She stepped back a little at his grim anger till -she leaned against some flowering vine in the corner window-box. Between -them stood a small table on which rested the adjuncts of her pretended -art. - -"Yes," she corroborated, with a flicker of satire, "it was design. You -know, Rex, that I have no faith whatever in coincidence. You believed -me to be thousands of miles away in Dawson City?" - -"Why have you dogged me?" demanded Britton, bluntly. "To impersonate -Mrs. Grundy as you did last winter in that same place?" - -"Was it so illy done?" she questioned in turn, with a cruel intonation. -Her fingers broke a bloom from the vine, and she caressed it with her -lips. - -"It was art-fine art," Rex bitterly declared, "and it accomplished the -intended purpose of involving me in an intricacy of despair. Your -appearance here hints at a repetition of that trouble. Is that your -object? Have you trailed me in order to work fresh mischief?" He spoke -with the air of a man driven to bay, one whose impulse is to face and -have done with a difficulty once for all. - -"The question of mischief-making rests with yourself," Maud Morris -temporized. "I admit that I followed you, faked connections with the -Mahatma Institute in order to be present to-night--" - -"Why to-night?" Britton interrupted, regarding the soulless thing -searchingly. - -"I wished to see you before tomorrow," the woman answered, "before you -accept that nomination." She turned away a little to the open window -and looked indifferently out upon the long, shadowed gardens, as if -placing no weight upon her observation. - -The action vindicated a former power of command, and a momentary triumph -was obtained. Rex dropped his uplifted hand from the wire so swiftly -that the tautened metal sang in a high-pitched crescendo, and he took -two quick steps to her side. - -"You are deeper than any Mahatma witch," he said tersely, "and there is -something behind your words. Why did you wish to see me before the -Convention tomorrow?" - -There was a short pause while she picked reflectively at the sleeve of -the loose Oriental gown which enveloped her supple body. Then she faced -Britton squarely, her blue-green eyes glowing into his. - -"Because you will never accept that nomination," she answered -dramatically. - -The unexpected shot told. Rex started, but the necessity of the moment -recalled his sang-froid, and he showed no sign of inward perturbation. - -"I surprise you?" She was feeling for the effect with both voice and -eye. - -"Surprise?" Rex parleyed. "Why should I be surprised at anything you do -or say? My experience with and observation of you has been infinitely -varied and valuably instructive. No, I am not at all astonished, only -mystified. You will, of course, explain!" - -She bit her lip in obvious displeasure at her failure to move him and at -his cool criticism of her fickle, spiteful disposition, which had been -revealed all too fully in times that were dead to Britton. She made a -slight, almost imperceptible motion that brought her nearer to him. - -"You will, of course, explain," Rex repeated, coldly attentive. - -"Willingly!" she abruptly exclaimed. "The man who came alone out of -Five Mountain Gulch can never represent New Shoreham when New Shoreham -knows the facts connected with that great Five Mountain strike!" She -met Britton's intense gaze with a level glance full of a subtle -confidence and waited for his utter confusion, the anticipated result of -her significant explanation. - -But the anticipated result was not realized in that way! The perturbing -effect she expected did not follow her pointed words. That they had any -influence on Britton was shown only by the stiffening of his shoulders -and the squaring of his stern jaw. The absence of fear, the presence of -which had been exultingly foreseen by Maud Morris, tended to vaguely -disconcert her. - -"Your impression does not coincide with mine?" she asked at last, -indecision being noticeable in her tone. - -Britton reached out both arms, resting his palms heavily on the -window-sill, and looked at her with head turned sidewise. His profile -in the subdued red light was grim and powerful as granite sculpturing. - -"Suppose," he began brusquely, "that New Shoreham knows. What is left -for the man?" - -Maud Morris smiled. "Your intuition is almost womanly," she said with -returning assurance. "For the man? I should surely suggest some -far-away, far-away part where no one knows or cares. There the man -would easily find respite, especially if he had the companionship of, -say, a very old friend, a-a friend whom perhaps he once regarded -highly." Her meaning was flagrantly vivid. The night breeze stirred -her garments, wafting a faint, enervating perfume to Britten's nostrils. -The fountain water plashed timidly now, and the spectral shadows -crouched on the clipped lawns. Over the thick woodland copse the angry -lightning clawed the black horizon into a million red-edged fragments. -Rex found himself in a position singularly difficult and unpleasant. It -bordered even on the dangerous. Mingled irresolution and indignation -handicapped him in a measure, but he decided to persevere in sounding -this woman's intentions to the very bottom. - -"Granted that the oblivion you speak of and the escape from consequence -could be so found," Britton said, "there is a thing which you persist in -overlooking, the possibility of the man having a wife." - -A warning note of wrath accompanied Britton's last word. Any keen ear -might have recognized it, but Maud Morris was so engrossed with the -working out of the systematic project upon which she had embarked that -she missed the voiced danger signal. - -"I do not overlook that," she remarked with an inconsequent shrug. "I -ignore it!" - -All Britton's suppressed anger broke bounds and flamed to the surface. -He whirled suddenly and struck his clenched right hand in the open palm -of his left. - -"Look here," he cried, coming to the point with a graphic directness -which was a most creditable trait of his character, "I think I have -grasped your meaning and your proposition. I must refuse this -nomination, desert my wife, and disappear in a foreign country or you -will tell what you know of Five Mountain Gulch. Am I right?" - -"On the whole, yes," she replied, maintaining her brazen serenity in the -face of his wrath. "I swore I would separate you from that little saint, -and, before heaven, I will!" - -"Why did you not act before, in Dawson?" - -"I learned what I know at Samson Creek when Morris died," she said -impetuously. "You had started for England when I got back to Dawson. I -came on your heels, and I am to have my revenge." - -"So your informant was Morris," Rex commented with a certain relief. -"Do you expect to intimidate me by the use of a dying man's delirium, by -means of some irrational tale? Let me tell you, Maud Morris, that I -have walked too close to real danger to be frightened by a phantom!" - -"Morris knew everything," she cried vehemently. "He followed you all the -way up the Klondike to Five Mountain Gulch and saw you shoot Lessari." - -Britton reeled, self-control shocked out of him. - -"Morris did?" he stammered-"but it was self-defence-" - -"Was it?" she interrupted, leering into his face with supercilious -smiles. "Would the public believe it? Have you an atom of proof? You -may say that the lack of proof, of substantiation, works both ways. -That may be, but proof is not necessary for my purpose. The simple -statement, the all-pervading rumor, the unpreventable scandal, will do -far better. Do you see where you are now, Rex,-the old, proud Rex? Do -you know where you are? Yes, you do-in my hand!" She slowly closed her -outstretched fingers. - -Egotistical triumph gleamed in her every lineament. Britton, wrestling -with his deep problem, did not mark her expression, for he had made a -vital discovery which filled him with mental disgust. - -"I know now the mysteries of the poisoned dogs and the sled plunging -into the abyss," he announced in a horrified way, "and I can tell you -where your husband is at this moment. Morris is in hell, suffering -torment for a double murder! Twice in that frozen wilderness he -apparently compassed our destruction with the most diabolical intent. -He is as guilty as if Lessari and myself had both died at his hand." - -Britton's awful earnestness embarrassed her, but she made a pretence of -laughing sceptically. Distant thunder echoed with her laugh in low -growlings and mutterings, and the far-off rising downs were nakedly -etched by vivid, incessant streaks of lightning as if the mountain -spirits were working themselves up to a climax of passion that must -culminate in a ruthless and pathetic tragedy. - -The strains of the orchestra in the drawing-rooms were drowned by the -threatenings of the storm, and Rex could hear people hurrying in from -the gardens and lawns and from the river to reach cover and escape the -expected deluge. An unconscious wonderment as to whether young Guy -Rossland had lost himself in searching for the next man whose name was -on the theosophist's list passed through Britton's mind. The false -theosophist herself interrupted his pondering. - -"If Morris is guilty through intent," she said, "what of your own deed?" -The shallow mockery of her glance belied the sense of judicious -importance she tried to attach to her utterance. Rex commenced to see at -last that the woman was but playing for a stake and holding all the -trumps. - -"I feel no guilt, nothing but remorse," he replied, "for I stand clear -of any deliberate act." - -"But you cannot prove it," she cautioned. "Picture public condemnation -and horror when they know!" - -"Go and tell them," Rex fiercely returned, accepting with his accustomed -thrill the combat which could not be averted. - -"Ah!" she exclaimed. "Then with such permission I shall tell your wife -first." - -Britton winced visibly, and his face was bereft of its ruddy color. He -caught the woman's wrists with the motion of crushing a venomous thing. - -"Good God, you vampire!" he cried. - -She had used some weapon known only to themselves, and, judging by its -effect on the two standing thus, the weapon was one of incalculable -cruelty. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - -The conservatory door flew open with a rattle of shattered glass, -admitting Lady Rossland and Mercia fleeing from the gardens amid the -spattering raindrops. - -"Oh!" they exclaimed simultaneously, on catching sight of the tableau -where the silken tent had stood. "Oh!" Mercia's voice was low and -hurt. Lady Rossland's rose up, pitched higher in an outraged tone. - -Britton dropped the wrists he had grasped and turned toward the two -women, humiliation written on his grave face, but the pride of Mercia -would not allow her to wait for a forthcoming apology. - -"I fancy we intrude," she said coldly. "Come, Lady Rossland, we can -probably reach the house." Her ladyship wheeled across the doorstep, -flashing back scornful eyes, and took Mercia's arm as they hurried out. - -Rex gave an eager, pleading cry and darted forward. - -"Wait," he cried entreatingly. "You are misjudging-" - -But they were gone in the darkness, having raced up the gravel walk to -the great illuminated house! The big, round drops wetted Britton's -cheeks and dashed on his head. A moment he stood on the flags at the -door, yearning to follow and explain, but a more vital and immediate -necessity lay behind him in the conservatory. - -He turned back, keeping himself forcibly in hand, determined on a -summary and decisive dealing with the pregnant issue thrust upon him by -Maud Morris. - -"That," he said to her, "was the most humiliating thing any wife could -see, yet it meant nothing at all!" - -A change had come over her since the sudden apparition of the two women -in the doorway. The fear of failure, inspired by the sweet, pure beauty -of Mercia, seemed to hold her in its grip, and she called to her aid the -old resource of alluring appeal. - -"Don't say that, Rex," she pleaded, with a touch of pathos. "Have you -altogether forgotten the old days? There must be memories sometimes!" - -"No," said Britton, doggedly, "I could not remember them if I would." - -"You are very trying," she murmured, petulant as a crossed child. "Can -you not listen to reason?" - -"There is only one way of reasoning soundly and in accordance with -universal law," Rex answered with conviction. "That reasoning is along -the line of right. I am prepared to follow it to the bitter end." - -She looked up in amazement during a short interval. - -"Do you realize all that your words imply?" she questioned -incredulously. "I cannot think you do!" - -"Yes, everything they imply," he answered, filled with the weary languor -attendant upon nervous strain. - -She was not left to surmise. Britton's meaning was plain. Her -confidence began to shake. - -"The alternative!" she began plaintively, "-surely you have understood -me!" - -"Too well," laughed Britton, harshly, "and I would rather go to -prison-which I shall certainly not do, since, as you say, there is no -proof!" - -The woman's cheeks and brow went crimson with annoyance coupled with -shame; she felt the demoralizing force of man's scorn. - -"Rather than take that alternative, you will suffer me to tell Mercia?" -she asked uncertainly. - -"No," Rex answered in a ringing voice, "for I am going to tell her!" - -She gasped. "You!" she exclaimed precipitately. "It is suicide! Are -you entirely mad?" - -There was in the woman's manner the recognition of an impending -catastrophe, the knowledge of immeasurable possibilities. Britton -instinctively felt her disappointment, and it helped to bring back to -him, in a fair degree, his original assurance, confidence, and reliance. - -"It will be the sanest thing I ever did," he declared. - -Then the mask of the woman's plotting and machination fell, and she -stood revealed in her uncertain status of life, fighting for what she -loved in her own contemptible way. - -"Rex, Rex," she cried incoherently, "I can't let you do that. My God, -you know what it would mean!" - -She grasped his hands in her intolerable fear, but he rescued them with -a calm gesture. The action saved them from a second surprise. - -The greenhouse door burst open more violently than before, and Guy -Rossland stamped up and down in a pair of rain-soaked pumps, sending the -wet flying in all directions. - -"Ruined," he said woefully, regarding his pulpy patent leathers. "By -Jove, but it's a beastly night. Hello! tent blown down?" - -"A gust through that open window," explained the theosophist, who had -resumed her veil. "Please close it and help me with the curtain. I am -afraid the rain has frightened all my subjects." - -"Couldn't find Kinmair," lamented Guy, climbing on the sill to fasten -the casement. "The bally idiot! He's next after Britton. Hunted him -through all the gardens, and then they told me he'd gone punting. Went -on the river and got caught-worse luck! Jove, my feet feel as if I were -barefoot in the marsh." - -"Kinmair can postpone his visit," Rex said. "Indeed, the storm will -cause a general postponement. No one can come through this rain. I -think I'll make a run for it!" - -But he walked, seeming not to notice the violence and the downpour. The -coolness was pleasing on his face, and the damp lowered the feverish -temperature of his heated blood, though it proved disastrous to his -immaculate dress clothes. - -He could see neither Mercia nor Lady Rossland when he entered, but he -encountered Trascott elaborating on philanthropies to a penniless -dowager. The curate did not note Britton's personal appearance, so deep -was he in a cherished plan of building orphan homes and reading rooms -for the poor of London, a plan involving the expenditure of something -like two millions of money. - -"It's admirable," murmured the dowager, who herself had to scrape to -keep up appearances. "It's a most beautiful scheme, Mr. Trascott. You -have every technicality well within your grasp. What is to prevent the -carrying out of those details?" - -"The money," Britton heard Trascott answer sadly. "It exists as yet -only in my dreams. I have advanced my theories and worked for their -realization, but the unthinking rich have not responded. Sometimes I -feel as if I shall never live long enough to see my project undertaken -either by my own hand or by that of a more competent man." - -"Still, it is ideal," the dowager returned, as Rex moved on past them. -"And it is something to cherish an ideal to the end of one's life, even -if one never enjoys its realization." - -Britton took the thought as applied to his own existence, especially in -its present crisis, and turned it over and over in his mind while he -searched the different rooms for Ainsworth. - -Within Rossland's great country mansion the gaiety of the occasion was -undiminished. The games, the talk, the dancing, all went on as merrily -as if no tempest raged outside. The decorated chambers were illuminated -with such a blaze of light that the flashes of the sky's electric -current were scarcely in evidence through drawn blinds. Only the -spaced, resounding roll of thunder and the crash of giant trees in the -woodland groves told that a terrific storm was in progress. - -In the centre of the music salon he saw the Rosslands with a crowd of -guests, lamenting the disagreeable night that had driven them from the -river. Mercia was not with them, and Rex felt that after the incident -of the conservatory he must avoid Lady Rossland for the moment. - -He crossed the hall and ran into young Guy, who, looking very flushed -and disturbed, appeared to have emerged from some more or less -inglorious conflict. Guy had on dry shoes, but they had not sufficed to -smooth his apparently ruffled feelings. - -"What's wrong?" asked Britton, remembering the youth's capacity for -getting into trouble. "Been quarreling with someone in the house?" - -"Quarreling? Not much-worse luck!" the boy blurted out ingenuously. -"But, by Jove, aunt has the beastliest temper in Sussex! She's down on -the theosophist she hired about something or other. Packed her off in -the rain!" - -"What?" Rex asked, interestedly. "Lady Rossland packed off the hired -Mahatma woman?" - -"Just that," Guy answered. "In a cab with James, through all the -beastly rain-to the Crystal Hotel. That's the best in New Shoreham, and -aunt told James to pay the bill." - -Rex was thinking retrospectively. If his own concerns had not compelled -the deepest gravity, he would have been inclined to laugh. As it was, -he gave Guy a speculative look. - -"Beastly temper aunt has," the youth continued. "Jove, didn't she rate -me! Gave me fits for not holding down my position-guess it must have -been on account of the tent. How'd I know the stuffy thing would blow? -And Kinmair, the bally idiot, on the river with Dora! drat him!" - -The nephew rattled on with the frank tongue of youth, and a smile grew -by degrees around Britton's mouth and eyes. It was like the smile of a -soldier in the firing line when he gets an unexpected respite and -forgets for a brief moment the lurking danger and the strain. - -"I wouldn't take it to heart," Rex said while the smile lasted. "It -wasn't your fault, Guy, and, now I come to think of it, perhaps-I-I -should have closed that conservatory window." - -In the smoking-room Britton found Ainsworth whom he had been seeking. - -"Stay with the pole instead of the punt?" asked Ainsworth, lightly, -surveying his friend's wet clothes. - -"Never in my life," replied Britton, very seriously. - -"Jump into the river or one of the fountains to rescue somebody?" the -lawyer continued in the same bantering way, but Rex had not the heart to -match his flippancy. - -"Can you get Trascott away and follow us home?" he asked instead, -speaking what was on his mind. "I would like you both to give me an -hour after we reach the Hall. I want to get some advice and some -opinions." - -Ainsworth looked at him with awakened interest. - -"Something on the political side, eh?" he questioned smilingly. - -"Yes, partly," Rex responded. "This convention affair is involved." - -"Ah!" laughed Ainsworth, "I recognize in you the true politician's -trait, namely the utter inability to draw a hard and fast line between -business and pleasure. But go on with your wife! Trascott and I will -not be far behind if Rossland will send us in one of his carriages, and -of course he will. I am indefatigable in your interests, my dear -fellow, and we can talk for three hours if you like." - -The lawyer went out to break Trascott's conversation with the stout -dowager. Britton remained in the smoking-room a moment, writing two -short letters, one to Lord Rossland and one to Kinmair. It seemed a -very odd proceeding when he was inside one man's house and within reach -of the other man, but it was in keeping with Britton's secret resolve. - -Crossing the drawing-room in search of Mercia, he met her alone. She -greeted him with the same cold, reserved smile that she habitually gave -him. Her beauty forced its way to his heart and left an aching pang. - -"Your view of that incident to-night was entirely wrong," he said -gravely. "In an hour or two you will have the right of it. This is -hardly the place for explanations." - -She inclined her head with a regal air which became her well, but which -few women could assume because they had not the royal cast of loveliness -to support it. - -"Explanations are quite unnecessary," she quietly returned. "I do not -ask for any." - -"Yet I proffer them-at the right time," Britton said. "Please do not -misunderstand me." There was courteous pleading in his voice, and it -did not escape Mercia. - -When they bade Lady Rossland good-night, with their own carriage and -that supplied the other men standing in wait, Britton spoke to the -hostess of the same thing. - -"Lady Rossland," he said, "there is an explanation due you. My wife -will ease your mind when I have explained to her. You will have no -cause for resentment." - -"I am glad of that," her ladyship observed with a bright smile, pressing -his hand more warmly. "Indeed, I am very pleased to hear it. I was sure -there must be some mistake." - -Britton gave her the two letters. "Another favor!" he begged. "Kindly -hand these to Lord Rossland and Kinmair in the morning. My request is a -little strange, but I would like to have these delivered as I say." - -"Certainly," laughed her ladyship. "You do not amaze me. You -politicians are always involved in some intricate or uncommon scheme. -These shall be handed to my husband and to Kinmair in the morning as you -have requested. Good-night to you all. Take good care of your wife, -sir!" - -The rain thrummed on the canopy covering the walk like a hundred small -drums beating tattoos as they hastened to the carriages. - -Britton's stood first, the horses frantic with the roar of the sky's -heavy artillery. Rex took advantage of a lull in their plunging and -handed Mercia in. - -They dashed away into the oppressive darkness, thick as a North Sea fog, -seeing but little beyond the pale circle cast by their carriage lamps. -Intermittent wicked blue flashes revealed the surrounding country at -intervals of a second's duration, and a fleeting, dreary panorama was -unrolled. These momentary glimpses showed the winding black road -running in murky rivulets; they uncovered copses and groves with foliage -bedraggled and rent, with branches torn from the trunks, so that their -white scars flickered ghost-like beneath the lightning's glare; they -photographed a flooded stretch of down lashed by the descending -cloud-torrents and vanishing mysteriously into the ungauged distance. - -Mercia leaned back upon the carriage cushions without speaking. Her -diamonds quivered when the lightning came, and Britton could mark her -wonderful profile. - -A startling sense of the unreality of his married life lay upon him; the -impassableness of the secret gulf separating him from his wife was most -poignantly impressed. - -"Mercia," he began, "I-I wonder-" and paused hesitatingly. - -"What?" she asked, gravely meeting his eyes in a spasmodic flash of -electricity. - -"I wonder if you remember that evening we came over the trail by Indian -River," Britton continued, "the night you saved my life!" - -"Yes, I remember," she answered, studiously calm. "That was the -beginning." Her voice showed that she did not wish to continue in that -train of thought. Rex sighed and pressed as close to his side of the -vehicle as he could till they swept through the curved drive of Britton -Hall. - -Rossland's borrowed carriage bowled up behind, bearing the lawyer and -the curate. - -Ainsworth bounced upon the lighted porch beside the husband and wife. - -"Awful night!" he shivered. "Must be a pack of fiends abroad! Say-what -was in those letters, Britton? Anything new turned up?" - -"Yes," Rex answered, "they contained my refusal of the candidature." - -"The devil!" said Ainsworth. - - - - - CHAPTER XX. - - -The gun-room adjoined the library in Britton Hall. Ainsworth and -Trascott sat in the former chamber, awaiting the advent of their host. - -The red-eyed butler, who had been sleeping in a chair, appeared with a -tray containing cognac and cigars to drive away the chill of the -dismally wet night, but the lawyer was in such a state of anger and -suspense that he wished neither brandy nor the weed. - -"Put them down," he snapped. "Where's your master now?" - -"Upstairs, sir, if you please," the butler stammered, confused by -Ainsworth's penetrating eyes. "I presume, sir, he's changing his -things-getting on dry, so to speak! He ordered me to bring you these." - -Ainsworth stabbed a finger in the direction of a shell table strewn with -paper cases and long brass cartridges. - -"Leave them there," the irritated lawyer directed, "and get out!" The -abashed butler obeyed. - -"D-n him!" Ainsworth fumed, anathematizing the master when the servant -was out of hearing. "The infernal nerve of him to refuse that -candidature! And to refuse it in that way! Good Lord!" He gave vent to -his feelings by stamping about the gun-room, while Trascott pondered in -silence, filled with a vague mistrust that some drastic coercion was -responsible for Britton's action. - -The furnishings of the gun-room were the usual cabinets and appliances -for the chase and kindred sports. One wall, however, was hung with -objects not commonly seen in an English country-seat. These were two -complete Klondike outfits, a woman's and a man's. - -In making the round of the chamber, Ainsworth came to them. He stopped -and scrutinized the peculiar accoutrements attentively. - -There were guns, rifles, revolvers, and sheath-knives strung up, all -showing the scar and stain of hard service. Woolen Arctic garments, -oilskins, gauntlets, and parkas, with two buckskin skirts and sweaters, -hung in rows from the pegs. A duffle of moccasins, leggings, -pack-straps, tump-lines, dunnage-bags and dog-whips filled a large, deep -shelf, while two pairs of snowshoes, taller than a man, stood in the -corner. - -The lawyer examined each article in turn and suddenly faced round to -Trascott. - -"Can the Klondike have cracked his brain?" he asked seriously. "They -say it drives scores of strong men mad!" - -The curate shook his head as his glance also travelled to the equipments -of the trails. - -"Britton's as sane as yourself," was his answer, "but I know he is in -dire anxiety. His face showed that when we came in." - -Steps sounded in the library, seeming like unnecessarily loud ones -calculated to give warning or to hide some other noise. The curtains, -screening the doorway of the two rooms, parted very slightly, and -Britton entered, throwing the hangings in place behind him. - -"Ah!" grunted Ainsworth, "here you are with your insolence-" - -"Don't!" interrupted Britton, putting out a hand. "Don't talk in that -strain. Let me tell you a story which will explain this attitude of -mine and a good many other things besides." He sat down at the -cartridge table and placed his elbows on it. An expression of -bitterness and renunciation rested on his face. - -"Go on," said the lawyer, backing against the wall, "and speak loudly. -This thunder is deafening." - -A long, fierce detonation rolled and crashed in justification of his -words before he had finished speaking them. - -"Though I made the famous strike at Five Mountain Gulch, a strike that -is now history," Britton began in the queer silence which ensued, "I had -months of a hard-luck siege in the Yukon before making my pile. In -fact, when I went out of Dawson on the Samson Creek stampede, I was at -the limit of my means. My last dollar was invested in my dog-team, -outfit, and supplies. - -"Well, the south branch of the creek, according to rumor, showed the -richest, and I made a break for it. Ill luck seemed determined on -dogging me, for I found South Samson staked from one end to the other. -You have no idea of the complete disheartenment such a thing gives!" He -paused a second, reflecting on that by-gone disappointment. - -"Yes, yes," assented the lawyer, somewhat impatiently; "stream all -staked and not a cent with which to buy anyone out! Go on." - -"I had received a hint at Tagish Post from Franco Lessari, a Corsican -and a former Government courier, whom I had pulled out of Lake Bennett, -that there was gold on North Samson, so I crossed to the other branch. -The overflow of the stampede filed in on it, too, but lots of ground -could be had. On North Samson I burned holes in the gravel and -prospected in the freezing weather for some days without result. It -happened that Lessari came along with the rest to this fork of the creek -one night. He wanted to show me a place where a trapper had told him he -had found good gold-signs, so I took him into my camp, and we moved to -the locality in the morning. His outfit was very meagre; he had no tent -and a minimum of poor food; my offer was a blessing to him, but I wanted -to give him something in exchange for the information, even if it proved -valueless." - -Britton paused a second time, as if seeking to condense the massed -details ahead of him. Ainsworth turned his face towards the curtained -doorway. - -"I feel a draft," he complained, "and that tapestry is swaying. Is -there a window open?" He made a movement to investigate, but Britton -stopped him with a gesture, observing: - -"It's probably Gubbins, the butler, seeing if the outer buildings are -safe. He's very nervous about lightning. Be patient, Ainsworth! I am -coming to the end. The North Samson project didn't pan out, but we hung -on there till a drunken Thron-Diuck Indian came into the camp one night. -He was one of a tribe who had discovered the Five Mountain deposit, and -he sold us the information, together with an eight-ounce alluvial sample -which proved the truth of his assertions, for my solitary flask of -whiskey. - -"That bottle of firewater brought me two million dollars! It was, you -say, a good bargain. But you are wrong. It was the worst barter I ever -made. I wish to God I had never seen that Indian!" Britton's voice -sounded with a passionate, piteous vehemence. - -"Why?" cried Trascott, in wonder and sympathy. "Why?" - -"Lessari and I went up the Klondike River," continued Britton, without -answering the curate, "toward the region of the five hills as I had -mapped out the way. Never mind the details or the hardships, but listen -to some points which are essential parts of what I am trying to tell. -When we passed through the Klondike Canon, we heard a dog-train coming -after us, but it never appeared to our sight. Lessari fainted from -fatigue and exposure within six miles of our destination. I made camp -and nursed him that night. In the morning our dogs were poisoned." - -"Poisoned?" echoed Ainsworth. "Great heaven!-how?" - -"It was a mystery which has since been explained to me," Rex said. "Let -it stand a moment!" - -"But if a human hand did that it was murder," interposed the shocked -Trascott. "It was deliberate, diabolical murder-the easiest method of -killing you by cutting off your means of egress from that frozen -wilderness!" - -Rex nodded, fingering a sheathed hunting-knife that lay with the -cartridges upon the table. - -"Exactly so," he observed. "You have hit the truth. Lessari and I -tramped on next day in the hope of finding game or discovering an Indian -encampment. We kept to the river as a guide, dragging our precious food -and outfit on the sled, and entered the cup of the five hills. - -"There a three hundred foot chasm blocked our way. We searched for a -path round it, leaving our sleigh at the top, after having first placed -a slab of granite before the runners so that there was no chance of it -slipping into the abyss. - -"The means of circumventing the precipice we found by following along -the edge till we descended into a cavern which ran through the bed-rock -of the river-" - -"The cavern where you made the strike?" Trascott asked, in interruption. - -"Yes," Britton said. "In the midst of that excitement I heard a sound -like the commencement of an avalanche. It startled me, but the noise -ceased, and my assurance returned. - -"I sent Lessari up for a spade, and his cry of consternation made me -join him in haste. Our sled was down the crevasse!" - -Ainsworth swore. The curate half started from his seat. - -"I saw the mark of a dog-pad on a bit of snow," Rex said. "The granite -had been removed from the front of the runners and the sled pushed into -the three hundred foot abyss. The rushing noise of its descent had -reached us in the cavern. It was a second, surer attempt at my murder. -The destruction of food meant death. You see there was a hand in the -dark all the way!" - -Britton broke off, breathing heavily. It was apparent that he lived -again through the things he recounted. - -"Whose was that hand in the dark?" cried Ainsworth, savagely. "I -believe you have found it out." - -"The hand of Morris," said Rex. "I captured him stealing from caches, -and he was flogged. I heard afterwards he had sworn to kill me. He -thought he ran no risk in operating that way, but the hardship of that -revengeful journey was fatal. He died in the spring, as I told you, -Ainsworth, two days before you came to Dawson." - -"But you and Lessari!" exclaimed Trascott, excitedly, "How did you -manage to survive?" - -"Only one of us survived," Britton answered steadily. "Lessari had been -acting queerly for two days. I think cold, vicissitude, and fear was -gradually driving him mad. The loss of our food completed his -upsetting, and he started to jump down the three hundred feet after the -provisions, which were dust by that time. - -"I pulled him back, and he turned on me with a savage wildness. I say -without conceit that very few men can handle me, but I was only a child -in that delirious, demoniacal strength." An extraordinarily loud crash -of thunder made Britton pause. The lightning zigzagged across the room -as he continued: - -"In three seconds he had me on the edge of the cliff, forcing me over. -It was then by chance that my hand touched the revolver in my belt. I -drew it and shot!" - -Trascott looked at his friend with fearful apprehension. "You shot?" he -whispered, quaveringly. - -Something rustled like wind or rain. Ainsworth glanced again at the -sombre tapestry. - -"What's that?" he asked, a slight superstitious inflection in his smooth -tone. "The storm?" No one offered a different opinion, and he looked -back to the rude cartridge table with the light on it and the tense -faces of Trascott and Britton at either end. - -"For God's sake, Britton," Trascott was tremulously saying, "let us -understand this thing aright. You fired?" - -"I shot Lessari dead, in self-defence," Britton replied, his countenance -drawn and haggard. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - -Trascott arose suddenly from his chair and leaned upon the table. - -"My God, my God," he groaned in intense commiseration, "this is -terrible-to have such a thing thrust upon you!" - -The lawyer had sprung from his position of attentiveness against the -wall to the curate's side, and he, too, leaned toward Britton, who sat -motionless like a carven statue. - -"Self-defence!" he exclaimed forcibly. "Was there any trouble? If -there will be any-" - -But Rex checked him with an eloquent glance, reproving the professional -instinct. - -"There will be no trouble in that way," he quietly observed. "Morris -witnessed the struggle and the outcome from an upper peak, but he died -on his return to Samson Creek without informing anyone but his wife. -Maud Morris followed me from Dawson, and to-night threatened to expose -me." - -"How to-night?" Trascott wonderingly asked. - -"She was the Mahatma woman-the theosophist, at Lord Rowland's!" - -The curate and the lawyer uttered simultaneous exclamations of helpless -astonishment. Revelations were coming with such amazing rapidity and -dramatic unexpectedness that speech failed the two men. - -"She did not succeed in her intended intimidation," Rex said, "but she -unwittingly taught me the true course to pursue in regard to this case." - -"I trust that you had already recognized the true course," burst out -Trascott, in an excess of eagerness. - -"I too trust that same thing," Ainsworth hastened to add. - -"Contrition!" said the curate. - -"Indemnification!" the lawyer said. - -Britton held a hand to each of them across the table. - -"Thank you," he said in a choking voice, "thank you for that -confidence." - -"Your own survival," Ainsworth inquired, "-how was it accomplished?" - -"I told you Pierre Giraud killed Simpson for insulting his wife," -observed Britton. "He escaped the police and made for the mountain -fastnesses, near the Klondike's head waters, with his dog-train. He -found me half dead from starvation on one of the high plateaus-" - -"Providence," Trascott broke in, "God's divine providence!" - -"It could be nothing else," Rex agreed, "but Giraud's sacrifice was as -beautiful as any act of Providence. He put me on his sled and drove -straight for Dawson City and the surgeon, nourishing me all the way. - -"To certain arrest?" cried Ainsworth, in profound astonishment. "He -gave up his freedom for your sake?" - -"Yes," was the answer. "The Mounted Police took him on sight. Giraud's -doing three years for manslaughter-beastslaughter were truer-but he'll -be rich when he comes out. I have taken good care of that." - -"It was beautiful, beautiful!" murmured the curate, in rapture. - -"That's the sort of men the great Northland breeds," said Britton. -"They are men to the very marrow! But in the matter of contrition and -indemnification-" - -"Indemnification only," objected Ainsworth, stolidly. "I fail to -recognize any guilt." - -"But still he must feel contrition," argued Trascott, kindly. "And I -know what remorseful penance has been yours," he added, to Britton. - -"Half the gold of that Five Mountain strike should have been Lessari's," -Rex declared. - -"Failing that, it belonged to his heirs," the lawyer supplemented. - -"I took that view," said Britton. "I am glad you uphold it. Is that -your opinion also, Trascott? I asked you both here for the purpose of -obtaining advice, faultless and impersonal judgment." - -"It is my opinion," the curate answered. "It was undoubtedly your duty -to effect any reparation within your power." - -"That I did," Rex assured him. "In Dawson I made enquiries and found -that Lessari had a daughter. People told me he had no other relation in -the world. Of course, my plan was one difficult of execution. I -couldn't give the girl a fortune without courting investigation and -suspicion. Happily, however, I had seen her before, without knowing her -name, and I soon became acquainted with her. - -"Lessari's daughter was something of an artist, and I soon saw that she -had inherited the great gift, that she was a veritable genius with the -brush. That gave me my cue. I simulated eager interest in her work, -hired instructors for her, paid for her board at a minister's house, and -gave her every comfort she could have. She accepted my aid on the proud -condition that she should repay me on attaining sufficient eminence to -sell her work. - -"Of course I agreed. The thing went on that way for a little while, but -not for long. People began to talk about my relations with the girl-" - -Ainsworth's fist banged an interruption on the table. - -"As they will, d-n them," he cried. - -"I am positive that the tongue of Maud Morris started the gossip," Rex -said. "It got to the ears of the girl at last. She confronted me with -the scandal they were heaping on her pure name. There was but one course -left for me then." - -"Ah!" gasped Trascott, in a kind of dread. - -"I offered her marriage!" - -"Good God!" shouted Ainsworth, losing all his control. - -"And the girl?" stammered the unstrung curate. - -"She accepted!" - -An oppressive silence followed. Trascott's trembling tones were the -first to break it. - -"You married her?" was his horrified question. "With the red gulf of her -father's blood between you?" - -"I did," said Britton, "but the marriage I proposed was not the ordinary -one. I offered her my name and money, without stain, to shield her from -scandalous gossips. We are joined by law, but we live separate lives, -exist in divided courses, and occupy different apartments. The marriage -has never been consummated, and it never will be!" - -"But it is wrong-entirely wrong!" cried the curate. "There is a divine -purpose of marriage, and it cannot be ignored. The arrangement you have -effected is a sham and a monstrosity! You did what you conceived right, -but what of this virgin's due? What of her inexpressibly lonely life? -What of her ice-cold domestic existence? What of the vital need of -motherhood?" - -"Yes," said Ainsworth, in addition, "have you fulfilled your own scope -of life, reached the far vision of your own ideal? You cannot do it -this way! You have paid a heavy forfeit, Britton, but you are in the -wrong." - -There ensued a deep pause. Rex stared at his friends with unseeing eyes -and did not answer. - -"Your judgment was faulty," Trascott summed up. "Did any influence -pervert it?" - -"Possibly," Britton replied in a clear voice. "I loved her! And loving -her, I have had to live with her, keeping up the impassable barrier -which separates us." - -"Heaven pity you," sympathized Ainsworth. "No man has done a more heroic -thing." - -"I asked you for this interview to-night in order to hear and abide by -your decision," Rex said constrainedly. "What is that decision? If your -opinions coincide, I want the verdict." - -"You must tell your wife all you have told us," Trascott solemnly -adjured. "Full confession is the only remedy." - -Britton glanced at Ainsworth. The latter nodded his agreement. - -"That is the inevitable course," the lawyer said. "With this confession -will come the separation. No other way lies open." - -Rex swept all the cartridges on the table before him into one heap. The -movement seemed to indicate that he had gathered all the tangled threads -of this tragedy and bound them into a single strong rope which would -extract him from the difficulty. - -"You agreed that my search for Lessari's heirs was laudable," he -observed quietly. "Together you condemned my method of reparation. You -both decide on confession and divorce. Your minds work wonderfully well -together, and because your judgment is infallible I accept your -verdict." - -"You will tell your wife?" questioned Ainsworth, with relief. - -"Remember that Corsican blood runs in her veins," Britton said, partly -in after-thought. "She may possibly kill me. The story of her father's -death by an unknown hand was brought down by stampeders who followed me -into Five Mountain Gulch on my second journey there after I had had my -claims filed and had recovered from my starvation experience." - -Trascott sat back in his chair again. "You can protect yourself," he -declared earnestly. "You will not shirk. You must tell her." - -Britton smiled with a very strange expression. "I have told her," he -said. - -"When?" cried both his friends. - -"A few minutes ago," Rex answered. "I told her the truth for the first -time, and I imparted the secret of my love for the first time!" - -They regarded him incredulously. - -"Where?" they asked, speaking again in chorus. - -"Here, in this room!" - -Trascott stared, but the lawyer, keener in perception, swiftly swept the -room with his eyes, looking for a place of concealment. His glance -reached the tapestry and he understood. - -He stepped across the floor to the curtains and seized them with both -hands. - -"Is this the place of eavesdropping?" he cried in vexation, tossing the -thick hangings apart. - -Standing in the space of the double doorway, was Britton's wife. - -"My friends," said Britton, "I thank you for letting her hear your just, -impartial decision." - -Mercia advanced to the centre of the room, while two of the three -occupants regarded her astoundedly. Her cheeks were pale as whitest -marble, and the pallor was accentuated by the pearly fairness of her -arms and neck revealed by the evening dress which she still wore. She -said nothing, but her eyes were fixed on those of her husband. - -"This was prearrangement," snapped Ainsworth, his indignation -overwhelming his astonishment. - -"It was," Rex said. "I deemed it the only perfect way, and I ask your -pardon for the advantage I took." - -Trascott raised his palms helplessly, not knowing what to make of the -trickery. - -"He designed it for my benefit," Mercia said at last, in a measured -tone, motioning to her husband. "I have heard everything!" - -"Then it probably simplifies matters," the lawyer observed, cooling -somewhat. "You will remember that your husband acted for what he -thought was the best. The situation is an intolerable complexity. Be -congratulated that its fibres are now laid bare! This marriage was a -cruel error for both of you, and the error can be rectified to your -mutual advantage." - -"Not to my own," cried Britton, pained beyond measure. "I cherish the -present, but I accept the future at your dictation." - -"Whose dictation?" Mercia asked quickly. - -"Trascott's and Ainsworth's," her husband answered. "Two of the finest -minds in England. They are in the very front rank of their professions, -and they have held the scales for many unbalanced lives. Ours have been -weighed with wisdom by their hands. Mercia, do you understand their -judgment-what their verdict means?" - -She clasped her hands in a pitiful gesture, and her composure seemed -about to break in a storm of tears, but she quelled the emotion with -royal courage. - -"I understand," Mercia said in a strained whisper, "but-but I heard you -say that you cherished the present!" - -Britton's eyes lighted and then grew sad again. - -"It is sweet," he declared, "compared with what the future void will be. -But the true balance must be adjusted, Mercia. There are maelstroms in -our social lives more dangerous than the whirlpools on Thirty Mile. -Here we must travel with keenest care; we must guard our strength -longer. No men know the routes better than Ainsworth and Trascott, and -they have traced out our paths." - -"In the separation, the-the divorce," interposed the lawyer, "you may of -course command my services." - -"Of course," murmured Britton, "it must be given into no other hands. -You can accomplish an immediate, quiet dissolution without any scandal." - -"My services are bound up with Ainsworth's," Trascott put in. "My -assistance may be needed afterwards, in the matter of home or occupation -for your wife, though a settlement could provide for her fully." - -"Thank you, Trascott," said Rex. "Just transfer the comradeship I have -loved to my-to Mercia, and I shall always be grateful!" - -Britton looked at Mercia with the pangs of renunciation rending and -torturing him. - -"Are you prepared for what they say is inevitable?" he asked. - -"Are you, yourself?" she questioned in turn. - -"I-I think so," Rex said, with the feeling of a man pronouncing his own -death-knell. "We cannot be mistaken in going by the two guiding -institutions of the land." - -"What ones?" Mercia asked. - -"The Church and the Law! Their voices are immutable." - -"Yet there is present another voice still more immutable, still more -unerring," Mercia cried in the clear, bell-like tone Rex had first heard -when she hailed him at Indian River in the far-away Yukon. - -"And that?" His tone was intensely eager. He leaned from his seat. - -"Is the voice of the human heart," she answered with eyes agleam. "Have -they considered it?" - -"I do not know," said Britton, brokenly. Agonizing uncertainty choked -him and muffled the beating of his heart. - -"Should it not be included in the balancing?" Mercia persisted. She -advanced another step and let her husband gaze into her great eyes as he -would gaze into some holy sanctum. The two seemed drawn together, to -the complete exclusion of Ainsworth and Trascott, the representative -judges. - -Causing a general start, the telephone bell whirred loudly in the -library. Gubbins was in another part of the house. The bell buzzed -frantically a second time, telling that the message must be insistent. - -"Answer it, Trascott," Britton begged. "People do not speak at such an -hour and in such a storm for a mere triviality." - -"Certainly-by all means," said the curate, hurrying into the adjoining -room. - -Ainsworth, feeling his debarment from the physical presence of husband -and wife, followed Trascott through the portieres. Britton was quite -alone with the daughter of the man whose violent end he had unwillingly -compassed. - -Mercia moved to the side of the table and Rex arose. Her fingers played -with the long hunting-knife till they idly unsheathed it. Then her -lithe figure straightened back like the return of a bow, and the great -blade flashed above her head. The bright eyes were veiled. - -Britton's face went rigid. He folded his arms over his breast. - -"Strike!" he said. "I forgot that you are a Corsican." - -One moment Mercia held her position, then dashed the weapon down so that -it quivered with its point in the floor. - -"Ah, no, Rex!" she cried proudly, "for I love you! It was but a supreme -test. I have always loved you!" - -Her husband staggered as from a forcible shock. - -"You?" he cried. "Oh, this is too incredible!" - -"Trascott spoke of a red gulf between us," said Mercia. "My heart has -crossed it, and it is no more. Forgiveness follows penance!" - -"You forgive? You love?" sobbed Britton. "Just God! The mighty -strike!" - -He caught her hands passionately and retained them, while the curate's -re-entrance interrupted the climax of their lives. - -"Leave us, Trascott," Britton begged. "Come back here in an hour." - -"In an hour, yes," Trascott assented. "But do you believe in -retribution? That message came from Rossland House. The carriage which -James was driving to the town was struck by lightning. He was only -stunned, but the Mahatma woman was killed. Do you believe in -retribution?" Trascott vanished through the doorway, leaving the -question with them. - -"The circle is completed," Mercia whispered. - -"Yes," said Britton, extending his arms, "and we belong to each other!" - -An hour later, Ainsworth and the curate entered the gun-room. It -presented a singularly deserted appearance, and the light burned dimly. -An envelope directed to Trascott was pinned to the table with the -sheath-knife. - -"Hallo!" exclaimed the lawyer. "That's odd! What's in it?" - -The curate hurriedly tore open the letter with trembling fingers. He -drew forth a draft on Britton's bank; the figure two followed by six -ciphers, sprawling across its face, made Trascott's eyes bulge out and -forced his breath in a shrill hiss between his teeth. - -"God bless my soul!" he cried, and dropped the draft in extreme -agitation. - -Ainsworth picked it up smartly and, turning it over, read aloud a line -pencilled on the back. - -It ran: "For your London Homes! Mercia and I are seeking another -fortune, clean and untainted!" - -The lawyer whirled on his heel and looked at the wall behind him. It -was clean as a new sheet. The Klondike outfits and trappings were gone! - -"By heaven, there's a man," he vehemently asserted. "A man, Trascott! -I'll drink a toast to him." - -Ainsworth seized the decanter and poured himself a glass, holding it -aloft. - -"To the Stampeder!" he cried. - -"Amen!" said Trascott - - - - - THE END. - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STAMPEDER *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40017 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. 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