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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of To Win or to Die, by George Manville Fenn
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: To Win or to Die
+       A Tale of the Klondike Gold Craze
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: Paul Hardy
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2007 [EBook #21377]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO WIN OR TO DIE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+To Win or to Die, A Tale of the Klondike Gold Craze, by George Manville
+Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+This is a tough tale about tough men.  Right from the first chapter we
+are living with men who are fighting for survival, the enemy being as
+often as not other men who would rob them.  Chapter after chapter leaves
+the heroes in some new desperate plight, which, when overcome, is almost
+at once replaced by yet another one.
+
+It is not a very long book, and it is very well illustrated, but it is a
+breathless race from one peril to the next.
+
+I cannot say that you should enjoy or be entertained by reading of other
+peoples' misfortunes, but the author intended that you should be so
+entertained, and you will be.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+TO WIN OR TO DIE, A TALE OF THE KLONDIKE GOLD CRAZE, BY GEORGE MANVILLE
+FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+A BREAK-DOWN.
+
+"It's a lie!  I don't and I won't believe it."
+
+The speaker half whispered that, and then he shouted, "Do you hear?"
+
+There was a pause, and then from the face of a huge white snow-cliff
+there came back the word "hear."
+
+"Well done, echo!" cried the speaker.
+
+"Echo," came back.
+
+"Thankye; that's quite cheering; anything's better than that horrible
+silence.  What do they say?  When a man gets in the habit of talking to
+himself it's a sign that he is going mad?  Once more, it's a lie!  A man
+would go mad in this awful solitude if he didn't hear some one speaking.
+Snow, snow, snow, and rock and mountain; and ugh! how cold!  Pull up,
+donkey! jackass! idiot! or you'll freeze to death."
+
+The speaker was harnessed by a looped rope to a small, well-packed
+sledge, after the fashion of one who tracks about along the Thames; but
+how different here!  No sunny river, no verdant flowing mead or hanging
+summer wood, but winter, stern winter in its wildest, and the heavy
+sledge, in answer to the tugging at the rope, now sticking fast amongst
+the heaped-up stones frozen together in a mass, now suddenly gliding
+down sharp slopes and tripping its owner up, so that again and again,
+during an awful day's tramp, he had fallen heavily.  But only to
+struggle up, shake the snow from his fur-lined coat, and continue his
+journey onward towards the golden land where the nuggets lay in wondrous
+profusion waiting the bold adventurer's coming--heaped-up, almost
+fabulous riches that had lain undiscovered since the beginning of the
+world.
+
+He, the toiler, dragging that sledge, in which were carefully packed his
+gun, ammunition, spare clothes, blankets, stores, and sleeping-bag of
+fur, had started at daylight that morning from the last outpost of
+civilisation--a miserable shanty at the top of the tremendous pass he
+had surmounted with the help of the men who occupied the shanty and
+called themselves guides; and then, after repacking his sledge and
+trusting to the landmarks ahead and a pocket compass, he had boldly set
+off, ready to dare every peril, for he was young, sanguine, well-armed,
+strong, and nerved by hope and the determination to succeed.
+
+It was only a brave struggle over the mountains, and then down into the
+river valley beyond, to leave the winter behind with its pain and
+misery, and meet the welcome of the summer sunshine and--the gold.
+
+That morning it was winter indeed; but the adventurer's heart was warm,
+and the way through the mountains was plain, while the exertion sent the
+blood tingling through his veins till he glowed as the rugged miles were
+mastered.
+
+Then there was the halt and a seat on the sledge for a hasty meal upon
+the tough provisions; but how delicious every mouthful was!
+
+Then forward again, refreshed for the journey onward, to some snugly
+sheltered spot where he could camp for the night and sleep in his fur
+bag, regardless of any number of degrees of frost.
+
+But as the afternoon wore on, the sledge seemed to grow more heavy, the
+way wilder and more stern, and the stoppages frequent.
+
+He unpacked and rested and refreshed himself.  Then he grew cheery once
+more.
+
+"Lightens the load and me too," he said with a laugh, as he thrust his
+head through the loop and tugged at the sledge; but it did not seem
+lighter.  It grew more heavy, and the obstacles were terrible to
+surmount.
+
+But he knew he was in the right track through the pathless waste of
+heaped-up snow.  There was no mistaking that awful gorge, with the rocks
+piled up like Titanic walls on either side.  He knew that he could not
+go wrong.  All he had to do was to persevere, and he plodded on.
+
+"Never mind if it's only yards instead of miles surmounted," he
+muttered.  "They are so many yards nearer the winning post."
+
+At last, as he fought his way on, with his unwonted exertions beginning
+to tell mentally and bodily, he broke out talking wildly to fight back
+the horrible sensation of depression, and was brought to a standstill,
+the sledge having jammed between two blocks of ice-covered rock; and he
+stood for some minutes gazing round hopelessly at the fast-dimming
+scene, which had looked picturesque in the morning, but appeared awful
+now.
+
+"I ought to have had a companion," he muttered, "if it had only been a
+dog."
+
+He stood still, staring at the precipices on either side, whose chasms
+were beginning to look black; then at his jammed-in sledge; and he felt
+that he must drag it out and go on again, for night was coming on, and
+he could not camp where he was.
+
+Then as he was wearily and slowly stooping down to drag the sledge back,
+he made a sudden bound as if electrified, tried to run, tripped, and
+fell heavily.
+
+For all at once there was a roar like thunder, a terrible rushing sound,
+the echoes of the mountains seemed to have been let loose, and his hair
+began to bristle, while a cold perspiration gathered on his face as he
+listened to the sounds dying away in rumbling whispers.
+
+"Away up to the right," he said to himself as he gazed in that
+direction, realising that it was a snow-fall.  Thousands of tons had
+gone down somewhere out of sight; but he was safe, and giving the sledge
+a jerk, he set it free, guided it over the snow, and prepared for
+another start.
+
+But that avalanche had somewhat unnerved him, for he had been looking
+out for a place to camp, and it now seemed madness to think of coming to
+a halt there.
+
+"Must find a safer place," he thought; and now fresh dangers began to
+suggest themselves.  Would there be wolves in these mountains?
+Certainly there must be bears; and dragging off one of his big fur
+gloves, he took out and examined his revolver, before replacing it in
+its leather holster.  He glanced, too, at his rifle in its woollen case,
+bound on the top of the loaded sledge.
+
+"Bah! how cowardly one can turn!" he muttered.  "Of course, there will
+be all those troubles to face.  I'm fagged--that's what it is.  Now,
+then, old fellow, gee up!  I'll camp in the first sheltered nook I see;
+I'm sure to find one soon.  Then supper in the warm bag and a good
+night's rest.  Sleep?  I could lie down and sleep here in the snow.
+Pull up!  That's the way.  I wonder how much gold I could drag on a
+sledge like this?"
+
+For quite another hour he toiled on, and perhaps got over a quarter of a
+mile, always gazing anxiously ahead for a suitable shelter, but looking
+in vain.
+
+Then he utterly broke down, catching his foot against a block which the
+darkness hid from his fast-dimming eyes; and with a sob of misery as he
+saved himself from striking his face, at the expense of a heavy wrench
+to one wrist, he lay perfectly still, feeling a strange drowsy sensation
+creeping over him.
+
+"This will not do," he cried aloud in alarm, for he knew that giving way
+to such a feeling in the snow meant resigning himself to death; and he
+painfully rose to his knees, and then remained, staring wildly before
+him, wondering whether he was already dreaming.  For not far away,
+flashing and quivering in reflections from the precipice wall on his
+left, there was a light which kept rising and falling.
+
+No dream, but the reflected light of a camp fire.  Others, bound upon
+the same mission as himself, must be close at hand; and staggering now
+to his feet, he placed his gloved hands to his lips and gave forth a
+loud echoing "Ahoy!"
+
+The next moment his heart beat high with joy, and the horrible perils of
+frost and darkness in that unsheltered place faded away into
+nothingness, for his hail was answered from close at hand.
+
+"Ahoy!  Who is it?" came echoing back.
+
+"Help!" shouted the adventurer; and then he sank upon his sledge with
+heart throbbing and a strange giddiness attacking him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+FALLEN AMONG THIEVES.
+
+"Hullo, there!" cried a rough voice.  "Why don't you come on?" and the
+next minute a couple of figures seemed to start out of the darkness.
+
+"I'm fagged out.  Can you lend me a hand?"
+
+"Lend you a hand?  Yes," said another voice.  "Where's your mate?"
+
+"I'm alone."
+
+"Alone?  No pal with you?"
+
+"No, and my sledge has stuck fast.  Will you help me as far as your
+fire?"
+
+"Got a sled, hev you?  All right, mate.  Where's the line?  Lay hold,
+Leggy, while I give it a hyste.  That's your sort.  Come on."  It seemed
+like a dream, and as if all the peril and horror had passed away, as the
+two men dragged the sledge along and the adventurer staggered on beside
+them, till they halted in the ruddy light of a great fire, lit at the
+foot of a stupendous wall of glistening ice-covered rock.  The fire of
+pine-boughs crackled and flashed, and lit up the face of a third man, a
+big red-bearded fellow, who was kneeling down tending the embers and
+watching a camp kettle slung from three sticks, the contents of which
+were beginning to steam.
+
+"Here we are, Beardy," said one of the rescue party.  "Comp'ny gent on
+his travels."
+
+The kneeling man scowled at the speaker, and then put his hand behind
+him as if from instinct, but dropped it as the other said:
+
+"It's all right, Beardy.  Number four's empty, isn't it?  Because if it
+aren't, you'll have to give up your room."
+
+The big red-bearded man showed some prominent yellow teeth in a grin,
+nodded, and pushed a blazing brand under the kettle.
+
+"Sit down, youngster," said the first speaker.  "Maybe you'll jyne us at
+supper?"
+
+"I shall be very glad."
+
+"Right you are, and welcome!  'Aven't brought anything with you, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Yes, I have some cake and bacon."
+
+"Well done, young un.  Get it out," said the red-bearded man, and,
+recovered somewhat by his warm reception, the young adventurer began to
+unlash the load upon the sledge, the two men who had come to his aid
+eagerly joining in, their eyes glistening as they examined the various
+objects that were set free.
+
+"Going yonder after the yaller stuff?" said the owner of the red beard,
+as they squatted round the fire.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And all alone, too?"
+
+The traveller nodded, and held his half-numbed hands in the warm glow,
+as he furtively glanced round at his companions, whose aspect was by no
+means reassuring.
+
+"Well," continued the last speaker, "I dunno what Yankee Leggat thinks,
+and I dunno what Joey Bredge has got to say, but what I says is this.
+You're a-going to do what's about as silly a thing as a young man can
+do."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why?" said the man fiercely; "because you're going to try and do what
+no chap can do all alone.  You've got a good kit and some money, I
+s'pose; but you don't think you're going to get to the gold stuff, do
+you?"
+
+"Of course I do."
+
+The man showed his yellow teeth in an unpleasant grin, and winked at his
+companions.
+
+"And all alone, eh?  'Tain't to be done, lad.  You'll be stuck up before
+you yet half-way there by Injuns, or some o' they Yankee shacks yonder,
+stripped o' everything you've got, and set adrift, eh, Joey?"
+
+The man addressed nodded and grunted.
+
+"What should you say he ought to do, Leggy?"
+
+"Make his hay while the sun shines," said the other.  "He's tumbled into
+a bit o' luck, and if he knows what he's about he'll just stop along
+with us.  We don't want him, seeing as our party's made up, but we don't
+want to be hard on a lad as is a bit hign'rant o' what he's got to go
+through."
+
+"That's so," put in the man addressed as Joey.  "You can't do it, mate.
+Why, if it hadn't been for us you'd ha' been a hicicle afore morning, if
+the bears and wolves hadn't tucked you up warm inside.  You've got to
+take a good offer.  Now, Beardy, bring out the tins; that soup's done by
+this time."
+
+The traveller made no reply, but leaned a little more over the fire,
+wishing that he had braved the dangers of the bitter frost and snow, and
+feeling that he had been too ready to break down at the first encounter
+with trouble.  For the more he saw of his new companions the less he,
+liked them, and he was not long in making up his mind what to do.
+
+By this time three big tin cups, which fitted one into the other, had
+been produced, and filled from the steaming contents of the kettle.
+
+"We didn't expect company," said the cook, "so two of us'll have to do
+with one tin, and have it filled twice.  You and me'll join, Joey, and
+let squire have my tin."
+
+"No, thank you," was the reply, made quietly and firmly.  "I will not
+intrude on your good nature farther.  I was a bit done up, but the fire
+has set me right again, and I'm quite ready to take the risks of the
+journey alone."
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" said the man gruffly.
+
+"I'll get you to let me rest here by the fire for an hour to eat my bit
+of bread and meat, and then I'll camp near you and go on again as I
+came.  I shall manage, I daresay."
+
+"Are we going to stand this, mates?" cried the red-bearded man fiercely.
+
+"No!" came in answer, as all sprang up as if by a preconcerted signal.
+
+"You misunderstand me, gentlemen," said the adventurer quietly, though
+his heart beat fast with the knowledge that the suspicions which had
+haunted him were correct.  "I am much obliged for your kindness, and I
+want to save you trouble, that is all."
+
+"Hear that, lads?  We aren't good enough for the likes of him.  All
+right, then, off he goes."
+
+"Our company aren't good enough, eh?  Then off you goes."
+
+"Very well," said the young man, rising quickly; "but there is no need
+for a quarrel.  I will go at once, and I thank you for what you have
+done."
+
+"But we haven't done yet," cried the man addressed as Leggy.  "Now,
+boys."
+
+There was a sudden rush, and in an instant the young fellow was seized
+and thrown upon his face; then, in spite of his desperate struggles, he
+was turned over, his weapon seized, and everything of value dragged from
+his pockets.
+
+"Quiet!" snarled the leader in the attack, "or I'll soon quiet you."
+
+"You dogs!  You scoundrels!  Help!  Thieves!"
+
+"Louder, my lad, louder.  Call police: there's some over yonder in
+Canady.  Haul off that fur coat, lads.  It'll just fit me, and I'll have
+his cap and gloves.  That's right.  Now then, my whippersnapper, off you
+go!"
+
+Set free, the young man, in spite of his bubbling rage, felt the madness
+of further resistance, and the uselessness of wasting breath; so he
+sprang to his sledge, to begin lashing it fast with the rope.
+
+"Hands off there!" roared the chief scoundrel, taking aim at him.  "Now
+then, run for it, and get yourself warm before we begin to shoot."
+
+"I'm going," panted the victim, "but I must fasten up my traps."
+
+"You ain't got no traps.  They're ourn," cried the man.  "We give you a
+chance for your life, so cut at once."
+
+"What!  Send me away like this?" cried the young man, aghast.  "It's
+murder!  Let me have my blankets, man."
+
+"Run!" shouted the scoundrel, and he shook his pistol.
+
+"You coward!" cried the victim.
+
+"Run!" was roared again.
+
+Feeling that the gang into whose hands he had fallen probably meant to
+hide their crime by silencing him for ever, the victim turned and ran
+for his life, and as he ran he felt a sharp pang in the arm.
+
+A heavy fall checked the victim's panic flight, and as he lay panting
+and wet with the perspiration which had started from every pore, he
+realised that one of the bullets had taken effect, ploughing his left
+arm, which throbbed as if being seared with a red-hot iron.
+
+But the bodily agony was as nothing to the mental anguish which he
+suffered.  Death was before him if he lay there--death in a painless,
+insidious form, no doubt; but still, death in all its horror to one so
+young and strong.
+
+He knew that he must rise and keep moving if he wished to prolong his
+existence, and he rose to his feet, raging now against the cowardly
+gang, and more against himself.
+
+"I was a fool and a coward," he groaned.  "Why didn't I fight for my
+life?  Great heaven!  What shall I do?"
+
+He paused for a moment, meaning to turn back and make an attack upon his
+enemies.
+
+But, unarmed as he was, he knew it was madness, and he tramped on
+through the darkness in the faint hope of finding help, but with his
+heart sinking as he grasped the fact that fate or the management of the
+gang had driven him onward farther into the defile, and away from the
+aid he might have found if he had made his way back to his morning's
+starting-place.
+
+Fully satisfied that death would be his portion, he struggled on
+aimlessly till utterly exhausted; and then he paused, breathless, to go
+over once more the scene by the glowing fire, and ask himself whether he
+had not been to blame for displaying his distrust after the way in which
+he had been rescued.  But he could only come back to his old way of
+thinking--that he had fallen among thieves of the worst type, and that
+he owed his life to the prompt way in which he had escaped.
+
+Recovering his breath somewhat, he stood listening as he gazed back
+through the darkness; but all was still.  There were no signs of
+pursuit, so, taking out his handkerchief, he folded it into a bandage,
+and with one hand and his teeth contrived to bind and tie it tightly
+round his wound so as to stop the bleeding, which was beginning to cause
+a strange sensation of faintness.
+
+He had been hot with exertion when he stopped, but now the feeling of
+exhilaration caused by his escape died out as rapidly as the heat.  A
+deadly chill attacked mind and body, for his position seemed crushing.
+It was horrible beyond bearing, and for the moment he was ready to throw
+himself down in his despair.  The intense cold would, he knew, soon
+bring on a sensation of drowsiness, which would result in sleep, and
+there would be no pain--nothing but rest from which there would be no
+awakening; and then--
+
+Then the coward feeling was driven back in a brave effort--a last
+struggle for life.
+
+The cold was intense, the darkness thicker than ever, for the sides of
+the ravine had been closing in till only a narrow strip of faintly
+marked sky was visible, while at every few steps taken slowly the poor
+fellow stumbled over some inequality and nearly fell.
+
+At times he struck himself heavily, but he was beyond feeling pain, and
+in his desperation these hindrances acted merely as spurs to fresh
+effort, for he was on the way to safety.  At any minute he felt that he
+might catch sight of another gleam of light, the camp fire of some other
+adventurer, and he knew that some of those on the way to the great
+Eldorado must be men who would help and even protect a fellow-creature
+in his dire state of peril.
+
+But he knew that this intense feeling of energy could not last, that he
+was rapidly growing weaker, and that ere many minutes had elapsed he
+would once more stumble and fall, and this time the power to rise again
+would have passed away.
+
+Was it too late to return to his enemies and make an appeal for his
+life? he asked himself at last.  They might show him mercy, and life was
+so sweet.
+
+But as these thoughts flickered through his brain in the half delirium
+fast deadening his power of thinking coherently, he once more saw the
+scene by the fire, and the faces of the three scoundrels stood out
+clearly with that relentless look, that cruel bestial glare of the eye,
+which told him that an appeal would but hasten his end.
+
+"Better fall into the hands of God than men like them," he groaned, and
+setting his teeth hard he tottered on a few yards farther, with the snow
+growing less deep, the ground more stony.
+
+Then the end came sooner than he expected, for his feet caught against
+something stretched across his way, and he fell heavily, uttering a cry
+of horror as he struggled to his knees.
+
+For it was no block of stone, no tree-trunk torn from some shelf in the
+precipice above; he grasped the fact in an instant that he had tripped
+over a sledge similar to his own, to fall headlong upon the ghastly
+evidence of what was to be his own fate; for stiff and cold in the
+shallow snow, his fingers had come upon the body of some unfortunate
+treasure-seeker, and as, half-wild with horror, he forced himself to
+search with his hands to discover whether some spark of life might yet
+be burning, it was to find that whoever it was must have laid calmly
+down in his exhaustion, clasping his companion to his breast to give and
+receive the warmth that might save both their lives.
+
+Vain effort.  The man's breast was still for ever, and the faithful dog
+that had nestled closely with his muzzle in his master's neck was stiff
+and stark.
+
+"God help me!" groaned the adventurer, clasping his hands and letting
+them fall softly on the dead; "is this the ending of my golden dream?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+IN THE DARK.
+
+The horrible chill of impending death, the bright light of reason, and
+the intense desire to live, roused the half-stunned adventurer to
+action.
+
+Die?  Like that?  No!--when salvation was offered to him in this way.
+
+It was horrible, but it was for life.  There, close by him, slightly
+powdered with snow, was the unfortunate's sledge, and in an instant he
+was tearing at the rope which bound its load to the framework.
+
+He could hardly believe his good fortune, for as the rope fell from the
+packages the first thing he set free was a fur-lined coat, possibly one
+which the dead man was too much exhausted to assume.
+
+Suffering keenly from the cold, this was put on at once; and then,
+continuing the search, it was to find that a rifle was bound along one
+side, balanced by tools on the other.  Then there were blankets and
+stores similar, as far as he could judge, to those with which his own
+sledge had been laden.
+
+The warmth afforded by the thick garment and the exertion increased the
+thrill of returning energy.  For he was no longer helpless to continue
+his journey.  It could be no act of injustice to the dead to take
+possession of the means of saving his own life; and now all thought of
+giving up without making a desperate struggle was completely gone.
+
+Soon after a fresh thrill of returning energy swept through him, and,
+turning quickly back to where the dead were lying, he knelt there,
+hesitating for a few moments before, with his determination increasing,
+he softly thrust the dog aside, and felt about the dead man's waist.
+
+He shuddered as his hands came in contact with the icy feeling of cold,
+but it was for life, and a feeling of joy shot through him, for it was
+as he had hoped.  In a few minutes he had unfastened a buckle, turned
+the body over slightly, and that which he sought to obtain yielded to
+the steady pull he gave.
+
+He had drawn free the dead man's belt, bringing with it his revolver in
+its little holster and the pouchful of cartridges.
+
+That seemed to give new life to him as he buckled the belt about his
+waist.  Then, taking out the pistol, he felt it in the dark, to find
+that it was loaded in every chamber, and that the lock worked easily and
+well.
+
+The pistol replaced in the belt, the young man remained thinking, with
+all his energy seeming to have returned.  What was he to do next?  There
+was food of some kind on the sledge, and he must eat.  There were
+blankets, and with them and the sledge for shelter he must rest and
+sleep.
+
+There was the dead man and his faithful dog, but their near presence
+brought no feeling of horror.  He felt that he could kneel down by the
+poor fellow and offer up a prayer for His mercies, and then lie down to
+sleep in perfect trust of awakening at daybreak, for he was no longer
+suffering from exhaustion, and hardly felt the cold.
+
+"But not yet--not yet," he muttered, and a faint sound broke the silence
+as he stood there, his teeth grinding softly together, while his next
+words, uttered half aloud, told the direction his thoughts had taken.
+
+"The cowardly dogs!" he exclaimed.  "Three to one, and him unarmed.  But
+not now--not now."
+
+A brief search brought his hands in contact with a canvas satchel-bag,
+in which were ship's biscuits, and one of these he took.  It would
+suffice.
+
+Breaking it and beginning to eat, he set off at once on the back track
+to execute his daring project, one which made him glow to his
+finger-tips.
+
+"Better go on," he said with a mocking laugh.  "Yes, but not yet.
+They're cowards--such scoundrels always are--and the darkness will
+magnify the number of the attack.
+
+"Bah! talking to myself again; but I'm not going mad.  I can't go on
+without letting them taste something of what they have given me."
+
+He tramped on slowly, but the return journey seemed less difficult, and
+he wondered now that he should feel so fresh and glowing with a
+spreading warmth.  It was as dark as ever, but he had no fear of not
+finding his way; and sooner than he expected, and just as he was
+finishing the last scrap of hard biscuit, he caught sight of the faint
+light of the fire from which he had been driven.
+
+The sight of it sent fresh vigour through his limbs, and his plan was
+soon made.  He would keep on till there was the risk of being heard, and
+then creep closer till well within shot, and his sleeping enemies thrown
+up by the fire, which they had evidently made up well before settling
+themselves down for the night.
+
+He felt sure that at the first report they would spring up and run for
+their lives, and he meant to fire at each if he had time, and scare
+them, for he felt disposed to show as much mercy as he would to a pack
+of savage wolves.
+
+But matters were not to fall out exactly as he had calculated.  He
+tramped steadily on, with the fire growing brighter, and at last he took
+out the revolver to examine it by touch once more, as he walked on more
+swiftly now, meaning to go forward a hundred yards or so and then
+proceed more cautiously, so as to make sure the enemy was asleep.
+
+All at once he stopped short, startled.
+
+The enemy was not asleep, for he saw a dark shadow pass before the
+glowing light.
+
+The adventurer stopped short for a few moments, but not in hesitation.
+It was merely to alter his plan of attack; but the next minute all
+planning was cast to the winds, for there rang out on the night air a
+wild cry for help--such an appeal as he had himself uttered so short a
+time before.
+
+The cry was repeated, sending a thrill of excitement through the
+listener, and telling its own tale.  To the hearer it was as plain as if
+he had been told that the gang of ruffians had waylaid another
+unfortunate, who was about to share his own fate.
+
+He rushed forward at once, and as he ran and stumbled he could see that
+a desperate struggle was going on, figures in fierce contention passing
+in front of and once trampling through the fire, whose embers were
+kicked and scattered in all directions.
+
+Suddenly two figures stepped aside into the full light, leaving two
+others wrestling together; and this was the opportunity needed.  Their
+first victim could see plainly that the former were enemies, and
+stopping short when about twenty yards away, he fired.  Both turned to
+gaze in the direction from which the flash and report had come.
+
+They were in time to see another flash.  Another report raised the
+echoes, and they turned and fled.
+
+Then the struggle ceased, and the adventurer saw another figure
+disappearing into the darkness after his two companions.
+
+As he dashed off the young fellow rushed up in time to seize the victim,
+who staggered helplessly, trampling among the burning embers, among
+which he would have fallen but for the willing hands which dragged him
+aside, and lowered him down, before their owner began to kick about and
+scatter the fire, which hissed and smoked and steamed, as snow was
+heaped over, and raised a veil to hide the pair from their enemies while
+the bright light was dying out.
+
+The next act was to find out whether the enemy were yet in the vicinity.
+The adventurer advanced for some distance into the darkness, but all
+was still.
+
+Satisfied that he could not be seen, the young man went on for some
+little distance; but it was evident that the sudden attack had done its
+work, and the party had fled for their lives.
+
+"The question is, will they recover themselves and come back?" he
+muttered.  "Well, we must be on our guard.  Two in the right against
+three in the wrong.  Those are fair odds.  _Two_ in the right!  Suppose
+it is only one."
+
+He hurried back towards the scene of the encounter, guided by the
+faintly glowing embers lying here and there, and the dark, blinding
+wood-smoke which was borne towards him by the light icy wind which came
+down the defile.
+
+"Suppose they have killed him!"
+
+"Who are you?  But whoever you are," came in a hoarse whisper, "if it
+hadn't been for you those ruffians would have settled me."
+
+"Thank heaven, then, I was in time.  Can you help me trample out the
+rest or this fire?"
+
+"Hadn't we better escape?  You might help me drag my sled into a place
+of safety."
+
+"There is no place of safety near," was the reply; "and it's cold enough
+to freeze us to death.  We had better stay here."
+
+"But we dare not light a fire; they would see us, and come and pick us
+off."
+
+"I don't think the cowardly hounds will dare to come back."
+
+"But they might, and I dare not risk it."
+
+"Are you hurt?"
+
+"Not seriously, but wrenched and strained in the struggle.  Can you
+understand what I say?  I don't know my own voice."
+
+"Yes, I can hear you.  What is it--a cold?"
+
+"No; I was right enough an hour ago.  That red-bearded dog caught me by
+the throat.  He was trying to strangle me.  I fired at random, and then
+my senses were going, but I heard your shots.  He has quite taken away
+my voice.  Where is your hand, sir?"
+
+"Here: what do you want?"
+
+"Just to make mine speak to it in a friendly grip.  God bless you, sir!
+you've saved my life.  I can't say more now."
+
+"Don't.  There: we have no light to betray us now."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+NATURE'S MISTAKE.
+
+"But hadn't we better go on?"
+
+"No: warmth is everything here.  The ground is hot where the fire was,
+and we'll camp there till morning.  I saw you had a sledge.  We'll drag
+that to one side for shelter."
+
+"And there is theirs, too," was said huskily.
+
+"Mine!" was the reply.  "The scoundrels inveigled me into staying with
+them, and I had a narrow escape."
+
+"Hah!  Just as they served me.  I saw their light and came up, and they
+professed to be friends.  I didn't like the look of them, but one can't
+pick one's company out here, and a good fire was very tempting."
+
+"Hist!"
+
+The warning was followed by the clicking of pistol locks, after which
+the pair listened patiently for some minutes.
+
+"Nothing.  Here, let's get the two sledges one on either side of the hot
+ground.  One will be a shelter, the other a breastwork to fire over if
+the scoundrels come back.  Besides, the breastwork will keep in the
+heat.  We are bound to protect ourselves."
+
+"All right," was the reply, in an answering whisper, and the pair
+dragged the two sledges into position, and then, allowing for the dank
+odour of the quenched wood, found that they had provided themselves with
+a snugly warm shelter, adding to their comfort by means of blankets and
+a waterproof sheet, which they spread beneath them.
+
+This took time, for every now and then they paused to listen or make a
+reconnaissance in search of danger; but at last all was done, and the
+question was who should keep the first watch.
+
+"I'll do that," said the last comer.  "I couldn't lie down to sleep if I
+tried; my throat gives me so much pain.  It feels swollen right up.
+I'll take the first watch--listen, one ought to say.  Why, I can't even
+see my hand."
+
+"It is terribly dark here in this gulch," was the whispered reply.  "The
+mountains run up perpendicularly on either side.  But I couldn't sleep
+after all I've gone through to-night.  My nerves are all on the jar.
+I'll watch with you."
+
+"Listen."
+
+"Well, listen, then.  Watch with our ears.  Can you hear me when I
+whisper?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"But they will not come back, I'm sure."
+
+"So much the better for them; but I hope that the miserable, treacherous
+hounds will meet their reward.  So they attacked you just in the same
+way?"
+
+"Not till I told them I would not stay; and I was sorry afterwards,
+feeling that perhaps I had insulted them by my suspicions.  Of course, I
+did not know their character then."
+
+"No.  Well, we know it now.  It is a specimen, I suppose, of the scum we
+shall find yonder."
+
+"I am afraid so."
+
+"You are going after gold, of course?"
+
+"Who would be here if he were not?"
+
+"Exactly.  I hope the game is going to be worth the candle.  Suppose we
+two stick together.  You won't try to choke me the first time you see me
+nodding off to sleep for the sake of my sledge and stores?"
+
+"Oh, I'll promise you that."
+
+"It was a startler.  I was dog tired."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I was dog tired, and dropping off in the warmth of the fire into a
+golden dream of being where the nuggets were piled up all around me; and
+I was just going to pick up one, when a great snake darted at me and
+coiled itself round my throat.  Then I was awake, to find it was a real
+devil snake in the shape of that red-bearded ruffian."
+
+"That was the one the others called Beardy.  But don't you talk so much:
+your voice is growing worse."
+
+"Can't help it, old fellow.  I must talk.  I'm so excited.  Feel the
+cold?"
+
+"Oh, no.  I'm quite warm with the glow which comes up through the sheet.
+A good idea, that was, of bringing it on your sledge."
+
+"Yes, but it's heavy.  I say, though, what an experience this is, here
+in the pitchy darkness.  Ah!  Look out!"
+
+The pistols clicked again, for from somewhere close at hand there was a
+faint rustling sound, followed by a heavy thud, as if some one had
+stumbled and fallen in the snow.
+
+The pair listened breathlessly in the black darkness, straining their
+eyes in the direction from whence the sound had come; but all was
+perfectly still.
+
+They listened again minute after minute, and there was a dull throbbing
+sound which vibrated through them; but it was only the heavy beating of
+their own hearts.
+
+Then they both started violently, for there was another dull heavy thud,
+and some one hissed as if drawing in his breath to suppress the strong
+desire to utter a cry of pain.
+
+It was horrible in that intense blackness to crouch there with pistols
+held ready directed towards the spot where whoever it was had fallen,
+for there could be no doubt whatever.  There had been the fall, not many
+yards from where they knelt, and they listened vainly for the rustling
+that must accompany the attempt to get up again.
+
+At last the faint rustling came, and the temptation to fire was almost
+too strong to be resisted.  But they mastered it, and waited, both
+determined and strung up with the desire to mete out punishment to the
+cowardly miscreants who sought for their own gain to destroy their
+fellow-creatures.
+
+"Don't fire till you are sure it is they," each of the two young men
+thought.  "It is impossible to take aim in this darkness."
+
+And they waited till the rustling ended in a sort of whisper.
+
+Once more all was silent, and the suspense grew maddening, as they
+waited minutes which seemed like hours.
+
+But the enemy was evidently astir, for there was another whisper, and
+another--strange warning secretive whispers--and a sigh as of one in
+pain.
+
+At this one of the listeners thrust out a hand, and the other joined in
+an earnest grip, which told of mutual trust and determination to stand
+by each other to the death, making them feel that the terrible emergency
+had made them, not acquaintances of an hour's length, but staunch
+friends, both strong and tried.  Then they loosened the warm, manly
+grip, and were ready for the worst.
+
+For there was no longer any doubt: the enemy was close at hand, waiting
+the moment for the deadly rush.  The only question was whether they
+should fire at once--not with the thought of hitting, but to teach the
+scoundrels how thoroughly they were on the alert, and in the hope of
+driving them into taking to flight once more.
+
+But they doubted.  A few shots had done this once, but now that the
+miscreants had had time to recover from their panic, would it answer
+again?
+
+Thud! thud! in front, and then a far heavier one behind them.  They
+could not hold out much longer.  The enemy was creeping towards them.
+
+At this moment there was a tremendous crack, a hissing roar, and a
+terrific concussion, the defenders of the tiny fort being struck down
+behind their little breastwork.
+
+But this onslaught was not from the enemy they awaited.  The
+ever-gathering snow from far above, loosened by the hot current of air
+ascending from the fire, had come down in one awful charge, and the
+marauders' camp was buried in an instant beneath thousands of tons of
+snow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+HAND IN HAND.
+
+There was the sense of a terrible weight pressing the sufferers down,
+with their chests against the soft load bound upon the sledge in front;
+and utterly stunned, they lay for a time motionless, and almost
+breathless.
+
+Then one began to struggle violently, striving to draw himself back, and
+after a tremendous effort succeeding, to find that beneath him the snow
+was loose, there being a narrow space along by the side of the sledge,
+and that though his breath came short he could still breathe.
+
+He had hardly grasped this fact when the movement on his right told of a
+similar action going on, and he began to help his companion in
+misfortune, who directly after crouched down beside him, panting
+heavily, in the narrow space, which their efforts had, however, made
+wider.
+
+"Horrible!" panted the second at last.  "An avalanche.  Surely this does
+not mean death."
+
+There was no reply, and in the awful darkness a hand was stretched out
+and an arm grasped.
+
+"Why don't you say something?" whispered the speaker hoarsely.
+
+"What can I say, man?  God only knows."
+
+"But it is only snow.  We must burrow our way out.  Wait a moment.  This
+way is towards the open valley."
+
+"No, no; this.  Beyond you is the wall of rock.  Let me try."
+
+For the next ten minutes there was the sound of one struggling to get
+through the snow, and then it ended with the hoarse panting of a man
+lying exhausted with his efforts.
+
+"Let me come and try now," came in smothered accents.
+
+"It is of no use.  The snow was loose at first, but farther on it is
+pressed together hard like ice.  Try your way."
+
+The scuffling and tearing commenced now to the right.
+
+"Yes; it's quite loose now, and falls down.  Ah! _no good_; here is the
+solid rock running up as far as I can reach."
+
+"I can hardly breathe.  It is growing hotter every moment."
+
+"No; it is cooler here.  I can reach right up and stand against the
+rock."
+
+The speaker's companion in the terrible peril crept over the snow to his
+side and rose to his feet, to find the air purer; and, like a drowning
+man who had raised his head for the moment above water, he drank in deep
+draughts of the cold, sweet air.
+
+"Hah!" he gasped at last hoarsely, after reaching up as high as he
+could, "the rock has saved us for the moment.  The snow slopes away from
+it like the roof of a shed."
+
+"Yes; if we had been a few feet farther from it we should have been
+crushed to death.  Let's try and tear a way along by the foot of the
+rock."
+
+They tried hard in turn till they were utterly exhausted and lay
+panting; but the only result was that the loose snow beneath them became
+trampled down.  No, not the only result; they increased the space within
+what was fast becoming a snow cavern, one of whose walls was the solid
+rocky side of the ravine.
+
+"Are we to die like this?"
+
+"Is this to be the end of all our golden hopes?  Oh, heaven help us!
+What shall we do?  The air is growing hotter; we have nearly exhausted
+it all, and suffocation is coming on fast.  I can't, I won't die yet.
+Help! help! help!"
+
+Those three last words came in a hoarse faint wail that sounded
+smothered and strange.
+
+"Hush!" cried the other; "be a man.  You are killing yourself.  The air
+is not worse.  I can breathe freely still."
+
+There was a horrible pause, and then, in pitiful tones: "I am fighting
+down this fearful feeling of cowardice, but it is so hard--so hard to
+die so soon.  Not twenty yet, and the bright world and all its hopeful
+promise before one.  How can you keep like that?  Are you not afraid to
+die?"
+
+"Yes," came in a low, sad whisper; "but we must not die like this.  Tell
+me you can breathe yet?"
+
+"Yes," came in the husky, grating tones; "better and better now I am
+still."
+
+"Then there is hope.  We are on the track; others will come after a
+time, and we may be dug out."
+
+"Hah!  I dare not think it.  I say."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Do you think those wretches have been caught by the fall as well?"
+
+"If they were near they must have been."
+
+"Yes, and we heard them."
+
+"No, no," sighed the other; "those were patches of snow falling that we
+heard."
+
+There was silence then, save that twice over a soft whisper was heard,
+and then a low, deep sigh.
+
+"I say."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I feel sure that air must come to us.  I can breathe quite easily
+still."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then we must try and bear it for a time.  I'm going to believe that we
+may be dug out.  Shall we try to sleep, and forget our horrible
+position?"
+
+"Impossible, my lad.  For me, that is.  You try."
+
+"No; you are right.  I couldn't sleep.  But, yes, I can breathe better
+still.  There must be air coming in from up above.  Well, why don't you
+speak?  Say something, man."
+
+"I cannot talk."
+
+"You must--you shall, so as to keep from thinking of our being--oh,
+help! help! help!"
+
+"Man, man! don't cry out in that horrible way;" and one shook the other
+fiercely, till he sobbed out, "Yes; go on.  I am a coward; but the
+thought came upon me, and seemed to crush me."
+
+"What thought?  That we must die?"
+
+"No, no," groaned the other in his husky voice; "that we are buried
+alive."
+
+Once more there was silence, during which the elder and firmer grasped
+the hand of his brother in adversity.  "Yes, yes," he whispered, "it is
+horrible to think of; but for our manhood's sake keep up, lad.  We are
+not children, to be frightened of being in the dark."
+
+"No; you are right."
+
+"Here, help me sweep away the snow from under us.  No, no.  Here is the
+waterproof sheet.  We can drag it out--yes, I can feel the sledges.
+Let's drag out those blankets."
+
+"No, no, don't stir; you may bring down the snow roof upon our heads.  I
+mean, yes.  I'll try and help you."
+
+They worked busily for a few minutes, and then knelt together upon what
+felt like a soft couch.
+
+"There's food, and the snow for water; it would be long before we should
+starve.  Why are you so silent now?  Come, we must rest, and then try to
+cut our way out when the daylight comes."
+
+"The daylight!" said the other, with a mocking laugh.
+
+"Yes; we may see a dim dawn to show us which way to tunnel."
+
+"Ah, of course!"
+
+"Could you sleep now?"
+
+"No, no; we must talk, or I shall go off my head.  That brute hurt me
+so, it has made me rather strange.  Yes, I must talk.  I say: God bless
+you, old fellow!  You saved my life from those wretches, and now you're
+keeping me from going mad.  I say!  The air is all right."
+
+"Yes; I can breathe freely, and I am not cold."
+
+"I am hot.  I say, let's talk.  Tell me how you came to be here."
+
+"Afterwards; the words would not come now.  You tell me how you came."
+
+"Yes; it will keep off the horrors; it's like a romance, and now it does
+not seem to be true.  And yet it is, and it happened just as if it were
+only yesterday.  I never thought of coming out here.  I was going to be
+a soldier."
+
+He spoke in a hurried, excited way, and the listener heard him draw his
+breath sharply through his teeth from time to time, as if he shivered
+from nervous dread.
+
+"I was not fit for a soldier.  Fate knows best.  See what a coward I
+am."
+
+"I thought you brave."
+
+"What!"
+
+"For the way in which you have fought and mastered the natural dread;
+but go on."
+
+"Oh, no; it seems nonsense to talk about my troubles at a time like
+this."
+
+"It is not.  Go on, if you can without hurting yourself more."
+
+"I'll go on because it will hurt me more.  It will give me something
+else to think of.  Can you understand my croaking whisper?"
+
+"Oh, yes."
+
+"An uncle of mine brought me up after father and mother died."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Dear old fellow!  He and aunt quite took my old people's place; and
+their boy, my cousin, always seemed like my brother."
+
+The listener made a quick movement.
+
+"What is it?  Hear anything?"
+
+"No; go on."
+
+"They were such happy times.  I never knew what trouble was, till one
+day poor uncle was brought home on a gate.  His horse had thrown him."
+
+There was a pause, and then the speaker continued in an almost inaudible
+whisper:
+
+"He was dead."
+
+The listener uttered a strange ejaculation.
+
+"Yes, it was horrible, wasn't it?  And there was worse to come.  It
+nearly killed poor dear old aunt, and when she recovered a bit it was to
+hear the news from the lawyers.  I don't quite understand how it was
+even now--something about a great commercial smash--but all uncle's
+money was gone, and aunt was left penniless."
+
+"Great heavens!" came in a strange whisper.
+
+"You may well say that.  Bless her!  She had been accustomed to every
+luxury, and we boys had had everything we wished.  My word! it was a
+knockdown for poor old Dal."
+
+"Who was poor old Dal?" said the listener, almost inaudibly.
+
+"Cousin Dallas--Dallas Adams.  I thought the poor chap would have gone
+mad.  He was just getting ready for Cambridge.  But after a bit he
+pulled himself together, and `Never mind, Bel,' he said--I'm Bel, you
+know; Abel Wray--`Never mind,' he said, `now's the time for a couple of
+strong fellows like we are to show that we've got some stuff in us.
+Bel,' he said, `the dear old mother must never know what it is to
+want.'"
+
+It was the other's turn to draw in his breath with a low hissing sound,
+and the narrator's voice sounded still more husky and strange, as if he
+were touched by the sympathy of his companion, as he went on:
+
+"I said nothing to Dal, but I thought a deal about how easy it was to
+talk, but how hard for fellows like us to get suitable and paying work.
+But if I said nothing, I lay awake at nights trying to hit on some plan,
+till the idea came--ah! is that the snow coming down?"
+
+"No, no!  It was only I who moved."
+
+"But what--what are you doing?  Why, you've turned over on your face."
+
+"Yes, yes; to rest a bit."
+
+"I'm trying you with all this rigmarole about a poor, unfortunate
+beggar."
+
+"No, no!" cried the other fiercely.  "Go on--go on."
+
+The narrator paused for a few moments.
+
+"Thank you, old fellow," he whispered softly, and he felt for and
+grasped the listener's hand, to press it hard.  "I misjudged you.  It's
+pleasant to find a bit of sympathy like this.  I've often read how
+fellows in shipwrecks, and wounded men after battles, are drawn together
+and get to be like brothers, and it makes one feel how much good there
+is in the world, after all.  I expect you and I will manage to keep
+alive for a few days, old chap, and then we shall have to make up our
+minds to die--like men.  I won't be so cowardly any more.  I feel
+stronger, and till we do go to sleep once and for all we'll make the
+best of it, like men."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes!  Go on--go on!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+A STRANGE MADNESS.
+
+It was some time, though, before the narrative was continued, and then
+it was with this preface.
+
+"Don't laugh at me, old chap.  The shock of all this has made me as weak
+and hysterical as a girl.  I say, I'm jolly glad it's so dark."
+
+"Laugh at you!"
+
+"I say, if you speak in that way I shall break down altogether.  That
+fellow choked a lot of the man out of me, and then the excitement, and
+on the top of it this horrible burying alive--it has all been too much
+for me."
+
+"Go on--go on."
+
+"Yes, yes, I will.  I told you the idea came, but I didn't say a word to
+my cousin for fear he should think it mad; and as to hinting at such a
+thing to the dear old aunt, I felt that it would half kill her.  I made
+up my mind that she should not know till I was gone.
+
+"Well, I went straight to the `Hard Nut'--that's Uncle Morgan.  We
+always called him the nut that couldn't be cracked--the roughest,
+gruffest old fellow that ever breathed, and he looked so hard and sour
+at me that I wished I hadn't gone, and was silent.  `Well,' he said, `I
+suppose you two boys mean to think about something besides cricket and
+football now.  You've got to work, sir, work!'"
+
+"Hah!" sighed the listener.
+
+"`Yes, uncle,' I said, `and I want to begin at once.'
+
+"`Humph!' he said.  `Well, that's right.  But what do you want with me?'
+
+"`I want you to write me a cheque for a hundred pounds.'
+
+"`Oh,' he said, in the harsh, sneering way in which he always spoke to
+us boys; for he didn't approve of us being educated so long.  He began
+work early, and made quite a fortune.  `Oh,' he said, `do you?  Hadn't I
+better make it five?'
+
+"`No,' I said.  `I've thought it all out.  One hundred will do exactly.'
+
+"`What for?' he said with a snap.
+
+"`I'm off to Klondike.'
+
+"`Off to Jericho!' he snarled.
+
+"`No, to Klondike, to make a fortune for the poor old aunt.'
+
+"`Humph!' he grunted, `and is Dallas going with you to make the second
+fool in the pair?'
+
+"`No, uncle,' I said; `one fool's enough for that job.  Dal will stop
+with his mother, I suppose, and try to keep her.  I'm nobody, and I'll
+take all risks and go.'
+
+"`Yes, one fool's enough, sir,' he said, `for a job like that.  But I
+don't believe there is any gold there.'
+
+"`Oh, yes, there is, sir,' I said.
+
+"`What does Dallas say?'
+
+"`Nothing.  He doesn't know, and he will not know till aunt gets my
+letter, and she tells him.'
+
+"`As if the poor old woman hadn't enough to suffer without you going
+off, sir,' he said.
+
+"`But I can't stop and live upon her now, uncle.'
+
+"`Of course you can't, sir.  But what about the soldiering, and the
+scarlet and gold lace?'
+
+"`Good-bye to it all, sir,' I said with a gulp, for it was an awful
+knockdown to a coxcomb of a chap like I was, who had reckoned on the
+fine feathers and spurs and the rest of it.
+
+"`Humph!' he grunted, `and you think I am going to give--lend you a
+hundred pounds to go on such a wild goose chase?'
+
+"`I hope so, uncle,' I said.
+
+"`Hope away, then; and fill yourself with the unsatisfactory stuff, if
+you like.  No, sir; if you want to go gold-digging, shoulder your swag
+and shovel, pick and cradle, and tramp there.'
+
+"`How?'  I said, getting riled, for the old nut seemed harder than ever.
+`I can't tramp across three thousand miles of ocean.  I could hardly
+tramp over three thousand miles of land, and when I did reach the
+Pacific, if I could, there's the long sea journey from Vancouver up to
+Alaska, and another tramp there.  No, uncle,' I said, `it isn't to be
+done.  I've gone into it all carefully, and cut it as fine as I might,
+it will take fifty pounds for outfit and carriage to get to Klondike.'
+
+"`Fifty!  Why, you said a hundred,' he growled.  `That's coming down.
+Want the other fifty to play billiards and poker?'
+
+"`No, I don't,' I said, speaking as sharply as he did; `I want that
+fifty pounds to leave with poor old aunt.  I can't and won't go and
+leave her penniless.'"
+
+"Ah!" sighed the listener--almost groaned.
+
+"Well, wouldn't you have done the same?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  Go on--go on."
+
+"There isn't much more to tell.  I'm pretty close to the end.  What do
+you think the old boy said?"
+
+"I know--I know," came back in a whisper.
+
+"That you don't," cried the narrator, who, in spite of their horrible
+position, burst out into a ringing laugh.  "He just said `Bah!' and came
+at me as if he were going to bundle me out of the door, for he clapped
+his hands on my shoulders and shook me fiercely.  Then he banged me down
+into a chair, and went to one of those old, round-fronted secretary
+desks, rolled up the top with a rush, took a cheque-book out of a little
+drawer, dashed off a cheque, signed and blotted it, and thrust it into
+my hand.
+
+"`There, it's open,' he said.  `You can get it cashed at the bank, and
+send your aunt the fifty as soon as you're gone.  Be off at once, and
+don't say a word to a soul.  Here; give me back that cheque.'
+
+"I gave it back to him.
+
+"`Now, swear you won't tell a soul I lent you that money, nor that you
+are going off!'
+
+"`I give you my word of honour, uncle.'
+
+"`That'll do,' he said.  `Catch hold, and be off.  It's a loan, mind.
+You bring back a couple of sacks full of nuggets, and pay me again.'
+
+"`I will, uncle,' I said, `if I live.'
+
+"`If you live!' he said, staring at me.  `Of course you'll live.  I'm
+seventy, and not near done.  You're not a score.  Be off.'
+
+"And I came away and never said a word."
+
+"But you sent the fifty pounds to your poor old aunt?"
+
+"Why, of course I did; but I shall never pay old `Hard Nut with the
+Sweet Kernel' his money back.  God bless him, though, and I hope he'll
+know the reason why before he dies."
+
+"God bless him! yes," said the listener, in a deep, low voice that
+sounded very strange, and as if the speaker could hardly trust himself
+to speak.
+
+Then they lay together in the darkness and silence for a time, till Abel
+Wray made an effort and said in his harsh, husky voice:
+
+"There, that's all.  Makes a fellow feel soft.  Think it's midnight
+yet?"
+
+"No, no," was whispered.
+
+"I'll strike a match and see."
+
+"No.  We want every mouthful of air to breathe, or I should have struck
+one long ago."
+
+"Of course.  I never thought of it once.  Sleepy?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then fair play.  Tell me your story now."
+
+"There is no need.  But tell me this; am I awake?  Have you told me all
+this, or have I dreamed it?"
+
+"I've told you it all, of course."
+
+"Am I sane, or wandering in my head?  It can't be true.  I must be mad."
+
+"Then I am, too.  Bah! as Uncle Morgan said.  Come, play fair; tell me
+how you came here?"
+
+"The same way as you did, and to get gold."
+
+"Well, so I supposed.  There, just as you like.  I will not press you to
+tell me."
+
+"I tell you there is no need.  For your story is mine.  We thought as
+brothers with one brain; we made the same plan; we travelled with the
+same means; we supplied the dear old aunt and mother from the same
+true-hearted source.  Bel, old lad, don't you know me?  It is I, Dal,
+and we meet like this!"
+
+"Great heaven!" gasped Abel, in his low, husky whisper.  "It has turned
+his brain.  Impossible!  Yes, that is it; the air is turning hot and
+strange at last, and this has driven me mad.  It is all a wandering
+dream."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+FEVERED DREAMS.
+
+"It is _no_ wandering dream, Bel.  I tell you I seem to have been
+inspired to do exactly the same as you did, and I went to Uncle Morgan,
+who treated me just as he treated you."
+
+"Yes, a dream--off my head," said Abel Wray, in his harsh whisper.
+
+"No, no, old fellow," cried Dallas; "it is all true.  Uncle was never so
+strange to me before.  It was because you had been to him first.  It is
+wonderful.  Your voice is so changed I did not know it, and in the
+darkness I never saw your face."
+
+"Yes--delirious," croaked Abel.  "They say it is so before death."
+
+"Nonsense, nonsense, lad!  I came back just in time to save you, and now
+we have been saved, too, from a horrible death.  After a bit we shall be
+stronger, and shall be able to see which way to begin tunnelling our way
+out to life again.  Cheer up; we have got through the worst, and as soon
+as we are free we'll join hands and work together, so that we can show
+them at home that we have not come out in vain.  How are you now?"
+
+A low rumbling utterance was the reply, and Dallas leaned towards him,
+feeling startled.
+
+"Don't you hear me?" he cried.  "Why don't you answer?"
+
+"Dear old Dal--to begin dreaming of him now," came in a low muttering.
+
+"No, no; I tell you that it is all true."
+
+"All right, uncle," croaked Abel.  "Not an hour longer than it takes to
+scrape together enough.  Ha, ha, ha! and I thought you so hard and
+brutal to me.  Eh?  But you're not.  It was a dreadful take in.  I say!"
+
+"Yes, yes, old fellow.  What?"
+
+"Don't say a word to dear old Dal.  Let him stop and take care of aunt,
+and let them think I've shuffled out of the trouble.  I'll show them
+when I come back."
+
+"Bel, old fellow," cried Dallas, seizing his cousin's hand, "what is it?
+Don't talk in that wild way."
+
+"That's right, uncle," croaked Abel.  "We two used to laugh about you
+and call you the Hard Nut.  So you are; but there's the sweet white
+kernel inside, and I swear I'll never lie down to sleep again without
+saying a word first for you.  I say, one word," cried the poor fellow,
+grasping his cousin's hand hard: "you'll do something for old Dal,
+uncle?  I'll pay you again.  I don't want to see him roughing it as I
+shall out there for the gold--yes, for the gold--the rich red gold.  Ah,
+that's cool and nice."
+
+For in his horror and alarm Dallas had laid a hand upon his cousin's
+temples, to find them burning: but the poor fellow yielded to the gentle
+pressure, and slowly subsided on to the rough couch they had made, and
+there he lay muttering for a time, but starting at intervals to cough,
+as if his injured throat troubled him with a choking sensation, till his
+ravings grew less frequent, and he sank into a deep sleep.
+
+"This is worse than all!" groaned Dallas.  "Had I not enough to bear?
+His head is as if it were on fire.  Fever--fever from his injury and the
+shock of all he has gone through.  I thought he was talking wildly
+towards the last."
+
+As he spoke he was conscious of a sharp throbbing pang in his shoulder,
+and he laid a hand upon the place that he had forgotten; while now he
+woke to the fact that when he tried to think what it would be best to do
+for his cousin, the effort was painful, and the sensation came back that
+all this must be a feverish dream.
+
+He clapped his hands to his face.  It and his brow were burning hot, and
+he knew that he was growing confused; so much so that he rose to his
+knees, then to his feet, and took a step or two, to stand wondering, for
+his senses left him for a moment or two, and then a strange thing befell
+him.  A black veil seemed to have fallen in front of his eyes, and he
+was lost, utterly lost, and he had not the least idea where he was or
+what had been taking place during the past twenty-four hours.
+
+He stretched out his hands and touched the compressed snow, which was
+dripping with moisture; but that gave him no clue, for his mind seemed
+to be a perfect blank, and with a horrible feeling of despair he leaned
+forward to try and escape from the black darkness, when his burning brow
+came in contact with the icy wall of his prison, and it was like an
+electric shock.
+
+His position came back in a flash.  Self was forgotten, and he sank upon
+his knees to feel for his cousin, horror-stricken now by the great dread
+that the poor fellow might die with him by his side quite unable to
+help.
+
+He forgot that but a short time back he was advocating a brave meeting
+of their fate.  For since he had awakened to the fact that his boyhood's
+companion was with him, hope had arisen, and with it the determination
+to wait patiently till morning and then fight their way back to the
+light.  Now all seemed over.  Abel was terribly injured, fever had
+supervened, and he would die for want of help; while he, who would
+freely have given his life that Abel might live, was utterly helpless,
+and there was that terrible sensation of being lost coming on again.
+
+He pressed his head against the snow, but there was no invigorating
+sense of revival again--nothing but a curious, worrying feeling.  Then
+he was conscious for a few moments that Abel was muttering loudly, but
+the injury to his shoulder was graver than he had imagined, and the
+feverish symptoms which follow a wound were increasing, so that before
+long he too had sunk into a nightmare-like sleep, conscious of nothing
+but the strange, bewildering images which haunted his distempered brain;
+and these were divided between his vain efforts to flee from some
+terrible danger, and to drag the heavily laden hand-sledge between two
+ice-covered rocks too close together to allow it to pass.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+THE FIGHT FOR LIFE.
+
+"Yes!  Yes!  What is it?"  Somebody had spoken in the black darkness,
+but it was some minutes before Dallas Adams could realise the fact that
+the words came from his own lips.
+
+Then he heard a faint whisper from somewhere close by, and he was this
+time wide awake, and knew that he was answering that whisper.
+
+"Where am I?  What place is this?"
+
+The question had come to him in his sleep, and for a few moments, so
+familiar were the sounds, he felt that he must have the tubes of a
+phonograph to his ears, and he listening to the thin, weird, wiry tones
+of his cousin's voice.
+
+Then, like a flash, all came back, and he knew not only that he had been
+asleep, but everything that had happened some time before.
+
+"Bel, old lad," he said huskily, and he winced with pain as he tried to
+stretch out his left hand.
+
+"Ah!" came again in the faint whisper, "That you, Dal?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  How are you now?"
+
+"Then it isn't all a delirious dream?"
+
+"No, no; we have been brought together almost miraculously."
+
+"Thank God--thank God!" came feebly.  "I thought I had been off my head.
+Have I been asleep?"
+
+"Yes, and I fell asleep too.  My wound made me feverish, and we must
+have been lying here ever so long in the dark."
+
+"Your wound, Dal?"
+
+"Yes; I had almost forgotten it in what we had to go through, but one of
+the scoundrels shot me.  It is only a scratch, but my arm seems set
+fast."
+
+"Ah!  Do you think they were buried alive too?" came in an eager
+whisper.
+
+"Who can say, old fellow?  But never mind that.  How do you feel?  Think
+you can help me?"
+
+"Tie up your wound?"
+
+"No, no.  Help me try and dig our way out."
+
+"I think so.  My head feels a bit light, but it's my throat that is
+bad--all swollen up so that I can only whisper."
+
+"Never mind your throat so long as you can use your arms."
+
+"Think we can dig our way out?"
+
+Dallas uttered a little laugh.
+
+"Why not?" he said.  "There is a pick and shovel on my sledge."
+
+"Ah, yes, and on mine too."
+
+"We were out of heart last night," continued Dallas, encouragingly, "and
+in the scare thought we were done for.  But we can breathe; we shall not
+suffer for want of food; the melted snow will give us drink; and once we
+can determine which way to dig, what is to prevent our finding our way
+to daylight again?"
+
+"Our position," said Abel, in his faint whisper.  "Where are we to put
+the snow we dig out?"
+
+Dallas was silent for a few moments.
+
+"Yes," he said at last; "that will be a difficulty, for we must not fill
+up this place.  But never mind that for the present.  We must eat and
+drink now, for we shall want all our strength.  Pressed snow is almost
+like ice.  Ah, here is the sledge--mine or yours.  My head is too thick
+to tell which.  Bel, lad, we are going to dig our way out, if it takes
+us a month."
+
+"Yes," came rather more strongly; and the next minute Dallas Adams was
+feeling about the sledge for the tin which held the traveller's food.
+
+It was hard work fumbling there in the dark, for parts of the sledge
+were pressed and wedged down by snow that was nearly as hard as ice; but
+others were looser, and by degrees he managed to get part of the tin
+free, when he started, for something touched his arm.
+
+"Can I help you, Dal?"
+
+"How you made me jump, lad!  I don't know.  Feel strong enough?"
+
+"I think so; but I want to work.  It's horrible lying there fancying the
+top of this hole is going to crumble down every time you move some of
+the snow."
+
+"Lay hold here, then, and let's try and drag this tin out."
+
+They took hold of it as well as their cramped position would allow, and
+tugged and tugged, feeling the tin case bend and grow more and more out
+of shape; but it would not come.
+
+"No good," said Dallas.  "I'll cut through the tin with my knife."
+
+"But it's looser now.  Let's have one more try."
+
+"Very well.--Got hold?--Now then, both together."
+
+They gave a sudden jerk, and fell backward with the once square tin case
+upon them, lying still and horrified, for there was a dull creaking and
+crushing noise as if the snow was being pressed down to fill up the
+vacancy they had made, and then _crick, crack_, sharply; there was the
+sound of breaking, as portions of the sledge gave way from the weight
+above.
+
+Abel caught his cousin's hand to squeeze it hard, fully expecting that
+their last moments had come; but after a minute's agony the sounds
+ceased, and the prisoners breathed more freely.
+
+"It's all right, Bel," said Dallas; "but it did sound rather creepy."
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Abel.  "I thought--"
+
+"Yes, so did I, old fellow; but it's a mistake to think at a time like
+this.  We only frighten ourselves.  Now then, let's see what we've got."
+
+"See?" said Abel bitterly.
+
+"Yes, with the tips of our fingers.  It's all right, I tell you; rats
+and mice and rabbits don't make a fuss about being in burrows."
+
+"They're used to it, Dal; we're not."
+
+"Then let's get used to it, lad.  I say, suppose we were getting gold
+here, instead of a biscuit-tin; we shouldn't make a fuss about being
+buried.  Why, it's just what we should like."
+
+"I suppose so," replied Abel.
+
+"It's what we shall have to do, perhaps, by-and-by.  This is a sort of
+lesson, and it will make the rest easy."
+
+"If we get out."
+
+"Get out?  Pish!  We shall get out soon.  The sun and the rain will thaw
+us out if we don't dig a way.  Hullo!  The lid's off the tin, and the
+biscuits are half of them in the snow.  Never mind.  Set to work and
+eat, while I pick up all I can find.  I'm hungry.  Peck away, lad, and
+think you're a squirrel eating your winter store.  I say, who would
+think one could be so warm and snug surrounded by snow?"
+
+Abel made no reply, but tried to eat, as he heard the cracking and
+crunching going on at his side.  It was hard work, though, and he went
+on slowly, for the effort to swallow was accompanied by a good deal of
+pain, and he ceased long before Dallas gave up.
+
+"How are you getting on?" the latter said in an encouraging tone.
+
+"Badly."
+
+"Yes, they are dry; but wait till we get our gold.  We'll have a banquet
+to make up for this.  By Jove!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I forgot about your throat.  It hurts?"
+
+"Horribly.  But I can manage."
+
+Dallas said no more, but thought a great deal; and after placing the tin
+aside he turned to the sledge to try whether he could not get at the
+shovel bound to it somewhere, for the package was pressed all on one
+side by the snow.
+
+After a long search he found one corner of the blade, and drawing his
+big sharp knife, he set to work chipping and digging with the point,
+with the result that in about an hour he dragged out the tool.
+
+"Now," he said, "we can get to work turn and turn.  The thing is, where
+to begin, for I have not seen the slightest glimmer of light."
+
+"No; we must be buried very deep."
+
+"Say pretty deep.  Which way shall we try?"
+
+"Up by the rock, and slope upward where the air seems to come."
+
+"That's right.  Just what I thought.  And, look here, Bel, there's room
+for a couple of cartloads of snow or more about us here, and my plan is
+this: one will dig upward, and of course the snow will fall down of its
+own weight.  As it comes down the other must keep filling that
+biscuit-tin and carrying it to the far end yonder and emptying it."
+
+"And bury the sledge and the food."
+
+"No: we can get a great deal disposed of before we come to that.  Look
+here--I mean, feel here.  We have plenty of room to stand up where we
+are.  Well, that means that we can raise the floor.  So long as we have
+room to lie down, that is all we want."
+
+"Yes, I suppose so."
+
+"After a while we must get out all the food we want and take it with us
+in the tunnel we make higher and higher as we go."
+
+"Yes, that sounds reasonable," said Abel thoughtfully.  "We shall be
+drawing the snow down and trampling it hard beneath our feet."
+
+"And, I believe, be making a bigger chamber about us as we work up
+towards the light."
+
+"Keeping close to the face of the rock, too," said Abel, "will ensure
+our having one side of our sloping tunnel safe.  That can never cave
+in."
+
+"Well done, engineer!" cried Dallas laughingly.  "Here were we thinking
+last night of dying.  Why, the very remembrance of the way in which
+animals burrow has quite cheered me up."
+
+"That and the thought that we may have to mine underground for our
+gold," replied Abel.  "Shall I begin?"
+
+"No; you're weak yet, and it will be easier to clear away my workings."
+
+Without another word the young man felt his way to the end of their
+little hole, tapped the rock with the shovel, and then stood perfectly
+still.
+
+"What is it?" asked Abel.
+
+"I was trying to make out where the air comes from, and I think I have
+hit it.  I shall try and slope up here."
+
+Striking out with the shovel and trying to cut a square passage for his
+ascent, he worked away for the next hour, the snow yielding to his
+efforts much more freely than he had anticipated; and as he worked Abel
+tried hard to keep up with him, filling the tin, bearing it to the other
+end beyond the sledges, and piling up the snow, trampling down the loads
+as he went on.
+
+Twice over he offered to take his cousin's place; but Dallas worked on,
+hour after hour, till both were compelled to give up from utter
+exhaustion, and they lay down now in their greatly narrowed cave to eat.
+
+This latter had its usual result, and almost simultaneously they fell
+asleep.
+
+How long they had been plunged in deep slumber, naturally, they could
+not tell.  Night and day were the same to them; and as Dallas said, from
+the hunger they felt they might have been hibernating in a torpid state
+for a week, for aught they knew.
+
+They ate heartily of the biscuits, Abel's throat being far less painful,
+and once more the dull sound of the shovel began in a hollow, muffled
+way.
+
+A couple of hours must have passed, at the end of which time so much
+snow had accumulated at the foot of the sloping shaft that Dallas was
+compelled to descend and help his fellow-prisoner.
+
+"This will not do," he said.  "We must get out some more provisions
+before we bury the sledges entirely."
+
+"There is enough biscuit to keep us alive for a couple of days," replied
+Abel.  "Let us chance getting out, and not stop to encumber ourselves
+with more provisions."
+
+"It is risky, but I fancy that I am getting nearer the air.  Go up and
+try yourself."
+
+Abel went up the sloping tunnel to the top with ease, Dallas having
+clipped steps out of the ice, and after breathing hard for a few minutes
+the younger man came down.
+
+"You must be getting nearer the top.  I can breathe quite freely there."
+
+"Yes, and the snow is not so hard."
+
+"Chance it, then, and go on digging," said Abel eagerly.  "I will get
+the snow away.  I can manage so much more easily if I may put it down
+anywhere.  It gets trampled with my coming and going."
+
+Dallas crept up to his task once more and toiled away, till, utterly
+worn out, both made another meal and again slept.
+
+Twice over this was repeated, and all idea of time was lost; still they
+worked on, cheered by the feeling that they must be nearing liberty.
+However, the plan arranged proved impossible in its entirety, the rock
+bulging out in a way which drove the miner to entirely alter the
+direction of his sap.  But the snow hour after hour grew softer, and the
+difficulty of cutting less, till all at once, as Dallas struck with his
+spade, it went through into a cavity, and a rush of cool air came into
+the sloping tunnel.
+
+"Heavenly!" cried the worker, breathing freely now.  "I'll slip down,
+Bel.  You must come up and have a mouthful of this."
+
+He descended to the bottom, and Abel took the spade and went to his
+place.
+
+"The shovel goes through quite easily here," he said excitedly.
+
+"Yes, and what is beyond?" shouted Dallas.  "Can you see daylight?"
+
+"No; all is black as ink.  It must be a hole in the snow.  We must get
+into it, for the air comes quite pure and fresh, and that means life and
+hope."
+
+In his excitement he struck out with the shovel twice, and had drawn it
+back to strike again, when there was a dull heavy crack, and he felt
+himself borne sidewise and carried along, with the snow rising up and
+covering his face.
+
+The next minute, as he vainly strove to get higher, the movement ceased,
+and he felt himself locked in the embrace of the snow, while his
+breathing stopped.
+
+Only for a moment, before the hardening crystal which surrounded his
+head dropped away, and a rush of pure air swept over him and seemed to
+bring back life.
+
+Then the sliding movement entirely ceased, and he wildly shouted his
+cousin's name.
+
+His voice echoed from somewhere above, telling him that, though a
+prisoner, he was free down to the shoulders, though his arms were
+pinned.
+
+But there was no other reply to the call, and he turned sick and faint
+with the knowledge that Dallas must be once more buried deep, and far
+below.
+
+Around all was black darkness, and in his agony another desperate effort
+was made; but the snow had moulded itself around him nearly to the neck,
+and he could not stir a limb.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+UNDER PRESSURE.
+
+The fit of delirium which once more attacked Abel Wray was merciful,
+inasmuch as it darkened his intellect through the long hours of that
+terrible night, and he awoke at last with the level rays of the sun
+showing him his position in a hollow of a tremendous waste of snow,
+while fifty yards away the sides of the rocky valley towered up many
+hundred feet above his head.
+
+But it was daylight, and instead of the ravine seeming a place of horror
+and darkness, the snow-covered mountains flashed gloriously in the
+bright sunshine, whose warm glow brought with it hope and determination,
+in spite of the terrible sense of imprisonment, and the inability to
+move from the icy bonds.  The great suffering was not bodily, but
+mental, and not selfish, for the constantly recurring question was, how
+was it with Dallas?
+
+But the sunshine was laden with hope.  Dallas was shut in again, but he
+had the tools and provisions with him, and he would be toiling hard to
+tunnel a way out, _if_--
+
+Yes, there was that terrible "if."  But Abel kept it back; for it was
+quite possible that he might still be getting a sufficient supply of air
+to keep him alive.
+
+How to lend him help?
+
+There was the face of the vast cliff some fifty yards away, and it was
+close up to it that they had been first buried, the fresh collapse, when
+the snow had fallen away and borne him with it, having taken him the
+above distance.  It was probable, then, that Dallas would not be now
+very far below the glittering surface of the snow.
+
+How to get at him?
+
+Abel's first thought was to free one arm.  If he could do that he might
+possibly be able to get at his knife, dragging it from the sheath at his
+waist.  Then the work would be comparatively easy, for he could dig away
+the partly consolidated snow in which he was cased, and throw it from
+him.
+
+He set to, struggling hard, but without effect, for it seemed to him
+that he was only working with his will, his muscles refusing to help;
+and by degrees the full truth dawned upon him, that the absence of pain
+was due to the fact that his body was quite benumbed, and a horrible
+sensation of fear came over him, with the belief that all beneath the
+snow must be frozen, and that he could do absolutely nothing to save his
+life.
+
+Even as he thought this the benumbed sensation seemed to be rising
+slowly towards his brain.
+
+"In a short time all will be over," he groaned aloud, "and poor Dal will
+be left there, buried, thinking I have escaped and have left him to his
+fate.  Is there no way to escape from this icy prison?"
+
+He wrenched his head round as far as he could, first on one side, and
+then on the other; but it was always the same--the narrow valley with
+its stupendous walls, no longer black and horrible with its unseen
+horrors in the darkness of the night, but a wondrous way to a city of
+towers and palaces gorgeous to behold.  His eyes ached with the flashing
+beauties of the scene.  It was not the golden Klondike of his dreams,
+but a land of silver, whose turrets and spires and minarets were
+jewelled with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds; whose shadows were of
+sapphire blue or darker amethyst; and whose rays flashed and mingled
+till he was fain to close his eyes and ask himself whether what he saw
+was part of some dazzling dream.
+
+He looked again, to see that it was no vision, but a scene of beauty
+growing more and more intense as the sun rose higher.  The darkness had
+fled to display these wonders; there was not a chasm or gully that was
+not enlightened--everywhere save within the sufferer's darkened soul.
+There all was the blackness of despair.
+
+But black despair cannot stay for long in the breast of youth.  Hope
+began to chase it away, and inanimate though the body was, the brain
+grew more active, offering suggestion after suggestion as to how he
+might escape.
+
+The sun was growing hotter minute by minute, and the reflections from
+the pure white ice almost painful.  Already, too, its effects were
+becoming visible.
+
+Just where the warm rays played on the edge of a gap whose lower
+portions were of an exquisite turquoise blue, tiny crystal-like drops
+were forming, and as Abel Wray gazed at them with straining eyes he saw
+two run together into one, which kept gradually increasing in size till
+it grew too heavy for its adhesion to last, and it fell out of sight.
+
+Only a drop of water, but it was the end of May; the snows would be
+melting, and before long millions of such drops would have formed and
+run together to make trickling rivulets coursing along the snow; these
+would soon grow into rushing torrents, and the snow would fall away, and
+he would be free.
+
+"What madness!" he groaned.  "It will thaw rapidly till the sun is off,
+and then freeze once more, and perhaps another avalanche will come.
+Yes, I shall be thawed out some day, and some one may come along in the
+future and find my bones."
+
+He shuddered, for it was getting black within once more, and a delirious
+feeling of horror began to master him, bringing with it thoughts of what
+might come.
+
+Bears would be torpid in their snow-covered lairs; but wolves!
+
+He felt as if he could shriek aloud, and he had to set his teeth hard as
+his eyes rolled round and up and down the gorge in search of some
+wandering pack that would scent him out at once, and in imagination he
+went through the brain-paralysing horror of seeing them approach, with
+their red, hungry, glaring eyes, their foam-slavered lips and glistening
+teeth.
+
+There they were, five, seven, nine of them, gliding over the snow a
+hundred yards away, their shadows cast by the sun upon the dazzling
+white surface, and he uttered a hoarse cry and his head sank sideways as
+he closed his eyes in the reaction.
+
+No wolves, only the few magnified shapes of a covey of snow grouse, the
+ryper of the Scandinavian land, which, after running for a while, rose
+and passed over him with whirring wings, seeking the lower part of the
+valley, where the snow was swept away.
+
+Abel drew a long, deep breath, and then set his teeth once more as he
+upbraided himself for his cowardice.
+
+For was he not on the highway--the main track to the golden land; and
+was it not a certainty that before long other adventurers would pass
+that way?
+
+What was that?
+
+The prisoner listened, with every nerve on the strain, and it was
+repeated.
+
+So great was the tension, that as soon as the sound came for the second
+time the listener uttered a wild shriek of joy.  It was hardly a cry.
+He had struggled to free himself from his icy bonds to go to his
+cousin's help, and awakened to the fact that he was helpless, and he had
+dared to despair, when all the time Dallas was alive and toiling hard to
+come and free him.  The sensation of joy and delight was almost
+maddening, and he listened again.
+
+There it was--a dull, low, indescribable sound which appealed to him all
+through, for he felt it more with his chest than with his ears.  It was
+a kind of a jar which came through the snow, communicated from particle
+to particle, telegraphed to him by the worker below, and it told that
+Dallas was strong and well, and striving hard to get free.
+
+How long would it take him to dig his way through?  Not long, for he
+could not be so deep down now.
+
+He waited, counting every stroke of the shovel, and a fresh joy thrilled
+the listener, for those light jars sent fresh hope in waves, telling him
+as they did that though he was so benumbed, his body must be full of
+sensation.  It could not be deadened by the cold.
+
+"Bah!  I must naturally be a coward at heart," the poor fellow said to
+himself.  "Dal's worth a dozen of me.  _I_ think of helping him?  Pooh!
+it is always he who takes that _role_."
+
+But his mind went back again to the one thought--How long would it take
+Dallas to dig his way out in spite of his wound?  Not so very long--the
+strokes of the shovel came so regularly.  But what an escape for both!
+
+"Not free yet, though," muttered the prisoner.  "That's right, work
+away, Dal.  Your muscles were always stronger than mine.  Get out and
+we'll reach the gold yet, and win the prize we came for.--I wonder
+whether he could hear me if I shouted!"
+
+He bowed his head as far as he could, nearly touching the snow with his
+lips.
+
+"Dal, ahoy! ahoy!" he shouted; and a few moments after came the answer,
+"Ahoy--ahoy-oy-oy!" from the icy rocks up the valley.
+
+"Only the echoes," muttered Abel, as the sounds died away.
+
+Then he started, for the hail came again, loud and clear, "Ahoy!  Ahoy--
+ahoy-oy-oy!" and then once more the echoes.
+
+But the hail was from down the narrow valley, and these echoes were from
+above.
+
+"Hurrah!  Help coming!" cried Abel wildly.  "Ahoy, there!  Help!"
+
+He wrenched his head round to utter the cry, and was conscious of a
+heavy pang in his injured throat.  But what of that at such a time, when
+the cry was answered by another?  "Ahoy! ahoy!"  No deceiving echo, for
+in addition came, "Where are yer?" and that was echoed too.
+
+Abel's lips parted to reply, but a chill of despair shot through every
+nerve once more, and he uttered a bitter groan.
+
+There they were--there could be no doubt of it.  The three cowardly,
+treacherous ruffians had escaped, and he was calling them to his help.
+Not four hundred yards down the valley, plainly to be seen in the broad
+sunshine, all three of them, two dragging a heavily laden sledge, the
+other, the big-bearded ruffian, a short distance in front, in the act of
+putting his hands to his mouth to shout again:
+
+"Where away, O?"
+
+"Will they see me with just my head out like this?  Yes, they are
+certain to, for they must come by here.  Oh, Dal, Dal, old man, don't
+dig now.  For heaven's sake, keep still: they're coming to finish their
+horrid work."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+A HUMAN FOSSIL.
+
+"You be blowed!" cried a bluff cheery voice.  "Eckers be jiggered!
+Think I don't know the difference between a hecker an' a nail?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Don't I?  I heered some one holloa, and as I don't believe in ghosts, I
+say some one must be here.  Ahoy! where are you, mate?"
+
+The speaker turned from his two companions, who were dragging the sledge
+up the slope of the snow-fall, and then smote one thigh heavily with the
+palm of his great hand.
+
+"I'm blest!" he shouted, as he ran a few steps and dropped on one knee
+by Abel's head.  "No, no; don't give in now, my lad.  Hold up, and we'll
+soon have you out o' this pickle.  Here, out with shovels and pecks,
+lads.  Here's a director of the frozen meat company caught in his own
+trap.  Specimen o' Horsestralian mutton froze hard and all alive O.
+Here, mate, take a sup o' this."
+
+The speaker unscrewed the top of a large flask, and held it to Abel's
+lips, trickling a few drops between them as the head fell back and the
+poor fellow nearly swooned away.
+
+"That's your sort.  Never mind its being strong.  I'd put some snow in
+it, but you've had enough of that.  Coming round, you are.  What's it
+been--a heavy 'lanche?"
+
+"Yes, yes," gasped Abel; "but never mind me."
+
+"What!  Want to be cut out carefully as a curiosity--fly-in-amber sort
+of a fellow?"
+
+"No, no--my cousin!  Buried alive, man.  Hark! you can hear him digging
+underground."  The great sturdy fellow, who bore some resemblance to
+ruddy-haired Beardy, sufficient in the distance and under the
+circumstances of his excitement to warrant Abel's misapprehension,
+stared at the snow prisoner for a few moments as if he believed him to
+be insane.
+
+"He's off his 'ead, mates, with fright," he said in a low voice to his
+companions, who were freeing the shovels; but Abel heard him.
+
+"No, no," he cried wildly.  "I know what I am saying.  Listen."
+
+The great, frank-looking fellow laid his ear to the snow, and leaped up
+again.
+
+"He's right," he roared excitedly.  "There's some one below--how many
+were with you, my lad?"
+
+"Only my cousin--we were buried together--but don't talk--dig, dig!"
+
+"Yes, both of you, slip into it.  Just here," cried the big man, "while
+I get the pick and fetch this one out."
+
+"No, no, not there," cried Abel frantically.  "Dig yonder, there by the
+rock wall."
+
+"What, right over yonder?  Sound's here."
+
+"Go and listen there," cried Abel.
+
+"Can you hold out?"
+
+"Yes, yes; hours now.  Save my cousin; for heaven's sake, quick!"
+
+One of the men had gone quickly to the rocky wall, knelt down and
+listened, and shouted back.
+
+"He's right," cried this latter.  "You can hear some one moleing away
+quite plain."
+
+"Dig, dig!" shouted Abel, and two of the new-comers began at once, while
+the leader of the party went to their sledge and dragged a sharp-pointed
+miner's pick from where it was lashed on.
+
+"No, no," cried Abel imploringly, as the man returned to his side; "save
+him."
+
+"You keep quiet, my lad.  I'm a-going to save you."
+
+"But I can breathe," cried Abel.
+
+"So can he, or he couldn't go on working.  Two heavy chaps is quite
+enough to be tramping over his head.  Don't want my sixteen stone to
+tread it hard.  Have a drop more o' this 'fore I begin?"
+
+"No, no!  It is burning my mouth still."
+
+"Good job too: put some life into you, just when you looked as if you
+was going to bye-bye for good.  Now then, don't you be skeart.  I know
+how to use a pick; been used to it in the Corn'll tin-mines.  I could
+hit anywhere to half a shadow round you without taking the skin off.
+I'll soon have you out."
+
+He began at once, driving the pick into the compressed snow; but after
+the first half-dozen strokes, seeing how the fragments flew, he took off
+his broad-brimmed felt hat and laid it against Abel's head as a screen.
+Then commencing again he made the chips fly in showers which glittered
+in the sunshine, as he walked backward, cutting a narrow trench with the
+sharp-pointed implement, taking the prisoner's head as a centre and
+keeping about thirty inches distant, and so on, round and round till the
+channel he cut was as deep as the arm of the pick, and quite clear.
+
+"Feel bad?" he said, pausing for a few moments.
+
+"No, no," cried Abel.  "How are they getting on?"
+
+"Better'n me.  If we don't look sharp your mate--what did you say he
+was--cousin?--'ll be out first."
+
+"I hope so," sighed Abel.
+
+"Now then, shut your eyes, my son," cried the miner.  "I'm going to cut
+from you now.  Lean your head away as much as you can.  I've cut the
+tire and felloes of the wheel; your head's the nave; now I'm going to
+cut the spokes."
+
+_Click, click, click_, went the pick.
+
+"Don't you flinch, my son," cried the man.  "I won't hit you."
+
+Abel had winced several times over, for the bright steel tool had
+whizzed by him dangerously close; but he grew more confident now, and,
+as much as he could for the sheltering hat, he watched the wonderful
+progress made by his rescuer, who at the end of a few minutes had deeply
+cut two more channels after the fashion of the spokes running from the
+centre to the periphery of the imaginary wheel.
+
+After this, a few well-directed blows brought out the intervening snow
+in great pieces, and upon these being cleared out another clever blow
+broke the gathered snow right up to the young man's left arm, leaving
+seven or eight inches below the shoulder clear.
+
+"That's your sort, my son," cried the miner cheerily, chatting away, but
+keeping the pick flying the while.  "The best way to have got you out
+would have been with a tamping iron, making a nice hole, dropping in a
+dynamite cartridge, and popping it off.  That would have sent this stuff
+flying, only it might have blowed you all to bits, which wouldn't have
+been pleasant.  This is the safest way.  How are you gettin' on, mates?"
+
+"All right.  He's 'live enough, Bob."
+
+"Work away, then.  Look here, my son, I did think of spoking you all
+round, but I'm beginning to think it'll be better to keep on at you this
+side, and then take you out of your mould sidewise like.  There won't be
+so much cutting to do, and you'll have one side clear sooner.  What do
+you say?"
+
+"I want you to go and help your companions," replied Abel faintly.
+
+"Then I'm sorry I can't oblige you," cried the man cheerily.  "Look at
+that now!  This fresh stuff hasn't had time to get very hard.  After a
+few thawings and freezings it would be like clear solid ice.  It's
+pretty firm, but--there's another.  Soon let daylight down by your ribs.
+I want to get that hand and arm clear first so as you can hold the hat
+to shade your face."
+
+And all the time he chatted away, coolly enough, the pick was wielded so
+dexterously, every blow being given to such purpose, that he cut out
+large pieces of the compressed snow and hooked them out of the rapidly
+growing hole.
+
+It was the work of a man who had toiled for years amongst the granite
+deep down in the bowels of the earth, and experience had taught him the
+value of striking so as to save labour; but all the same the task was a
+long one, and it grew more difficult the deeper down he went.
+
+"'Bliged to make the hole bigger, my son," he said; "but you hold up; I
+sha'n't be long now.  I say, how deep down do you go?  Are you a
+six-footer?"
+
+"No, I'm only about five feet eight," said Abel, whose face looked
+terribly pained and drawn.
+
+"Aren't you now?" said the man coolly.  "I should ha' thought by the
+look of your head and chest that you were taller.  Been a longer job
+with me.  I'm over six foot three, and good measure.  There, now that
+arm's clear, aren't it?  Can you lift it out?"
+
+Abel shook his head sadly.
+
+"There is no use in it," he said faintly.
+
+"Might ha' knowed it.  Bit numb like with the cold.  But you keep a good
+heart, and I'll have you out.  It's only a bit o' work, and no fear of
+caving in on us.  Just child's play like.  There's one arm clear, and a
+bit of your side, and the rest'll soon follow."
+
+The man paused in the act of getting the the top off the spirit-flask,
+and shouted to his companions, "Hoi!  Here, quick, lads, and help me
+here.  My one's going out."
+
+For a ghastly look crossed Abel's face, his eyes grew fixed, as they
+half-closed, and his head fell over on one side.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+A COWARD BLOW.
+
+The two men who had been fighting hard to reach Dallas, the sound of
+whose strokes seemed nearer than ever, rushed to their companion, who
+had begun chafing the buried man's face and temples, with the result
+that Abel raised his head again and looked wildly round.
+
+"I thought he was a goner, my sons," whispered the big fellow.  "Go on
+back to your chap; I'll manage here."
+
+The two men, who were excited by their task, rushed back again, and
+their companion moistened Abel's lips.
+
+The man began to work his pick again with wonderful rapidity, enlarging
+the hole, and every now and then giving a furtive glance at the prisoner
+and another in the direction where his companions were tearing out the
+icy snow.
+
+The great drops stood on the big Cornishman's face as he toiled away,
+enlarging the hole down beside Abel Wray, and all the time he kept up a
+cheery rattle of talk about how useful a tool a pick was, and how the
+lad he was helping--and whom he kept on calling "my son"--ought to have
+brought one of the same kind for the gold working to come; but the look
+in his big grey eyes looked darker and more sombre as he saw a grey
+aspect darkening the countenance of the prisoner--the air he had seen
+before in the faces of men whom he had helped to rescue after a fall of
+roof in one of the home mines.
+
+"He'll be a goner before I get him out if I don't mind," he said to
+himself, and the pick rattled, and the icy snow flashed as he struck
+here and there, only ceasing now and then to stoop and throw out some
+big lump which he had detached.
+
+"Better fun this, my son," he said with a laugh, "if all this was rich
+ore to be powdered up.  Fancy, you know--gold a hundredweight to the
+ton.  Rather different to our quartz rock at home, with just a sprinkle
+of tin that don't pay the labour.
+
+"Hah!" he cried at last, from where he stood in the well-like shaft he
+had cut, and threw down his pick on the snow.  "Now you ought to come."
+
+He rose, took hold of Abel as he spoke, and found that his calculations
+were right, for very little effort was required to draw him forward from
+out of the snowy mould in which he was belted; and the next minute the
+poor fellow lay insensible upon the snow, with his rescuer kneeling by
+him, once more trickling spirit between the blue lips.
+
+"Can't swallow," muttered the man, and he screwed up the flask, and set
+to work rubbing his patient vigorously, regardless of what was going on
+beneath the rocky wall, till there was a loud cheer, and his two
+companions came towards him, each holding by and shaking hands heartily
+with Dallas Adams.  For they had mined down to where they could meet him
+as he toiled upward to escape; and the first words of Dallas, when he
+was drawn out hot and exhausted, were a question about his cousin.
+
+The pair set at liberty joined in now in the endeavour to resuscitate
+the poor fellow lying on the snow.  Their sledge was unpacked, double
+blankets laid down, and the sufferer lifted upon them, friction
+liberally applied to the limbs, and at last they had the satisfaction of
+seeing him unclose his eyes, to stare blindly for a time.  Then
+consciousness returned, there was a look of joy flashing out, and he
+uttered the words hoarsely:
+
+"Dal!  Saved!"
+
+"Yes, yes, all right, old lad, thanks to these true fellows here.  How
+are you?"
+
+"Arms, hands, and legs burning and throbbing horribly.  I can hardly
+bear the pain."
+
+The big Cornishman laughed.
+
+"Only the hot-ache, my son," he said merrily.  "That's a splendid sign.
+You're not frost-bitten."
+
+"God bless you for all you have done," cried Abel, catching at the big
+fellow's hand.  "I couldn't hold out any longer."
+
+"Of course you couldn't.  Why, your pluck was splendid."
+
+"Thank him, Dal," cried Abel.  "He has saved my life."
+
+"Yah!  Fudge!  Gammon!  Stuff!  We don't want no thanking.  You two lads
+would have done the same.  We don't want to be preached at.  Tommy
+Bruff, my son, what do you say to a fire, setting the billy to boil, and
+a bit o' brax'uss?"
+
+"Same as you do, laddie.  Cup o' tea'll be about the right thing for
+these two."
+
+There was plenty of scrub pine at hand, swept down by the snow-fall, and
+sticking out here and there.  Axes were got to work, and soon after the
+two sufferers were seated, covered with fur-lined coats, and revelling
+in the glow of the fire, over which a big tin was steaming, while their
+new friends were busy bringing out cake, bread, tea, and bacon from
+their store in the partly unpacked sledge.
+
+The big, bearded Cornishman had started a black pipe, and while his
+companions replenished the fire and prepared for the meal, he sat on a
+doubled-up piece of tarpaulin, and wiped, dried, and polished picks,
+shovels, and axes ready for repacking.  Every now and then he paused to
+smile a big, happy, innocent-looking smile at the two who had been
+rescued, just as if he thoroughly enjoyed what had been done, and then,
+suddenly dropping the axe he was finishing, caught up a little measure
+of dry tea, and shouting, "There, she boils!" tossed it into the tin
+over the fire, lifted it off, and set it aside, and then laid the
+freshly polished tools on the sledge.
+
+Soon after, refreshed by the tins of hot tea, the rescued pair were able
+to give an account of their adventures, the new-comers listening eagerly
+and making their comments.
+
+"Ho!" said the big Cornishman, frowning.  "I expected we should come
+across some rough 'uns, but I didn't think it was going to be so bad as
+that.  Scared, mates?"
+
+"No," said one of his companions; "not yet."
+
+"Nor yet me," said the other.
+
+"Nor me neither," said the big fellow.  "If it's going to be peace and
+work, man and man, so much the better; but if it's war over the gold, we
+shall have to fight.  What's mine is mine, or ourn; and it'll go awkward
+for them as meddles with me.  I'm a nasty-tempered dog if any one tries
+to take my bone away; aren't I, my sons?"
+
+The two men addressed bent their heads back and burst into a roar of
+laughter.
+
+"Hark at him," said the man spoken to as Tommy.  "Don't you believe him,
+my lads.  He's a great big soft-roed pilchard; that's what he is.  Eh,
+Dick Humphreys?"
+
+"Yes; like a great big gal," assented the other.
+
+"Oh, am I?" said the big fellow.  "You don't know, my sons.  But I say,
+though," he continued, tapping the snow with his knuckles, "then for
+aught we know them three blacks is buried alive just under where we're
+sitting?"
+
+"I'm afraid so."
+
+"'Fraid?  What are you 'fraid on?"
+
+"It is a horrible death," said Abel, with a shudder.
+
+"Well, yes, I suppose it is," said the Cornishman thoughtfully.  "I say,
+we ought to get digging to find 'em, oughtn't we?"
+
+"We are not sure they are there," said Dallas.
+
+"Of course you are not," continued the miner, "and I don't believe they
+are.  You see, your mate here took us for 'em.  I believe Natur' made a
+mistake and buried you two instead of them.  If they are down below I
+haven't heard no signs of them, and they must be dead.  Why, it would
+take us a couple of years to clear all this stuff away, and we mightn't
+find 'em then.  I say, though, what about your tackle?"
+
+"Our sledges?  They're buried deep down here."
+
+"We shall have to get them out, then.  You two won't be able to get
+along without your traps."
+
+Soon after an inspection of the position was made; one of the men
+descended into the hole they had dug close up to the rock wall, and he
+returned to give his opinion that by devoting a day to the task the
+shaft could be so enlarged that they could drive a branch down straight
+to the spot, and save the stores and tools, even if they could not get
+the sledges out whole.
+
+It took two days, though, during which no fresh comers appeared, the
+report of the snow-fall having stopped further progress.  At the end of
+the above time, pretty well everything was saved by the help of the
+miner and his companions, who gallantly stood by them.
+
+"Oh, we've got plenty of time," said their leader, "and if these sort o'
+games are going to be played, it strikes me that you two gents would be
+stronger if you made a sort o' co. along of us.  Don't if you don't care
+to.  What do you say to trying how it worked for a bit?"
+
+This was gladly acceded to, and on the third day a move was made as far
+as the spot where the grim discovery had been made.
+
+Here the party halted, and the corpse of the unfortunate was reverently
+covered by a cairn of stones, along with his faithful dog; after which a
+discussion arose as to what should be done with the poor fellow's
+implements and stores.
+
+"Pity to leave 'em here," said one of the men.  "Only spoil.  Hadn't we
+better share 'em out."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Dallas.  "You three can."
+
+"Oh, but there's five on us, sir."
+
+"No, only three."
+
+"What do you say, Bob?" said the first speaker.
+
+"I says bring the poor chap's sled along with us.  If we're hard pushed
+we can use what's there; if we're not we sha'n't want it; and--well, I
+don't kind o' feel as if I should like any one to nobble my things like
+that.  Same time, I says it is no use to leave 'em to spoil."
+
+The next morning, with the young men little the worse for their
+adventure, they started onward, and for a couple of days made pretty
+good way, leaving the snow behind in their downward progress, till all
+further advance was stopped by the change for which they had been
+prepared before starting.  The watershed had been crossed, and they had
+reached the head waters of one of the tributaries of the vast Yukon
+River of the three thousand miles flow.
+
+The spot they had reached was a long, narrow lake, surrounded at the
+upper end by fir-woods.  The rest of the route was to be by water, and
+here a suitable raft had to be made.
+
+"Fine chance for a chap to set up boatbuilding," said Big Bob.  "What do
+you say?  I believe we should make more money over the job than by going
+to dig it out."
+
+"Let's try the gold-digging first," said Dallas; and with a cheer the
+men set to work at the trees selected, the axes ringing and the
+pine-chips flying in the bright sunshine till trunk after trunk fell
+with a crash, to be lopped and trimmed and dragged down to the water's
+edge ready for rough notching out to form the framework of such a raft
+as would easily bear the adventurers, their sledges and stores, down the
+lake and through the torrents and rapids of the river in its wild and
+turbulent course.
+
+The sledges were drawn up together in a triangle to form a shelter to
+the fire they had lit for cooking, for the wind came down sharply from
+the mountains.  Rifles and pistols lay with the sledges, for the little
+party of five had stripped to their work, so that, save for the axes
+they used, they were unarmed.
+
+But no thought of danger occurred to any one present; that was postponed
+in imagination till they had finished the raft and embarked for a
+twenty-mile sail down to where the river, which entered as a shallow
+mountain torrent, rushed out, wonderfully augmented, to tear northward
+in a series of wild rapids, which would need all the strength and
+courage of the travellers to navigate them in safety.
+
+A hearty laugh was ringing out, for the big Cornishman had rather
+boastingly announced that he could carry one of the fallen trees easily
+to the lake, put it to the proof, slipped, and gone head first into the
+water after the tree, when a sharp crack rang out from near at hand.
+
+Abel uttered a loud cry, clapped his hands to his head, and fell
+backward.
+
+For a moment or two the men stood as if paralysed, gazing at the fallen
+youth.  Then Dallas looked sharply round, caught sight of a thin film of
+smoke curling up from the edge of the forest, and with a cry of rage ran
+toward the sledges, thrusting the handle of his axe through his belt,
+caught up his revolver from where it lay, and dashed towards the spot
+whence the firing must have come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+WHOLESALE ROBBERY.
+
+"Keep together--keep together!" shouted the big Cornishman; but no one
+heeded, and he followed their example of seizing the first weapon he
+could reach and following.
+
+The pursuit was short, for it seemed madness to follow in amongst the
+dense pines which formed the forest, placing themselves at the mercy of
+an enemy who could bring them down as they struggled through the dense
+thicket of fallen trees and tangled branches: so, after a few rallying
+cries, they made their way back to the open space by the lake, to find
+Abel sitting up and resting his head upon his hand.
+
+"Wounded!" panted Dallas.
+
+"Yes--no!  I can't tell!  Look!" said the injured man huskily.
+
+A few minutes' examination showed how narrow had been his escape, a
+bullet having struck the side of the poor fellow's head, just abrading
+the scalp.  Half an inch lower must have meant death.
+
+"Injuns," said the Cornishman laconically.
+
+"No, no," cried Dallas, with a fierce look round; "it must be our
+enemies."
+
+"Not they, my lad; they're fast asleep under the snow, you may take your
+oath.  It's Injuns, by the way they hid themselves.  Now, then, can you
+keep watch--sentry go?" he said, addressing Abel.
+
+"Yes, it was only a graze from the bullet; I am better now."
+
+"Then you take a loaded rifle and keep watch while we go on knocking the
+raft together."
+
+"Yes," cried Dallas, "the sooner we get away from here the better."
+
+All set to work with feverish energy at the raft-making.  Enough wood
+was cut, and by clever notching together, the use of spikes, and a
+further strengthening with rope, the framework rapidly progressed, their
+intention being to launch, load up, and set off that evening, so as to
+get to a safer spot.
+
+Abel carefully kept his watch, scanning the dark edge of the forest; but
+there was no further interruption, and the men worked away, with only a
+brief pause for refreshment.
+
+Then the sun dipped below the pines, and as darkness approached Dallas
+let his axe rest on the young pine he had been trimming, and turned to
+his companions, with a look of despair in his eyes.
+
+"Yes," said the Cornishman good-humouredly, "we cut out more stuff than
+we can finish to-night, my son.  It's a bigger job than I thought.  We
+shall have to knock off now.  What's to be done about the fire?"
+
+It was risky work, but the watch was well kept while water was boiled
+and bacon fried.  Then a hasty meal was made, and as the darkness fell
+the fire was quenched by throwing over it a bucket or two of water.
+
+It was hard enough to do this, for though the ground was clear about
+them, snow lay on every rocky hill, and the night promised to be
+bitterly cold.  But the exposure to an enemy would have been too great;
+so after selecting one of the huge spruces whose boughs hung down to the
+ground for a shelter, and dragging the sledges close in, the question
+arose of continuing the watch.
+
+"Tchah!  It's as dark as pitch," said the Cornishman.  "Nobody could
+see.  Let the enemy think we're watching.  They won't come.  We must
+chance it.  Wrap up well, and have a good night's rest."
+
+This advice was taken, and soon after all were sleeping the sleep of
+exhaustion, and awoke at daylight without a fresh alarm.
+
+The previous day's tactics were resumed, and the toil over the raft went
+on, but there was still so much to do in the way of bracing and
+strengthening the rough craft so that it might withstand the fierce
+currents and concussions they were to expect at the lower part of the
+lake where the rapids began, that the hours glided by till late in the
+afternoon, and still the task was not done.
+
+"Who could have thought it would take so long?" said Dallas at last.
+"You see, we have everything to cut."
+
+"No one, my son," said their big friend, smiling; "but I bet we
+shouldn't have got the job done for us in double the time."
+
+"It would be madness to start to-night."
+
+"Stark.  Couldn't get loaded up before dark, and then it'll be like
+pitch.  Let's cut some poles for punting and a mast to make a bit of
+sail if we like, and then I think we may say that we have got our job
+well done, ready for loading up and starting in the morning."
+
+"Yes," said Abel, who seemed little the worse for his last mishap; "it
+was better to make a good job of the raft."
+
+"And that we've done," said the Cornishman.
+
+The poles were cut, trimmed, and laid upon the deck, which had been
+finished after launching; and now, as they examined their work, all were
+satisfied that it could not have been done better in the time, for as it
+lay in the clear water, swinging by a rope secured to a pine-stump, all
+felt that it would easily bear the party, their sledges and stores; and
+the pity seemed to be that it could not be used for the whole of their
+journey.
+
+"Who knows?  Perhaps it may."
+
+There was an hour's daylight yet, and this was utilised down on the
+sandy shore of the stream which ran into the lake hard by.
+
+It was the first trial, and no little interest was felt as every man
+waded into the icy cold water, pannikin in hand, to scoop the sand aside
+and then get a tinful from as deep down as they could.
+
+This was washed and watched beneath the water, the stones thrown out,
+and washed again, till only a little sand remained, and this was
+carefully examined.
+
+"Gold!" cried Dallas excitedly; and this was eagerly responded to by the
+others, for in every pan there was some of the precious metal, but such
+tiny grains that it was decided that a halt would be useless there.
+
+"Farther on," said Dallas excitedly; "this is only the edge of the
+golden land, but here is proof that we are going right."
+
+"Yes," said the big Cornishman; "but I don't rest till we can shovel it
+up like gravel from a pit."
+
+Darkness put an end to their search, and once more the fire was
+quenched, and in silence they sought the shelter of the great tree,
+placed their arms ready, rolled themselves in their blankets, and were
+soon asleep.
+
+It seemed as if they had only just lain down when one of the men
+shouted, "Morning!"
+
+"Hooray!" cried the big Cornishman.  "Who's going to face the cold, and
+have a dip in the lake?"
+
+Every one but Abel, who hung back.
+
+"Don't you feel well enough to come?" said Dallas anxiously.
+
+"Yes, but some one ought to light the fire and set the billy to boil."
+
+"Here!  Hi!  All of you," yelled the big Cornishman, who had gone on.
+"Quick!"
+
+All ran at the alarm, and then stood aghast.
+
+"The rope must have come undone," cried Dallas.
+
+"Don't look like it, my son.  It's left part of itself behind."
+
+"Broken--snapped?" cried Abel.
+
+"Sawed through with a knife," said one of the men.
+
+"Injuns.  Come in the night; lucky they didn't use their knives to us,"
+growled the Cornishman fiercely, as he looked searchingly round.
+
+"Look," cried Dallas, excited; "these are not Indian traces;" and he
+pointed down at the sandy shore.
+
+"Indian?  No," cried Abel, going down on his knees; "the marks of
+navigators' boots, with nails;" and he looked wildly across and down the
+lake.
+
+But the raft, their two days' hard work, had gone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+MAKING THE BEST OF IT.
+
+"You're quite right, my son," said the Cornishman coolly, after lighting
+his pipe and carefully examining the ground.  "I'm not much of a hand at
+this kind of thing, but it looks plain enough.  Here's all our footmarks
+quite fresh, and here's a lot more that look as if they were made last
+night."
+
+"Last night?" cried Dallas.
+
+"Ay, that they do."
+
+"But those may be ours."
+
+"Nay; not one of us has got a hoof like that," cried the Cornishman,
+pointing with the stem of his pipe.  "I've got a tidy one of my own, but
+I aren't pigeon-toed.  Look at that one, too, and that.  Yonder's our
+marks, and, hullo! what's that lying in the water?"
+
+The others gazed in the indicated direction, and Dallas leaped into the
+shallow water, to stoop down and pick out a knife.
+
+"Some one must have dropped this," he cried.
+
+"Unless one of us has lost his," said the big fellow.  "Any one own it?"
+
+There was a chorus of negatives.
+
+"Well, I'm sorry," cried the Cornishman.  "Poor chap!  How savage he'll
+be to find he has lost his toothpick.  Look here," he continued grimly,
+"if you all don't mind, I'll take care o' this bit of steel.  We may
+meet the chap as lost it, and I should like to give it him back."
+
+"Oh," cried Dallas passionately, "how can you laugh and make a joke of
+such a misfortune as this?"
+
+"What's the good o' crying about it, my son?" said the man, smiling.
+"There's worse disasters at sea.  Who says light a fire and have a good
+breakfast?"
+
+"Breakfast!" cried Abel; "nonsense!  We must go in pursuit at once."
+
+"And leave our traps for some one else to grab?  Why, dear boy, we
+couldn't get through the forest empty-handed."
+
+"No," said Abel, gazing along the bank of the lake disconsolately.
+
+"He's right, Bel," said Dallas, after shading his eyes and looking down
+the lake.  "They've got right away."
+
+"Hang 'em, yes," said the Cornishman, smiling merrily.  "I say, I wish
+we hadn't taken quite so much pains with that there raft.  If we'd known
+we'd ha' saved all those six-inch spikes we put in it."
+
+"The scoundrels, whoever they are!" cried Dallas.  "It's beyond
+bearing."
+
+"Nay, not quite, my son," said their new friend good-humouredly,
+"because we've got to bear it.  Cheer up.  Might have been worse.  You
+see, it was a fresh lot come along while we were asleep and out of
+sight.  `Hullo!' says one of 'em, `now I do call this kind; some un's
+made us a raft all ready for taking to the water.  Come along, mates,'
+and they all comed."
+
+"I wish I'd heard them," cried Dallas.
+
+"Well, if you come to that, so do I, my sons.  But there, we've got our
+tackle, and they haven't taken all the wood, so we must make another."
+
+"Yes, and waste two more days," cried Abel angrily.
+
+"Well, we're none of us old yet," said the Cornishman good-humouredly;
+"and I don't suppose those who have gone before will have got all the
+gold."
+
+"But it is so annoying to think that we lay snoring yonder and let
+whoever they were steal the raft," said one of the men.
+
+"So it is, my son," cried his companion; "and I can see that you two are
+chock full o' swear words.  Tell you what: you two go in yonder among
+the trees and let 'em off, while we three light the fire and cook the
+rashers.  It'll ease your minds, and you'll feel better.  I say, what's
+about the value of that there raft?"
+
+"I wouldn't have taken twenty pounds for my share of it," cried Abel.
+
+"Humph!  Twenty," said the Cornishman musingly.  "Well, seeing it's
+here, we'll say twenty pound.  There's five of us, and that makes a
+hundred.  All right, my sons; we shall come upon those chaps one of
+these days, and they'll have to pay us about a pound and a harf o' gold
+for our work; and if they don't there's going to be a fight.  Now then,
+gentlemen, fire--breakfast--and then work.  We shall be a bit more handy
+in making another.  Wish we'd had a bit o' paint."
+
+"Paint!  What for?" cried Dallas and Abel in a breath.
+
+"Only to have touched it up, and made it look pretty for 'em."
+
+"Never mind!" said Dallas, through his teeth.  "We'll make it to look
+pretty for them when we find them."
+
+"So we will, my son," cried the Cornishman, and as he gathered chips and
+branches together he kept on indulging in a hearty laugh at the prospect
+of the encounter; and as the two young adventurers glanced at the man's
+tremendous arms, they had sundry thoughts about what would happen to the
+thieves.
+
+The Cornishman was right; they were much more handy over making the
+second raft, and worked so hard that by the end of the following day a
+new and stronger one was made and loaded ready for the next morning's
+start.
+
+But this time a watch was kept, one of the party sitting on board until
+half the night had passed, when he was relieved by another; and as the
+sun rose, breakfast was over, and they cast off the rope from the
+pine-stump which had formed the mooring-post.
+
+The morning was glorious, and the sun lit up the snow-covered mountains,
+making the scene that of a veritable land of gold.  A light breeze, too,
+was blowing in their favour, so that their clumsy craft was wafted down
+the lake, which here and there assumed the aspect of a wide river of the
+bluest and purest water, the keen, elastic air sending a thrill of
+health and strength through them, and it seemed as if the tales they had
+heard of the perils they were to encounter were merely bugbears, for
+nothing could have been pleasanter than their passage.
+
+"Let's see," said Dallas, who was well provided with map and plan; "when
+we get to the bottom of this lake there are some narrows and rapids to
+pass along."
+
+"So we heard," said the Cornishman.  "Well, so much the better.  We
+shall go the faster.  I suppose they're not Falls of Ni-agger-ray.--I
+say, can you gents swim?"
+
+"Pretty well," was the reply.  "Can you?"
+
+The big fellow scratched his head and screwed up his face into a queer
+smile.
+
+"You ask my two mates," he said.
+
+"No, I asked you," said Dallas.
+
+"Not a stroke, my son.  If we get capsized I shall trust to being six
+foot three and a half and walk out.  I don't s'pose it'll be deeper than
+that.  If it is, I dessay my mates'll lend me a hand."
+
+"Then we mustn't capsize," said Abel.
+
+"Well, it would be as well not," said one of the other party drily, "on
+account of the flour and sugar and tea.  I always said you ought to
+swim, Bob, old man."
+
+"So you did, mate," said the big fellow, with a chuckle.  "And as soon
+as it gets warm enough I'm going to learn."
+
+That night they reached the foot of the lake where the rocky walls
+closed in, forming a narrow ravine, through which the great body of
+water seemed to be emptying itself with a roar, the aspect of the place
+being dangerous enough to make the party pole to the shore at the first
+likely landing-place and camp for the night.
+
+The evening was well upon them by the time they had their fire alight,
+and after a hearty meal their couch of pine-boughs proved very welcome.
+
+"Sounds ominous, Dal," said Abel.  "I hope we shall get safely through
+in the morning."
+
+"We must," was the reply.  "Don't think about it; we ought to be
+hardened enough to do anything now.  How's your head?"
+
+"A bit achey sometimes.  And your shoulder?"
+
+There was no reply, for, utterly wearied out with poling the raft,
+Dallas was asleep, leaving only one of the party to watch the expiring
+embers of the fire, and listen to the rapids' deep humming roar.
+
+Abel did not keep awake, though, long.  For after getting up to satisfy
+himself that the raft was safe, he lay down again, meaning to watch till
+the fire was quite out, though there was not the slightest danger of
+their being attacked.  The only way an enemy could have approached was
+by water, and it was with a calm, restful sense of satisfaction that the
+young man stretched himself out on the soft boughs as he said to
+himself, "There isn't a boat on the lake, and it would take any party
+two days to make a raft."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+FROM THE FRYING-PAN INTO THE WET FIRE.
+
+"We could not have better weather, Bel," said Dallas, as they finished
+the next morning's breakfast.  "Summer is coming."
+
+"Rather a snowy summer," was the reply; "but never mind the cold: let's
+try wherever we halt to see if there is any gold; those fellows are
+getting out their tins."
+
+A few minutes later all were gold-washing on the shore, their Cornish
+friend having cast loose a shovel, and given every person a charge of
+sand and stones from one of the shallows, taking his shovelfuls from
+places a dozen yards or so apart.
+
+Then the washing began in the bright sunshine, with the same results--a
+few tiny specks of colour, as the men termed their glittering scales of
+gold-dust.
+
+"That's your sort, gentlemen," cried the Cornishman, washing out his
+pan, after tossing the contents away; "plenty of gold, and if you worked
+hard you might get about half enough to starve on.  Why, we could ha'
+done better at home, down in Wales.  You can get a hundred pounds' worth
+of gold there if you spend a hundred and fifty in labour."
+
+"Yes; but even this dust shows that we are getting into the gold
+region," said Dallas.
+
+"That's right, my son, so come along and let's get there.  I s'pose
+we're going right?"
+
+"We must be," said Dallas.  "I have studied the maps well, and we passed
+the watershed--"
+
+"Eh?  We haven't passed no watershed.  Not so much as a tent."
+
+Dallas had to explain that they had crossed the mountains which shed the
+water in different directions.
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it, my son?  I thought you meant something built up."
+
+"So he did," said Abel, smiling, "by nature.  When we were on the other
+side of the mountains the streams ran towards the south."
+
+"That's right, master."
+
+"Now you see the direction in which the water runs is towards the north.
+Here in the map is the great Yukon River, running right across from
+east to west, and these lakes form the little rivers which must run into
+the Yukon."
+
+"And that's the great gold river, my sons."
+
+"Yes; but we shall find what we want in the rivers and creeks that run
+down from the mountains to form the Yukon."
+
+"That's all right, my son; so if we keep to these waters we must come to
+the right place at last."
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"So do I, my son; so, as they said at the 'Merican railway stations,
+`All aboard, and let's get as far down to-day as we can.'"
+
+They stepped on to the raft, cast off the rope, and each man picked up
+one of the twelve-foot pine-sapling poles they had provided for their
+navigation down the rapids, of which they had been warned at starting;
+and the big Cornishman planted himself in front.
+
+"Anybody else like to come here?" he said.
+
+There was a chorus of "No's," and he nodded and smiled.
+
+"Thought I was best here to fend the raft off the rocks when she begins
+to race.  I say, we're going to have it lower down.  Hear it?"
+
+All nodded assent.
+
+"If we are capsized, my sons," continued the big fellow drily, "one of
+you had better swim up to me and take me on his back.  What do you say,
+little un?" he added to Abel.  "It'll be your turn to help me."
+
+"I'll stand by you," cried Abel; "never fear."
+
+"I know that, my lad.  I say, the stream begins to show now as the place
+gets narrower.  Looks as if it'll be nearly closed in.  Well, we must
+risk it.  There's no walking as I see on either side."
+
+"Ahoy!" came from the right bank, where the lake was fast becoming a
+river.
+
+"Ahoy to you, and good morning, whoever you are," cried the Cornishman.
+
+Some unintelligible words followed, he who uttered them being plainly to
+be seen now on a ledge some fifty feet above the surface of the water.
+But his signs were easy to be understood.
+
+"Wants us to give him a lift," said Dallas.  "Can we stop?"
+
+"Oh, yes, and it would only be civil," said the Cornishman.  "Just room
+for one first-class passenger.  All right; lend a hand here.  I can
+touch bottom.  'Bout seven foot."
+
+Poles were thrust down, and the raft was urged across the flowing water
+till the eddy on the far side was reached, and then, with the fierce
+roar coming out of a narrow gap in the rocks a few hundred yards lower,
+the raft was easily thrust into a little cove below the man on the
+shelf.
+
+"Going down the rapids?" he shouted.
+
+"We are, my lad," cried their captain.  "Why?"
+
+"Will you give a poor fellow a lift down?  I can't get any farther for
+the rocks."
+
+"Far as the gold country?"
+
+"Oh, no: I don't ask that.  Only to where I can tramp again."
+
+"Well, we've just room for a little un," said the Cornishman.  "Much
+luggage?"
+
+"Only this pack," was the reply.
+
+"Jump in, then," said the leader, with a grim smile.  "P'r'aps, though,
+you'd better come lower."
+
+The man nodded, slung his pack over his shoulder, and then, turning,
+began to descend the almost perpendicular face of the rocks, twice over
+narrowly escaping a bad fall.  But at last he reached the foot, waded
+out a little, and then stepped on board.
+
+"Thankye," he said; "you are good Christians.  I've been here a
+fortnight, and couldn't get any farther.  I shouldn't have been alive
+now if I hadn't got a fish or two."
+
+"You are tramping to the gold region all alone, then?"
+
+"Yes, and I've nearly tramped all the way from Chicago."
+
+The Cornishman turned and stared.
+
+"I got a lift sometimes on the cattle and freight trains, though, when I
+could creep on unseen."
+
+"The gold has a magnetic attraction for you, then?" said Abel.
+
+"I suppose so, but it's my last chance.  This is a solitary way, though,
+isn't it?  I've hardly seen a soul.  I saw your fire, though, last
+night, across yonder."
+
+"Did you see anybody go by on a raft three or four days ago?" cried
+Dallas eagerly.
+
+"I did.  Party of three, and hailed them."
+
+"What were they like?" cried Abel.
+
+"Roughs; shacks; loafers.  One of them had a big red beard."
+
+Dallas started, and glanced at Abel.
+
+"A brute!" cried the stranger fiercely.  "I asked them to give me a
+lift, as I was going to starve here if they didn't, and I warned them
+that I had heard it wanted a strong party to take a craft through the
+rapids.  `All right, stranger,' he said, pushing the craft a little
+nearer.  `Mind lending me your knife to trim this rough pole with?  I've
+lost mine.'"
+
+It was Abel now who glanced at Dallas.
+
+"`Catch,' I said, pitching mine, in its sheath."
+
+"Well?" said the Cornishman, fumbling in his belt.
+
+"Well," continued the man, with a sombre look in his eyes, "he caught
+it, and began to smooth his pole, letting the raft drift away; and
+though I begged and prayed of them to stop for me, they only laughed,
+and let her get right into the current.  It was life or death to me, as
+I thought then," continued the stranger, "and I climbed along that shelf
+and followed, shouting and telling them I was starving, and begging them
+to throw me my knife back if they wouldn't take me aboard; but they only
+laughed, and told me to go and hang myself.  But I followed on as fast
+as I could, right along to the opening yonder where it's so narrow that
+I could speak to them close to; and though I knew they couldn't stop the
+raft there, I thought they'd throw me my knife."
+
+"And did they?" said the Cornishman.
+
+"No.  I was there just before them, and I shouted; but you can't hear
+yourself speak there, the roar echoes so from the rocks.  The next
+minute they'd been swept by me so near I could almost have jumped on
+board; and there I stood, holding on and reaching out so that I could
+see them tear down through the rushing water.  They'd took fright,
+dropped their poles, and were down on their knees holding on, with the
+raft twisting slowly round."
+
+"Capsized?" cried Dallas.
+
+"Drowned?" cried Abel.
+
+"I could not see," continued the stranger.  "I watched them till they
+went into a sort of fog with a rainbow over it, and then I felt ready to
+jump in and try to swim, or get drowned, for without my knife I felt
+that all was over."
+
+"Not drowned, then?" said Dallas.
+
+"No, my son; them as is born to be hanged'll never be drowned," said the
+big Cornishman grimly.  "Look ye here, old chap, you'd better take this
+toothpick; it's the one that the boss of that party who stole our raft
+lost."
+
+"Ah!" cried the stranger; "they stole your raft?"
+
+"They did, my son, and it seems to me things aren't at all square, for
+these here fellows are ready to do anything--from committing murder down
+to stealing a knife.  Why, they've even cheated death, or else they'd be
+lying comfortably buried in the snow."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Dallas, as he stood grasping his pole, and the raft
+began to glide along.
+
+"Yes, it is `Hah!' my son," said the Cornishman; "but I shouldn't wonder
+if we came across a tree some day bearing fruit at the end of a hempen
+stalk.  I say, though, my son, is the river below there so dangerous as
+you say?"
+
+"Yes; it is a horrible fall, as far as I could see."
+
+"Then hadn't you better stop ashore?"
+
+"And starve?" said the man bitterly.
+
+"You're ready to risk it, then?" said Dallas.
+
+"I'd risk anything rather than stop alone in this horrible solitude,"
+said the stranger excitedly.
+
+"All right, then, my son.  There's a spare pole.  Set your pack down;
+take hold, and come on."
+
+The stranger did as he was told, and took the place pointed out.
+
+"If it's as noisy as he says," continued the Cornishman, "there'll be no
+shouting orders--it'll all be signs.  So what you see me do you've got
+to follow.  Spit in your hands, all of you, and hold tight with your
+feet.  Stick to it, and we'll get through.  We must; there's no other
+way."
+
+No one spoke in reply, but their companion's cheery way of meeting the
+perils ahead sent a thrill of confidence through the party, as they
+stood on the triangular raft, noting that the current was gradually
+growing swifter as the rocky walls on either side closed in from being
+hundreds of yards apart to as many feet, and the distance lessening
+rapidly more and more.
+
+It was horrible, but grand, and as the pace increased, a curious
+sensation of intoxicating excitement attacked the party, whose senses
+seemed to be quickened so that they could note the wondrous colours of
+the rocks, the vivid green of the ferns and herbs which clustered in the
+rifts and cracks, and the glorious clearness of the water.
+
+So excited was the great fellow at the head of the raft that he raised
+his pole, turned to look at his companions, and then pointed onward,
+while moment by moment the great walls of rock seemed to close in upon
+them as if to crush all flat.
+
+Up to now their progress had been a swift glide, but as they approached
+the narrow opening, which seemed not much more than wide enough to let
+them pass, the raft began to undulate and proceed by leaps, each longer
+than the last, while the water rippled over the side.
+
+Then all at once the front portion--the apex of the elongated triangle--
+rose as if at a leap, dipped again, and they were off with a terrific
+rush in a narrow channel of rock, up whose sides the water rose as if to
+escape the turmoil.  Wave rose above wave, struggling to get onward;
+there was the roar of many waters growing more deafening, and the raft
+was tossed about like a straw, its occupants being forced to kneel and
+try to fend her off from the sides.  And now, to add to the horror,
+turmoil, and confusion, they plunged at a tremendous speed into a bank
+of churned up mist, dense as the darkest cloud, rushing onward in bounds
+and leaps which made the raft quiver, till all at once Dallas, who was
+near their captain, suddenly caught sight of a mass of rocks apparently
+rising out of the channel right in their way.
+
+The next moment there was a terrific shock, a rush of water, black
+darkness, and everything seemed to be at an end.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+"THOSE BORN TO BE HANGED."
+
+The preparations for fending the raft off the rocks that might be in
+their way, or keeping it from the wall-like sides which overhung them,
+were absurd; for as they were swept into the furious rapid, and whirled
+and tossed about, each man instinctively dropped his pole to crouch down
+and cling for dear life to the rough pieces of timber they had so
+laboriously notched, nailed, and bound together.
+
+The course of the river was extremely erratic, zigzagging through the
+riven, rocky barrier which formed the ancient dam at the foot of the
+lake; and one minute they were swept to right, the next to left, while
+at every angle there was a whirlpool which threatened to suck them down.
+
+Noise, darkness, the wild turmoil of tumbling waters, blinding mist, and
+choking spray, strangled and confused the little crew, so that they
+clung to the raft, feeling that all was over, and that they were about
+to be plunged deep down into the bowels of the earth.  Dallas was
+conscious of wedging his toes between two of the timbers, clinging with
+his left hand, and reaching over the bound-down sledges to grasp Abel's;
+and then all seemed to be blank for a length of time that he could not
+calculate.  It might have been a minute--it might have been an hour; but
+he held on to his cousin's hand, which clutched his in return in what
+seemed to be a death-grip, till all at once they were shot out into the
+bright sunshine, and were gliding at a tremendous rate down a
+water-slide, with the water hissing and surging about them where they
+knelt.
+
+As soon as he could sweep the blinding spray from his eyes, Dallas
+looked round in wonder, to find that all his companions were upon the
+raft, and that the rocky walls on either side were receding fast as the
+river opened out, while the rapid down which they plunged seemed quite
+clear of rocks.
+
+The deafening noise was dying out too, and as Dallas looked back at the
+fast growing distant gap in the rock through which they had been shot,
+he wondered that the raft should have held together with its freight,
+and that they should still be there.
+
+His brain seemed still to be buzzing with the confusion, when he was
+conscious of some one beside him giving himself a shake like a great
+water-dog and shouting:
+
+"What cheer, there!  Not dead yet.  Are any of you?"
+
+There was no reply--every one looking strained and oppressed; then,
+without a word, the little party began to shake hands warmly, and the
+big Cornishman shook his head.
+
+"It was a rum un!" he exclaimed; "it was a rum un!  Well, we're all
+alive O, and if we do get any gold, you may all do as you like, but I
+shall go back home some other way."
+
+The straightforward naive way in which this was said seemed so absurd on
+the face of it that the cousins could not refrain from smiling: but the
+sight of a great mass of rock ahead dividing the swift stream into two,
+and toward which the raft seemed to be rushing fast, made all turn to
+seize their poles and fend it off from a certainty of wreck.
+
+However, the poles were all probably being whirled round and round one
+of the pools they had passed, like scraps of straw, and the shattering
+of the raft seemed a certainty; but their big companion was a man of
+resource.  Seating himself upon the edge of the raft as it glided evenly
+along, he waited with legs extended for the coming contact.  His feet
+touched the rock, and a vigorous thrust eased their craft off, the brave
+fellow's sturdy limbs acting like strong buffers, so that there was only
+a violent jerk, the raft swung round, and they went gliding on again.
+
+The current was swift, but clear now from further obstacles, and hope
+grew strong.
+
+"I say, I call it grand!" cried one of the men.  "We shall soon get
+there if we keep on like this."
+
+"Yes, but the sooner one of us takes a rope and jumps ashore, the
+better.  We must cut some fresh poles."
+
+This was done at the first opportunity, Abel leaping on to the rocky
+bank with a rope, as they glided by a spot where the forest of pines
+came down close to them; and then, seizing his opportunity, he gave the
+rope a turn round a small tree.  There was a jerk, and the hemp
+threatened to part; but it held, and the raft swung round and became
+stationary as the rope was made fast.
+
+The first proceeding was to wring out their garments, and the next to
+examine the sledges, which had been so well made fast when loaded up
+that they had not stirred; but some of the stores were damaged with
+water.
+
+"Can't help it," said Dallas cheerily.  "Our lives are saved."
+
+Something was done towards their drying by the warm sunshine, for this
+came down brightly, though the aspect round was growing almost as wintry
+as the country they had passed through higher up beyond the lake; and as
+they gazed at the mountains, which they felt must lie somewhere near the
+part for which they were aiming, it seemed as if they would, after all,
+be arriving too soon for successful work.
+
+The raft proved useful for some days on their way north by river and
+lake, their journey being through a labyrinth of waterways, where again
+and again they made halts in likely places to try for the object of
+their search.
+
+But the result was invariably the same; they found gold, but never in
+sufficient quantity to warrant a stay.
+
+"Wouldn't pay for bread and onions, my sons," said the Cornishman, and
+they pushed on farther and farther into the northern solitudes, with
+their loads growing lighter, and a feeling of longing to reach the
+golden land where they knew something in the way of settlements and
+stores existed, and where people could at once take up claims and begin
+work.  For a comparison of notes proved that they were all rapidly
+coming to the end of their means.
+
+The subject of the passage of the raft down the cataract had been
+several times over discussed during their halts, and the possibility of
+their enemies having escaped.  The Cornishman and his companions,
+including the man they had succoured, declared as one that the marauding
+trio must have perished.
+
+"And so should we, my sons," said the big fellow, "if we had gone down
+that water-slide on the first raft."
+
+"I do not see it," said Dallas; "we made both."
+
+"Yes; but the first was when we were 'prentices, the second was when we
+had served our time."
+
+The speaker laughed as he said this; and as it happened, it was on the
+second day after that he pointed with something like triumph to some
+newly cut and trimmed young pieces of pine-trunk notched in a peculiar
+way, cast up among some rocks on the shores of the little lake they were
+crossing.
+
+"That's the end of 'em, my sons," he said.
+
+"Oh, no; any one may have cut down those trees."
+
+"For sartain, my son; but I nailed 'em together, for there's one of my
+spikes still sticking in.  Good nail, too; see how it's twisted and
+bent."
+
+This seemed unanswerable, but neither Abel nor Dallas was convinced.
+
+"They may have swum ashore," Abel said to his cousin, as they lay down
+to sleep that night.
+
+"Yes," said Dallas, "and I shall hold to Bob's proverb about those born
+to be hanged."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+A PLUNGE INTO HOT QUARTERS.
+
+"So this is the golden city," said Dallas, as he and Abel sat, worn out
+and disconsolate, gazing at a confusion of tents, sheds, and shanties,
+for it could be called nothing else, on the hither side of a tumbled
+together waste of snow and ice spreading to right and left.  "Is it all
+a swindle or a dream?"
+
+"I hope it's a dream," replied his cousin, limping a step or two, and
+then seating himself on the sledge which, footsore and weary, he had
+been dragging for the last few days after they had finally abandoned
+their raft.  "I hope it's a dream, and that we shall soon wake."
+
+The big Cornishman took his short pipe out of his mouth, blew a big
+cloud, looked at his companions, who were asleep rolled up in their
+blankets, and then at the cousins.
+
+"Oh, we're wide awake enough, my sons," he said, "and we've got here at
+last."
+
+"Yes," said Dallas bitterly; "we've got here, and what next?"
+
+"Make our piles, as the Yankees call it, my lads."
+
+"Where?" cried Abel.  "Why, we had better have stayed and washed
+gold-dust out of the sand up one of those streams."
+
+"Oh, you mustn't judge of a place first sight; but I must say it aren't
+pretty.  People seems to chuck everything they don't want out o' doors,
+like the fisher folk down at home in Cornwall.  But it's worse here, for
+they've got no sea to come up and wash the rubbish away."
+
+"Nor yet a river," said Dallas.  "I expected the Yukon to be a grand
+flowing stream."
+
+"Well, give it a chance, my son," said the big fellow cheerily.  "A
+river can't flow till it begins to thaw a bit.  Chap tells me it's very
+late this year, but it'll break up and clear itself in a few hours.
+Says it's a sight worth seeing."
+
+"But we did not come to see sights," said Abel peevishly.  "Where's that
+other man?"
+
+"Gone.  Told me to tell you both that he was very grateful for the help
+you had given him, and that now he's going to shift for himself."
+
+"The way of the world!" said Dallas dismally.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, my son.  He's right enough.  Said if he had the luck
+to find a good claim up one of the creeks he should peg out five more
+alongside of it and come and look us up, and made me promise I'd do the
+same to him.  What do you think of that?"
+
+"Nothing," said Dallas.  "I'm too tired out to think of anything but
+eating and sleeping, and there seems to be no chance of finding a place
+to do either."
+
+"No, my son; it's a case of help yourself.  I've been having a look
+round, and the only thing I can find anybody wants to sell is whisky."
+
+"Yes, that was all they had at the store I went to.  That's the place
+with the iron roof and the biscuit-tin sides--yonder, where those
+howling dogs are tied up."
+
+"Ah, I went there," said the Cornishman, "and the Yankee chap it belongs
+to called it his hotel.  But to go back to what we are to do next, my
+son.  We mustn't stay here, but go up to one of the little streams
+they're talking about, and peg out claims as soon as we find good signs.
+Now, I've been thinking, like our chap who lost his knife, that we'd
+better separate here and go different ways.  If we find a good place
+we'll come to you, and if you find one you'll share with us.  What do
+you say?"
+
+"Tired of our company?" asked Abel bitterly.
+
+The big fellow turned to him and smiled.
+
+"Look here, my son," he said, "that foot of yours hurts you more than
+you owned to.  You take my advice; after we've got a bit of a fire and
+made our camp and cooked our bit o' supper, you make a tin o' water hot
+and bathe it well, and don't you use that foot much for a day or two.
+No, my sons, I'm not tired of you.  If I had been I should ha' said
+good-bye days ago.  I'm sorry for us to break up our party, but I've
+been thinking that what I proposed was the best plan, even if it does
+sound rough."
+
+"Yes, I suppose it is," said Dallas, speaking in a more manly way.  "I
+beg your pardon.  So does my cousin here.  We're fagged out, and this
+does seem such a damper.  I wish we were back somewhere in the
+pine-woods."
+
+"Tchah!  I don't want no pardons begged, my son.  I know.  When I saw
+this lovely spot first I felt as if I could sit down and swear; but what
+good would that ha' done?  It'll be all right.  Now it seems to me that
+we shall be more comfort'ble if we go just over yonder away from the
+hotels and places, make our bit o' fire, get a pannikin of tea, and then
+two of us'll stop and look after the traps in case any one should come
+and want to borrow things and we not know where they're gone.  T'others
+had better have a look round and drop in here and there at these places
+where the men meet.  It won't do to be proud out here.  I want to see
+some of the gold."
+
+"Eh?" cried a big, hearty voice, and a man who was passing stopped short
+and looked at them.  "Want to see some of the gold?  Well, there you
+are!"
+
+He unfastened a strap that went across his breast, and drew a heavy
+leather satchel from where it hung like a cartouche-box on his back.
+
+"Catch hold," he cried.  "That's some of the stuff."
+
+The three awake looked at the stranger sharply, and the Cornishman
+opened the bag, to lay bare scales, grains, and water-worn and rubbed
+scraps of rich yellow gold, at the sight of which the new-comers drew
+their breath hard.
+
+"Did you get this here?" cried Dallas.
+
+"Not here, my lad, but at Upper Creek.  That lot and two more like it.
+You'd better go on there as soon as you can if you want to take up
+claims; but I must tell you that all the best are gone already."
+
+"Which is the way?" cried Abel.
+
+"I'll show you when I go back to-morrow, if you like.  Where shall you
+be?"
+
+"Camping just over there," said Dallas, pointing.
+
+"All right.  I'm going to sleep at the hotel to-night.  Come on
+by-and-by and see me, and we'll have a chat."
+
+"I say, my son," said their big companion, putting his hand in the bag,
+half filling it, and letting the gold run back again, before beginning
+to fasten the flap.
+
+"My son!  Why, you're a Cornishman."
+
+"That's so."
+
+"Glad to see a West-countryman out here.  I'm from Devonport.  But come
+on and have a chat by-and-by.  What were you going to say, though?"
+
+"Seeing what a set of rough pups there are about here, my son, I was
+going to say, is it safe for a man to carry about a lot of gold like
+that?"
+
+The stranger took back his bag and slung it over his shoulder again, as
+he looked from one to the other, half-closed his eyes, and nodded.
+
+"Yes, and no, my lads.  You're right; we have got some rough pups about
+here--chaps who'd put a bullet into a man for a quarter of what I've got
+there.  But they daren't.  We've got neither law nor police, you see."
+
+"No, I don't see," said Dallas.  "You speak in riddles."
+
+"You don't see, my lad, because you're a Johnny Newcome.  I'll tell you.
+We've got some of the most blackguardly scum that could be took off the
+top of the big town sink-holes--men who've come to rob and gamble; but
+we've got, too, plenty of sturdy fellows like yourselves, who mean work
+and who trust one another--men who'll help each other at a pinch; and
+I've heard that there's a sort of lawyer fellow they call Judge Lynch
+has put in an appearance, and he stands no nonsense.  He's all on the
+side of the honest workers, and one of them has only to denounce a man
+as a thief for the Vigilants to nail him at once.  Then there's a short
+trial, a short shrift, and there's one rogue the less in the world."
+
+"You mean if he's proved to be a thief, or red-handed."
+
+"That's it, my lads.  There, I've got some friends to meet.  Come on and
+see me to-night."
+
+The speaker nodded cheerily to all three, and went off at a swinging
+gait.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't have minded shaking hands with that chap," said the
+big Cornishman.  "The more of that sort there is out here the better."
+
+"Yes," cried Dallas; "his words were quite cheering."
+
+"So was the sight of that little leather sack of his, my sons.  Do your
+foot good, Mr Wray?"
+
+"Yes, I forgot all about it," said Abel, eagerly.  "Here, let's make our
+fire."
+
+This was done, and the billy soon began to bubble, when the tea was
+thrown in and declared to be delicious, in spite of a mouldy taste
+consequent upon getting wet in its travels and being dried again.
+
+"Better if we hadn't had all our sugar spoiled," said Dallas, as he
+munched his biscuit along with a very fat rusty scrap of fried bacon.
+
+"It don't want any sugar, my son," said the Cornishman.  "I've just
+stirred a teaspoonful of that chap's gold-dust into it, and it has given
+it a wonderful flavour."
+
+"Yes," said Abel, "the sight of that gold seems to have quite changed
+everything."
+
+The meal was finished, with the whole party refreshed and in the best of
+spirits.  Then the sledges were drawn together, a few small
+pine-saplings bound on to make a roof, over which a couple of waterproof
+sheets were drawn, and there was a rough tent for a temporary home.
+
+By that time it was evening, and lanterns were being hung out here and
+there, lamps lit in the shanties, and the place began to look more
+lively.  In two tents there was the sound of music--a fiddle in one, a
+badly played German concertina in the other; but the result was not
+cheerful, for whenever they were in hearing the great shaggy
+sledge-dogs, of which there were scores about, set up a dismal barking
+and howling.
+
+The Cornishman's two friends had cheerfully elected to keep the camp, at
+a word from their big companion, and the other three started to have a
+look at the place and end by calling at the hotel upon their new
+acquaintance.
+
+As soon as they were a few yards away, the Cornishman laughed and
+winked.  "I can trust you, and I can trust Bob Tregelly, and that's me,
+my sons; but I can't trust them two where there's whisky about.  They've
+sworn to me that they won't go amongst it, and I'm not going to let 'em.
+Now then, I'm about to see if I can't find something to eat at a
+reasonable price, and buy it.  Have you lads got any money?"
+
+"Yes, a little left," replied both.
+
+"Then you'd better ware a pound or so the same way; biscuit and bacon
+and meal, I should say.  I'll meet you yonder at the hotel in an hour,
+and we'll pick up what we can about the whereabouts of the stuff; but we
+shan't want to stay here long, I expect.  Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, in an hour," said Dallas, and they separated.
+
+There was not much to take the young men's attention, but they heard a
+couple of men say that the ice was giving, and another was telling a
+group of a man having come to the hotel who had done wonders up some
+creek he and his mates had tried.
+
+"Our friend, Bel," said Dallas; and soon after, without making any
+purchases, from the inability to find what they wanted, they strolled
+back just at dark towards the hotel.
+
+"What a hole!" said Abel, as they approached the place, to find from the
+lights, the noise, and clattering of drinking-vessels, that a tent which
+had been stretched over a wooden frame was crowded, and a couple of men
+in shirt-sleeves were busily going in and out from a side shed of
+corrugated iron, attending on the assembled guests.
+
+"Evening, gentlemen," said the elder of the two.  "You'll find room
+inside.  Go right up the middle; there's more seats there."
+
+Just then there was a shout of excitement, and the young men looked at
+one another.
+
+"It's all right, gents," said the man, who was evidently the landlord.
+"We're having a big night.  There's a man from Upper Creek with a fine
+sample of gold.  I could show you if you like.  Happy to bank for you
+too if you strike it rich, and supply you with stores and good advice.
+Any one will speak up for me."
+
+"But surely that means a row," said Dallas, as a roar of voices came
+from the canvas building.
+
+"No; that's about a robbery on the track.  Three men came in to-day, and
+they're telling the lads how they were attacked and half killed.  The
+Vigilants are strong here to-night, and there'll be business if the
+fellows are caught.  We don't stand any nonsense here."
+
+"Shall we go in, Bel?" whispered Dallas.
+
+"Yes; we needn't stay long," was the reply.  "I want to talk to that man
+with the gold."
+
+"This way, gentlemen," said the bar-keeper.  "You follow me."
+
+The pair followed the man into the long low place, along each side of
+which were trestle tables crowded with men drinking and smoking, the
+tobacco fumes nearly filling the place like a fog.  There was a gangway
+down the centre, and they followed their guide nearly to the end, when
+both started violently at the sight of a group of three men seated at a
+table beneath the largest swinging lamp, whose reflector threw a bright
+light down on the biggest of the party, who was on his legs, waving his
+pipe as he talked loudly.
+
+"You're making a mistake, mates," he said.  "It's just as I telled you,
+and if it hadn't been for the pluck of my pals here we should have been
+dead as well as robbed.  But you mark my words; they'll make for here,
+and if they do--ah, what did I say?  Look, mates, look; this here's the
+very pair."
+
+There was a wild shout of rage, as every man in the place seemed to leap
+to his feet; and before, utterly stunned by the sudden attack and
+denunciation, either of the new-comers could find words to utter in
+their defence, they were seized and dragged to their knees.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+A TRIAL FOR LIFE.
+
+"It's false!  A cowardly lie!" cried Dallas at last, as he tried to
+shake himself free.
+
+"Quiet!" cried one of his captors fiercely, "or you'll git into
+trouble!"
+
+"Yes, a lie--a lie!" cried Abel, finding his voice.  "Don't choke me,
+sir.  Give a man fair play."
+
+"Oh, yes, you shall have fair play," said another sternly.
+
+"Those men attacked and tried to murder us both yonder in the snowy
+pass."
+
+"Well!  I ham!" roared the red-bearded scoundrel, looking round
+protestingly at all present.  "But there, I've done."
+
+He dropped heavily back in his seat, and held up his hands to his two
+companions.
+
+"That's a queer way of defending yourself, young fellow," said a stern,
+square-looking man, who spoke roughly, but in a way that suggested
+education.
+
+"Yes, but it's the truth," cried Dallas firmly.  "Hands off, gentlemen.
+We shall not try to run away."
+
+"Now, then: these three gentlemen say they have been robbed on the
+road."
+
+"And I say it is false.  That man is a liar and a thief--a would-be
+murderer."
+
+"Well," cried the red-bearded man again.  "Did you ever, mates?"
+
+"No," cried one of the others.  "Why, he talks like a play actor."
+
+"Look here, gentlemen," cried the third excitedly, and he rose, planted
+a foot on the bench, and bared his bound-up leg, "here's that tall un's
+shot as went through my calf here.  I'm as lame as a broken-kneed un."
+
+A murmur of sympathy ran through the place, and Dallas spoke out again
+as Abel looked quietly round at the grim faces lowering through the
+smoke.
+
+"Look here, gentlemen, I can prove my words," cried Dallas.
+
+"Very well, then," said the dark, square-looking man, "prove them; you
+shall not be condemned unheard."
+
+A chill ran through the young man at the other's judicial tone, and the
+name of Judge Lynch rose to his mind.  But he spoke out firmly.
+
+"A friend who has journeyed here with me is to meet me here to-night.--
+Ah, here is one gentleman who knows us;" and he made a step towards
+their bluff acquaintance of that evening, who had risen from his seat
+farther in, and was looking frowningly on.  "Speak a word for us, sir."
+
+"Well, my lad, I never saw you till to-night," was the reply.  "I did
+have a chat with this man, gentlemen, and his mate there, and I found
+them well-spoken young fellows as ever I met."
+
+"But you never saw them before," said the dark man.
+
+"Well, I must tell the truth," said the gold-finder.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"No," said the man sadly, "I never did but fair play, gentlemen,
+please."
+
+"They shall have fair play enough," said the dark man.  "What about your
+friend, prisoners, is this he?"
+
+"Prisoners!" gasped Abel.  "No, no; a friend who travelled with us."
+
+"Bah!  Another lie, gentlemen," cried Redbeard mockingly; "they were
+alone, and shot my mate, so that it was two to two; but they took us in
+ambush like, and by surprise.  They hadn't got no friend with 'em."
+
+"Yes, they had," cried a loud voice which dominated the roar of anger
+which arose; "they had me; I was along with 'em--only a little un, my
+sons, but big enough for you all to see."
+
+There was a laugh at this, but it was silenced by the dark man's voice.
+
+"Silence, gentlemen, please," he said, "and no laughter where two men's
+lives are at stake."
+
+A chill ran through Dallas again, but he forced a smile at his cousin,
+as if to say, what he did not think, "It will be all right now."
+
+"Look here," cried the Cornishman, drawing himself up to his full
+height, and looking round as if to address every one present; "these
+youngsters said what was quite right.  They've been along with me and
+two more ever since we dug 'em out of the snow."
+
+"That's right, as far as I know," said their acquaintance with the gold;
+"there was a party of five when I came upon them to-night;" and a fresh
+murmur arose.
+
+"It's all right, mates," said Redbeard to his two companions; "there's a
+gang of 'em, but don't you be skeared; these gents'll see justice done."
+
+"Well, I don't mind being called one of a gang, my sons," said the
+Cornishman.  "I worked on the railway once, and I was ganger, or, as you
+call it here, boss, over a dozen men; but if this chap, who looks as red
+as if he'd come out of a tin-mine, says I robbed him, I'll crack him
+like I would a walnut in a door."
+
+There was a roar of laughter here, and cries of "Well done, little un!"
+But the dark man sternly called for silence once more.
+
+"Now, sir, what do you say to this?" he said to Redbeard sharply.
+
+"What I said before, boss.  That big chap wasn't with 'em then.  I say
+these two young larrikins tried to rob and do for us.  Look at his leg!"
+
+"Robbed yer and tried to do for yer?  Did they, now!  Well, they do look
+a pair of bad uns, don't they, my sons?--bad as these three looks good
+and innercent and milky."
+
+"Hear him!" growled Redbeard fiercely.  "Talking like that, with my poor
+mate suffering from a wound like this, pardners," and he pointed to his
+companion's leg.
+
+"Get out!" roared the Cornishman scornfully; "put that sore prop away;
+you're talking to men, not a set of bairns.  Think they're going to be
+gammoned by a bit of play-acting?"
+
+There was another loud murmur of excitement, the occupants of the canvas
+building crowding up closer, evidently thoroughly enjoying the genuine
+drama being enacted in their presence, and eager to see the
+_denouement_, even if it only proved to be a fight between the two
+giants taking now the leading parts.
+
+The man with the red beard felt that matters were growing critical for
+the accusers, while public opinion was veering round in favour of the
+prisoners; and resting one hand upon his hip, and flourishing his pipe
+with the other, he took a step forward, his eyes full of menace, and
+faced the Cornishman.
+
+"Look ye here, old un," he growled, "I'm a plain, straightforward,
+honest man, as has come up here to try and get a few scraps o' red
+gold."
+
+"Same here, my lad."
+
+"And I want to know whether you mean all that 'ere nasty, or whether you
+mean it nice?"
+
+"Just as you like, my son," cried the Cornishman.  "You've told the
+company here that my two young friends tried to rob and settle you.  I
+tell the company that it's as big a lie as was ever spoke."
+
+"Well!" growled the man again, and he looked round at his companions;
+"of all--"
+
+"Yes," said the Cornishman, "an out-and-out lie; and I could play the
+same cards as you, and show judge here and all of you the mark of your
+bullets in one of my young friends' shoulder, and on the other's skull.
+But I don't."
+
+"Yes, you do," said the dark man.  "Let's see them."
+
+"Hear, hear!  Bravo, judge!  Right, right!" came in chorus.
+
+"Very good, gentlemen," said the Cornishman, turning calmly to Dallas.
+"You show first."
+
+"It is nearly healed up now," said Dallas.
+
+"Hor, hor, hor!" laughed the man with the red beard, "hear him!"
+
+Dallas gave him a fierce glance, and as his captors set him free he
+hastily slipped off jacket and waistcoat, before tearing open his shirt
+and laying bare an ugly red scar where a bullet had ploughed his
+shoulder; and a murmur once more arose.
+
+"That will do," said the dark man.  "Now the other."
+
+"I have nothing to show," said Abel.  "The bullet struck my cap, and
+just glanced along the side of my head."
+
+"Come close under the lamp," said the dark man sternly.
+
+"Better mind your eye," said Redbeard warningly.
+
+The dark man gave him a sharp look, and then bade Abel kneel down and
+bend his head sideways.
+
+As he did so a whitish line a few inches long was visible where the hair
+had been taken off, and at the sight of this there was a fresh murmur.
+
+"That's good proof in both cases, gentlemen," said the dark man firmly.
+"Now, sir," he continued, "what more have you to say in support of your
+evidence?"
+
+"This here," cried Redbeard.  "I want to know first whether this bully
+countryman here means what he said nasty, or whether he means it nice?"
+
+"Hear, hear!" shouted a voice behind.
+
+"Just which you please, my fine fellow," said the Cornishman; "you can
+take it hot with sugar, or cold with a red-hot cinder in it, if you
+like."
+
+"Then maybe I'll take it hot," cried Redbeard, fiercely.
+
+He spoke with one hand behind him, and quick as thought he brought it
+round with a swing, but a man near him struck it up.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+HANGING BY A THREAD.
+
+"Stop that!" shouted the judge, springing to his feet.  The Cornishman
+stood quite unmoved.
+
+There was silence directly, and the dark man went on.  "Gentlemen," he
+cried, "we have made this a court of justice, and you chose me the other
+day, being an English barrister, to act as judge."
+
+"Yes, yes," came in a fierce shout, which crushed down some murmurs of
+opposition.  "Go on, judge--go on."
+
+"I will, gentlemen, till you bring forward another man to take my place.
+Once more, we are here on British ground."
+
+"No, no," came from the minority; "American."
+
+"British, gentlemen; and as subjects of her Majesty the Empress-Queen we
+stand by law and order."
+
+"Hear, hear!" was shouted.
+
+"We will have no rowdyism, no crimes against our little society, while
+we toil for our gold."
+
+"Hear, hear!"
+
+"We have already bound ourselves to carry on our home-made laws here, so
+that every man can bring in his winnings and place them with the
+landlord, or leave them in his hut or tent, knowing that they are safe;
+and we are agreed that the man who robs one of us of his gold shall
+suffer for his crime, the same as if he had committed a murder."
+
+"That's right, judge--that's right!" was roared.
+
+"Very well, then," said the judge.  "I have one word to say to those who
+have raised their voices several times to-night.  Let me tell them that
+if they are not satisfied with our ideas of fair play, they had better
+pack their sledges and go right away."
+
+"Likely!" shouted a man at the back; "and what about our claims we have
+staked out?"
+
+"Let them be valued by a jury of six a-side, and I'll give the casting
+vote if it's a tie.  We'll club together and buy, you shall have good
+honest value, and then you can go farther afield.  There's plenty for
+everybody, and the country's open.  If you don't agree to that and elect
+to stay, you must side with us and keep the law.  Now then, who says
+he'll go?"
+
+"None of us, jedge," came in a slow drawl.  "You're right, and whether
+this is Murrican or Canady land, we all back you up."
+
+There was a deafening shout at this, and as soon as silence came again
+the dark man said firmly, "Now, gentlemen, to settle the business on
+hand.  We're not going to make the Yukon gold region a close borough."
+
+"That's right, jedge," said an American.
+
+"Every honest man is welcome here, but we want it known that for the
+rowdy thief and law-breaker there will be a short shrift and the rope."
+
+There was another roar, and as it subsided the man with the red beard
+shouted, "That's right, pardners, right as right; and what me and my
+mates here want is justice and protection from them as robbed us, and
+tried to shoot us down.  There they are, three o' the gang, and you've
+got 'em fast.  Now what do you say?"
+
+The two young men stood rigid and silent, expectant of the fateful words
+which might bring their careers to a close.  They knew that wild appeals
+for mercy and loud protestation would be of no avail, but would be
+looked upon as arrant cowardice; and as the moments went on, heavy and
+leaden winged, a strange feeling of rebellion against the cruelty of
+fate raised a sense of anger, and stubborn determination began to grow.
+
+It was too horrible to dwell upon, this prospect of the most ignominious
+death: an adverse judgment based on the vote of a crowd of rugged,
+determined men fighting for their own safety and the protection of the
+gold they were dragging from where it had lain since the creation of the
+world; but still it seemed to be their fate, and in both the growing
+feeling was the same--a sense of rage and hatred against the remorseless
+scoundrels who, to make their own position safe in the gold region, were
+ready to sacrifice the lives of their victims.
+
+"If we could only be face to face with them alone," they felt, "with the
+chance to fight against them for our lives!  The cowards!  The dogs!"
+
+Their musings were brought to an end by the voice of the head man of the
+trio, who broke in upon the whispering together of the judge and several
+of the men who had closed round him.  "Well, pardners," he cried;
+"what's it to be after all you've said?  Are we to have fair play, or
+are we to go where we can get it?"
+
+"Wait a bit, sir, and you and your friends shall have fair play; never
+fear."
+
+"Don't be in a hurry," shouted one of the Americans at the back.  "Jedge
+don't want to hang the wrong men."
+
+"No, sir," said the dark gold-seeker sternly; "we don't want to hang the
+wrong men, and there is a growing opinion here that you and your
+companions have not made out your charge."
+
+"What!" roared Redbeard, as the Cornishman gave his young companions a
+nod; "not made out our case?  Hear that, mates?  Well, I _am_ blessed!"
+
+"You charge them with robbery and attempted murder."
+
+"Yes; didn't my mate show you his leg?" cried Redbeard indignantly.
+
+"Oh, yes; and the prisoners, who defend themselves by charging you with
+attacking them, reply by displaying their wounds."
+
+"Well, wouldn't you shoot if you was attacked?  So where's your
+justice?"
+
+"I will show you that I want to give you fair play," said the judge.
+"There is enough in this case to mean the sternest sentence, and it will
+be awarded to the guilty parties."
+
+There was a murmur of approval at this, and the judge said sternly,
+"Separate those three men, and separate the prisoners; keep them apart,
+so that they cannot communicate with one another."
+
+There was a quick movement, and a couple of armed men placed themselves
+right and left of Dallas and Abel.
+
+"Hullo!" said the Cornishman, "am I a prisoner, too?  All right; I'm in
+good company."
+
+But there was a little resistance on the part of the accusing party.
+
+"Look here," growled Redbeard fiercely, "I want to know what this
+means."
+
+"The rope and the tree for you and your friends if you fire, sir," cried
+the judge sternly.
+
+"But--"
+
+"Stand where you are," cried the judge.  "Six of you take those other
+two outside, quite apart, and mind, you are answerable to your sheriff
+for bringing them back."
+
+Redbeard growled as he stood beneath the great lamp, the two others
+which had been burning having been turned out so that a better view
+could be had from behind of each stage of the proceedings.
+
+"Look here," cried Redbeard fiercely, as his companions were led out,
+"why aren't the prisoners to be sent out too?  Is this fair play,
+pardners?"
+
+"Yes," said the judge; "they are the prisoners.  I only want your
+witnesses to be out of court."
+
+There was a dead silence while the two men were led away, and a ray of
+hope began to shed light through the darkness of despair in the young
+men's brains, as they read in all this a strange desire on the part of
+their amateur judge to do justice between the parties.
+
+They glanced round through the smoke of the gloomy place, to see fierce
+eyes fixed upon them on all sides, while in front there was the judge
+and his supporters, and their red-bearded, savage-looking accuser
+beneath the lamp, which shone full upon him.  The smoke now hung above
+them in a dense cloud.
+
+"Is it a dream?" said Dallas to himself; and then he started, for the
+judge said sharply to the man before him:
+
+"Now, sir, you and your two friends have come here to dig gold."
+
+"That's right, captain."
+
+"Where did you come from?"
+
+"Washington territory."
+
+"That will do.  Bring in the next witness."
+
+There was a suppressed buzz of excitement, while Redbeard stood glaring
+beneath the lamp, and the next man was led in.
+
+"Now, sir, you are not sworn," said the judge, "but consider that you
+are on your oath.  It is a matter perhaps of life or death.  Answer my
+questions.  You and your friends came here to find gold?"
+
+"That's so, jedge."
+
+"Where did you come from?"
+
+"Me and my mates?  Noo York."
+
+"That will do.  Silence!" cried the judge.  "The next man.  Keep those
+two well apart."
+
+The third man was led in, and the same questions asked him, when to the
+second he responded sharply:
+
+"Chicago."
+
+There was a roar at this, but the judge held up his hand.  "Silence,
+gentlemen, please, while I deliver judgment'" and a deep silence fell,
+while the three men glared meaningly one at the other.  "I have given
+this a perfectly fair hearing, and I say--"
+
+_Crash_!
+
+The shivering of a lamp-glass, a burst of flame like a flash of
+lightning, as the lamp was dashed from where it hung; and then for a few
+moments intense darkness, while there was a sudden roar and rush for the
+entrance.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+TO SAVE A SNARLING CUR.
+
+The struggle was short, for the sides of the canvas building were frail;
+and as the flames ran swiftly up one side and the burning rags of the
+canvas roof began to fall upon the struggling crowd, a wave rushed
+against the opposite side, which gave way like so much paper, and the
+panting, half-stifled sufferers gained the cool fresh night air.
+
+"Any one left within?" panted the judge; but the silence which followed
+was enough to indicate that all had escaped.
+
+"Where are the other prisoners?"
+
+"We are here--my cousin and I," cried Abel, for they had made no attempt
+to escape.
+
+"And the witnesses?" cried the judge.  "I have the scoundrel who dashed
+down the lamp."
+
+"We have the other two here," replied voices.
+
+"Then, gentlemen," said the judge, "I think we had better have another
+trial in the open air.  What do you say to that as an attempt at
+wholesale murder?  Come and help me here, some of you.  I've got the big
+man down, but he's as strong as a horse.  I couldn't have held him if I
+hadn't thrown a biscuit-bag over his head."
+
+It was light for a few minutes while the canvas roof of the saloon
+burned; but as the woodwork was rapidly torn down and trampled out to
+save the so-called hotel, all was dark again, with a pungent smoke
+arising.
+
+Two men were dragged into the circle which had formed round the judge,
+whose figure could be just made out as he kneeled between the shoulders
+of the man he had down; and Dallas and Abel stood close by, fascinated
+as it were, and feeling a thrill of horror as they thought of their
+enemies' impending fate.
+
+"It's horrible, Dal," whispered Abel.  "I hate the brute, but I don't
+want to see him hanged."
+
+"Then you'd better be off," said a man who heard the remark, "for the
+beast will swing before many minutes are passed."
+
+"I don't see why you two young fellows should care," said another.  "He
+was eager enough to get you hanged."
+
+"Have you made his wrists fast behind him?" said the judge out of the
+darkness.
+
+"Yes; all right."
+
+"Let him get up, then.  Here, landlord--squire--a lantern here."
+
+"Haven't you had light enough, judge?  What about my saloon?"
+
+"All right, old fellow," said a voice.  "You hold plenty of our gold;
+we'll club together to pay for a better one."
+
+"Thank ye, gentlemen.  Hi! bring a lantern."
+
+At the same moment the prisoner rose to his feet, and the sack over his
+head was drawn off.
+
+"I say, you know, I've come quietly," he cried in a hoarse voice.
+"Here, put those pistols down.  You haven't served my two young chaps
+like that, have you?"
+
+"Bob Tregelly?" cried Dallas and Abel in a breath.
+
+"What's left of him, my sons.  They've 'most smothered me."
+
+"Hallo!" said the judge at the same moment.  "I took you in the dark for
+that red-bearded fellow."
+
+"I was going for him when you pulled that bag over my head," growled the
+Cornishman.
+
+"Here, who has got that fellow?" roared the judge.
+
+"We've got his mates," came out of the darkness, and two men were
+dragged forward, struggling hard to get free.
+
+"Here, what game do you call this?" snarled one of them, as soon as he
+could speak.
+
+"Yes," said the other.  "You fools: you've got the wrong men."
+
+"I'm blessed!  Ha, ha, ha!" roared the big Cornishman.
+
+"You've never let those other two escape, have you?" roared the judge
+angrily.
+
+"Well, you've let the big un go, judge, and caught me," said the
+Cornishman merrily.  "But I say, my son, who's the guilty party now?"
+
+"Not much doubt about that.  There, my lads, it's of no use to go after
+them; they've done us this time, and got away; but I think we may keep
+the ropes ready for them when they come again."
+
+"Hear, hear!" was roared, and an ovation followed for the trio who had
+been suspected, every man present seeming as if he could not make enough
+of them, till they managed to slip away to their tent.
+
+"I think a quiet pipe'll do me good after all that business," said
+Tregelly.  "We've done about enough for one day.  Rum sort o' life, my
+sons.  I shall be glad to get steadily to work as soon as we know where
+to begin."
+
+The canvas was fastened down soon after, and the occupants of the rough
+tent prepared for a good night's rest; but it was a long time in coming
+to the cousins, whose nerves had been too much jarred for them to follow
+the example of their three companions.  And they lay listening to the
+many sounds about, principal among which was the barking and fighting of
+the sledge-dogs; but at last they dropped into a troubled slumber, one
+in which it seemed to Dallas that he was lying upon his hard waterproof
+sheet in a nightmare-like dream, watching his enemy, the red-bearded
+man, who was crawling on hands and knees to the rough tent, with a knife
+between his teeth, and trying to force his way under the end of one of
+the sledges to get to him and pin him to the earth.
+
+There he was, coming nearer and nearer, right into the tent place now,
+while his hot breath fanned the dreamer's cheek, and his hands were
+resting upon his chest as if feeling for a vital spot to strike.  With a
+tremendous effort, Dallas sprang up and struck at him, when there was a
+loud snarling yelp, and Abel cried in alarm, "What is it, Dal?"
+
+"Dog," said Tregelly, "smelling after grub.  The poor brutes seem half
+starved.  Hasn't taken a bit out of either of you, has he?  Good-night,
+my sons; I was dreaming I'd hit upon heaps of gold."
+
+Dallas sank back with a sigh of relief, and dropped off into a restful
+sleep, which lasted till morning, when they were aroused by a terrific
+sound of cracking as of rifles, mingled with a peculiar roar, and a
+strange rushing sound.
+
+"What is it?" cried Abel, who was one of the first to spring up; "an
+earthquake?"
+
+"Like enough, my son," said Tregelly.  "I'm ready for anything here.
+Sounds like the mountains playing at skittles."
+
+"She's going at last," cried a voice outside.  "By jingo! it's fine.
+Come and look."
+
+"It's the ice breaking up," cried Dallas excitedly.
+
+"Then we will go and look," said Tregelly, "though that chap wasn't
+speaking to us."  And, no dressing being necessary, all hurried out, to
+find that the fettered Yukon was completely changed, the ice being all
+in motion, splitting up, grinding, and crushing, and with blocks being
+forced up one over the other till they toppled down with a roar, to help
+in breaking up those around.
+
+The previous evening it would have been possible for a regiment to cross
+the river by climbing over and among the great blocks which were still
+frozen together, but now it would have been certain death for the most
+active man to attempt the first fifty yards.
+
+Every one was out in the bright sunny morning watching the breaking up;
+and among the first they encountered were the judge, of the last night's
+episode, and their friend the gold-finder, both of whom shook hands
+heartily, but made no allusion to the trial.  "Good job for every one,"
+said the judge; "we shall soon be having boats up after this.  We shall
+be clear here in a couple of days."
+
+"So soon?" said Dallas.
+
+"Oh, yes," replied his informant.  "There's a tremendous body of water
+let loose up above, and it runs under the ice, lifts it, and makes the
+ice break up; and once it is set in motion it is always grinding
+smaller, till, long before it reaches the sea, it has become powder, and
+then water again."
+
+"I say," cried the miner, "there's some one's dog out yonder.  He's
+nipped by the legs, and it's about all over with him, I should say."
+
+"Here, stop!  What are you going to do?" cried the judge.
+
+But Dallas did not hear him.  He had been one of the first to see the
+perilous position of a great wolfish-looking hound some twenty yards
+from the shore, where it was struggling vainly, prisoned as it was,
+uttering a faint yelp every now and then, and gazing piteously at the
+spectators on the bank.
+
+"The lad's mad," cried the judge, going closer to the ice.
+
+But, mad or no, Dallas had, in his ignorance of the great danger of the
+act, run down, boldly leaped on the moving ice, and stepped from block
+to block till he reached the dog, which began to whine and bark loudly,
+as it made frantic efforts to free its hindquarters.  In another minute
+it would have been drawn down farther, but for the coming of the young
+man, who, heedless of the rocking and gliding motion of the ice, strode
+the narrow opening between the two masses which held the dog, stooping
+down at the same moment, and seizing the poor brute by the rough hair
+about its neck.
+
+For a few moments his effort seemed vain, and a roar of voices reached
+him, as the spectators shouted to him to come back.
+
+Then the two pieces swayed slightly, and gradually drew apart, and the
+dog was at liberty, but apparently with one leg crushed, for it lay
+down, howling dismally after an effort to limp back to the land.
+
+There was a great strap round its neck, and this was joined to another
+just behind its shoulders, and, seizing this, Dallas flung the poor
+animal on its side and dragged it after him as he began to step
+cautiously back from block to block, now sinking down, now rising, and
+now narrowly escaping being caught between the moving pieces; but he
+kept on, conscious, though, that the bank seemed rising upward; while
+the crushing and roar of the breaking ice prevented him from hearing the
+words of advice shouted by his friends.
+
+He could not hear, but he could see Bel, who was forcing his way through
+the crowd to keep alongside, ready to help him when he came within
+reach, if ever he did, and it was from him that he afterwards learned
+that the advice shouted was to let the dog take his chance.
+
+Twice over the set of the ice was off the shore, and matters looked bad
+for the young adventurer, but he stuck to the dog, and, just when the
+chance of reaching the shore seemed most hopeless, a couple of large
+flat floes rose up, and, making a dash, Dallas went boldly across them,
+reaching others that did not yield so much, and the next minute there
+was a cheer which he could hear, for he reached the shore with the dog,
+which looked up in his face and whined, and then limped off through the
+crowd.
+
+"Life seems cheap your way, my fine fellow," said the judge.  "Five
+minutes ago I wouldn't have given a grain of gold for yours.  We don't
+do that sort of thing out here for the sake of a vicious, thieving dog."
+
+"I could not stand by and see the poor brute die," said Dallas quietly.
+
+"So it seems," said the judge.  "Well, I congratulate you two young
+fellows on your escape last night.  Those scoundrels have got away; and
+if they turn up again, lawyer though I am, I should advise you both to
+shoot on sight.  If you are brought before me, I'll promise you I will
+bring it in justifiable homicide."
+
+A couple of hours later they had parted from Tregelly and his
+companions, with a hearty shake of the hand and a promise to keep to
+their agreement about the gold.
+
+"If we discover a good place."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+NORTON'S IDEA OF A GOOD SPOT.
+
+It was a long, weary tramp up by the higher waters of the huge Yukon
+River towards its sources in the neighbourhood of the Pelly Lakes, where
+sharp rapids and torrents were succeeded by small, shallow lakes; and
+wherever they halted, shovel and pan were set to work, and, as their
+guide Norton termed it, the granite and sand were tasted, and gold in
+exceedingly small quantities was found.
+
+"It's so 'most everywhere," said Norton; "and I don't say but what you
+might find a rich spot at any time; but if you take my advice you'll
+come straight on with me to where a few of us are settled down.  It's
+regularly into the wilds.  I don't suppose even an Indian has been there
+before; but we chaps went up."
+
+"But there are Indians about, I suppose?" said Abel.
+
+"Mebbe, but I haven't seen any."
+
+The end of their journey was reached at last, high up the creek they had
+followed, and, save here and there in sheltered rifts, the snow was
+gone; the brief summer was at hand, and clothing the stones with flowers
+and verdure that were most refreshing after the wintry rigours through
+which they had forced their way.
+
+"Nice and free and open, eh?" said Norton, smiling.  "I may as well
+show you to the comrades up here, and then I'll help you pick out a
+decent claim, and you can set to work.  There's only about a dozen of us
+here yet, and so you won't be mobbed."
+
+"Very well," said Dallas; "but we'll try in that open space where the
+trees are so young."
+
+Norton nodded, and, armed with a shovel and pan, the young men stepped
+to a spot about fifty feet from the edge of the rushing stream, cleared
+away the green growth among the young pines, and Dallas tried to drive
+down his shovel through the loose, gravelly soil; but the tool did not
+penetrate four inches.
+
+"Why, it's stone underneath."
+
+"Ice," said Norton, smiling.  "It hasn't had time to thaw down far yet;
+but you skin off some of the gravelly top, and try it."
+
+Dallas filled the pan, and they went together to a shallow place by the
+side of the creek, bent down, and, with the pan just beneath the
+surface, agitated and stirred it, the water washing away the thick muddy
+portion till nothing was left but sand and stones.
+
+These latter were picked out and thrown away; more washing followed,
+more little stones were thrown out, and at last there was nothing but a
+deposit of sand at the bottom, in which gleamed brightly some specks and
+scales of bright yellow gold.
+
+Norton finished his pipe, and then led the way farther up the stream, to
+stop at last by a rough pine-wood shed thatched with boughs.
+
+"This is my mansion," he said.  "Leave the sledges here, and we'll go
+and see the rest."
+
+The stream turned and twisted about here in a wonderful way, doubling
+back upon itself, and spreading about over a space of three or four
+miles along the winding valley where the tiny mining settlement had been
+pitched--only some six or seven huts among the dwarfed pine-trees in
+all, the places being marked by fallen trees and stumps protruding from
+the ground.
+
+They were all made on the same pattern, of stout young pine-trees with
+ridge-pole and rafters to support a dense thatching of boughs, and
+mostly with a hole left in the centre of the roof for the smoke of the
+fire burned within to escape.
+
+The two strangers were received in a friendly enough way, the rough
+settlers chatting freely about the new-comers' prospects, showing
+specimens of the gold they had found, and making suggestions about the
+likeliest spot for marking out a claim along the bank.
+
+The result was that before the day ended, acting a good deal under
+Norton's advice, the young men had marked out a double claim and settled
+where their hut should be set up, so as to form a fresh addition to the
+camp.
+
+"You ought to do well here," said Norton.  "There's gold worth millions
+of money in this district for certain; but the question is, can you
+strike it rich or only poor?  If I thought I could do better somewhere
+else I should go, but I'm going to try it fairly here."
+
+"We'll do the same," said Dallas; and, the weather being brilliant and
+the air exhilarating to a degree, they set to work cutting pegs for
+driving down to make out their claim, Norton reminding them that they
+would have certain applications to make afterwards to the government
+agency, and then began to cut down small trees for building their
+shanty.
+
+To their surprise and delight, four of the neighbours came, axe-armed,
+to help, so that the task was made comparatively easy.
+
+At the end of a week a rough, strong, habitable home was made, door,
+window, shutter and bars included, two of their helpers having come
+provided with a pit-saw for cutting the bigger pine-trunks up into rough
+boards, which were to be paid for out of the first gold winnings the
+young men made.
+
+Within another week they were out of debt, for, to their intense
+delight, the claim promised well, the shaft they had commenced and the
+banks of the little river yielding enough gold to set them working every
+minute they could see.
+
+But the reality did not come up to the dazzling dream in which they had
+indulged, either in their case or that of the men they encountered.
+There was the gold, and they won it from the soil; but it was only by
+hard labour and in small quantities, which were stored up in a leathern
+bag and placed in the bank--this being a hole formed under Abel's bed,
+covered first with a few short pieces of plank, and then with dry earth.
+
+The store increased as the time went on, but then it decreased when an
+expedition had to be made to the settlement below to fetch more
+provisions, the country around supplying them with plenty of fuel and
+clear drinking water, but little else.  Now and then there was the
+rumour of a moose being seen, and a party would turn out and shoot it,
+when there was feasting while it lasted; but these days were few.
+
+Occasionally, too, either Dallas or Abel would stroll round with his gun
+and get a few ptarmigan or willow grouse.  On lucky days, too, a brace
+of wild ducks would fall to their shot; but these excursions were rare,
+for there was the one great thirst to satisfy--that for the gold; and
+for the most part their existence during the brief summer was filled up
+by hard toil, digging and cradling the gold-bearing gravel, while they
+lived upon coarse bacon, beans, and ill-made cakey bread, tormented
+horribly the while by the mosquitoes, which increased by myriads in the
+sunny time.
+
+Then came the days when the wretched little insect pests began to grow
+rarer.
+
+"We shall not be able to work as late as this much longer," said Dallas.
+
+"No," replied Abel; "the days are getting horribly short, and the nights
+terribly long.  The dark winter will be upon us directly, and we seem to
+get no farther."
+
+"We may turn up trumps at any moment, old fellow," said Dallas cheerily.
+
+"Yes, we may," said Abel gloomily.
+
+"Don't take it like that," cried Dallas.  "Here we are in the gold
+region, and every day we find nuggets."
+
+"Weighing two or three grains apiece."
+
+"Exactly; but at any moment we might at a turn of the shovel lay them
+bare weighing ounces or even pounds."
+
+"Pigs might fly," said Abel.
+
+"Bah!  Where's your pluck?  Work away."
+
+"Oh, yes, I'll work," said Abel; "but with the dreary winter coming on
+one can't help feeling a bit depressed.  I say, I'm very glad we never
+sent a message to old Tregelly and his mates to come and join us."
+
+"Well, it would have turned out rather crusty," said Dallas, who was
+shovelling gravel into the cradle, while Abel stood over his ankle in
+the stream, rocking away and stopping from time to time to pick out some
+tiny speck of gold.
+
+"We shall never make our fortunes at this," he said.
+
+"Bah!  Don't be in a hurry.  At all events, we are in safety.  No fear
+of dangerous visitors, and--Here, quick--the hut--your rifle, man!
+Run!"
+
+Abel sprang to the shore, to be seized by the arm, and they ran for
+their weapons and shelter.
+
+None too soon, for a big burly figure had come into sight from among the
+pines, stopped short, and brought down his rifle, as he stood shading
+his eyes and scanning the retreating pair.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+TREGELLY SEEKS HIS SONS.
+
+"Ahoy, there!  What cheer, O!" rang out in a big bluff voice familiar to
+both.
+
+"Oh, I say, what curs we are!" cried Dallas.  "It's old Tregelly."
+
+"Yes; don't let him know we were scared."
+
+Vain advice.  The big Cornishman shouldered his rifle, bent forward, and
+dragged a sledge into sight, broke into a trot, and they met half-way.
+
+"Hullo, my sons!  Did you take me for an Injun?" cried Tregelly.
+
+"We took you for that big, red-bearded ruffian," said Dallas huskily, as
+he shook hands.
+
+"Thankye, my son; on'y don't do it again.  I don't like the compliment.
+But how are you?--how are you?"
+
+"Oh, middling.  We were just thinking about you."
+
+"Were you, my sons?" cried the big Cornishman, smiling all over his
+broad face.  "That's right.  Well, I was thinking about you, and
+wondering whether I should find you, and here you are first go."
+
+"But how did you find us?" cried Dallas, after shaking hands warmly.
+
+"Went back to Yukon Town a fortni't ago, and the chap there at the hotel
+told me you were still up here, for one of you came down now and then to
+buy stores."
+
+"Did you see the judge?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he's there still."
+
+"Made his pile?"
+
+"No-o-o!  Done pretty tidy, I believe."
+
+"And what about Redbeard and Company?  Heard anything of that firm?"
+
+"Yes; heard that they'd been seen by somebody, my son.  There'd been a
+poor fellow done for up the country, and some gold carried off.  They
+got the credit of it; but give a dog a bad name and--you know the rest.
+I should say they're all dead by now."
+
+"But why didn't you send for us?" said Abel.
+
+"Why didn't you send for me?"
+
+"Well," said Dallas drily, "it was out of good fellowship.  We were
+afraid it would be more than you could bear to get so rich.  But where
+are your comrades?"
+
+"Gone home," said Tregelly, in a tone of voice that the two young men
+took to mean, "Don't ask questions!"
+
+"But you've found a lot?" said Dallas.
+
+"Well, yes, my sons; we managed to scrape a good deal together, some
+here and some there, for we changed about and travelled over a good deal
+of ground."
+
+"And you have sent it home?"
+
+"Nay-y-ay!  I've got it here on the sledge."
+
+"Oh!" said Abel, looking at the shabby kit their visitor had left close
+to the door of the hut.
+
+"I've got a bit in a bag; but, you see, it costs all you can scrape
+together to live wherever I've been; so I thought I'd look you two up,
+as my mates had gone, so as to be company for a poor little lonely chap.
+Will you have me?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Any chance of picking up a decent claim here?"
+
+"Plenty, such as we have," replied Dallas.  "You'll be able to do as
+well as we've done, and the others about here."
+
+"That means the lumps of gold are not too big to lift?"
+
+"That's it," said Dallas.  "I've been thinking that if we were here next
+summer, we ought to get a lot of ants and train them to carry the grains
+for us."
+
+"Ah, I see, my sons.  I say, one might almost have made as much by
+stopping at home, eh?"
+
+"Here, don't you come here to begin croaking," cried Dallas.  "Abel here
+can do that enough for a dozen."
+
+"Can he?" cried Tregelly.  "Oh, you mustn't do that, my son.  There's
+plenty of gold if we can only find it.  I saw a chap with a gashly lump
+as big as a baby's fist.  We'll do it yet.  So you haven't done much
+good, then?"
+
+"If we had we should have sent word for you to come."
+
+"And I should have sent or come for you, my sons.  Look here, we'd
+better make a change, and explore higher up towards the mountains."
+
+"Too late this year," said Dallas decisively.
+
+"Oh, yes; too late this season, my sons.  We mustn't get too far from
+the supplies.  Means--you know what! famine and that sort o' thing."
+
+"Yes, we know," said Abel bitterly.
+
+"We'll do it when the days begin to lengthen again," continued Tregelly.
+"What we've got to do is to make as big a heap here as we can during
+the winter, wash it out in the spring, and if it's good enough, then
+stop here.  If it aren't, go and find a better place."
+
+"Yes, that's right," said Dallas.  "But about rations.  There's nothing
+to be got here.  Have you brought plenty?"
+
+"Much as ever I could pull, my sons, and I'll take it kindly if you'll
+let me camp with you to-night, so that I can leave my swag with you
+while I hunt out a claim."
+
+"Of course," cried Dallas; "we'll help you all we can."
+
+"There's that pitch down yonder, Dal," said Abel--"the one we said
+looked likely."
+
+"Of course; the place we tried, and which seemed fairly rich."
+
+"That sounds well," said Tregelly.  What was more, it looked so well
+that the big fellow decided to stay there at once, and put in his pegs,
+the only drawback seeming to be its remoteness from the scattered claims
+of the others up the creek.
+
+But this did not trouble the big Cornishman in the least.  With the help
+freely given by his two friends, pines were cut down, a hut knocked
+together, and many days had not elapsed before he was working away, and
+looking as much at home as if he had been there all the season,
+declaring when they met after working hours that it was much better than
+anything he and his companions had come across during their travels.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+A NIGHT ALARM.
+
+"There's a deal in make-believe, Bel, old chap," said Dallas one day, as
+they sat together in their rough hut of fir-trunks, brooding over the
+fire lit in the centre of the floor, the blinding smoke from which
+escaped slowly out of an opening in the roof, when the fierce wind did
+not drive it back in company with the fine sharp snow, which was coming
+down in a regular blizzard.
+
+"Oh, yes, a deal, if you have any faith," said Abel bitterly; "but
+mine's all dead."
+
+"Gammon!" cried Dallas.  "You're out of sorts, and that makes you
+disposed to find fault.  But I must confess that during this blizzardly
+storm the Castle hall is a little draughty.  These antique structures
+generally are."
+
+"Months and months of wandering, slavery and misery, and to come to
+this!"
+
+"Yes, you are not at your best, old man.  How's the foot?"
+
+"Rotting off as a frozen member will."
+
+"My dear Bel, you want a tonic!" said Dallas cheerily.
+
+"Think you will be able to live through this awful winter, Dal?"
+
+"Live!  I should think we will," said the young man, carefully picking
+up and laying some of the half-burned brands on the centre of the
+crackling fire.  "So will you."
+
+"No, I shall never see home again."
+
+"Bel, you're a lazy beggar, with a natural dislike to cold," said
+Dallas.  "It always was so, and you always used to have the worst
+chilblains, and turn grumpy when they itched and burned.  You don't make
+the best of things, old chap."
+
+"No, Dal, I haven't got your spirit.  How many days longer will that
+meal last?"
+
+"That depends, dear boy, on whether we are frugal, or go on banqueting
+and gorging."
+
+"It is dreadfully low, isn't it?"
+
+"Well, the supply is not great, but there is a morsel of bacon and a
+frozen leg-bone of our share of the moose, whose roasted marrow will be
+delicious.  No; the larder is not well stocked, but the supply of fuel
+is unlimited, and we have our gigantic bag of gold in the bank cellar."
+
+"Curse the gold!"
+
+"No, I will not do that, my dear boy, because, you see, I can take out a
+handful, tramp down to the store, and come back laden with corn and wine
+and delicacies in the shape of bacon and tinned meat."
+
+"Dal, it's of no use; we must give up and go back."
+
+"No, we must not, old chap; and even if I said the same, we couldn't get
+away this winter time."
+
+"You could.  I'm doomed--I'm doomed!"
+
+"Here, I say," cried Dallas, "don't begin making quotations."
+
+"Quotations?"
+
+"Yes; that's what the despairing old chap says in Byron's comedy, `I'm
+doomed--I'm doomed!' and the other fellow says, `Don't go on like that;
+it sounds like swearing when it ain't.'"
+
+"Dal," cried Abel passionately, "how can you be so full of folly when we
+are in such a desperate state?"
+
+"Because I believe in `Never say die!'" cried the young man cheerily.
+"You are cold, man.  Allow me, my lord, to spread this purple robe
+gracefully over your noble shoulders to keep off the draught.  I say,
+Bel, these blankets are getting jolly black."
+
+"Thanks, Dal."
+
+"And with your lordship's permission I will hang this piece of tapestry
+over the doorway to enhance the warmth of the glow within.  Haven't got
+a couple of tenpenny nails in your pocket, have you?  Never mind; these
+pegs'll hold it up.  Whoo! it does blow.  We shall be quite buried in
+the snow by morning."
+
+"Yes, once more," said Abel gloomily.
+
+"So much the warmer for it, Bel, and save the wood.  I say, old chap, we
+ought to be thankful that we have such a snug den.  It would be death to
+any one to be out to-night."
+
+"Yes; and they would have ceased hunting for that golden myth, and be at
+rest."
+
+"Well, you are a cheerful chap to-night!  I say, I wonder what has
+become of old `My son,'--Tregelly, the Cornishman?"
+
+"Dead or broken-hearted over this weary search."
+
+"Dead?  Why, that fellow wouldn't die a bit.  Broken-hearted?  His
+heart's made of stuff much too tough.  He'll turn up some day to tell us
+he has made a big find."
+
+"Never.  He's dead by now."
+
+"Don't you prophesy until after the event."
+
+"Dal," said Abel, as he sat, gaunt of visage, darkened by exposure, and
+totally different from the bright, eager fellow of a few months earlier.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You will not go away and leave me?"
+
+"I must, old fellow.  The coals for the human grate are nearly out, and
+I must fetch some more."
+
+"If you go you will find me dead when you come back.  To die alone!
+Horrible!"
+
+"Nonsense!  Old Norton will come in every day and have a look at you if
+I ask him.  He's a good old chap, Bel; I wish he had had better luck.  I
+say, though, this is a rum game.  You and I are now living in this rough
+dog-kennel, and bad as our luck has been, we have been turning out gold
+at the rate of, say, five hundred a year.  Not bad that for beginners."
+
+"And it takes all we get to barter for the wretched food," groaned Abel.
+"The prices are horrible."
+
+"Well, things are dear, and bad at that, as our American friends say.
+But we only have to double our turn-in and we shall grow rich."
+
+The wind was whistling and shrieking about the lonely cabin, the
+tattered blanket over the rough wood doorway was blown in, and the smoke
+eddied about the corners of the tent as a quantity of snow came through
+the opening, and made the fire hiss angrily.
+
+"It won't take me long, old fellow," said Dallas; "and, by the way, I
+had better buy a tin of powder and some cartridges.  Think you'll be
+well enough to-morrow to clean and oil the guns while I'm down the
+shaft?"
+
+"I'll try; but the shaft will be full of drifted snow."
+
+"If it is, I'll drift it out."
+
+"What's that?" cried Abel, as a faintly heard howl came from the
+distance.
+
+"Sounds like wolves.  No dog would be out in a night like this."
+
+"Think they will come here and attack us?"
+
+"Don't know.  I hope so."
+
+"What!" cried Abel, with a horrified look.
+
+"Give me a chance to do a little shooting if they come in at the chimney
+hole.  Glad of a bit of sport.  Supply us with some fresh meat, too."
+
+"What, eat wolf?"
+
+"My dear Bel, I get so hungry that I would eat anything now.  But they
+may taste good.  Wolf's a kind of dog; they eat dog in China, and I've
+heard that the bargees do so on the Thames."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Don't you remember the chaff at Oxford--the fellows asking the bargees,
+`Who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?'"
+
+"There it is again."
+
+"Then I'll take the guns out of the cases if they come nearer.  They'll
+be able to walk up the snow slope right on to the roof."
+
+But the sounds died away, and Dallas opened a tin and took out a couple
+of pieces of roughly made damper, whose crust was plentifully marked
+with wood ashes.
+
+"I can't eat," said Abel.
+
+"I can, and I'll set you an example.  Sorry there is no Strasburg pie or
+other delicacy to tempt you; and the cook is out, or she should grill
+you some grouse."
+
+Abel sat nursing his piece of unappetising bread, while Dallas rapidly
+disposed of his, the smaller piece.
+
+They had been sitting in silence for some time, with Dallas gazing
+wistfully at his companion.
+
+"Try and eat the damper, old fellow," he said.  "You must have food."
+
+"I can't, Dal.  I say, how much gold is there in the hole?"
+
+"I daresay there's five-and-twenty ounces."
+
+"You must take it, and contrive to get away from here, Dal," said Abel
+suddenly.
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Get back home again.  She'll break her heart if she loses us both."
+
+_Thud_!
+
+There was a heavy blow at the rough door, and then another.
+
+"Norton come to look us up," whispered Dallas.
+
+"No; he would not knock like that," whispered back Abel--needlessly, for
+the roar of the storm would have made the voices inaudible outside.
+
+There was another blow on the door as if something had butted against
+it, and then a scratching on the rough wood.
+
+"A bear?" whispered Dallas, rising softly.  "Be quiet.  Bear's meat is
+good, but a bear would not be out on a night like this."
+
+There was another blow, and then a piteous, whining howl.
+
+"A dog, by Jove!" cried Dallas.  "Then his master must be in trouble in
+the snow."
+
+"Dal, it would be madness to go out in this storm.  It means death."
+
+Dallas did not reply, but lifted the blanket, from which a quantity of
+fine snow dropped, and took down the great wooden bar which, hanging in
+two rough mortices, formed its fastening.
+
+As he drew the door inward a little, there was a rush of snow and wind,
+and the fire roared as the sparks and ashes were wafted about the place,
+threatening to fire the two rough bed-places; and with the drifting fine
+snow a great lump forced its way in through the narrow crack, rushing
+towards the blaze, uttering a dismal howl.
+
+Dallas thrust the door to and stared at the object before them, one of
+the great Eskimo dogs, with its thick coat so matted and covered with
+ice and snow that the hairs seemed finished off with icicles, which
+rattled as the poor brute moved.
+
+"Hullo, here!" cried Dallas.  "Where's your master?"
+
+The dog looked at him intelligently, then opened its mouth and howled.
+
+"Come along, then.  Seek, seek."
+
+The young man made for the door as if to open it, but the dog crept
+closer to the fire, crouched down, and howled more dismally than before.
+
+"Well, come and find him, then.  Your master.  Here, here!  Come along."
+
+The dog lifted its head, looked at the glowing fire, and then at first
+one and then the other, howled again, and made an effort to raise
+itself, but fell over.
+
+"What's he mean by that, poor brute?  He's as weak as a rat.  What is
+it, then, old fellow?" cried Dallas, bending down to pat him.  "Why, the
+poor brute's a mere skeleton."
+
+The dog howled once more, struggled up, and fell over sideways.
+
+"He doesn't act as if any one was with him," said Abel.
+
+The dog howled again, made a fresh effort, and this time managed to sit
+up on his hindquarters, and drooped his fore-paws, opening his great
+mouth and lolling out the curled-up tongue.
+
+"Starving--poor wretch!" said Dallas.  "No, no, Bel, don't.  It's the
+last piece of the bread."
+
+"I can't eat it," replied Abel.  "Let the poor brute have it.  I can't
+see it suffer like that."
+
+He broke up the cake and threw it piece after piece, each being snapped
+up with avidity, till there was no more, when the poor brute whined and
+licked Bel's hand, and then turned, crawled nearer to the fire, laid his
+great rough head across Dallas's foot, and lay blinking up at him, with
+the ice and snow which matted his dense coat melting fast.
+
+"Poor beggar!" said Dallas.  "He has been having a rough time."
+
+The dog whined softly, and the unpleasant odour of burning hair began to
+fill the place as his bushy tail was swept once into the glowing embers.
+
+"Give him part of the moose bone, Dal," said Abel.
+
+"If this blizzard keeps on we have only that to depend on, old fellow.
+I want to help the dog, but I must think of you."
+
+"Give it up," said Abel gloomily, as he laid a hand on his bandaged
+foot.  "Give him what there is, and then let him lie down and die with
+us.  The golden dream is all over now.  Look! the poor brute just
+managed to struggle here.  He's dying."
+
+"No, settling down to sleep in the warm glow.  Look how the water runs
+from his coat."
+
+"Dying," said Abel positively.  And the poor brute's actions seemed to
+prove that the last speaker was right, for he lay whining more and more
+softly, blinking at the fire with his eyes half-closed, and a shiver
+kept on running through him, while once when he tried to rise he uttered
+a low moan and fell over on to his side.
+
+"Is he dead, Dal?" said Abel hoarsely.
+
+His cousin bent over the dog and laid his hand upon his throat, with the
+result that there was a low growling snarl and the eyes opened to look
+up, but only to close again, and the bushy tale tapped the floor a few
+times.
+
+"Knows he is with friends, poor fellow!" said Dallas.  "But he did not
+show much sense in coming to Starvation Hall."
+
+"It was the fire that attracted him."
+
+"Perhaps," said Dallas.  "But I have a sort of fancy that we have met
+before."
+
+"What!" cried Abel, brightening up, "you don't think--"
+
+"Yes, I do.  Did you notice that the poor brute limped with one of his
+hind-legs?"
+
+"Yes, but--oh, impossible.  A dog would not know you again like that.
+You mean the one you saved from the ice."
+
+"Yes, I do; but we shall see by daylight, such as it is.  I say, though,
+if we do get home again, you and I, after our experience of this Arctic
+place, ought to volunteer for the next North Pole expedition."
+
+Abel heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"Look here, old fellow; you were brightening up, now you are going back
+again.  Let's go to bed and have a good long sleep in the warm.  What
+about the dog?"
+
+"Yes, what about him?"
+
+"I suppose we mustn't turn him out again on a night like this."
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"But you know what these brutes are.  He'll be rousing up and eating our
+candles and belts--anything he can get hold of; but I suppose we must
+risk it."
+
+The door now being rattled loudly by the tremendous wind, was once more
+made secure, the blanket replaced, and then, after well making up the
+fire with a couple of heavy logs, the weary pair were about to creep
+into their skin sleeping-bags when they were startled into full
+wakefulness again, for a fierce gust seemed to seize and shake the hut,
+and then, as the wind went roaring away, there was a wild moaning cry,
+and a sharp report from close at hand.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+BEGGING YOUR BREAD IN GOLDEN DAYS.
+
+"It is the dog's master, Bel," whispered Dallas, springing to the door
+and beginning to unfasten it, just as the dog raised his head and whined
+dismally.
+
+The disposition was there to help, and as soon as he could get the door
+open, Dallas dashed out into the whirling snow, which rushed in blinding
+eddies about the hut, while Abel, awestricken and panting, clung to the
+post and tried to pierce the black darkness.
+
+"It is madness.  It means death," he groaned to himself.
+
+Even as the thought crossed his mind Dallas staggered back, to stand
+panting and wiping the snow from his eyes.
+
+Then he dashed out again, but was beaten back breathless and exhausted.
+
+Again he tried, for Abel had not the heart to stay him, and a good ten
+minutes elapsed--minutes of anxiety to the watcher, which seemed like
+hours--before his companion was literally driven in again, to fall
+completely exhausted upon the floor.
+
+"I can't do it, Bel," he said at last feebly.  "I never thought the wind
+and snow could be like this.  It's death to go out there, and I felt
+that I should never get back again."
+
+He struggled to his feet once more and made for the door, but Abel
+seized him by the arm and tried to shut out the blinding snow, which had
+given the interior of the hut the appearance of winter, and after a hard
+struggle the door was closed.
+
+"Bel, that biggest tree at the side is split right down, and half has
+fallen this way," said Dallas breathlessly.  "It must have been that we
+heard.  I fell over it as I tried to find the door."
+
+"You shall not go again," said Abel.
+
+"I cannot," replied Dallas sadly; "but I feel sure now that no one is
+asking for help."
+
+The hours passed and the fire was made up again and again, while towards
+morning the storm lulled.
+
+The dog lay perfectly still; but he was not dead when Dallas roused
+himself up to examine him, for he feebly rapped the floor with his tail.
+
+Abel had sunk into the sleep of utter weariness, and Dallas let him lie
+as he replenished the fire, opened the door softly, plunged through the
+snow, and, as well as the darkness would allow, satisfied himself that
+he was right about the riven tree.  "It was very horrible to think,
+though," he said to himself; "but no one could have been travelling on
+such a night."
+
+He returned to the hut, replenished the fire, and the billy was boiling
+ready for its pinch of tea, and the newly made cake baking, by the time
+Abel opened his eyes and sighed.
+
+"What a useless log I am, Dal," he said.
+
+"Are you?"
+
+"Yes, I lie here doing nothing.  How is the dog?"
+
+"Quite dry and fluffy."
+
+"But he is not dead?"
+
+"No; but are we to give him house room?"
+
+"Could we turn him out into the snow?"
+
+Dallas began to whistle softly, and turned the cake on the round iron
+pan which answered for many purposes.  "It's the same dog, Bel," he said
+at last.
+
+"Then the intelligent beast has tracked us out."
+
+"Been a long time about it."
+
+"Dogs are very grateful creatures."
+
+"Rum way of showing his gratitude to come and sponge upon two poor
+fellows who are half starving.  Meal bag's awfully low."
+
+"You must try for something with the gun.  What's the weather like this
+morning?"
+
+"Dark and cold, but clear starlight, and a sprinkle of fresh snow on the
+ground."
+
+"A sprinkle?"
+
+"Yes; three feet deep outside the door."
+
+"Have you been out?"
+
+"Yes; and found I was right about the tree.  There must have been
+lightning, I think.  I'm glad it was that."
+
+"Yes.  I wonder how old Tregelly has got on.  It's very lonely where he
+is."
+
+"So it is here."
+
+"How snug the fire looks, Dal!" said Abel, after a pause.
+
+"Yes; cheery, isn't it?  Cake smells good.  How does the foot feel?"
+
+"Not so painful this morning after the rest.  But, Dal!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I lay thinking last night after you had gone to sleep, and you really
+must not go down to the town."
+
+"Must, old chap."
+
+"No, no; don't leave me."
+
+"But you'll have company now--the dog."
+
+"Go round when it's daylight, and try what stores you can get from the
+men round us."
+
+"It isn't reasonable, Bel.  Every one is as short as we are."
+
+"Starving Englishmen are always ready to share with their brothers in
+distress."
+
+"Yes; but their brothers in distress who are strong and well, and who
+have enough gold to buy food, have too much conscience to rob them."
+
+"How much longer can we hold out?"
+
+"I don't know," said Dallas, "and I don't want to know.  Stores are
+getting terribly low, and that's near enough for me.  But what do you
+say to the dog?"
+
+"Poor brute!  We must keep him."
+
+"I meant killing and eating him."
+
+"No, you didn't.  Dal, I'm better this morning; the coming of that poor
+dog like a fellow-creature in distress seems to have cheered me up."
+
+"That's right.  Then, as a reward, I will wait a few days and go round
+cadging."
+
+"No--buying."
+
+"The fellows won't sell.  They will only let us have some as a loan."
+
+"Very well, then; get what you can as a loan, Dal."
+
+"All right; but I know what it will be wherever I go: `We can let you
+have some tobacco, old man; we've scarcely anything else.'"
+
+"Never mind; try."
+
+Dallas threw a few small pieces of wood on the fire to make a blaze and
+light up the rough place, and then the breakfast was partaken of.  Not a
+very substantial meal: milkless tea, with very stodgy hot cake, made
+with musty meal; but to the great delight of Dallas, his companion in
+misfortune partook thereof with some show of appetite, and then sat
+looking on without a word while Dallas took one of their gold-washing
+pans, poured in some meal, took a piece of split firewood, and stirred
+with one hand while he poured hot water in from the billy with the
+other.
+
+Neither spoke, but their thoughts were in common, and as soon as the hot
+mash had cooled a little, the cook turned to the dog.
+
+"Now then, rough un," he cried, "as you have invited yourself to bed and
+breakfast, here is your mess, and you'd better eat it and go."
+
+The dog opened his eyes, looked at him wistfully, and beat the floor
+again, but he made no effort to rise.
+
+"Poor brute!  He is weak, Bel.  Here, let's help you."
+
+Passing his arm under the dog's neck, he raised him a little so that he
+could place the shallow tin of steaming food beneath his muzzle; but the
+only result was a low whine, and a repetition of the movement of the
+tail.
+
+At last, though, the eyes opened, and the poor brute sniffed, and began
+to eat very slowly, pausing now and then to whine before beginning
+again, till at last the effect of the hot mess seemed magical, and the
+latter half was eaten with avidity, the tin being carefully licked
+clean.
+
+A few minutes later the dog was asleep again, but in a different
+attitude, for he had, after a few efforts, curled himself up as close to
+the fire as he could get without burning, his muzzle covered over by his
+bushy tail.
+
+"Dallas Adams, Esquire, gold medal from the Society for the Prevention
+of Cruelty to Animals.  Bow from Dallas Adams, Esquire, and loud cheers
+from the audience at the annual meeting."
+
+"And well deserved," said Abel, smiling.  "Oh, I wish I had your
+spirits."
+
+"Get your frozen foot well, and then you will," was the reply.  "Look
+here, I'll take a sack and go begging at once, and then come back and
+get in some wood, for there will not be time to work in the shaft, only
+get out the snow."
+
+"Go on, then, and you will succeed."
+
+"Doubtful," was the reply.
+
+Soon after, Dallas, with a sack fastened across one shoulder like a
+scarf, and his gun over his shoulder, opened the door.  "Cheer up, old
+chap!" he cried.  "I shan't be long," and forcing his way out, he closed
+the door, plunged forward, and struggled waist deep through the snow
+which had drifted up against the hut.
+
+Farther on it lay less heavy, and pausing for a few moments to take a
+look round beneath the starlit sky, he made his way along the border of
+the creek--carefully on the look-out for pine-stumps, the remains of the
+dense scrub which had been cut down by the gold-seekers--in the
+direction of one of the lights dotting the creek here and there, those
+nearest being lanterns, but farther on a couple of fires were burning.
+
+"Morning, mate," said a cheery voice, as he came upon two men busily
+shovelling snow from a pit beneath a rough shelter of poles, while a hut
+was close by.  "You've got plenty of this, I s'pose?"
+
+"Nearly buried.  I say, we're awfully short of meal and bacon.  Can you
+sell us some?"
+
+The two men leaned on their shovels.
+
+"We're so desp'rate low ourselves, mate," said the one who had not
+spoken.  "We don't like to say no.  But look here, go and try round the
+camp and see what you can do.  Some of them's a deal better off than we
+are.  Get it of them.  If you can't, come back here and we'll do what we
+can.  Eh, mate?"
+
+"Of course," came in a growl; "but no humbug, Mr Adams."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, this.  When it comes to eating we, as it says in the song, you
+must play fair and draw lots with the rest of us."
+
+"Never fear," said Dallas merrily, joining in the laugh; "but we've got
+the dogs to eat first if we can't get any moose.  There ought to be some
+tracks seen after this."
+
+"So plaguy dark, mate, for hunting and shooting; but talk about dogs,
+did you hear that brute howling during the storm?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I heard him," said Dallas.
+
+"He soon gave in, though.  I believe some of the others hunted him down
+and didn't stop to draw lots.  What hungry beggars they are!"
+
+Dallas trudged on slowly, calling at claim after claim on his way down
+the creek, but always with the same result--friendly willingness, but
+want of means.
+
+Then he reached the spot where one of the fires had been burning, but
+which had died out, nothing being left but wood, smoke, and steam, while
+two men were scraping away the snow from a heap while they waited till a
+shaft about six feet deep beneath a roofed shed was cool enough to
+descend.
+
+"Morning, mate," was his salutation.  "Nearly got our roof on fire.
+Were you coming to help?"
+
+"No, to ask for help," said Dallas, and he made his request.
+
+One of the men went to the edge of the pit and descended a roughly made
+ladder, prior to beginning to fill a bucket with the gravelly bottom
+which had been thawed by the fire, ready for his companion to haul up
+and empty on the heap ready for washing when the spring time came.
+
+"Tell him," he said gruffly.  "Well, mate," said the man at the top,
+"it's like this.  We've got about a couple of pound of strong shag and a
+few ounces o' gold we can loan you.  If that's any good, you're welcome;
+but grub's awful short.  Try further down, and if you can't get what you
+want, come back."
+
+"All right, and thank you, mates," said Dallas.  "Morning."
+
+"I say, we'll show you the flour-tub and the bare bone if you like."
+
+"No, no," cried Dallas; "I believe you."  And then to himself, "I must
+fall back on Tregelly."
+
+He had the burning wood fire for guide to where the big miner was
+thawing the shaft in his claim, to make the frozen gravel workable, and
+in addition there were faint signs coming of the short-lived day.
+"Morning, Tregelly."
+
+"What, you, Mr Adams!  Glad to see you, my son.  Come inside and have a
+mouthful of something and a pipe."
+
+"I don't want to hinder you," said Dallas to his cheery friend.
+
+"You won't hinder me, my son.  I like letting the fire have a good burn
+out, and then for it to cool down before I begin.  Come along; but how's
+your cousin?"
+
+"Better this morning, but very low-spirited last night, with his
+frost-bitten foot."
+
+"Poor lad!  It is hard on him."
+
+"The fact is, we are terribly short of provisions."
+
+"You are?  Same here, my son; but why didn't you come down and tell me?
+I haven't got much, but you're welcome to what I can spare.  There you
+are; sit down by the fire and I'll see what we can do.  Bacon's horribly
+close, and I've only two of those mahogany salt solids they call
+'Merican hams; but I can let you have a tin or two of meal and some
+flour."
+
+"If you can," cried Dallas, "it will be a blessing to us now, and as
+soon as ever--"
+
+"Yes, yes, all right, my son: I know.  But how's the gold turning out?"
+
+"The gravel seems fairly rich, but somehow I'm afraid we shall do no
+good."
+
+"That's how it seems with me," said the miner.  "One just gets enough to
+live upon and pay one's way; and one could do that anywhere, without
+leading such a life as this."
+
+Dallas thought of his friend's words as he tramped back through the snow
+with his sack of provender on his back, for the life they were leading
+was that of the lowest type of labourer, the accommodation miserable,
+and the climate vile.
+
+"It will not do--it will not do," he said sadly; but he returned, all
+the same, in better spirits with the results of his foraging, to find
+Abel waiting for him anxiously, and the dog curled-up by the fire
+sleeping heavily.
+
+The stores obtained were carefully husbanded, and during the next few
+days, in spite of intense frost, Dallas worked hard in the shaft on
+their claim, heating it with the abundant wood till a certain amount of
+gravel was thawed, and then throwing it out ready for washing when the
+next summer came.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+ABEL'S NIGHT ALARM.
+
+"It's no good, Bel," said Dallas one day; "I can't go begging round
+again.  It's not fair to the men.  I must go down to the town and bring
+back as much as I can."
+
+"Very well," said Abel.  "When do you start?"
+
+"To-morrow morning."
+
+"So soon?  Well, if it has to be done, the sooner the better."
+
+"I can get back within four or five days, I believe, and I'll ask
+Tregelly to come in once or twice to see you, so that you will not be so
+lonely."
+
+"You need not do that, because I shall not be here," said Abel quietly.
+
+"Not be here?"
+
+"Of course not.  I shall be with you."
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"No, I shall manage to limp along somehow."
+
+"Impossible, I tell you!" cried Dallas.  "You must stay to take care of
+the claim; and then there is the gold--and the dog."
+
+Abel was silenced; and the next morning, taking his empty sledge, and
+trusting to obtain enough food at the shanties which he would pass on
+the track, Dallas started.
+
+Abel watched him pass away into the gloom of the dark morning, and then
+turned and limped back sadly to where the dog lay dozing by the fire,
+apparently still too weak to stir.
+
+Abel's bed had been drawn aside, and there was a hole in the ground,
+while upon the upturned barrel which formed their table stood a little
+leather bag half full of scales, scraps, and nuggets of gold--that which
+remained after Dallas had taken out a sufficiency to purchase stores at
+the town on the Yukon.
+
+Abel's first act was to stoop down, mend the fire, and pat the dog,
+which responded by rapping the earth with his tail.  Then the leather
+bag was tied up, replaced in the bank hole, which was then filled up,
+the earth beaten down flat, and the sacks and skins which formed the bed
+drawn back into their places.
+
+He stooped down and patted the dog.
+
+"Pah!  Why don't you lie farther from the fire?  You make the hut smell
+horribly with your burnt hair."
+
+The dog only whined, opened one eye, blinked at him, and went off to
+sleep again.
+
+"Poor old chap!" mused Abel.  "I didn't think I could care so much for
+such a great, rough, ugly brute as you are; but adversity makes strange
+friends."
+
+Abel finished that day wondering how Dallas was getting on, and trying
+to picture his journey through the snow by the side of the ice-bound
+stream; grew more melancholy from his lonely position, and then tried to
+rouse himself by being practical and planning.
+
+He made up his mind to content himself with one good, hearty meal a day,
+so as to make the provisions last out well, in case Dallas should not be
+back to time, and only to be extravagant with the fuel.
+
+Lastly, he went to the door and looked out, to find that it was a clear,
+frosty night, with the brilliant stars peering down.
+
+He knew it was night, for no fires were to be seen in any direction,
+and, after making all as snug as he could, he rolled himself in his
+blankets, drew the skin bag up about him, and followed his dumb
+companion's example, sleeping till morning, when the logs were just
+smouldering and had to be coaxed into a good warm blaze again.
+
+And so the days and nights glided by.  He would awake again to find the
+fire burning low, the dog still sleeping, and the horror of another
+dreary day to pass.  For his foot seemed no better, his spirits were
+lower than ever, and at last it was long past the time when Dallas
+should have returned.
+
+How the days passed then he never afterwards could quite recall, for it
+was like a continuous nightmare.  But in a mechanical way he kept up the
+fire, with the wood piled in one corner by the door getting so low that
+he knew he must bestir himself soon, and get to the stack by the shaft,
+knock and brush off the snow, and bring in more to thaw in the warmth of
+the hut.
+
+All in a strange, dreamy way he sat and watched, cooked a large pot of
+skilly, and shared it with the still drowsy dog, which took its portion
+and curled-up again, after whining softly and licking his hand.
+
+One night all seemed over.  No one had been near, and he had felt too
+weak and weary to limp to the nearest hut in search of human
+companionship.  He was alone in his misery and despair.  Dallas must be
+dead, he felt sure, and there was nothing for him to do now but make
+another good meal for himself and the dog, and then sleep.
+
+"Sleep," he said aloud, "and perhaps wake no more."
+
+He ate his hot meal once more and watched the dog take his portion
+before going to the door, to look out feebly and find all black,
+depressing darkness; not even a star to be seen.
+
+"Night, night, black night!" he muttered as he carefully fastened up
+again, pegged the blankets across to keep out the cruel wind, carefully
+piled up the pieces of wood about the fire, as an afterthought carried
+out with a smile, with a big log that would smoulder far on into the
+next day for the sake of the dog.
+
+"For I shall not want it," he said sadly.  "Poor brute!  What will he do
+when I'm dead?"
+
+The thought startled him, and he sat down and fixed his eyes upon the
+shaggy, hairy animal curled-up close to the fire, whose flames flickered
+and danced and played about, making the hair glisten and throwing the
+dog's shadow back in a curious grotesque way.
+
+Something like energy ran in a thrill through the watcher, and he
+shuddered and felt that he must do something to prevent _that_--it would
+be too horrible.
+
+It was in a nightmare-like state he seemed to see people coming to the
+door at last.  He could even hear them knocking and shouting, and at
+last using hatchets to crash a way in.  For what?  To find the dog there
+alive and stronger, ready to resent their coming, even to fighting and
+driving them away; but only to return, rifle or pistol armed, to destroy
+the brute for what it had done according to its nature, to keep itself
+alive.
+
+And then, it seemed to Abel, in his waking dream, they shudderingly
+gathered together what they saw to cast into the ready-dug grave--the
+shaft in which he and Dallas had so laboriously but hopefully delved, in
+search of the magnet which had drawn them there--the gold.
+
+He made a wild effort to drive away the horrible fancy, and at last with
+a weary sigh sank upon his bed, his last thought being:
+
+"Would those at home ever know the whole truth?"
+
+"How long have I been awake?"
+
+It must have been one long stupor of many, many hours, for the fire was
+very low, shedding merely a soft warm glow through the place.
+
+He was stupefied, and felt unable to move, but the fancy upon which he
+had fallen asleep was there still in a strange confused way, and he felt
+that the dog was not in the spot where he had left it.
+
+He lay with his eyes half-closed, conscious now of some sound which had
+awakened him.  For there beyond the glowing embers, where all was made
+indistinct and strange, the dog was hard at work tearing a way out of
+the hut.  The wood snapped and grated as it was torn away; then there
+was silence, and he was half disposed as he lay there helpless to think
+it was all a dream.
+
+But as this fancy came the noise began once more, and at last he caught
+sight of the great dog, strong and sturdy now, crawling through a hole
+it had made into the hut--what for he could not make out in his feverish
+state.  Why should it have done this to get at him when already there?
+
+He knew it was all wrong, and that his brain was touched; but one thing
+was plain reality: There was the great beast, magnified by the light of
+the fire, creeping forward while he lay paralysed and unable to stir.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+DAL'S WELCOME BACK.
+
+And yet it was strange, for just then the embers fell together, a soft,
+lambent, bluish flame flickered up, making the interior of the hut
+light, and he saw that the dog still lay in its old place, fast asleep.
+What was it then--bear, wolf--which had torn a way through or half under
+the wall of the place?
+
+A bear, for it suddenly raised itself up on its hind-legs, and as he lay
+stupefied with horror, Abel could make out its shaggy hide.
+
+Still, he could not move to reach for the rifle which stood ready loaded
+in the corner close by, but lay half paralysed in the strange dazed
+state into which he had fallen, till the object which reared up, looking
+huge, moved a little, and seemed listening.
+
+Just then there was a bright gleam.
+
+Eyes--teeth?  Impossible, for it was low down, and Abel shook off his
+lethargy and uttered a low, hoarse cry, as he made an effort to spring
+up and reach a weapon.
+
+But he was tight in the skin-lined sleeping-bag, and this fettered him
+so that he fell back, and the next moment his nocturnal visitant sprang
+forward, coming down heavily upon him, at the same moment making a
+deadly blow at him.
+
+The strange feeling of helplessness was gone.  Something to call forth
+the young man's flagging energies had been needed, and it had come.  He
+had lain down as one who had given up all hope, who had lost all that
+bound him to life; but that was but the dream of weakness, the
+stagnation of his nature, brought on by suffering, loneliness, and
+despair.
+
+Face to face now with this danger, confronted by a cowardly ruffian,
+Nature made her call, and it was answered.  The strong desire for life
+returned, and with another hoarse cry he flung himself aside, and thus
+avoided the blow aimed at him.
+
+The next moment he had thrown himself upon his assailant.  In an instant
+his hands were upon his throat.  And now a terrible struggle ensued, in
+which a strange sense of strength came back to Abel; and he kept his
+hold, as, failing to extricate himself, his assailant retaliated by
+seizing him in the same way, and kept on raising and beating the
+fettered man's head against the floor.
+
+For in their struggle they had writhed and twisted till they were
+approaching the fire; and as they strove on in their fight for the
+mastery, Abel was conscious of hearing a loud yelp.  Then his breath
+grew shorter, there was a horrible sensation of the blood rushing to his
+eyes, as he gasped for breath--a terrible swimming of the brain--lights
+bright as flashes of lightning danced before his eyes, and then with his
+senses reeling he was conscious of a tremendous weight, and then all was
+black--all was silent as the grave.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+"Two days late," said Dallas, as he paused for a few moments to rest and
+gain his breath, before shooting into collar again, when the trace
+tightened, the sledge creaked and ground over the blocks of ice, and
+glided over the obstruction which had checked him for the moment, and
+the runners of the heavily loaded frame rushed down the slope, nearly
+knocking him off his feet.  The young man growled savagely, for the blow
+was a hard one.
+
+"If you could only keep on like that I'd give you an open course," he
+said; "but you will not.  Never mind; every foot's a foot gained.
+Wonder how old Abel is getting on?"
+
+He shot into the collar once more, the trace tightened, and he went on
+for another hundred yards over the ice and snow.
+
+The young man's collar was a band of leather, his trace a rope, but no
+horse ever worked harder or perspired more freely than he, who was
+self-harnessed to the loaded sledge.
+
+"I don't mind," he had said over and over again.  "I'd have brought
+twice as much if I could have moved it.  As it is, there's enough to pay
+off one's debts and to keep up, with economy, till the thaw comes; and
+now we are not going to be so pressed I daresay I shall manage to shoot
+a moose."
+
+That journey back from the settlement had been a terrible one, for he
+had loaded himself far more heavily than was wise, and this had
+necessitated his sleeping two nights in the snow instead of one.  But
+snow can be warm as well as cold, and he found that a deep furrow with
+the bright crystals well banked up to keep off the wind, blankets, and a
+sleeping-bag, made no bad lair for a tired man who was not hungry.  He
+took care of that, for, as he said to himself, "If it is only a donkey
+who draws he must be well fed."
+
+With his sledge at his head, tilted on one side to make a sort of
+canopy, and a couple of blankets stretched over, tent fashion, upon some
+stout sticks close down to his face, the air was soon warmed by his
+breath, and thanks to the skin-lined bag he slept soundly each night,
+and by means of a little pot and a spirit-lamp contrived to obtain a cup
+of hot tea before starting on his journey in the morning.  But it was
+the lamp of life, heated by the brave spirit within him, that helped him
+on with his load, so that after being disappointed in not covering the
+last eight miles over-night, he dragged the sledge up towards their hut
+just at dawn of the day which succeeded the attack made upon his
+companion.
+
+By dawn must be understood about ten o'clock, and as he drew near,
+Dallas could see a fire blazing here, and another there, at different
+shafts; but there was no sign of glow or smoke from the fire in their
+own hut; and in the joy that was within him at the successful
+termination of his expedition, Dallas laughed.
+
+"The lazy beggar!" he said.  "Not stirring yet, and no fire.  Why, I
+must have been tugging at this precious load over four hours.  He ought
+to have been up and had a good fire, and the billy boiling.  He's taking
+it out in sleep and no mistake.  Wonder whether the dog's dead?  Poor
+brute!  I don't suppose he can have held out till now."
+
+As he drew near he gave vent to a signal whistle familiar to his cousin.
+But there was no reply, and he tugged away till he was nearer, and then
+gave vent to a cheery "Ahoy!"
+
+There was still no response, and he hailed again, without result.
+
+"Well, he is sleeping," said Dallas, and he hailed again as he dragged
+away at the load.  "At last!" he cried, as he reached the door and cast
+off the leathern loop from across his breast.  "Here, Bel, ahoy! ahoy!
+ahoy!  Hot rolls and _coffee_!  Breakfast, bacon, and tinned tongue!
+Banquets and tuck out!  Wake up, you lazy beggar! you dog! you--"
+
+He was going to say "bear," but a horrible chill of dread attacked him,
+and he turned faint and staggered back, nearly falling over his loaded
+sledge.
+
+"Bah! coward! fool!" he cried angrily, and he looked sharply round, to
+see shaft fires in the distance; but there was no hut within half a
+mile.  "What nonsense!" he muttered.  "There can't be anything wrong.
+Got short of food, and gone to one of the neighbours."
+
+Nerving himself, he tried to open the door.
+
+But it was fast, and, as he could see from a means contrived by
+themselves for fastening the door from outside when they went away
+hunting or shooting, it had not been secured by one who had left the
+place.
+
+In an instant, realising this, he grew frantic, and without stopping to
+think more, he ran round to the side by the shaft, caught up a piece of
+fir-trunk some six or seven feet long, and ran back, poised it for a few
+moments over his head, and then dashed it, battering-ram fashion, with
+all his might against the rough fir-wood door, just where the bar went
+across, loosening it so that he was able to insert one end of the piece
+of timber, using it now as a lever; and with one wrench he forced the
+door right open.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+TREGELLY'S IDEA OF A GOLD TRAP.
+
+Dropping the piece of wood, he dashed into the dark hut, to find that
+the rush of wind from the suddenly opened door had started the embers in
+the middle of the floor flickering in a dim lambent flame, just enough
+to show him that the barrel table had been knocked over, the boxes used
+for seats driven here and there, the bed occupied by his cousin dragged
+away, the boards lifted, and the earth underneath it torn up, while Abel
+was lying face downward close up to the remains of their store of wood.
+
+It was all in one comprehensive glance that he had seen this, and it
+seemed still to be passing panorama-like across the retina of his eyes,
+when the faint flame died out and he dropped upon his knees beside the
+prostrate man.
+
+"Oh, Bel, lad," he groaned; "what have I done?  I oughtn't to have left
+you.  Bel, old man, speak to me.  God help me!  He can't be dead!"
+
+His hands were at his cousin's breast to tear open the clothes, and feel
+if the heart was beating, but for the moment he shrank back in horror,
+half paralysed with the dread of learning the truth.
+
+It was but momentary, and then he mastered the coward feeling, uttering
+a gasp of relief, for there was a faint throbbing against the hand he
+thrust into the poor fellow's breast.
+
+"Alive!  I am in time," he muttered, and he continued his examination in
+the dark, expecting to feel blood or some trace of a wound.
+
+But, as far as he could make out, there was nothing of the kind, though
+he felt that his cousin must have been attacked; so, after laying the
+sufferer in a more comfortable position, he felt for the matches on the
+rough shelf, struck one, saw that the lamp stood there unused, and the
+next minute he had a light and went down upon one knee to continue his
+examination.
+
+At the first glance he saw that Bel's throat was discoloured, and there
+were ample signs of his having been engaged in some terrible struggle,
+but that was all.  No, not all; the poor fellow was like ice, and quite
+insensible.
+
+Dallas's brain was in a whirl, but he was able to act sensibly under the
+circumstances.  He caught up rugs and blankets, and covered the sufferer
+warmly.  Then, going to the open door, he dragged in the sledge, and
+closed and secured the entrance after a fashion.
+
+His next effort was to get a good fire blazing to alter the temperature
+of the hut; and when this was done he went to the spirit-flask kept on
+the shelf for emergencies, and trickled a few drops between the poor
+fellow's lips.
+
+As he worked at this he tried hard to puzzle out what had happened.
+
+His first thoughts had been in the direction of attack and robbery.  But
+there was the fastened door.  It was not likely that Abel, after being
+half strangled and hurled down, could have fastened up the door again
+from the inside; he would sooner have left it open in the hope of one of
+their neighbours passing by and rendering help.  And yet there was the
+bed dragged away, the board removed, and the earth torn up.
+
+He crossed to the place.
+
+There was no doubt about it; the object of the attack must have been
+robbery, for the bag of gold was gone.
+
+He held his hand to his brow and stared about wildly.
+
+Ah!  A fresh thought.  The dog!  Hungry!  Mad!  It must have attacked
+and seized Abel by the throat.  That would account for its lacerated
+state and the terrible struggle.
+
+There was evidence, too, just across the hut--a hole had been half dug,
+half torn through the side, just big enough for such a dog to get
+through, and it had, after nearly killing him who had saved the brute's
+life, torn a way out, partly beneath the side.
+
+"Oh, Bel, lad, if you could only speak!" groaned Dallas, as he took up
+the lamp, felt how cold the poor fellow was, and, setting the lamp down
+again, stooped to pick up a skin rug tossed into the corner by the head
+of the bed.
+
+But as he drew it towards him something dropped on the ground.  Stooping
+down to see what it was, he discovered that it was a sharp, thick
+bowie-knife.
+
+"It is robbery.  He has been attacked," cried Dallas; and once more he
+devoted himself to trying to restore the sufferer--chafing his cold
+limbs, bathing his temples with spirits, drawing him nearer the fire,
+and at last waiting in despair for the result, while feeling perfectly
+unable to fit the pieces of the puzzle so as to get a solution
+satisfactory in all points.
+
+"Poor old Bel!" he said to himself; "he seems always to get the worst of
+it; but when I told him so he only laughed, and said it was I."
+
+He was in agony as to what he should do.
+
+One moment he was for going to fetch help; the next he gave it up,
+dreading to leave his cousin again.
+
+By degrees, though, the poor fellow began to come to as the warmth
+pervaded him; and at last, to Dallas's great delight, he opened his
+eyes, stared at him wildly, and then looked round wonderingly till his
+eyes lit upon the opening, over which his cousin had pegged a rug.
+
+He started violently then, and the memory of all that had taken place
+came back.
+
+Clapping his hand to his throat, he wrenched his head round so that he
+could look in the direction of the bed.
+
+"The gold--the bag of gold!" he whispered.
+
+"Gone, old fellow; but never mind that, so long as you are alive.  Try
+and drink this."
+
+"No, not now," said Abel feebly.  "I want to lie still and think.  Yes,
+I remember now; he broke in at the side there while I was asleep.  He
+had a knife, but I seized him.  Did you come back then?"
+
+"No, I have not long been home.  Shall I go and ask Norton to come?"
+
+"No, don't leave me, Dal; I am so weak.  But where is the dog?"
+
+"He was not here when I broke in."
+
+"You broke in?"
+
+"Yes; I could not make you hear.  I say, though, had I not better fetch
+help?"
+
+"What for?  There is no doctor; and he might come back."
+
+Dallas had started, for as Abel spoke there was a loud thumping at the
+door.  His hand went behind to his revolver, which he held ready, fully
+expecting from his cousin's manner that the marauder who had attacked
+him had returned; but to the delight of both, after a second blow on the
+door, the familiar voice of Tregelly was heard in a cheery hail.
+
+"Hullo, there!" he cried.  "Any one at home?"
+
+Dallas darted to the door, threw it open, and there in the gloomy light
+of mid-day stood their friend with a load over his shoulder.
+
+"Back again, then?  I was coming to see.  But I say, what's the meaning
+of this--is it a trap?"
+
+"Is what a trap?" said Dallas.
+
+"Putting this bag out yonder with the dog to watch it and snap at any
+one who touches it.  Is the bag yours?"
+
+"Yes, of course," exclaimed Dallas excitedly; "but where was it?"
+
+"Outside, I tell you; but it's a failure if it's a trap, for the dog's
+dead."
+
+Dallas rushed out, followed by his visitor, and there in the dim light
+lay the dog, stretched out upon the snow, perfectly stiff and
+motionless.
+
+"I see how it was now," cried Dallas excitedly; and as their neighbour
+helped him carry the dog in, he told him in a few words of how he had
+found matters on his return.
+
+"Poor brute!  Was he in the place, then?"
+
+"I suppose so, and he must have attacked the scoundrel, and made him
+drop the bag."
+
+"And then lay down to watch it, dying at his post.  If he had lived I'd
+have given something for that dog."
+
+"Indeed you would not," said Dallas warmly.  "No gold would have bought
+him."
+
+The dog was laid down by the fire, but Tregelly shook his head.
+
+"Might as well save his skin, youngsters; but you'll have to thaw him
+first."
+
+"Is he dead?" asked Abel feebly.
+
+"No doubt about that," replied Tregelly.  "It's a pity, too, for he was
+a good dog.  Those Eskimo, as a rule, are horrid brutes, eating up
+everything, even to their harness; but this one was something.  I'd come
+up to bring Mr Wray here half one o' my hams, but you won't want it
+now."
+
+"No," said Dallas; "and I can send you back loaded, and be out of debt."
+
+"Well, I can't say what I lent you won't be welcome.  My word, though,
+you brought a good load."
+
+"Set to and play cook," said Dallas, "while I tidy up.  I'm sure you
+could eat some breakfast, and I'm starving."
+
+"So am I," cried their visitor, laughing.  "Beginning to feel better,
+master?" he added, turning to Abel.
+
+"Yes; only I'm so stiff, and my throat is so painful."
+
+"Cheer up, my lad; that'll soon get better.  I only wish, though, I had
+come last night when that fellow was here.  I don't believe my
+conscience would ever have said anything if I had put a bullet through
+him."
+
+Abel lay silent near the fire, watching the dog thoughtfully while
+stores were unpacked and preparations made for a meal; but at last he
+spoke.
+
+"Dal," he said, "give me that knife that you found."
+
+"What for?  You had better lie still, and don't worry about anything now
+except trying to get well."
+
+"Give me the knife.  I've been thinking.  That man who attacked me last
+night was one of that gang."
+
+"What!" cried Tregelly, stopping in his task of frying bacon.
+"Nonsense! they daren't show their noses here now."
+
+"I feel sure of it," said Abel excitedly.  "Let me look at that knife.
+I believe it's the one that was stolen from the man on the lake."
+
+Dallas looked at him doubtingly, before picking up the knife and shaking
+his head.  "It might be, or it might not," he said dubiously, as he
+passed it to his cousin.
+
+"Well, at any rate, Dal, they have tracked us down, and that accounts
+for the attack."
+
+"It looks like it," said Dallas; "but don't get excited, old fellow.  I
+don't want you to turn worse."
+
+"But they must be somewhere close at hand, Dal," cried Abel; "and we may
+be attacked again at any moment."
+
+"All right, then, we'll be ready for them," said Dallas soothingly.
+"Forewarned is forearmed."
+
+"You are saying that just to calm me," said Abel bitterly.  "You do not
+believe me, but it is a fact.  I felt something of the kind last night
+in those horrible moments when he held my throat in that peculiar way.
+It was out of revenge for the past.  They have dogged us all the time,
+and been close at our heels.  Ah, look out!" he cried wildly, as he
+tried to spring up--"Listen!  I can hear them outside plainly."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+THE STARTING OF A BODYGUARD.
+
+"Nay, nay, lad," said Tregelly soothingly; "there's no one here now.
+That bag of gold was enough to bring one of the rowdies down upon you,
+but those three chaps wouldn't risk a meeting with the judge again."
+
+"I don't know," said Dallas thoughtfully; "there is plenty of room
+hereabout for them to be in, hiding; and they must have gone somewhere."
+
+"Not much chance for a man to keep himself alive in this country,
+without tackle and stores, or a shanty of his own."
+
+"Unless he has attacked and murdered some one," said Abel bitterly.
+"But you will see."
+
+The poor fellow was so exhausted by what he had gone through that, after
+painfully swallowing some of the tea that had been prepared, he dropped
+into a stupor-like sleep, whilst Dallas watched him anxiously.
+
+"That was fancy of his, my lad," said Tregelly, who was making a hearty
+breakfast.  "Come, you don't eat."
+
+"How can I, with the poor fellow like this?" cried Dallas.  "He seems to
+come in for all the misfortune."
+
+"Yes, he is a bit unlucky," replied Tregelly; "but you must eat if you
+want to help him.  Look here, I don't want to be unfeeling; but your
+mate isn't dying of fever."
+
+"No, no; but look at him."
+
+"Yes, I have, and he has been a good deal knocked about, besides having
+a frozen foot; but that will all get well.  You are set up with
+provisions again; you've got your gold back, and a good claim of your
+own."
+
+"Just good enough to keep us alive."
+
+"Well, it isn't very lively work, my lad," said Tregelly; "but we must
+make the best of it.  We shall have the summer again soon, and do
+better, perhaps."
+
+"I hope so," said Dallas bitterly, "for we could never get through
+another winter like this."
+
+"You don't know till you try.  And you take my advice: let your
+brother--"
+
+"My cousin."
+
+"Well, it's all the same out here.  Let him sleep all he can, and when
+he's awake feed him up and keep him warm."
+
+"I can't get rid of the feeling that I ought to go back to Yukon Town
+and try to get a doctor."
+
+"Nonsense, my son; he wants no doctor.  And now look here; if I say
+something to you, will you believe that it's meant honest?"
+
+"Of course.  What do you mean?"
+
+"Only this, my son; that I don't want you to think that I want to come
+and sponge upon you because you've got plenty of prog."
+
+"Mr Tregelly!"
+
+"Let me finish, my lad," said the big Cornishman.  "I was going to say,
+what do you think of me coming and pigging here with you for a bit, in
+case what the youngster here says might be right; and if it is, you and
+me could polish off that gang pretty well, better than you could alone,
+or I could alone.  Not that I'm skeered; but if young Wray here is right
+they'll be down upon me too.  But I don't want you to think--"
+
+"But what about your gold?" said Dallas eagerly.
+
+"If any one should go there, and can find it, I'll give it him."
+
+"Is it so well hidden?"
+
+"Yes; I've got it froze into the middle of a block of ice.  They'll
+never look there."
+
+"Will you come?" said Dallas excitedly.
+
+"I'll do better than that," said the Cornishman: "I'll stop now."
+
+"You will?"
+
+"Of course; and glad of the chance to help you.  Yah!"
+
+The big fellow jumped up in horror, as a loud rap came from close by.
+
+"What was that?" cried Dallas, who was equally startled.
+
+"It was that there dog's ghost got his tail thawed enough to give it a
+rap on the floor to say, `That's right'; and I believe your cousin's
+right too, now, and this is a message sent to us to say, `Look out, for
+those three beauties are coming here again.'"
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Dallas, going down on his knees; "the dog's alive."
+
+"I'm blessed!" said his big friend.  "Well, some things can stand being
+froze hard and thawed out again better than we Christians.  I s'pose
+it's having such a thick coat.  Look at him; he's got one eye open, and
+he's winking."
+
+In proof thereof came a low whine, as if in appeal for food.
+
+"Look here, my sons," said Tregelly one day, as he came in last from the
+dismal darkness without to the bright warmth of the hut, where the fire
+was burning cheerily and an appetising odour of tea, damper, and fried
+ham proclaimed how busy, weak as he still was, Abel had been; "I used to
+grumble a deal down in old Cornwall because we had a lot o' wet days,
+and say it was a country not fit for anything better than a duck to live
+in; but I'm an altered man now, and I repent.  It's a regular heaven
+compared to this Klondike country.  Hullo, Scruff, my son, how are you?"
+The dog gave an amiable growl, and seemed to enjoy the gentle caress
+the big miner gave him with his heavy boot, as he lay stretched out by
+the fire.
+
+"Don't grumble, Bob," said Dallas.  "This looks cheery enough, and we've
+done some good to-day."
+
+"Oh, I'm not grumbling, my son; only making comparisons as is ojus.
+That's what I used to write at school.  This is a reg'lar Lord Mayor's
+banquet for a hungry man.  But my word, how dirty I am!"
+
+"So am I," said Dallas.  "What with the gravel and the wood-smoke, I
+feel like a charcoal burner.  I should like a wash, though."
+
+"Wash, my son!  I should like a bathe in our old Cornish sea, with the
+sun shining on my back.  And I say, a bit of our old fish.  A few
+pilchards or grilled mackerel, or a baked hake, with a pudding inside
+him--or oh! a conger pie."
+
+"Don't, Bob," said Dallas.  "This is painful.  And look here; either you
+or I must go down to Yukon City with the sledge again, for the stores
+are getting low."
+
+"Nay," said the big Cornishman; "we'll have up what I've got down yonder
+first.  Clear out the place.  There's enough there to last us a
+fortnight longer; and I want to go there badly."
+
+"Very well," said Dallas; "then we'll go.  Feel well enough to come as
+far as there to-morrow, Bel?"
+
+"Yes; and I should like it," was the reply.
+
+"Then we'll go.  We'll shut up the dog here to keep house till we come
+back, though no one is likely to come.  I say, how much longer it has
+been light to-day."
+
+"Pretty sort of light!" growled Tregelly.  "I could make better light
+out of a London fog and some wet flannel.  We got a fine lot of gravel
+and washing stuff, though, out of the shaft to-day.  Look here, I picked
+out this."
+
+He held out a tiny nugget of gold, about as big as a small pea; and it
+was duly examined, put in a small canister upon the shelf, and then the
+evening meal went on, and Tregelly refreshed himself with large draughts
+of tea.
+
+"Look here," he said: "we agreed that we'd tell one another if we found
+a good place, and we started working separate."
+
+"Yes," said Bel, "and fate has ordered that we should come together
+again.  We--bah! what mockery it seems to talk of `we' when I'm such a
+helpless log."
+
+"Look here, Bel, I wish you were a bit stronger, and I'd kick you."
+
+"Don't wait, my son; kick him now," cried Tregelly.  "He deserves it."
+
+"I'll save it up," said Dallas.  "But look here, Big Bob, you needn't
+make a long speech.  You were going to say that you thought now that we
+had better stick together, share and share alike for the future."
+
+"Well, I dunno how you knew that," said Tregelly; "but it was something
+of the kind."
+
+"That's right, then we will; eh, Bel?"
+
+"Of course; if Tregelly will consent to share with such a weak,
+helpless--"
+
+"Here," cried the big Cornishman, springing up, "shall I kick him?"
+
+"No, no; let him off."
+
+"But he do deserve it," said Tregelly, subsiding.  "Now, I was going to
+say it don't seem quite fair for me to stop, as those precious three--if
+there is three of 'em left unhung--not having shown up, there don't seem
+any need."
+
+"More need than ever," said Dallas.  "Your being here scares them away."
+
+"Hope it do," said Tregelly.  "Then look here, we'll go down to my pit
+to-morrow, and bring up the sledge load, including my bit of ice, for it
+can't be so very long now before it'll begin to thaw a bit every day,
+and I don't want my block to melt and let out the gold.  There's more
+there than you'd think."
+
+"But that's yours," said Abel.
+
+"Nay, nay, my son; we'll put it all together.  You've got some, and
+there's a lot yonder outside when the soft weather comes and we can wash
+it out; so that's settled.  Wonder whether working in that hot damp
+shaft'll give us rheumatiz by-and-by."
+
+"I hope not, Bob," said Dallas, yawning.  "I've often thought of
+something of the kind.  One thing is certain, that if we don't find much
+more gold than we have got so far we shall have earned our fortunes."
+
+"Fortunes!" cried Abel contemptuously; "why, at the rate we have been
+going on, if we get enough to pay for our journey home, as well as for
+our provisions, that will be about all."
+
+"And except for the pleasant trip, my sons, we might as well have
+stopped at home."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A STRANGE DISCOVERY.
+
+Dallas stared the next morning when he opened his eyes, for the fire was
+burning brightly and Abel was bustling about in the lit-up hut, with
+nothing but a slight limp to tell of the old frost-bite in his foot.
+
+"Come," he said cheerfully; "breakfast is nearly ready."
+
+"Where's Bob Tregelly?" cried Dallas.
+
+"Scraping the ice off the sledge to make it run easily.  It's a glorious
+morning."
+
+"Night," said Dallas sourly, for he was half asleep.  "I'm not going to
+call it morning till there's daylight.  Snowing?"
+
+"No.  Keen frost, and the stars are brilliant."
+
+"Bother the stars!" grumbled Dallas, rolling out of his warm couch of
+blankets and skins.  "I want the sun to come back and take the raw edge
+off all this chilly place.  But I say, you have given up going with us
+to-day--to-night, I mean?"
+
+"Given up?  No.  I feel that it is time I made an effort, and I shall be
+better and stronger if I do."
+
+"But you can't wear your boots, you know, and it will not be safe for
+you to trust to a bandaged sandal."
+
+"Can't wear my boots?" said Abel.  "Well, at any rate, I've got them
+on."
+
+"But they must hurt you horribly."
+
+"Not in the least," said Abel, and his cousin was silent while he
+completed his exceedingly simple toilet--one that he would not have
+thought possible in the old days.
+
+By the time he had finished, the door opened, and Tregelly stooped to
+pass under the lintel.
+
+"Morning, my son," he cried; "I've been greasing the runners of the
+sledge a bit, and rubbing up the chest-strap.  The thing wants using.
+I've oiled the guns and six-shooters too.  Beautiful morning.  I say,
+how that dog has come round!"
+
+For the great shaggy brute had walked to the door to meet him, with his
+bushy tail well curled-up, and a keen look of returning vigour in his
+eyes and movements.
+
+"Yes," said Dallas; "I never thought he'd live.  But I say, Bel persists
+in going with us, and I'm sure he'll break down."
+
+"Well, that doesn't matter, my son.  If he does we'll make him sit
+astride of the load as we come back, and each take a rope, and give him
+a ride home."
+
+"I shall be able to walk," said Abel stoutly.
+
+"Very well," said Dallas.  "You always were the most obstinate animal
+that ever breathed."
+
+The breakfast was eaten, pistols and cartridges placed in their belts,
+rifles taken down from their hooks, and the fire banked up with big logs
+that would last to their return; and then Dallas took up one of the
+skin-lined sleeping-bags.
+
+"What's that for?" said Abel suspiciously.
+
+"For you to ride back in."
+
+Abel made an angry gesture.  "I tell you I'm better," he said sharply.
+
+"Well, never mind if you are, my son," said Tregelly quietly.  "You must
+get tired, and if you are you'll be none the worse for a ride, but a
+good deal so if you get your toes frosted again."
+
+"Very well, make a child of me," said Abel, and he gave way.  "Have we
+got all we want?"
+
+"Better take something for a bit of lunch before we start back,"
+suggested Dallas.
+
+"Nay-y-ay!" cried the Cornishman, "there's plenty yonder, and we may as
+well carry some of it back inside as out."
+
+"Come on, then," said Dallas, and he strode to the door, when, to the
+surprise of all, the dog uttered a deep bark and sprang before them.
+
+"Oh, come, that won't do," cried Dallas.  "You've got to stop and mind
+the house."
+
+The dog barked fiercely, and rose at the door upon its hind-legs.
+
+"Yes, he had better stay," said Abel; "we mustn't leave the place
+unprotected.  Let's slip out one by one."
+
+"I don't know," said Tregelly thoughtfully; "he has evidently made up
+his mind to go with us, and if we shut him in alone he'll be wild and
+get springing about, and perhaps knock the fire all over the place.
+Don't want to come back and find the shanty burned up."
+
+This remark settled the matter, and they started out into the keen dark
+morning, the dog, after bounding about a little and indulging in a roll
+in the snow, placing himself by the trace as if drawing, and walking in
+front of the empty sledge which Tregelly was dragging.
+
+"Might as well have let you pull too," said the latter; "but never
+mind--you may rest this time."
+
+No fires were burning yet, as they trudged on over the frozen snow,
+while the stars glittered brilliantly as if it were midnight, giving
+quite enough light for them to make their way over the four miles which
+divided them from Tregelly's claim.
+
+"Getting pretty close now," he said, breaking the silence; for the
+rugged state of the slippery snow had resulted in the latter part of the
+journey being made in silence, only broken by the crunching of the icy
+particles and the squeaking sound made from time to time by the sledge
+runners as they glided over the hard surface.
+
+Suddenly Tregelly stopped short, and as they were in single file, the
+rest halted too.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Dallas.
+
+"Why, some one's took up a claim and made a shanty close up to mine.
+No, by thunder!  They've got in my place and lit a fire!  Oh, I'm not
+going to stand that!"
+
+"What impudence!" said Dallas.
+
+"Impudence!  I call it real cheek!  But come on; I'll soon have them out
+of that!"
+
+"Hist!" whispered Abel; "let's go up carefully and see first.  It may be
+some one we know."
+
+"Whether we know them or whether we don't," said Tregelly angrily,
+"they're coming out, and at once.  Do you hear?  There's more than one
+of them.  Come along."
+
+But before he had taken a dozen of his huge strides towards the hut,
+from whose rough chimney the ruddy smoke and sparks were rising, there
+was a wild hoarse cry as of some one in agony, and the sound of a
+struggle going on, while fierce oaths arose, and a voice, horrible in
+its weird, strange tones, shrieked out so that the words reached their
+ears:
+
+"The dog--the dog!  Keep him from me, or he'll tear my heart right out!"
+while at the same moment Scruff barking fiercely, bounded forward
+towards the door, just as a cry of horror arose, so awful that it seemed
+to freeze the marrow in the young men's bones.
+
+"Come on," shouted Tregelly; "they're killing some one."
+
+The two young men needed no inciting.  Following Tregelly closely, they
+ran towards the door, which was flung open as their leader reached it,
+and Tregelly was dashed back against them with such violence that he
+would have fallen but for their support.
+
+At the same moment, after they had caught, by the light of the fire
+within, a glimpse of two rough-looking men, one of them apparently as
+big as their companion, the door swung to again and all was darkness,
+while added to the still continuing cries, yells, and appeals to keep
+back the dog, there came from the other direction the crunching of heavy
+boots in full retreat on the snow, the savage barking of the dog, and
+then flash after flash, followed by reports, as the late occupants of
+the hut evidently turned to fire at the pursuing dog.
+
+The first idea of the trio was to rush after the men who had come in
+contact with them, but second thoughts suggested the impossibility of
+overtaking them in the darkness, while the appealing cries from within
+the cottage drew them in the other direction.
+
+"Leave them to the dog," shouted Dallas excitedly.
+
+"Yes, come on and see who's this one inside," growled Tregelly, as he
+thrust open the door and stepped into his hut.
+
+The place was well illumined by the blazing wood fire, and they looked
+round in wonder for the assailant or dog which had elicited the hoarse
+wild appeals for help and protection which rose from the solitary
+occupant of the place--a wild, bloodshot-eyed, athletic man in torn and
+ragged half-open shirt and trousers, who cowered on the rough bed trying
+to force himself closer into the corner, his crooked fingers scratching
+at the wall, while all the time his head was wrenched round so that he
+stared wildly at imaginary dangers, evidently vividly seen, and kept on
+shrieking for help.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+ONE GETS HIS DESERTS.
+
+The little party paused and glanced excitedly round, their weapons ready
+to fire at the companions whom the man was addressing.
+
+"Keep him off, mate--drag him back, Beardy!  Can't you see he's tearing
+me to bits!  Shoot! shoot! why don't you shoot?  Never mind hitting me.
+Shoot!--can't you see the dog's mad?"
+
+There was a moment or two's pause, during which the man was silent,
+panting and foaming at the mouth, as he glared wildly towards the door.
+Then he began again.
+
+"There, there--you've missed him!" he shrieked.  "He's at me again.
+He's mad--mad, I tell you!  Shoot--shoot!--ah!"
+
+The poor wretch darted out one hand, caught up something from between
+the bed and the wall, and the firelight glistened upon the side of a
+bottle, which he raised so violently to his lips that the neck
+rattled against his teeth; and the lookers-on heard the deep
+_glug_--_glug_--_glug_ of the liquid within, as the man drank with
+avidity.
+
+"Ah!" he yelled again, and, raising himself up, he threw the bottle with
+all his might across the hut, so that it struck the wooden wall heavily,
+and fell to the floor unbroken.
+
+"Missed--missed!" shrieked the man; "and he's springing at me again!
+Keep him back--keep him back!  Ah!"
+
+The shriek he uttered was horrible, as he went through all the movements
+of one struggling wildly against the attacks of a savage beast, and then
+suddenly dropped down cowering into the corner, panting loudly.
+
+Meanwhile Tregelly had picked up the bottle and held it to his nostrils,
+before glancing at the side.
+
+"That's mine," he growled.  "They found that, then.  I got it for
+spirits, case I was took ill in the night; but it was so bad I never
+used none, and put it on the corner of the shelf.  It's poison, that's
+what it is; much like paraffin as can be.  Nice stuff for a man like
+that!"
+
+"The man's mad," said Dallas, with a shudder.
+
+"Yes," whispered Abel; "don't you see, Dal?  It's one of three who
+attacked us up in the pass."
+
+"Yes; there's no doubt about that," said Dallas.
+
+"He's the man who attacked me the other night.  I'm sure as can be."
+
+"Oh, that's him, is it?" said Tregelly with a deep, angry growl.  "Well,
+it'll be a long time before he attacks you again, my son."
+
+"Is it fever?" said Dallas.
+
+"'M! no, my son; I've seen a man took like that before.  I should say
+it's hydrophoby, from the bite of a dog; and he's been doctoring himself
+with that paraffin stuff till he's madder than ever."
+
+The sight before them had so taken up their attention that for the
+moment Scruff's pursuit of the other two had been forgotten; but now it
+was brought vividly back to mind by a dull thump at the door, and the
+scratching of claws, and as the door yielded, the great dog forced its
+way in, with his red tongue lolling out, and panting loudly with his
+exertions.
+
+The effect was magical.  The man upon the couch could not have seen or
+heard the dog, but he seemed to divine the great animal's presence, and
+springing up again from where he cowered, he began to shriek again
+horribly.
+
+"The dog--the dog!" he yelled--"tearing me to pieces!  Mad--mad!
+Shoot--shoot, I say!"
+
+But attention was taken from him to the action of the dog.
+
+As soon as the ghastly, distorted face in the corner rose, and the
+shrieks began to fill the hut, the dog paused by the door, with the
+thick hair about his neck bristling up till the animal looked double his
+former size, and a low, muttering, thunderous growl came from his
+grinning jaws.
+
+The next moment he would have sprung at the wretched man, but Dallas
+grasped the position and was too quick for him.  In an instant he had
+sprung across the dog's back, nipped him between his knees, and buried
+his hands in the thick hair of his neck.
+
+"Quick, Bel, or he will tear him to pieces!" cried Dallas.  "The door--
+the door!  Here, Bob, help; I can't hold him.  Strong as a horse."
+
+Abel flew to drag open the door, Tregelly seized the dog by his tail;
+there was a furious scratching and barking, a rush out, a swing round of
+two powerful arms, and the door was banged to again, and fastened; but
+only just in time, Scruff's head coming at it with a loud thud, and his
+claws rattling and scratching on the wood, as he barked and growled
+savagely.
+
+"Lie down, sir!" roared Dallas.  "How dare you!  Lie down."
+
+There was a loud barking at this, but there were sounds as if of protest
+mingled with it, and finally the dog subsided into a howl, and dropped
+down by the door to wait, a low, shuffling, panting sound coming through
+the crack at the bottom.
+
+"He'd have killed him," said Dallas, panting with the exertion.
+
+"Not a doubt about it, my son," replied Tregelly.  "That's the chap,
+sure enough--him as half killed you, Mr Abel."
+
+"Yes, I'm sure of it."
+
+"Knew him again directly."
+
+"Think so?" said Dallas.
+
+"Sure of it, my son.  Dog wouldn't have gone for a sick man in bed.
+Knew him directly, and went for him.  Depend upon it, them two had a
+desprit fight that night when Scruff laid hold of him and made him drop
+the gold-bag."
+
+"That's it, Bel," said Dallas.  "No doubt Scruff bit him pretty well,
+and he has scared himself into the belief that the dog was mad."
+
+"Yes, that and delirim trimins," said the big Cornishman, looking down
+at the horrible wreck before him, the face seeming more ghastly and
+grotesque from the dancing shadows.  "The brute has drunk himself mad.
+He's a thief, and a murderer, or meant to be; and him and his gang have
+broke into my house.  If the judge and his lot yonder could get at him
+they'd hang him to the first tree; he told us if we saw him and his lot
+we were to shoot at sight; and he's no good to himself or anybody else,
+and the world would be all the better without him; and--I say, don't you
+think we'd better let the dog come in and put him out of his misery?"
+
+"No," said Dallas angrily; "neither do you."
+
+"Well, put him outside in the snow.  It's a merciful sort of death, and
+very purifying to such a chap as this.  Soon freeze hard.  He wouldn't
+come back to life like old Scruff.  What do you say to that, Master Abel
+Wray?"
+
+"Nothing," said Abel shortly, "because if I said _Yes_! you wouldn't do
+it."
+
+Tregelly stood and shook with the ebullition of chuckles which came
+bubbling out.
+
+"Oh, dear me," he said at last, as he wiped his eyes.  "I can't help
+being such a fool.  It's my nature to, my sons.  No, I couldn't set the
+dog at the beast, and I couldn't put him out to freeze; but if it had
+come to a fight, and I'd been up, I could have shot him or knocked him
+on the head, and felt all the better for it."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Dallas, who stood gazing down at the trembling
+wretch upon the couch.
+
+"I s'pose I ought to be very glad him and his lot found my place empty;
+and I ought to sit down and nurse him and try to make him well again,
+and stop till his mates came and made an end of me--same as they've made
+an end of everything in the place.  I say, just look here--quiet,
+Scruff, or I'll come and talk to you with one of my boots!--I'm blessed
+if they haven't finished up everything I left here--ham, bacon, meal,
+tea, sugar--every blessed thing," continued Tregelly, as he opened
+canister and tin, peered into the meal-tub, and finished by staring down
+at the miserable wretch on the bed, and thoughtfully scratching his
+head.
+
+"It's horrible, Bob," said Dallas.  "The brutes!  But I don't know what
+we're to do."
+
+Tregelly looked down again at the man, whose lips were moving fast; but
+his words were inaudible, save now and then, when he uttered a strange
+yelping cry, and they heard the word, "Dog!"
+
+"Seems your turn now, Master Abel," said Tregelly.  "You've got your
+knife into him most.  But he's got his deserts."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+A STAGGERING BLOW.
+
+"Is he dying?" said Abel, as he looked down with commiseration on the
+man who tried to take his life.
+
+"As sure as the sun'll rise to-morrow morning somewhere if it don't
+here, my son.  He's dying fast.  Man can't live long going through what
+he's going through now.  He's dying as horrible a death as a man can
+die.  Hanging would be a blessing to it."
+
+"Yes, he's weaker already," said Dallas, looking at the prostrate man.
+
+"That's so, my son.  I don't like his dying in my place; but we can't
+help it.  Let's get together what we want to take, and go."
+
+"But there is nothing to load the sledge with," said Dallas.
+
+"There's a nice lot of cartridges--pistol and rifle--in a tin in yon
+corner.  We'll take those and--Well, I'm blessed!  They've got them,
+too!"
+
+"How tiresome!"
+
+"But they haven't got my gold; I'll warrant that."
+
+"Where is it buried?" asked Abel.
+
+"Buried?" replied Tregelly, with a laugh.  "'Tain't buried at all.  It's
+just outside the door there--one of those big blocks of ice; but we
+shall have to wipe it round with a pick-axe to make it a more decent
+size for the sledge."
+
+"One of these blocks?"
+
+"That's right, my son.  If you make a hiding-place some one's sure to
+find it; but they'd never think of looking inside a block lying outside
+your door.  You see, I picked a big hole in it, put in my stuff, then a
+big wedge of flannel, rammed some snow on the top, poured a drop of
+water over, and in half an hour it was a solid block."
+
+"Well, let's get it and go, before those other scoundrels come back."
+
+"You needn't fear them, my son.  Scruff would let us know if they were
+near.  I only wish they would come, so as we could have a fight.  Taking
+my stores like that."
+
+"But about this man?" said Abel.
+
+"What about him, my son?  We are doing all we can by letting him alone.
+I know enough of that sort of thing to be able to say that nothing can
+be done for him.  No doctor could do him any good, if there was one to
+be had.  Let's get the gold and go back.  Perhaps his mates will come
+back to him when we're gone."
+
+"And if they do, what then?" said Dallas sharply.
+
+"You mean, shall I lay wait for them and trap them, my son.  No; I can't
+do that now.  Be best for them, though, to keep quite out o' my way.
+Now then, open the door just a little way, so that you can squeeze out
+and get hold of the dog, Mr Dallas.  If he gets in we shall have a
+scene."
+
+Dallas nodded, glanced at where the delirious man lay muttering to
+himself, and then slipped out, and was nearly thrown backward by the
+rush the dog made to get into the hut; but he held on to the animal's
+thick coat till his companions had had time to slip out and the door was
+closed, the dog growling his disappointment the while.
+
+"Now," said Dallas merrily, "which is the block we ought to take?"
+
+There was a heap of hardened snow on either side of the door--a heap
+composed of roughened blocks, and when the young men had declared their
+inability to say that one was more likely than another, Tregelly stooped
+down and rolled the very first one over and over.
+
+"That's the one," he said; "but I may as well chip a hundredweight of
+ice off it.  Wait while I get the pick from the side of the shaft, and
+you may as well keep a sharp look-out with cocked pieces.  They might
+try to rush us."
+
+Dallas and Abel took the hint, and did better; they sheltered themselves
+behind the wood heap, ready for any attack that might come; while the
+dog, now pacified, walked here and there, snuffing about as if scenting
+danger.
+
+Tregelly was back directly, and by dexterous usage of the pick-axe he
+soon reduced the heavy block to a more portable size, after which it was
+secured upon the sledge, and the return journey commenced.
+
+A good look-out was kept, every man walking with his piece ready cocked,
+for there were plenty of places to be passed where they might well
+expect to meet with an ambush; but all went well, the ice-block forming
+but a light load, as the snow was hard beneath their feet.
+
+To make matters easier, Abel kept up well, declaring again and again
+that he was not tired.
+
+"Don't overdo it," Dallas said.  "Even with you on the sledge it would
+be a light load for us two to draw."
+
+"You will not draw me, even if it would be," replied Abel.  "I feel
+stronger and brighter now than when I came out.  It shows what a little
+energy will do."
+
+It was fairly light as they came within sight of the hut they had left
+that morning, and a faint curl of smoke rising from the roof showed that
+the fire was still alight; and all seemed to be perfectly right, till
+they were close up, when Dallas caught sight of a piece of timber lying
+across the front of the door, and began to run.
+
+"Take care, my lad!" cried Tregelly; "There may be danger."
+
+Abel followed, but the dog out-speeded the little party, and rushing to
+the front, bounded in at the open door.
+
+"Take care! take care!" cried Abel, as he saw that the door had been
+forced in their absence.
+
+But he was too late, for his cousin had rushed up, rifle in hand, and
+sprung into the place.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+SCRUFF GIVES WARNING.
+
+Abel was still weak and wanting in spirit from his long illnesses, but
+the courage displayed by his cousin roused him to action, and he
+followed the others into the hut.
+
+But it was to face no enemies, only to find Scruff sniffing about--
+Tregelly stamping with rage.
+
+"What is it?" cried Abel.  "Somebody been in, of course."
+
+"Been in and carried off all they could lay hands on."
+
+"Took advantage of our absence, Bel, and loaded themselves with stores."
+
+"And all through not leaving the dog and risking the fire."
+
+"Poor Scruff!" said Abel.  "Perhaps it's as well, for they would
+probably have shot him."
+
+"They might as well shoot us," cried Tregelly, "if this sort of thing is
+to go on."
+
+"Yes," said Dallas.  "Everybody round must be warned at once."
+
+Fortunately, further examination showed that the visitors to the hut
+must have been hurried in their movements, and had been either unable to
+carry away, or had overlooked, a portion of the remaining stores, so
+that starvation did not quite stare them in the face; but it was
+absolutely necessary that a journey to the settlement should be made at
+once.
+
+"My job this time," said Tregelly, as the matter was discussed by the
+fire, where, armed with an axe, he was busily chipping a way into the
+centre of the block of ice they had brought back.  "Now, if those two
+mates of mine hadn't grown sick of it, and gone back before the winter
+come on, they'd just have been useful now."
+
+"Did you quarrel?" asked Dallas.
+
+"Quarrel?  No, my son," said Tregelly, as he chipped away at the ice.
+"They took the right notion one day that there was the long winter to
+face, and that they'd better share and be off while their shoes was
+good."
+
+"Well?" said Dallas.
+
+"Well, we shared, and they went home."
+
+Then there was silence, save that the Cornishman went on chipping away
+at the ice, more and more carefully, for he was getting through the top
+of the shell, and the golden kernel was near, Scruff watching the
+proceedings in rather a cynical or dog-like way, as if sneering at the
+trouble these two-legged animals took to obtain something not good to
+eat.
+
+"Yes; it's terrible work in the dark," said Abel.  "Perhaps they were
+right."
+
+"But the long days are coming," said Dallas cheerfully, "and then we'll
+go farther north up one of the other creeks, towards the mountains.
+There is abundance of gold if we could find it.  And we must--we will
+find it before we've done."
+
+"That's right, my son," cried Tregelly.  "We three won't give up till
+we've had a reg'lar good try.  Now then, here we are: all mixed up and
+froze into a lump.  Just hand me that iron bucket, Mr Wray, and I'll
+chip it out into that, and throw it down by the fire.  Wonder," he
+added, as he began to break out the gilded ice, "whether there's much of
+my share left."
+
+The pieces of ice and gold went on rattling down till the last scrap was
+emptied out, and the hollowed block of ice tossed out of the door.
+
+"Let's see," said Tregelly, "my two mates said that at the end of the
+winter there'd only be about two hundred shillings' worth.  But they
+were wrong," he continued, with a merry laugh, "for all my share's here,
+and I've added a bit more to it--enough to pay for what we want from
+down the river; so I haven't done so badly, after all."
+
+"You have done wonders," cried Dallas.
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  I've worked pretty hard, though," said Tregelly,
+giving the contents of the bucket a twist round and pouring off some of
+the melted ice into another bucket.  "Looks pretty, don't it, my sons?
+but hardly worth all the trouble one takes to get it."
+
+He pushed the bucket right in among the embers, and the contents began
+to steam, till all the ice was melted, when the dirty water was drained
+away and the gold then turned carefully out on the iron cake griddle,
+baked to dryness on the wood ashes, and then examined.
+
+"That would make Mr Redbeard's ugly mouth water if he could see it, my
+sons, eh?"
+
+"Yes, it looks tempting," said Dallas.  "Put it away."
+
+"Nay; we've agreed to share now, my sons.  Let's take out enough for me
+to spend down the river.  Let the other go into your leather bag."
+
+"No, that would not be fair," said Dallas quickly.
+
+"I say it would, my sons; and I ought to know best.  Look here: you're
+going to help me take care of what I've got, and I'm going to help you.
+Sometimes you'll get more; sometimes I shall; so you see it will come
+all square in the end.  There," he said, in conclusion, as he roughly
+scraped a portion of the glittering heap aside, "what do you say to that
+being enough?"
+
+"I'd take more," said Abel; "provisions will be dearer than ever."
+
+"Right; so they will.  Well, that must be plenty.  Now then, where's
+your bag?"
+
+This was produced, rather unwillingly, from the hiding-place.
+
+"That's right," he continued, as the glittering treasure was poured into
+the leather bag.  "Now then, we'll just see what we can do in the way of
+prog for me to take.  I can hold out pretty well on some cake and plenty
+of tobacco.  Then I'll be off."
+
+"When do you mean to go?" said Abel.
+
+"Go, my son?  Why, now, directly.  Sooner the better.  Those chaps won't
+come back till they want some more prog.  I tell you what you might do,
+though; go to the first shanty and tell the neighbour about those two
+being out on the rampage, and ask him to pass the word all along the
+line."
+
+An hour later Tregelly was ready to start, and shook hands.  Then he
+hesitated.
+
+"What is it?" said Dallas.
+
+"I was thinking whether I ought to go round by my claim and see how that
+fellow's getting on.  Sometimes I'm pulled one way, sometimes I'm pulled
+another.  But going perhaps means a bullet in my jacket, so I won't go."
+
+He threw the leather band over his shoulder, and the next minute the
+sledge runners were creaking and crackling as they glided over the
+hardened snow, while Dallas stood listening with his companion till the
+last sound died out, and then hurriedly fetched load after load of
+fire-logs, with the dog busily at work exploring the neighbourhood in
+all directions, coming back at five-minute intervals panting and sending
+up his visible breath, till Dallas bade him go in.
+
+"Dal," said Abel, after a few minutes' pause, during which they had been
+stacking the wood neatly in one corner, "don't you feel glad that you
+saved Scruff's life?"
+
+"I should think I do.  He's going to prove a regular policeman on the
+beat."
+
+A low, deep growl came from the dog.
+
+"Hullo!  Does he object to being called a bobby?"
+
+"Hist!  No," whispered Abel, darting to the hooks upon which the rifles
+were hung.  For the dog had trotted softly to the door, and stood
+looking down at the narrow opening at the bottom, and was growling more
+deeply than before.
+
+"There's some one coming," whispered Dallas, "and that fire makes it as
+light within here as day."
+
+The two young men darted close to the side, and drew the curtain-like
+rugs over the door and the little shuttered window.
+
+Just as this was completed the dog growled again, and then burst into a
+deep-toned bay.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+THE ENEMY IN THE DARK.
+
+"Ahoy there!  Keep that dog quiet," cried a familiar voice from some
+distance off.
+
+"It's all right," cried Dallas with a sigh of relief.  "Norton."
+
+"Here, Scruff, lie down, old man," cried Abel.  "Friends, friends."
+
+The dog whined, and waved his bushy tail as the door was opened, and
+their bluff friend came into the glow shed by the fire.
+
+"How are you, my lads?  Haven't seen you for ages.  Didn't know you had
+started a dog."
+
+"He's a visitor," said Dallas.  "Come in."
+
+The man entered and looked sideways at the dog, who had begun to smell
+his legs.
+
+"Not treacherous, is he?  Some of these Eskimo are brutes to snap."
+
+"No, he understands you are friends," said Abel.  "Lie down, Scruff."
+
+The dog crouched, and watched the visitor as he sat down on a box, took
+out his pipe, and lit it.
+
+"Thought I'd give you a look in as I didn't feel worky.  How's things
+going?"
+
+"We were coming to warn you," said Dallas; and he related what had
+passed.
+
+"Them?" said Norton, springing up and putting out his pipe; "I was in
+hopes they were hanged.  Well, I'll be off; this means a serious matter
+for them.  We shall have to get up a hunt and stop this.  Will you
+join?"
+
+"Of course," said the young men in a breath.
+
+"Then good-bye; only mind this--if you hear firing come and help."
+
+"Yes; and you'll do the same?"
+
+"Trust me," said the man shortly, and he shook hands and hurried away.
+
+The next four days passed anxiously enough, and they heard no more of
+Norton and his friends.  The first two nights watch was kept, the
+occupants of the hut taking turn and turn of three hours.  But this
+duty, somewhat in accordance with the proverb of familiarity breeding
+contempt, was deputed to Scruff, who, however, was more contemptuous
+than either of his masters; for he kept the watch carefully curled-up
+with his tail across his eyes, in the spot where the warmest glow from
+the fire struck.
+
+The fifth day passed without any news being heard from the other
+scattered claim-holders, and it was thought possible, though hardly
+likely, that Tregelly might return.
+
+The night came on intensely black, with intervals of perfect stillness,
+followed by puffs of icy wind, which were charged with tiny sharp
+spicules of ice, which made the face tingle at the slightest exposure to
+its influence.
+
+"He will not be here to-night," said Dallas, after looking out; "there's
+a storm brewing, and it is too dark to travel, so we may as well give
+him up."
+
+"We had better sit up a few hours.  He may come."
+
+So, instead of creeping into their sleeping-bags after they had banked
+up the fire and made all snug, they sat talking, till warmth and
+weariness combined to make them drowsy, and they lay down, to fall
+asleep directly.
+
+In an hour or two the blazing fire had given place to a heap of wood
+ashes, over which, as the rising wind swept round the place, what seemed
+to be a faint phosphorescent light played for a few moments and then
+died out.
+
+Scruff was curled-up so tightly that he looked fixed, and he seemed
+blind and deaf to everything, till towards the middle of the night a
+watcher, had there been one, would have seen that there were two bright
+points visible through the thick brush so closely curled round, while
+directly after the dog's ears seemed to prick up.
+
+If there had been a watcher he would in all probability have attributed
+this to fancy, consequent upon the faint glow which came and went about
+the embers, as the wind sighed round the lonely hut; for shadows
+darkened, and various objects grew more or less defined.
+
+Then all idea of want of reality would have passed away, for the dog
+suddenly and silently sprang to his feet, took a step or two towards the
+door, and then stood with his head turned on one side, listening.
+
+He remained perfectly motionless for quite a minute, as the glow from
+the fire grew less and less till he was almost invisible.  Then suddenly
+throwing up his head, he uttered a low, deep-toned bark, which brought
+the cousins from their beds, each seizing upon the rifle laid ready.
+
+"What is it, Scruff?" cried Dallas.  "Some one there?"
+
+There was another deep-toned bark, and the dog sprang to the door and
+rose up on its hind-legs, tearing at the rug which covered it until it
+fell.
+
+Scruff stood there with his head on one side, listening for some
+minutes, during which the silence was painful in the extreme.  Dallas
+had sprung to one side of the door, Abel to the other, and they stood
+close up to the rough walls, the only place where they could be in
+safety, for there they were beyond the vision of any one who peered
+through the shuttered window or the apertures of the door left exposed
+by the tearing down of the rough hanging.
+
+The simplest thing, and an act which would have left them more freedom,
+would have been to have quenched the fire at once.  But there was no
+water at hand, and there was sufficient light from the glowing embers to
+expose every movement to an enemy without.
+
+They stood there with every nerve on the strain, listening, while the
+dog whined uneasily, took a trot round the fire, and returned to the
+door, to stand with his head on one side again.
+
+"There must be some one out there," whispered Abel.
+
+Dallas nodded, and made a sign to his cousin to be silent, for the dog
+whined uneasily again, turning to the young man, thrusting his muzzle
+against his hand, and looking up at him as if waiting for orders.  The
+next moment he was at the door again, and reared up with his paws
+against the bar, at which he tore as if to get it down, so that he might
+go out into the night.
+
+"Here, I know," cried Abel excitedly, "he must hear or feel in some way
+that Tregelly is close here."
+
+"He would not come on at this time of night."
+
+"Why not?  It's as dark most of the day as it is now.  Let's open the
+door and give a hail."
+
+"No; listen," whispered Dallas.  "He would do that."
+
+"If he were within reach."
+
+"He must be within reach for the dog to know," whispered Dallas.  But as
+he spoke he doubted his own opinion, for it seemed possible that a
+half-wild dog's sensibilities might be sufficiently keen to feel the
+coming of a friend.
+
+"Here, what is it, old fellow?" he said softly.  "Some one there?"
+
+The dog whined and tore at the bar.
+
+"It is as I say, Dal," said Abel excitedly.  "Look at him.  Here,
+Scruff, old lad, what is it?"
+
+The dog growled.
+
+"That doesn't sound as if he scented a friend, Bel."
+
+"He does, I tell you," cried Abel angrily; for he was prone to be
+irritable as a result of his many sufferings.  "Here, let's have the
+door open at once."
+
+It was as if the dog understood his words, for he dropped on all fours
+and uttered a deep-toned bay.
+
+"All right, Scruff, we'll let you go," cried Abel, and seizing the rough
+bar, he was in the act of raising it from the notch in which it rested,
+when _bang_--_bang_, two shots were fired just outside, and
+simultaneously the door shook violently, there was a peculiar rending,
+splintering sound in the rough boards, and Dallas's heart gave a
+spasmodic leap, for he saw his cousin fall to the ground.
+
+"Bel, lad!  Hurt?" panted Dallas, stepping forward and dropping on one
+knee by his cousin's side.
+
+As he spoke there were two more shots, the bullets striking the door,
+and one passing clean through with a whirring, humming sound, to strike
+the wall on the other side, Dallas's position in all probability saving
+his life, for the sound seemed to pass just over his head.
+
+"Dal, old man!  Hurt?" was Abel's answer.
+
+"No, not touched.  Why don't you answer?  Were you hit?"
+
+"No; I only ducked down, it seemed so near."
+
+"Save your shot," said Dallas hoarsely.  "When we fire it must be as a
+last resource."
+
+Abel nodded.
+
+"Right," he said.
+
+"Crawl to your own side.  I'll take this.  The bullets will not come
+through the logs of the wall."
+
+"I'm not so sure," said Abel softly; but he obeyed his cousin's order,
+just as a couple more shots were fired through.
+
+The next moment Dallas was stamping and kicking out the fire, with the
+result that the interior of the hut grew lighter.
+
+"Don't, don't do that, Dal," whispered Abel.  "You're right in the line
+of fire, too."
+
+As a proof that their position was being made more precarious a couple
+more shots were fired, the bullets buzzing across the interior.
+
+"Must," was the reply.  "There, the ashes will soon grow faint;" and in
+a few minutes the place was nearly black; but at the same time it was
+full of strangling wood-smoke which rose slowly towards the opening in
+the roof which formed their chimney.
+
+Meanwhile shot after shot was fired through the door, and at every dull
+thud or tearing of the stout woodwork, the dog dashed about, snarling
+and barking furiously.
+
+"Dal!  Dal!" cried Abel passionately; "are we to stop here doing
+nothing?"
+
+"Yes; we are not going to shoot at random.  Wait a bit, and our time
+will come.  Have you plenty of cartridges handy?"
+
+"Yes; a pocketful."
+
+"Don't waste them, then.  One will be sufficient to silence an enemy.
+We must wing him--that will be sufficient.  I say!"
+
+"Yes, what?"
+
+"Bob Tregelly would not knock at the door like this, would he?"
+
+"Don't.  I made sure it was he."
+
+The firing went on through the door, and in the darkness, which now grew
+profound, the besieged made out that the direction of the bullets was
+varied, for those which came through struck the wall in different
+places--high, low, and to right and left; and the result of this was
+that suddenly, in spite of Dallas's endeavours to keep the dog close to
+him in shelter, he escaped from him to bound about, barking savagely,
+and the next minute, as a couple of shots came through the door, he
+uttered a peculiar snarling snap, and threw himself with a heavy thud
+against the door.
+
+"He has got it, Bel," whispered Dallas.  "Here, Scruff!  Scruff!"
+
+The dog came to him, whining, and then uttered a dismal howl.
+
+"Poor old chap! you must lick the place," said Dallas.  "I'll see to it
+when I can get a light."
+
+"Badly wounded, Dal?" said Abel.
+
+"Can't tell.  No; not very bad, or he would have lain still.  Has he
+come to you?"
+
+"Yes," said Abel, from the other side of the door; "he has shoved his
+head against me."
+
+There was a pause then, and an ejaculation full of horror.
+
+"What is it?" anxiously.
+
+"Ugh!  The poor fellow's bleeding!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+A DEATH SHRIEK.
+
+"Wait a bit--wait a bit!" said Dallas through his teeth; "we'll pay the
+cowardly brutes yet.  Bel, it makes me feel like a savage.  I could
+enjoy pulling the rope that was to hang them!"
+
+"I couldn't; but I wish it was daylight and I could get a good aim at
+one of them.  I say, they'll riddle that door."
+
+"Wait a bit," whispered Dallas, with a curious little laugh, "and we'll
+answer their riddle."
+
+The firing went on persistently, but the dog barked no more--only gave
+vent from time to time to a low growl, while the listeners could tell
+from the sound that he was applying an animal's natural remedy to his
+wound by licking it diligently.
+
+And the firing went on as if the enemy were searching every part of the
+hut with their bullets.
+
+"Dal," whispered Abel suddenly, "don't be startled."
+
+"You're not going to be such an idiot as to open the door to the fire,
+are you?"
+
+"No; but it would not be idiotic," said Abel quietly; "for I feel as if
+I could hit one of them by seeing the flash of his piece."
+
+"What are you going to do, then?--let the dog out?"
+
+"No, not now he is wounded.  I wish we had set him free, though, at the
+first--he'd have startled the wretches!"
+
+"They'd have done for him with their bowies," said Dallas.  "What am I
+not to be startled at?  Ah-h-ah!  You brutes!  Lie right down, Bel!
+They're firing at the wall now."
+
+"Then it's time for it.  Look here, I'm going to humbug them."
+
+Two more reports came, and, as the sound died out, Abel uttered so
+unearthly a shriek that Dallas felt it go through him in a shudder that
+chilled him to the bone.
+
+"Bel!" he panted wildly.
+
+"All right; did it sound natural?" was whispered back.
+
+"Oh, you wretch!" whispered Dallas; and Abel laughed.
+
+"They'll think they've done for the dog and one of us," said Abel
+softly.  "Let them go on firing now for a bit, and then it will be your
+turn; only don't squeak like I did."
+
+"I see," said Dallas.
+
+"You feel for something big, and when they've fired a bit more hurl it
+hard at the door, and then give a big groan."
+
+"All right!"
+
+"They'll feel sure then, and come up and begin to force open the door or
+the shutters.  Then we must let them have it."
+
+"Yes; four barrels at once," said Dallas.
+
+"And some seasoning directly after from our pepper-boxes."
+
+The dog was so quiet now that Abel trembled for his fate; but he and his
+companion, as they lay there in the darkness, had something else to
+think about, for the firing went on steadily, and they wondered it did
+not bring up some of the miners from their claims here and there.
+
+"Surely they're not too cowardly to come to our help," thought Dallas.
+
+Four shots were fired now in quick succession, as if the enemy were
+anxious to bring matters to an end, and Abel whispered, "Try it directly
+they fire again."
+
+"Yes," said Dallas; and directly after Abel heard the handle of the
+galvanised iron bucket chink softly.
+
+Then came two more shots, and in an instant Dallas dashed the bucket
+against the door with all his might, uttered a heavy groan, and was
+silent.
+
+The firing outside ceased now, showing that the ruse had been
+successful; and the two young men held their breath as they listened for
+the nearer approach of the enemy, which they felt sure must now be
+imminent; but they listened a long time in vain.
+
+At last, though, the crackling of the snow outside, as from the pressure
+of a heavy foot, warned them that their time was coming, and they lay
+ready with the muzzles of their pieces ready to direct at door or
+window, as the necessity might arise, and their revolvers on the floor
+by their knees.
+
+Which was it to be--door or window?  They would have given years of
+their lives to know at which to aim, and they felt now what guesswork it
+must be.
+
+"They'll come to the window, I hope," thought Dallas; "and if they do I
+won't fire till I am sure of winging one of them."
+
+But though they waited, no such opportunity seemed likely to come, for
+there was not a sound at the front after they heard the soft crackling
+of the snow.
+
+All at once, when the horrible suspense seemed greater than they could
+bear, and Dallas felt that he must spring to his feet, rush to the door,
+and begin firing at random, it seemed to both that an icy hand had
+grasped each of them by the throat.
+
+It was another exemplification of the aphorism that it is the unexpected
+which always happens.  For all at once, after a long period of perfect
+silence, there was a peculiar grating sound at the back of the hut
+instead of at the front, and for a few moments both the defenders of the
+place were puzzled.
+
+Then, as the sound was repeated, they realised what it was.  There were
+several pieces of thickish pine-trunk lying outside in the snow, pieces
+that had been cut to form uprights for the rough shedding over their
+shaft.  These pieces were very rough and jagged with the remains of the
+boughs which had been lopped off, so that they would be as easy to
+climb--almost--as a ladder.  Two of these had been softly placed so that
+they lay along the slope of the roof, and up them one of the enemy was
+cautiously climbing, while his companion was holding them at the foot.
+
+"Bel must grasp this," thought Dallas, who dared not whisper, for fear
+of giving the alarm to the enemy and putting them on their guard.  For,
+cunning enough in the plans that had been devised, the enemy were about
+to ignore door and window, and make their approach by the opening in the
+roof through which the smoke passed.
+
+There was a sort of lid of boards nailed a foot above to prevent the
+snow from falling straight through, but there was ample room for an
+active man to lower himself down through the hole; and, drawing a deep
+breath full of satisfaction, Dallas changed the direction of the muzzle
+of his gun, feeling quite sure that the one who was to attack would
+lower himself down feet first, so that the task of performing vengeance
+would be easy as far as one of the men was concerned, and at any rate
+they could make sure of him.
+
+Dallas's teeth gritted softly together as he waited, and Abel's heart
+beat with heavy throbs, for he had been as quick to grasp the way of
+attack as his cousin.  But they had not fully fathomed the enemy's
+plans, and were completely taken by surprise.
+
+It was only a matter of a few minutes, but it seemed like an hour as the
+young men strained their eyes in the black darkness, and mentally saw
+one of their foes climb slowly up till he reached the sloping roof, up
+which he progressed steadily, the two pieces of tree rasping and
+crunching the thick, icy snow which clung to the roof; and then fingers
+trembled about triggers as the defenders tried to guess at the opening
+exactly in the centre of where the ridge-pole ran.
+
+And now the sounds came more plainly; a hand was evidently feeling about
+for the opening, for a bit or two of snow from the edge of the hole--
+pieces which had not melted away--fell down amongst the embers with a
+soft pat, and a low, hissing sound of steam arose from the hot
+fire-hole.
+
+"Now he knows exactly," thought Dallas, "and I shall hear him turn and
+begin to lower himself down.  We ought to wait till he is more than half
+through before we fire.  Will Bel think of this?"
+
+He drew a long breath, for there was a heavy, rustling sound above, as
+if the man on the roof was altering his position.  Then there came a
+sharp scratch, for the greater part of a box of matches had been struck
+all at once.  Then there was a brilliant flash of light, the momentary
+glimpse of a big hairy hand, from which the burning matches began to
+fall, while the interior of the dark hut was lit up, showing the dog,
+with eyes glistening and bared teeth, crouched to spring, and the two
+young men kneeling, each with his weapon raised.
+
+But they did not fire, feeling that it would be madness to trust to
+hitting the unseen, for the hand was too small a target; and before they
+could make up their minds what to do next, two shots were fired from
+outside, and a cry rang out on the midnight air.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+THE STRIKING OF ANOTHER MATCH.
+
+The long-silent dog burst out into a hoarse bark once more, as the two
+young men knelt there as if paralysed, and the tiny splints died out one
+by one where they had fallen amongst the wood ashes, while from the roof
+there was a horrible scrambling, struggling sound, hoarse cries, the
+crunching of the frozen snow, followed by the scraping sound as of some
+one sliding down the slope of the roof, and then a dull, heavy thud, a
+groan or two, and finally complete silence.
+
+"He has it," said Dallas hoarsely.
+
+"Hush!  Hark!" cried Abel.
+
+For there was another shot, then another, and another, till quite a
+dozen had rung out, each growing more and more distant; and as the young
+men dashed to the door now and threw it open, they saw flashes of light
+as other shots were fired.  Then came shouting, voices calling to one
+another.
+
+"Some of the lads heard the firing at last, and come to our help," said
+Dallas.
+
+"Look out; there's some one coming back," whispered Abel.
+
+"I hear him.  Be ready, and if he's an enemy let him have it.  Hah!
+Bravo!  Good dog!  You're not so very bad, then."
+
+For at the sound of the heavy footsteps coming at a trot over the
+creaking snow Scruff uttered a fierce growl, began to bay and dashed out
+into the darkness.
+
+"He'll have him," said Dallas.  "But come on; we mustn't leave it all to
+him."
+
+"Hullo there!" came in a cheery, familiar voice.  "Good old dog!" and
+Scruff's fierce bay changed to a whining yelp of pleasure, while
+Tregelly's hearty cry of "Ahoy!" came.
+
+"Ahoy!  Ahoy!" was sent out joyfully in answer, and directly after the
+big Cornishman came trotting up.
+
+"Thank God, my sons," he cried.  "But what about that chap on the roof?
+Did I bring him down with those two shots?"
+
+"Was it you that fired?" cried the young men in a breath.
+
+"Of course.  Who did you think it was?"
+
+"The enemy--we did not know--some of the others come to our help," was
+the confused answer, given in a duet.
+
+"Nay, it was me, my sons; he gave me such a chance--lighting up a whole
+box of lucifers.  I could see him splendid.  Going to burn you out,
+wasn't he?"
+
+"No; to see if we were dead, and, if not, to fire again."
+
+"I'm afraid the other beggar has got away."
+
+"But you had some one with you?" said Dallas eagerly.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so, but it is so plaguy dark.  I was so long away that I
+made up my mind--or something I can't explain made it up for me--to come
+straight on and get to you early in the night; but that blessed sledge
+got heavier and heavier, so that I had to stop and rest and have a pipe
+now and then.  Last time I was going to stop I was so near my shanty
+that I thought I'd go round by it, and see how things were there.  So I
+did; left the sledge and crept up to it, to find a bit of fire
+smouldering, showing some one lived there; but nobody was at home.  No,
+that isn't right, for when I got inside I struck a match, and somebody
+was at home; but he didn't live there.  Understand?"
+
+"That scoundrel who was bitten by the dog?" cried Dallas excitedly.
+
+"Was he there?" cried Abel.
+
+"His mummy was," said Tregelly.  "I dunno how they could do it--I
+couldn't.  I didn't want to live in such company as that.  I stayed just
+as long as the match burned, and then I came away as fast as I could.
+Ugh! it wasn't nice.  Those fellows can't be men."
+
+"And then you came on?"
+
+"Yes, my son.  I came along at a horrible crawl, which was getting
+slower and slower; for it's no use to deny it--us big chaps have so much
+to carry on one pair of legs that we're downright lazy ones.  There I
+was, getting slower and slower, and smoking my pipe, and in a rare nasty
+temper, cussing away at that old sledge for being so heavy, and that
+sleepy that I kept dropping off fast as a top, and waking up again to
+find myself going on like a bit o' machinery.  `This won't do,' I says
+to myself; and I roused up again, knowing that I couldn't have been
+asleep long, because my pipe wasn't out; but all the same I dreamed a
+lot, all about dragging a truck on a tram-line down in Botallack mine,
+right away under the sea.  Then I'm blessed if I wasn't asleep again,
+fast as a top--chap told me once that didn't mean a spinning top, but a
+_taupe_, which he said was French for dormouse.  But that don't matter,
+do it?"
+
+"No, no," said Abel impatiently.  "Go on."
+
+"All right, my son.  Where had I got to?"
+
+"You were fast asleep again," said Dallas.
+
+"So it was, my son; and then something woke me, and what do you think it
+was?"
+
+"You heard the firing?"
+
+"Nay; I must have yawned or sneezed, for I'd dropped my pipe; and I
+s'pose I'd slept longer that time, and it must have been out, for I
+couldn't see a spark in the dark, and although I went down on my hands
+and knees, and crawled in all directions with my nose close to the
+ground, I couldn't smell it."
+
+"What did you do then?" said Abel.
+
+"Swore, my son, till I was ashamed of myself, and very thankful I was
+that you gents couldn't hear me.  `They'd drop your acquaintance, my
+son,' I said to myself, `if they heard you.'  Then I got up again, and
+was feeling for the trace, to start off again, thinking a deal of my
+poor old pipe, when `Hullo!'  I says to myself, `firing!'  There it was,
+plain enough, two shots together, and after a bit two more.
+
+"That was enough for me, so I slips my rifle out from where it was tied
+on to the sledge.  Next minute, as two more shots were fired, I came,
+leaving the sledge to take care of itself--coming on as fast as I could,
+feeling sure that the enemy was at you chaps, but wondering why the
+firing should be so one-sided.  Couldn't make it out a bit."
+
+"But it went on, and I was wide awake enough now, and hadn't come much
+farther when I was brought up short by the clicking of guns being
+cocked, and some one says in a low voice, `Stand,' he says, `or we'll
+blow you out of your skin.'  `Two can play at that,' I says: `who are
+you?'  `Norton, and six more,' says the voice; `who are you?'  `Bob
+Tregelly o' Trevallack, Cornwall, mates,' I says.  `Good man and true,'
+says another voice.  `Look here, mate, there's firing going on up at
+your place; we've heard it ever so long, and couldn't quite make out
+where it was, but it's there for certain.'  `Yes,' I says, `come on; but
+let's spread out and take or make an end of those who are firing.'"
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Abel.  "Go on."
+
+"They did just as I told 'em, and spread out, while I crept nigher and
+nigher, reglarly puzzled, for the firing had stopped.  Last of all I saw
+that chap's face as he lit up a whole box of matches.  That was enough
+for me.  I knew him again."
+
+"Was it Redbeard?" said Dallas excitedly.
+
+"No, my son; I'm sorry to say it wasn't the moose with the finest pair
+of horns; but I had to take what I could get, and I fired.  But I've
+left the sledge out yonder to take care of itself.  I hope none o' them
+ruffians o' street-boys'll find it and get helping themselves."
+
+"Then Redbeard has got away again," said Abel.
+
+"Don't know yet, my son, till the others come back.  They may have had
+better luck than I did."
+
+At that moment Scruff burst out in a deep-toned bark from the back of
+the hut.
+
+"Look out," said Tregelly sharply, as they halted, having reached the
+front.  "We may get a shot if he's only wounded."
+
+"Spread out, and let's take both sides together."
+
+They separated in the darkness, and advanced with finger on trigger,
+ready to fire.  "Stand!"
+
+"Stand!"
+
+"Oh, it's you!"
+
+"Oh, it's you!"
+
+"Yes, my son; it's me.  Where's the game I shot?"
+
+"We have not seen him," said Dallas.  "He must have crawled away."
+
+"Wounded beasts are dangerous," said Tregelly, "so look out."
+
+"But where's the dog?" said Abel, in a hoarse whisper.  "Hi!  Scruff!
+Scruff!"
+
+A sharp bark came from close at hand in the darkness.
+
+"Look here," whispered the big Cornishman; "you two get your pieces to
+your shoulders and be ready.  I'm going to chance it and light a match.
+Ready?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then come on!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+THE HELP THAT CAME LATE.
+
+There was a momentary pause, and then--
+
+_Scratch_ went the match, and the tiny flame feebly lit up the place, to
+show them the great dog sitting at the edge of the shaft, looking down.
+
+Then the light went out.
+
+"All right, my sons," said Tregelly coolly.  "Let's go in and get the
+lantern.  The beggar has rolled about, and dropped down the pit.  Sorry
+we can't cover him up.  But we can't, on account of the gold."
+
+Just then there came a hail, and another, and another, while when the
+lantern was lit and held up it served as a beacon to bring six men up to
+the hut door.
+
+"Got the other one?" cried Tregelly.
+
+"No; he got away in the darkness," said Norton.  "But what about the one
+you shot at?"
+
+"He's yonder," said Tregelly.  "Rolled down into the shaft."
+
+So it proved, for by the light of the lantern the body of one of the
+marauders was hauled up.
+
+"Stone dead," said Tregelly.
+
+"Well, it has saved him from being hanged."
+
+"And others from having to do it," said another.
+
+"But no one will be safe till his mate's in the same state," said
+Tregelly.
+
+"And he soon will be," said another.  "Glad we all came in time to help
+you two."
+
+"We are most grateful, gentlemen," said Dallas.  "Leave the unhappy
+wretch where he is.  Come inside, and rest and refresh."
+
+It was about an hour later, when their fellow gold-seekers who had come
+to their help had gone, promising to return next day and help over the
+interment of the dead man, that Dallas turned to Tregelly, who was
+seated with his big arms resting upon his knees, gazing down into the
+cheery fire that had been lit.
+
+"Sleepy, Bob?"
+
+"Nay, my son.  Never felt so wide awake in my life.  I'm thinking."
+
+"What about?" asked Abel.
+
+"About having killed a man," said the big fellow gravely.
+
+"It was in self-defence," said Dallas.
+
+"I dunno, my son.  You see, I never give him a chance.  Seems rather
+cowardly."
+
+"The wretch was trying to destroy our lives," cried Abel hotly.
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Yes; he and his companion had been firing at us for long enough," said
+Abel.
+
+"Ah," cried Dallas, "and they did wound the dog.  Here, old fellow,
+let's look at you."
+
+In effect, the dog was just then licking at one particular part of his
+back, and examination proved that a bullet had ploughed off a little
+strip of skin.
+
+"Only make him sore for a bit," said Tregelly, after he had examined the
+dog in turn.  "Poor old chap!  I wish I'd a bit o' pitch to touch it
+over for you.  But I hadn't thought of that, my sons."
+
+"Thought of what?"
+
+"'Bout him trying to kill you.  That didn't make it quite so bad o' me,
+did it?"
+
+"Bad?  It was stern justice, meted out to a murderer," said Dallas
+firmly.
+
+Tregelly looked at him for some moments thoughtfully.  "Think so?" he
+said.
+
+"Of course!" cried Abel, "and so do I.  You didn't want us to be killed,
+did you?"
+
+"Lor' a mussy me, my son! of course not.  That's why I took aim at him."
+
+"And saved our lives, Bob," cried Dallas, clapping him hard on the
+shoulder.
+
+"You think, then, that they'd have settled you if I hadn't come and
+stopped their little game?"
+
+"I feel sure of it," cried Dallas.
+
+"Hah!  Yes, of course.  Thank ye, my sons.  I was feeling a bit
+uncomfortable, and beginning to think that I should be having the chap
+coming to bed to me every night and telling me how I'd shot him in a
+cowardly way; but I shan't now.  That's done me a lot o' good.  Hah!  I
+feel now as if I should like a pipe."
+
+The big, amiable, honest face lit up, and was lightened by a smile as he
+began searching his pockets for his tobacco-pouch and pipe.
+
+"You see, I never killed a man before," he said.  "But you can hardly
+call a chap like that a man.  More like a wild beast--sort o' tiger."
+
+"It's insulting a wild beast to say so, Bob," cried Dallas warmly.  "A
+wild beast kills for the sake of food.  What's the matter?"
+
+"Pipe," said Tregelly, rising slowly and reaching out for the lantern.
+"I told you I dropped it out yonder, and it's somewhere by the sledge."
+
+"Leave that till daylight, and we'll go with you."
+
+"Won't be any daylight for hours and hours to come," said Tregelly,
+putting out the light and feeling for his matches.  "I can't wait all
+that time for a pipe.  'Sides, the sledge ought to be brought in."
+
+"You mean to go now," said Dallas.
+
+"Oh, yes, my son, I mean to go now.  'Tarn't so very far."
+
+"All right; we'll go with him, Bel.  There's no fear of the other
+scoundrel being about."
+
+"I don't know, my sons," said Tregelly gravely.  "He can't be very far
+away, and he's got his knife into us very deep now.  P'r'aps it would be
+as well if you stopped here and got the breakfast ready."
+
+"If we did," replied Dallas, "we should feel that you would never come
+back to eat it.  Eh, Bel?"
+
+"Yes; I'm going.  We must leave Scruff to keep house for us this time."
+
+But the dog did not seem to see matters in the same light.  One minute
+he was giving a finishing lick to his wound; the next he had shot out
+through the open door, barking excitedly, and looking ready to scent out
+and run down the last of the savage gang.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+BY THE SKIN OF HIS TEETH.
+
+Aided by Scruff, a fairly correct line was made for the forsaken sledge,
+the dog seeming to know exactly what was wanted, and preventing them
+from over-running the spot where it had been left.
+
+This was the only thing they dreaded, for the track was--through not
+being beaten--almost obliterated again and again by falls of snow; but
+it was tolerably familiar now, the winding creek and the edge of the
+scrubby forest forming pretty good guides.
+
+It was still very dark when they reached the place, Scruff uttering a
+low snuffling whine; but it was not easy to find a small object like a
+briar wood pipe.
+
+"Must have been somewhere here I dropped it," said Tregelly.  "If it was
+daylight I should see it directly on the white snow.  Better light the
+lantern, I suppose."
+
+"It would be like inviting a shot from Redbeard if he is near."
+
+"Think so, my son?" said Tregelly thoughtfully.
+
+"He would be almost sure to make for his old lair."
+
+"My old lair, you mean, my son."
+
+"Well, your old lair, then."
+
+"Yes, it do seem likely," said the big fellow, rubbing his ear.  "Giving
+him such a chance to aim at us.  Yes, it won't do; but I must find that
+pipe.  Look here, s'pose I go up to my hut and see if he's there."
+
+"Do," said Dallas, "and we'll go with you and trap him if he is there."
+
+"Hoomph!" grunted Tregelly.  "I'm feared there won't be any trapping, my
+sons.  If he's there he won't be took without a hard fight.  Hadn't you
+two better let that be till the other fellows come back?  Then we could
+lay siege to him and finish him off for it must come to that."
+
+"We are three to one," said Dallas quietly.  "It seems cowardly to wait
+for more."
+
+"Dunno," said their companion.  "He don't fight fair, or I'd tackle him
+myself.  You see, he aren't a man; he's a savage beast.  Look here,
+we've got the sledge; let's take it on.  I'll go without my pipe."
+
+"No; you shall not," said Dallas.  "Let's go to the hut.  He may not be
+there.  Perhaps fled far enough."
+
+"I dunno, my son.  He'd run when he was beat for his old shelter, and I
+don't like making you two run bad risks just because I want a pipe o'
+bacca."
+
+"We do not look at it in that light, Bob," said Dallas firmly.  "This
+man is our mortal enemy, who seems determined to have our lives out of
+revenge, and it is our duty to save those lives at his expense.  After
+what has passed I look upon him as a sort of human tiger whose claws
+must be drawn.  Let's take this opportunity of capturing the brute.
+We'll go together and draw his fire; or perhaps we shall be able to see
+and disable him without his being able to do us any mischief."
+
+Tregelly shook his head solemnly.
+
+"Chaps like that, with their lives in their hands, are all eyes, and
+when they aren't all eyes they're all ears.  I don't like this business,
+my sons; but what you say's quite right, and I can't help feeling that
+we've got a chance at him now, and the dark may help us; while if he's
+gone back there and roused up the fire I can make sure of him.  There,
+it's got to be done, and if we leave it the job may be worse."
+
+"Yes, perhaps much."
+
+"That's so, my son.  We shall have to go about with the knowledge that
+that fellow's always close at hand, marking us down for a shot."
+
+"Better seize this opportunity," said Abel hoarsely.  "I feel as if we
+may master him now."
+
+"What do you say, Mr Dallas?" asked Tregelly.
+
+"I say as my cousin does.  Let's try."
+
+"Good, then, we'll go; on'y mind this, my sons: we're going because it's
+our dooty."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Not because I want a pipe."
+
+"No; you have already proved that you do not wish to be selfish," said
+Dallas, "so come on."
+
+"Nay, I'll lead, my sons," cried the big fellow.  "It's my shanty, and I
+know every step of the way.  You'd go right up to the door, and he'd
+have first chance of a shot.  That won't do for me.  We must get first
+chance, and make him shoot at random, which means at nothing at all.
+Now then, follow me.  Don't fire unless you get a good chance."
+
+"But what is your plan, Bob?" said Dallas eagerly.
+
+"Get him to fire, my son, and then go at him before he has time to load
+again."
+
+The lantern was left with the sledge, and with every nerve now upon the
+strain the two young men followed their sturdy companion, who gave them
+but few words as to their proceedings.
+
+"Don't be in a hurry to fire," he said, "but when you get your chance,
+let him have it.  Now, tread softly, and come on."
+
+The distance was comparatively short, and Abel's heart beat fast and
+loud, as, upon passing through a thick clump of pines, there in front of
+them shone the light of a wood fire through the open door of Tregelly's
+hut.
+
+The owner stopped short and whispered.
+
+"He's there," he said; "the fire has been made up."
+
+"But he must have been and gone," said Dallas.  "The door is wide open."
+
+"His artfulness," said the Cornishman.  "It's so as he can hear our
+coming, and to throw dust in our eyes.  He's there, or else outside
+waiting for us, so look out."
+
+They crept cautiously on, abreast now and hand on trigger, ready to fire
+at a moment's notice, front, right, or left, from wherever the danger
+appeared; but the icy snow crackled beneath their heavy boots, in spite
+of every care, and when they were about thirty yards from the open door
+they stopped short, feeling that the better way would be to step boldly
+forward, for their approach must have been heard.
+
+But still Tregelly hesitated, feeling, as he did, that the peril was
+very great for them to advance into the light thrown from the open door,
+when the result would probably be a repetition of his own shot a few
+hours before.
+
+"Open out," he whispered suddenly, "and keep away from the light.  I'll
+take the right side; you two take the left, and when I whistle we'll all
+rush in together."
+
+It was no time for disputation.  Tregelly was leader, and Dallas and
+Abel felt it to be their duty to obey.  Striking off, then, to the left
+into the shadow, which looked intensely black by contrast, they had one
+glimpse of Tregelly's huge form, and then the broad band of ruddy light
+from the door cut off everything, while well upon their guard they
+approached nearer and nearer, feeling that Tregelly must be nearing the
+building at about the same rate.
+
+It was a task which, in spite of the extremely short distance, made
+Dallas breathe hard, and feel as if he were going through some great
+exertion, before he was so close that he could nearly touch the rough
+trunks which formed the wall, the thick thatching of pine-boughs
+stretching out like the roof of a verandah, so that the darkness seemed
+more intense where they stood waiting for the signal which seemed as if
+it would never come.
+
+And as Dallas stood in the deep silence the popping and crackling of the
+burning wood came out of the open doorway sharp and clear, while it
+seemed to him that Abel's breath sounded as hoarse and loud as that of
+one in a deep sleep.
+
+At last! a clear, sharp, chirruping trill, and Abel and Tregelly darted
+into the light as if urged forward by the same spring, while Dallas
+stood for the moment petrified--unable to stir.  For from the upright
+logs close to which he stood a great hand seemed to dart out, holding
+him fast, while simultaneously another hand struck him a tremendous blow
+upon the shoulder.
+
+He closed with his assailant, but the next moment he was hurled to the
+ground.
+
+As, half-stunned by his fall, Dallas struggled to his feet, there was a
+heavy trampling heard as of one escaping in the darkness over the snowy
+ground, and at the same moment Tregelly and Abel appeared at the door in
+the full light of the fire.
+
+"Where are you, lad?" shouted the former.
+
+"Here, here!" panted Dallas.
+
+"Hah!" cried Tregelly.  "Fire, my lad, fire!"
+
+Two more shots rang out in the direction of the retiring steps, with the
+result that there was a sudden cessation of the sounds; but directly
+after two more shots were fired out of the darkness, and a couple of
+bullets whistled through the open doorway.
+
+In an instant Tregelly and Abel sprang to right and left, and fired
+again in the direction of the flashes they had seen.
+
+"Missed him!" growled Tregelly, as the faint sound of retreating steps
+was again heard.  "He's too many for us.  Don't fire, my lads.  Waste of
+powder and shot.  How was it, Mr Dallas?"
+
+There was no reply, Dallas standing close by breathing hard, with his
+hand pressed upon his shoulder.
+
+"Are you there, Dal?" cried Abel anxiously, for his cousin was invisible
+in the darkness.
+
+"Yes, yes, I'm here," said Dallas, in a strange tone of voice.
+
+"What is it, my son?" cried Tregelly anxiously.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm hurt," said Dallas, stooping to recover his rifle.  "He
+struck me on the shoulder with his right hand, and the place is numbed.
+I can feel nothing there but a smarting pain; but it bleeds, and the
+cloth is cut."
+
+Tregelly caught him up in his arms as if he were a child, bore him into
+the hut, threw him on the bed, and tore off his jacket so as to expose
+the place to the light.
+
+"Yes, he has knifed you, my son," said Tregelly hoarsely; "but it's a
+mere scratch.  He meant it, though, but reached over a bit too far."
+
+"You are saying this to calm me," said Dallas excitedly.  "He struck me
+a tremendous blow."
+
+"Yes, my son; but it must have been with his wrist.  I'm not cheating
+you.  It's the simple truth.  It isn't worth tying up."
+
+"Thank God!" sighed Dallas.  "I suppose I'm a bit of a coward, but the
+horror of it made me feel sick as a dog."
+
+"Such a crack as he must have given you would have made me feel sick, my
+son.  Did it knock you down?"
+
+"No; I closed with him, but he tripped and threw me heavily."
+
+"Well, that would make you feel sick, my son, without anything else.
+Here, on with your jacket again, and let's get out into the darkness.
+It's like asking the beggar to come and pot us, standing here."
+
+They hurried out directly after, to stand listening; but all was still.
+
+"Now then," said Tregelly, "we'd best get the sledge and make our way
+home; but what do you think of my gentleman now?  Oughtn't we to scrunch
+him like one would a black beetle?"
+
+"Yes," said Abel fiercely, "and the first time we can.  But where's the
+dog?  Can that be he in the distance?"
+
+A faint baying sound, followed by what sounded like revolver shots,
+several in succession, was heard.  Then once more all was still for a
+few moments, when the firing began again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+WHEN SLEEP IS MASTER.
+
+"Hear that?" cried Abel excitedly.  "The scoundrel!  The ruffian!  He's
+firing at the dog."
+
+"Yes, my son," said Tregelly quietly; "and I'm not surprised, for old
+Scruff can be pretty nasty when he likes."
+
+"But you don't stir.  Are we going to stand here and listen to that poor
+brute being murdered?"
+
+"It would be about madness to go after him, my son," said Tregelly,
+coolly; "and after all, he isn't likely to hit the dog in the dark."
+
+A few minutes later they found the sledge, and as they were about to
+start, Dallas kicked against something hard, which went spinning along
+the ice-covered snow.
+
+"What's that?" he said.  "Why, Tregelly, it must be your pipe."
+
+"Yes.  It struck against me," cried Abel.  "Here it is," he added in
+triumph.
+
+"Hooroar!" cried Tregelly.  "Now, I call that fine, my sons.  Why, if
+old Scruff comes back and says he's killed Master Redbeard, this'll be
+about as pleasant a time as I ever spent.  But how's your arm, Master
+Dallas?"
+
+"Smarts, and feels wretched and numb, that's all.  I can help pull the
+sledge."
+
+"All right, my son," cried Tregelly, giving the line a jerk; but in
+vain, for the sledge was immovable, the runners being frozen to the
+surface of the snow.  "I say; think o' that."
+
+Dallas and Abel gave the sledge a wrench, set it at liberty, and it
+glided smoothly on, Tregelly insisting on dragging it all the way back
+to the hut, where they shut themselves in, and then prepared an early
+breakfast; but before it was ready there was a familiar thump on the
+rough door, and Scruff was admitted, apparently free from fresh
+injuries, for he gave all an intelligent look, and then seated himself
+by the fire to lick his wound, before curling up and going to sleep.
+
+"I wish I could do that," said Dallas.
+
+"Do it without the curl," said Tregelly, smiling.  "It's the best thing
+for a man who has had such a shake as you have."
+
+"No, no.  The ruffian may come back."
+
+"He won't come yet, my son," said Tregelly; "but if he should think it
+best to give us another call, don't you be uneasy; we'll wake you up."
+
+A quarter of an hour later Dallas was fast asleep, and Abel looked up at
+Tregelly inquiringly.
+
+"Is the sleep natural?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes; why shouldn't it be?" was the reply.
+
+"It seems so strange, after the excitement we have been through during
+the last twenty-four hours."
+
+"Done up, my son; regular exhausted, and wants rest."
+
+"But I could not sleep, knowing as I do that the enemy might attack us
+at any time.  Think of the danger."
+
+"I wonder you ever went to sea, then, my son," said Tregelly,
+good-humouredly.  "There's always danger of the ship sinking; and yet
+you went to your berth, I suppose, every night, and slept soundly
+enough, didn't you?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"And I'll be bound to say you go to sleep this morning before long."
+
+"Not I.  Impossible," said Abel, with a touch of contempt in his tone.
+
+But Tregelly was the better judge of human nature, and before an hour
+had passed away, weariness, the darkness, and the warmth of the fire had
+combined to conquer, and Abel sank sidewise on the rough packing-case
+which formed his easy chair, and slept soundly till the short daylight
+had passed, and they were well on towards the evening of another day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+THE RED GLOW.
+
+Weary month after month passed by, with the indefatigable adventurers
+leading the life of labourers working in a terrible climate to win just
+a bare existence from the soil.
+
+"I would not care so much if we could feel safe," said Dallas; "but big
+as the country is, that scoundrel seems to be always on our track."
+
+"He do, he do, my son," said Tregelly.  "He means paying us off."
+
+"Well, we are doing no more now than when we started, while others are
+making fortunes.  Let's strike right up into the mountains, make a bold
+stroke for fortune, and give that scoundrel the slip."
+
+The start was made, the little party striking right away into one or
+other of the lonely valleys running northward; but it was always the
+same--the gold was no more plentiful, and again and again they had ample
+proof that their enemy, who seemed to have a charmed life, was still
+following them.
+
+Constant disappointment had been their portion, and a general feeling of
+being utterly worn out was dulling their efforts, when toward the close
+of a dreary day Tregelly exclaimed:
+
+"Look here, my sons; I think we've seen the end of that red-headed
+ruffian at last."
+
+"I wish I could think so," said Dallas.
+
+"No," said Abel; "we shall see him again.  I feel that he'll be the
+death of us all."
+
+"Bah! you're in the dumps again," said Tregelly.  "I feel that we must
+have completely given the scoundrel the slip by our last move.  I'm not
+one of your grumbling sort, am I?"
+
+"No, Bob, no," said Dallas sadly.  "I envy you the calm patience and
+perseverance you possess."
+
+The Cornishman laughed.
+
+"Did possess, my son.  I did have a lot, but it's all used up to the
+last scrap, and I'm regularly done."
+
+Abel looked at him in surprise, but Dallas seemed too dejected to notice
+anything, and sat forward, haggard and staring, with his eyes fixed upon
+their struggling fire.
+
+"Well, don't you believe me?" said Tregelly.
+
+"I always believe what you say, Bob; but I don't understand what you
+mean now."
+
+"You don't?  Well, then, I'll soon make you, my son.  It's like this: I
+feel just like a squirrel in a cage, galloping on over miles of wire and
+never getting a bit farther, or like one of those chaps on the
+old-fashioned treadmill, who were always going upstairs, but never got
+to the top."
+
+"Look here," said Dallas, springing up suddenly from his seat in the
+rough shelter made with pine-boughs, where they had been now for some
+days, while they tried the banks of a tiny creek, one of many which they
+had followed to their sources in their daring quest.  "This is no time
+for idle talk; which is it to be?  Shall we retreat at once, and try to
+get back to the main river, where we may find help, and perhaps save our
+lives, or go on?"
+
+There was a dead silence, and then a gust of wind swept down the narrow
+valley, laden with fine, dusty snow, evidently a forerunner of a wintry
+storm.
+
+"If we start back now," said Abel at last, "we are not sure of reaching
+the settlement before the winter sets in."
+
+"And if we do we've nothing left to live upon, my sons.  You see, those
+last supplies emptied the bag, and we've never settled down since.  You
+both said, `Let it be a man or a mouse.'"
+
+"And you said `All right,'" cried Dallas angrily.
+
+"So I did, my son; but I hoped we should turn out men instead of mice."
+
+"Well," said Dallas bitterly, "we must not find fault with one another.
+We did our best."
+
+"That's true," said Tregelly.  "Hear, hear.  Go on.  What were you going
+to say?"
+
+"That I have had it my own way for long enough, but now I'll give up to
+you two.  There's no gold worth getting here, so if you both say, `Let's
+make a dash back for life before we are shut in by the winter that seems
+to be coming on early,' I'm ready, and we'll make a brave fight for it."
+
+"And if we say, `No!  Let's go on and fight for the stuff to the last'--
+what then?"
+
+"We will not look back," cried Dallas, stepping outside, to stand
+gazing, with a far-off look in his eyes, straight along the narrow
+ravine running up into the savage-looking snow-covered mountains.
+
+"Go on," said Abel, who seemed to catch his cousin's enthusiasm as he
+stood there, gradually growing whitened by the fine drifting snow.
+
+"Go on?" said Dallas, without turning his head; "well, let's go on.  The
+gold must be up yonder, where it crumbles or is ground out of the rocky
+mountains, to be washed, in the course of ages, down the streams into
+the gravel and sand."
+
+"Ay, there must be plenty of it up yonder, my son," said Tregelly,
+stepping out to shade his eyes and gaze upward towards the wilderness of
+mountains to the north, probably never yet trodden by the foot of man.
+
+"Then I say, as we have come so far, let's go on and find it," cried
+Dallas; "and if we fail--well, it is only lying down at last to sleep!
+No one will know, for our bones will never be found.  I feel as if I
+can't go back--and you, Bel?"
+
+For answer Abel laid his hand upon his cousin's shoulder, and stood
+gazing with him into the dimly seen, mysterious land, just as, high up,
+one of the snowy summits suddenly grew bright and flashed in the feeble
+sunshine which played upon it for a few minutes before the snow-clouds
+closed in again.
+
+And as if the one bright gleam had inspired him, Tregelly began to
+whistle softly.
+
+"Look here!" he cried, "never say pitch a thing up when there's a bit of
+hope left.  `To win or to die' is my motto!"
+
+"And mine," cried Dallas, enthusiastically.
+
+"And mine," said Abel, in a soft, low, dreamy voice.
+
+"Then look here," said Tregelly; "we've got enough to give us all a
+small ration for seven days, so let's load up one sledge and leave the
+others.  Then we can take it in turns and push right on up into the
+mountains with nothing to hinder us.  Snow don't make a bad shelter when
+you've plenty of blankets, and there's nothing to fear now.  Old
+Redbeard never could have come up here; he must have gone off by one of
+the side gulches, and got round and back to where he can rob some one
+else."
+
+"Yes; we must have passed him days ago," said Dallas.
+
+"Very well, then, we can all sleep o' nights without keeping watch."
+
+"And we can push on and on, just trying the rocks with the hammer here
+and there wherever we find a place clear of ice."
+
+"That's the way, my son, and who knows but what we may shoot a bear or
+something else to keep us going for another week, eh?"
+
+Abel nodded--he could not trust himself to speak; and then, with
+determination plainly marked in their haggard faces, they set to work in
+the shelter of the dwarfed pines around them, and packed one sledge with
+all they felt to be necessary to take on this forlorn hope expedition,
+and with it the last of their dwindling store of food.
+
+"There," cried Dallas, pointing up the narrow gully, as they finished
+their preparations, "how could we despair with such a sign as that
+before us?"
+
+His companions stood and looked up in the direction indicated, where the
+transformation that had taken place was wonderful.
+
+An hour before they had gazed through drifting, dusty snow at forbidding
+crags and wintry desolation.  For a few minutes that one peak had
+flashed out hopefully, but only to fade away again, while now their eyes
+literally ached with the dazzling splendour of what seemed to be a
+grotto-like palace of precious stones, set in frosted silver and
+burnished gold; for the mountains blazed in the last rays of the setting
+sun with the hues of the iris magnified into one gorgeous sheen.
+
+"Yes, that looks as if we'd got to the golden land at last, my sons,"
+said Tregelly.  "It's something like what one has dreamed of after
+reading the `Arabian Nights'; only you see they aren't fast colours, and
+they won't wash."
+
+"Never mind," said Dallas; "we know that the gold must be there, and
+we'll find it yet.  Ready?"
+
+For answer Tregelly picked up the trace, and was about to pass it over
+his head, but he paused and looked round.
+
+"Here," he cried; "where's that there dog?"
+
+Abel went into the rough shelter they had made, to find Scruff curled-up
+fast asleep beneath one of the skins they were going to leave behind;
+but he sprang up at a touch, and trotted out to take his place by
+Tregelly, who slipped his slight harness over the sturdy animal's head.
+
+"No shuffling now, my son," he said merrily.  "You're stores, you know,
+and we shall want you to eat when the rest of the prog is done.
+Forward! we're going to do it now."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+THE LAST BIVOUAC.
+
+Shortening days and shortening distances in and out of the wild ravine,
+where the water ran trickling merrily along in the brief sunny hours,
+but froze hard again at night.  Every halting-place was more difficult
+to reach than the last, and climbing up the slippery sides of the stream
+bed was as often the means of progression as the simple tramp.
+
+The sledge grew more difficult to draw, though its weight was really
+less and less: but in a mechanical way all joined hands in getting it
+over masses of rock, or through cracks where at times it became wedged
+in fast.  For it could not be left behind, loaded as it was with the
+links which held them to life.
+
+And at last the brief day came to an end, when the shortest journey of
+all had been made, little more than a mile along the narrow rift with
+its often perpendicular sides, where the greater part of the way had
+been one constant climb over the rock-burdened bed of the stream, whose
+sources were somewhere in the icy region, apparently as far away as when
+they started on their journey.
+
+They had halted in a narrow amphitheatre of rocks, on one side of which
+lay a shelf dotted with dwarf pines, thick, sturdy, and old, many having
+shed their last needles years before, and displaying nothing now but
+thin bare trunks and a few jagged, weather-worn boughs.  Snow had fallen
+heavily in the mountains during the previous night, and the side of the
+amphitheatre at the back of the shelf to which they had dragged the
+sledge was glazed with ice, where the snow above had melted in the warm
+mid-day rays, and _frozen_ again and again.
+
+It was bitter winter all around as the short day began to close in; but
+there was plenty of wood, and they felt if they climbed higher next day
+it would be into the region of wiry heaths and moss.
+
+Quite instinctively, axe in hand, each of the weary three made for the
+dead wood and began to cut and break down the brittle boughs.
+
+"Ay, that's right, my sons," said Tregelly, with the ghost of a smile;
+"let's have a good fire if it is to be the last."
+
+The smile was reflected in Dallas's face, and he nodded; but he did not
+speak--only went on hacking away in a mechanical fashion, and the small
+wood was heaped-up against the icy wall at the back of the broad shelf.
+Then a match was struck and sheltered till the smallest twigs caught;
+these communicated with the larger, and in a very short time there was a
+roaring fire, whose heat was reflected from the glazed surface of the
+rock, making the snow melt all around and run off till there was dry
+bare rock, on one piece of which, full in the warm glow, Scruff
+curled-up and went to sleep.
+
+Outside the snow lay deep and high, as it had been drifted in the heavy
+fall, forming a good shelter from the wind; and by a liberal use of
+their axes the dwarf firs that they cut down proved a good shelter when
+laid in a curve on the other side, while when no longer wanted for that
+purpose they would be free from the clinging snow and more fit to burn.
+
+Roof there was none save the frosty sky, spangled with myriads of stars;
+but the weary party paid no heed to that want.  There was the fire, and
+in due time the tin of hot tea to pass round, and the roughly made
+bread.  They seemed to want no more, only to lie down and rest in the
+warmth shed by the crackling wood--to take a long, long rest, and wake--
+where?
+
+The question was silently asked by each of his inner self again and
+again, but never answered, for no answer seemed to be needed.  The
+weary, weary day two years long was at an end.  They had worked well and
+failed; they could do no more; all they wanted was rest and
+forgetfulness--peace, the true gold after all.
+
+Sleep was long coming to Dallas, weary though he was; and he lay there
+with his head slightly raised, gazing at the weird scene, distorted and
+full of strange shadows, as the fire rose and fell.
+
+There lay, big and heavy, the sturdy friend and companion in so many
+adventures, just as he had lain down; and close by, poor Abel, the most
+unfortunate of the party, so near that he could rest his hand upon the
+rough coat of the dog.
+
+"Poor Bel!" mused Dallas; "how unfortunate he has been!"
+
+But the next minute he was thinking of how trivial the troubles of the
+past seemed to be in comparison with this--the greatest trouble of them
+all.  For though they had all lain down to sleep so calmly, and with the
+simple friendly good-night, they had all felt that it was for the last
+time, and that their weary labours were at an end.
+
+"All a mistake--a vain empty dream of a golden fortune," Dallas said to
+himself.  "The idea was brave and strong, but it was the romance of a
+boy.  Fortunes are not to be made by one stroke, but by patient, hard
+work, long thought as to how that work shall bring forth fruit, and then
+by constant application.  Ah, well, we are not the first to make such
+mistakes--not the first to turn our backs upon the simple substance to
+grasp at the great shadow."
+
+He lay gazing sadly at the crackling fire, whose flames danced, and
+whose sparks eddied into spirals and flew upwards on the heated air; and
+then with eyes half-closed he watched the glowing embers as the great
+pieces of wood became incandescent.  He was still gazing into the fire
+with a dull feeling of pitying contempt for himself, seeing imaginary
+caverns and ravines of burnished gold, when with a sigh upon his lip as
+he thought of the simple-hearted, loving mother watching and waiting at
+home for those who would never cross the threshold again, sleep came to
+press heavily upon the half-closed eyelids, and all was blank.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+THE SOLID REALITY.
+
+A strange feeling of stiffness and cold so painful that for some moments
+Dallas could not move, but lay gazing straight before him at the heap of
+ashes, which gave forth a dull glow, just sufficient at times to show
+the curled-up form of the great dog, and beyond him, rolled up like a
+mummy and perfectly still, Abel, just as he had last seen him before he
+closed his eyes.  It was so dark that he could not see Tregelly, and he
+lay trying in vain to make him out.
+
+His head was dull and confused, as if he had slept for a great length of
+time, and his thoughts would not run straight; but every train of
+thought he started darted off into some side track which he could not
+follow, and he always had to come back to where he had made his start.
+
+There it was--some time ago, when they had piled up the fire to a great
+height so that it might burn long and well while they all sank
+painlessly and without more trouble into the sleep of death.
+
+And now by slow degrees he began to grasp what seemed to be the fact,
+that while his companions, even the dog, had passed away, he was once
+more unfortunate, and had come back, as it were, to life, to go alone
+through more misery, weariness, and despair.
+
+He shivered, and strangely inconsistent worldly thoughts began to crawl
+in upon him.  He felt he must thrust the unburned pieces of pine-wood
+closer together, so that they might catch fire and burn and radiate some
+more heat.  It was so dark, too, that he shuddered, and then lay staring
+at the perpendicular wall beyond the fire--the wall that looked so icy
+and cruel over-night, but now dim, black, and heavy, as if about to lean
+over and crush them all out of sight.
+
+Yes, he ought, he knew, to thrust the unburned embers together and put
+on more wood, so as to make a cheerful blaze; but he had not the energy
+to stir.  He wanted another rug over him; but to get it he would have
+had to crawl to the sledge, and he was too much numbed to move.
+Besides, he shuddered at the idea of casting a bright light upon his
+surroundings, for he felt that it would only reveal the features of his
+poor comrades hardened into death.
+
+And so it was that he lay for long enough in the darkness, till the numb
+sensation began to give way to acute pain, which made him moan with
+anguish and mentally ask what he had done that he should have been
+chosen to remain there and go through all that horror and despair again.
+
+The natural self is stronger than the educated man in times of crisis.
+A despairing wretch tells himself that all is over, and plunges into a
+river or pool to end his weary life; but the next moment the nature
+within him begins to struggle hard to preserve the life the trained
+being has tried to throw away.
+
+It was so here.  Dallas made a quick movement at last, turned over, and
+picked up a half-burned, still smouldering piece of pine, painfully
+raked others together with it, and threw it on the top, glad to cower
+over the warm embers, for the heat thrown out was pleasant.
+
+As he sat there after raking the ashes more together, and getting
+closer, it was to feel the warmth strike up into his chilled limbs, and
+fill the rug he had drawn round his shoulders with a gentle glow.
+
+Soon after, the collected embers began to burn, and a faint tongue of
+flame flickered, danced, went out, and flickered up again, illuminating
+the darkness sufficiently to let him make out that the banked up snow
+had largely melted, and that Tregelly had crawled away from where he had
+lain, and come over to his, Dallas's, side, apparently to place his
+heavy bulk as a shelter to keep off the bitter wind from his young
+companion.
+
+There was something else, too, which he did not recognise as having seen
+before he lay down--something dark where the bank of snow had been,
+which had wonderfully melted away in the fierce glow of the fire; for
+that sheltering bank had been so big before.
+
+What did it matter to one who was suffering now the agonising pangs of
+hunger to augment those of cold?
+
+But the sight of the big motionless figure dimly seen by the bluish
+flickering light appealed strongly to the sufferer, and something like a
+sob rose to his throat as he thought of Tregelly's brave, patient ways,
+and the honest truth of his nature.
+
+These feelings were sufficient to urge him forward from where he
+crouched, to go and lean over the recumbent figure and lay a hand upon
+the big clenched fist drawn across the breast of the dead.
+
+It was a hand of ice, and with a piteous sigh Dallas drew back and crept
+to where Abel lay rolled in his rugs.  Just then the dancing flame died
+out, and it was in the pitchy darkness that Dallas felt for his cousin's
+face.
+
+The next moment he uttered a cry, and there was a quick rustling sound
+as of something leaping to its feet.  Then the dog's cold nose touched
+his cheek, and there was a low whine of satisfaction, followed by a
+panting and scuffling as the dog transferred his attentions to Abel.
+
+"And we're both left alive," half groaned Dallas; but the dog uttered a
+joyous bark, and he sprang painfully to his feet, for a familiar gruff
+voice growled:
+
+"Now, then, what's the matter with you, my son?"  And then: "Fire out?
+How gashly dark!"
+
+"Bob!" faltered Dallas.
+
+"You, Master Dallas?  Wait a bit, my son, and I'll get the fire going.
+How's Mr Wray?"
+
+There was a weary groan, and Abel said dreamily: "Don't--don't wake me.
+How cold!  How cold!"
+
+Tregelly sighed, but said nothing for the moment, exerting himself the
+while in trying to fan the flickering flame into a stronger glow, and
+with such success that the horrible feeling of unreality began to pass
+away, with its accompanying confusion, and Dallas began to realise the
+truth.
+
+"I--I thought you were lying there dead," he said at last.
+
+"Oh, no, my son; I'm 'live enough," said Tregelly, who still bent over
+the fire; "but I never thought to open my eyes again.  Shall I melt some
+snow over the fire?  There is a scrap or two more to eat, and when it's
+light we might p'r'aps shoot something.  But I say, we must have slept
+for an awful long time, for we made a tremendous fire, and the snow's
+melted all about wonderful."
+
+"Yes, wonderfully," said Dallas, who crouched there gazing at the figure
+where the bank of snow had been.
+
+"It's my belief that we've slept a good four-and-twenty hours, and that
+it's night again."
+
+"Think so?"
+
+"I do, my son, and it's to-morrow night, I believe.  I say, how the snow
+has melted away.  Why, hullo!" he shouted, as the flames leapt up
+merrily now, "who's that?"
+
+"I don't know," faltered Dallas; "I thought at first it was you."
+
+"Not a dead 'un?" whispered Tregelly in an awestruck tone.
+
+"Yes; and whoever it was must have been buried in that bank of snow, so
+that we did not see him last night."
+
+Tregelly drew a burning brand from the fire, gave it a wave in the air
+to make it blaze fiercely, and stepped towards the recumbent figure
+lying there.
+
+"Hi!  Look here, my son," he cried.  "No wonder we didn't see him come
+back."
+
+Dallas grasped the fact now, and the next moment he too was gazing down
+at the fierce face, icily sealed in death, the light playing upon the
+huge red beard, while the eyes were fixed in a wild stare.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Tregelly.  "He'll do no more mischief now, my son.
+But what was he doing here?  Rather a chilly place for a man to choose
+for his lair.  Thought he was safe, I suppose.  Only look."
+
+For a few moments Dallas could not drag his eyes from the horrible
+features of their enemy, about which the dog was sniffing in a puzzled
+way.  But at last he turned to where Tregelly was waving the great
+firebrand, which shed a bright light around.
+
+"It was his den, Master Dallas," growled Tregelly.  "Look here, this was
+all covered with snow last night when we lit the fire, and it's all
+melted away.  Why, only look, my son; he spent all his time trying to do
+for us, and what's he done?--he's saved all our lives.  Flour, bacon,
+coffee.  What's in that bag?  Sugar.  Why, this is all his plunder as
+he's robbed from fellows' huts.  There's his gun, too, and his pistol.
+But what a place to choose to live in all alone!  You'd ha' thought he'd
+have had a shelter.  Here, I'm not _going_ to die just yet."
+
+A wave of energy seemed to inspire the great fellow, who picked up the
+rug that had sheltered him during the night, and gave Dallas a nod.
+
+"When a man dies," he said solemnly, "he wipes out all his debts.  We
+don't owe him nothing neither now."
+
+As Tregelly spoke he drew the rug carefully over the figure lying there,
+and the next minute set to work to make the fire blaze higher, while
+Dallas, with half-numbed hands, tried to help him by filling the billy
+with pieces of ice, setting it in the glowing embers, and refilling it
+as the solid pieces rapidly melted down.
+
+They were both too busy and eager to prepare a meal from the life-saving
+provender they had so strangely found, to pay any heed to Abel.
+
+"Let him rest, my son, till breakfast's ready; he's terribly weak, poor
+lad.  Mind, too, when we do rouse him up, not to say a word about what's
+lying under that rug.  I'll pitch some wood across it so as he shan't
+notice before we wake him up."
+
+Dallas nodded, and with a strange feeling of renewed hope for which he
+could not account, he worked away; for it seemed the while that the
+store of provisions they had found would do no more for them than
+prolong their weary existence in the wild for two or three weeks.
+
+Tregelly brought forward more wood from the shelter they had formed; the
+fire burned more brightly; bacon was frying, and the fragrance of coffee
+and hot cake was being diffused, when, just as Dallas was thinking of
+awakening his cousin to the change in their state of affairs, a hoarse
+cry aroused him and made him look sharply at where, unnoticed, Abel had
+risen to his knees; and there, in the full light of the fire, he could
+be seen pointing.
+
+"We're too late, my son," growled Tregelly; "he has seen it.  Meant to
+have covered it before he woke."
+
+"No, no; he is not pointing there."
+
+"Look!  Look!" cried Abel.
+
+"Poor lad, he's off his head," whispered Tregelly.
+
+"Do you hear me, you two?" cried Abel hoarsely.  "Look!  Can't you see?"
+
+"What is it, Bel?" said Dallas soothingly, as he stepped round to the
+other side of the fire; and then, following the direction of his
+cousin's pointing finger, he too uttered a wild cry, which brought
+Tregelly to their side, to gaze in speechless astonishment at the sight
+before them.
+
+For the thick glazing of ice had been melted from the perpendicular wall
+of rock at the back of their fire, and there, glistening and sparkling
+in the face of the cliff, were veins, nuggets, and time-worn fragments
+of rich red gold in such profusion, that, far up as they could see, the
+cliff seemed to be one mass of gold-bearing rock, richer than their
+wildest imagination had ever painted.
+
+The effect upon the adventurers was as strange as it was marked.
+
+Abel bowed down his face in his hands to hide its spasmodic
+contractions; while Dallas rose, stepped slowly towards it, and reached
+over the glowing flame to touch a projecting nugget--bright, glowing in
+hue, and quite warm from the reflection of the fire.
+
+"Ah!" he sighed softly, as if convinced at last; "it is real, and not a
+dream."
+
+Tregelly turned his back, began to whistle softly an old tune in a minor
+key, and drew the coffee, the bacon pan, and the bread a little farther
+away.
+
+"Ahoy there, my sons!" he cried cheerily; "breakfast!  Fellows must eat
+even if they are millionaires."
+
+It was too much for Dallas, before whose eyes was rising, not the gold,
+for he seemed to be looking right through that, but the wistful,
+deeply-lined face of a grey-haired woman at a window, watching ever for
+the lost ones' return.
+
+At Tregelly's words he burst into a strangely harsh, hysterical laugh,
+and then, too, he sank upon his knees and buried his face in his hands,
+remaining there motionless till a hand was laid upon his shoulder, and
+he started to find it was Abel who was gazing in his eyes.
+
+"Dal," he cried, in a voice that did not sound like his own, "we shall
+pay the old uncle now."
+
+At that moment the dismal tune Tregelly was whistling came to an end,
+and they saw that he was sitting with his back to them, looking straight
+away.
+
+They stepped quickly to his side, and he started up to hold a hand to
+each.
+
+"To win or to die, didn't you say, my sons?" he cried cheerily.
+
+"Yes, something like that," replied Dallas huskily.
+
+"Well, it means winning, my sons," cried Tregelly, "for we won't die
+now."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+SHOWING HOW GOOD CAME OUT OF EVIL.
+
+The store of provisions proved on examination to be far greater than had
+been anticipated, and it seemed plain enough that their enemy had, while
+seeking a place of refuge from which he might carry on his nefarious
+career, hit accidentally upon the greatest discovery of gold that had
+been made; and after decently disposing of his remains, the three
+adventurers began to examine with something approaching breathless awe
+the vast treasure that they could claim as theirs.
+
+The first thing to be done, though, was to make use of their axes and
+contrive a shelter right in the centre of the patch of dwarf pine, their
+plan being to hack out the size of the hut they intended to make in the
+dense scrub, saving everything approaching to a straight pole to use for
+roofing.
+
+They worked well, for the discovery of the gold and a fair supply of
+provisions seemed to send new life into them; and before many hours had
+passed they were provided with shelter for themselves and their stores.
+
+Their next step was to mark out and peg what was legally allowed to each
+man as discoverer of a new field's claim.  And now, in spite of the
+lateness of the season and their height up in the mountains, it seemed
+as if fate had ceased to persecute them and was ready to help them make
+the treasure they had found safely their own.
+
+It was too late to expect to do much before the winter closed in with
+its inclement darkness, so the energies of all were devoted to making
+the most of the glorious spell of fine weather which now ensued, and
+preparing for the winter.
+
+"We've found it; and after it has been lying here ever since the world
+began," said Tregelly, "it isn't likely to fly away now, and nobody's
+going to take it away from us.  First thing is, have we got as much on
+our claim as ever we're likely to want?"
+
+"More," said Dallas; "and I propose that one of us goes down to the old
+spot to give the news to Norton and our old friends, that they may come
+and be the first to take up claims."
+
+"That is what I meant to propose," said Abel.
+
+"Good nails driven in, and I clinch them," said Tregelly.  "Only look
+here: I always like to do a good turn to a man who means well."
+
+"Of course," said Dallas; "but what do you mean?"
+
+"There's that judge.  I think he ought to have a pull out of this, too.
+He nearly hung us up on a tree, but he meant well, and it was all for
+law and order.  What I propose is this.  We'll make our own claims sure,
+and get our friends up to secure theirs; and then let's tell the judge,
+and he'll come up with a picked lot to keep all right."
+
+"Excellent," said Dallas.  "But who goes down first to see about
+stores?"
+
+"I will, my sons.  I'm strongest, and as to bringing up plenty, I shall
+have plenty ready to help.  But I say, play fair; you won't run away
+with my third while I'm gone?"
+
+Tregelly started down the ravine in company with Scruff the very next
+day, and many more had not elapsed before he was back with the whole
+party from their old workings, eager to congratulate the fortunate
+discoverers and place ample stores at their service.
+
+They had just time to get up another supply, enough for the coming
+winter, before it seemed to sweep down like a black veil from the
+northern mountains.
+
+But building does not take long under such circumstances.  Wood had been
+brought up from out of a valley a few miles lower down, and in the
+shelter of a dense patch of scrub pine in a side gully, where the
+new-comers found the gold promising to their hearts' content, they were
+ready to defy the keenest weather that might come.
+
+Two years had elapsed, and winter was once more expected, for the days
+were shortening fast, when three men sat together in their humble hut,
+discussing the question of going home; and the thought of once more
+meeting one whose last letter had told of her longings to see her boys
+again, brought a flush to the young men's cheeks and a bright light to
+their eyes.
+
+They had been talking long and loudly, those two, while Tregelly had sat
+smoking his pipe and saying nothing, till Dallas turned to him sharply.
+
+"Say something, my son?" the big fellow cried.  "Of course I will.  Here
+it is.  I've been thinking of all that gold we've sent safely home
+through the banks, and I've been thinking of what our claim's worth, and
+what that there company's willing to give."
+
+"Well," said Abel, "go on."
+
+"Give a man time, my son.  I warn't brought up to the law.  What I was
+thinking is this: we three working chaps in our shabby clothes are rich
+men as we stand now."
+
+"Very," said Dallas.
+
+"And if we were to sell our claim now we should be very, very rich."
+
+"Very--very--very rich," said Abel, laughing as a man laughs who is in
+high spirits produced by vigorous health.
+
+"Well, go on," said Dallas.
+
+"Here it is, then: what's the good of our going grubbing on just to be
+able to say we're richer still?  `Enough's as good as a feast,' so
+what's the good of being greedy?  Why not let some one else have a turn,
+and let's all go home?"
+
+"What do you say, Bel?"
+
+"Ay!  And you, Dal?"
+
+"Ay!"
+
+"The `Ays' have it, then," cried Tregelly.
+
+"Well done, my sons.  Hooroar!  We're homeward bou-wou-wound!" he roared
+in his big bass voice.  "Hooroar!  We're homeward bound!"
+
+Business matters are settled quickly in a goldfield, and the next day it
+was known in the now crowded ravine, where every inch of ground was
+taken up, that the big company of which the judge was the head had
+bought the three adventurers' claim, known far and near as Redbeard's,
+for a tremendous sum.  But all the same, heads were shaken by the wise
+ones of the settlement, who one and all agreed that the company had got
+it cheap, and they wished that they had had the chance.
+
+"You're one of the buyers, aren't you, Norton, and your lot who came up
+first are the rest?"
+
+"That's right," said Norton, smiling.  "Hah!" said the man.  "Kissing
+goes by favour."
+
+"Of course," said Norton.  "But then, you see, we were all old friends."
+
+"We said it was to win or to die, Bel," said Dallas one day, when all
+business was satisfactorily settled and they were really, as Tregelly
+had sung, homeward bound.
+
+"Yes," said Abel quietly, "and it all seems like a dream."
+
+"But it's a mighty, weighty, solid, golden sort o' dream, my son," said
+the big Cornishman, "and there's no mistake about it, you've won.  I
+say, though, I'm glad we're taking the dog."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's To Win or to Die, by George Manville Fenn
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