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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spoilers, by Rex Beach
+
+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: The Spoilers
+
+Author: Rex Beach
+
+Posting Date: May 2, 2013 [EBook #5076]
+Release Date: February, 2004
+First Posted: April 16, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPOILERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SPOILERS
+
+By REX BEACH
+
+Author of "THE AUCTION BLOCK" "RAINBOW'S END" "THE IRON TRAIL" Etc.
+
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+       THIS BOOK
+IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED TO
+       MY MOTHER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I. THE ENCOUNTER
+
+   II. THE STOWAWAY
+
+  III. IN WHICH GLENISTER ERRS
+
+   IV. THE KILLING
+
+    V. WHEREIN A MAN APPEARS
+
+   VI. AND A MINE IS JUMPED
+
+  VII. THE "BRONCO KID'S" EAVESDROPPING
+
+ VIII. DEXTRY MAKES A CALL
+
+   IX. SLUICE ROBBERS
+
+    X. THE WIT OF AN ADVENTURESS
+
+   XI. WHEREIN A WRIT AND A RIOT FAIL
+
+  XII. COUNTERPLOTS
+
+ XIII. IN WHICH A MAN IS POSSESSED OF A DEVIL
+
+  XIV. A MIDNIGHT MESSENGER
+
+   XV. VIGILANTES
+
+  XVI. IN WHICH THE TRUTH BEGINS TO BARE ITSELF
+
+ XVII. THE DRIP OF WATER IN THE DARK
+
+XVIII. WHEREIN A TRAP IS BAITED
+
+  XIX. DYNAMITE
+
+   XX. IN WHICH THREE GO TO THE SIGN OF THE SLED AND BUT TWO RETURN
+
+  XXI. THE HAMMER-LOCK
+
+ XXII. THE PROMISE OF DREAMS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE ENCOUNTER
+
+
+Glenister gazed out over the harbor, agleam with the lights of anchored
+ships, then up at the crenelated mountains, black against the sky. He
+drank the cool air burdened with its taints of the sea, while the blood
+of his boyhood leaped within him.
+
+"Oh, it's fine--fine," he murmured, "and this is my country--my
+country, after all, Dex. It's in my veins, this hunger for the North. I
+grow. I expand."
+
+"Careful you don't bust," warned Dextry. "I've seen men get plumb drunk
+on mountain air. Don't expand too strong in one spot." He went back
+abruptly to his pipe, its villanous fumes promptly averting any danger
+of the air's too tonic quality.
+
+"Gad! What a smudge!" sniffed the younger man. "You ought to be in
+quarantine."
+
+"I'd ruther smell like a man than talk like a kid. You desecrate the
+hour of meditation with rhapsodies on nature when your aesthetics ain't
+honed up to the beauties of good tobacco."
+
+The other laughed, inflating his deep chest. In the gloom he stretched
+his muscles restlessly, as though an excess of vigor filled him.
+
+They were lounging upon the dock, while before them lay the Santa Maria
+ready for her midnight sailing. Behind slept Unalaska, quaint, antique,
+and Russian, rusting amid the fogs of Bering Sea. Where, a week before,
+mild-eyed natives had dried their cod among the old bronze cannon, now
+a frenzied horde of gold-seekers paused in their rush to the new El
+Dorado. They had come like a locust cloud, thousands strong, settling
+on the edge of the Smoky Sea, waiting the going of the ice that barred
+them from their Golden Fleece--from Nome the new, where men found
+fortune in a night.
+
+The mossy hills back of the village were ridged with graves of those
+who had died on the out-trip the fall before, when a plague had gripped
+the land--but what of that? Gold glittered in the sands, so said the
+survivors; therefore men came in armies. Glenister and Dextry had left
+Nome the autumn previous, the young man raving with fever. Now they
+returned to their own land.
+
+"This air whets every animal instinct in me," Glenister broke out
+again. "Away from the cities I turn savage. I feel the old primitive
+passions--the fret for fighting."
+
+"Mebbe you'll have a chance."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Well, it's this way. I met Mexico Mullins this mornin'. You mind old
+Mexico, don't you? The feller that relocated Discovery Claim on Anvil
+Creek last summer?"
+
+"You don't mean that 'tin-horn' the boys were going to lynch for
+claim-jumping?"
+
+"Identical! Remember me tellin' you about a good turn I done him once
+down Guadalupe way?"
+
+"Greaser shooting-scrape, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yep! Well, I noticed first off that he's gettin fat; high-livin' fat,
+too, all in one spot, like he was playin' both ends ag'in the centre.
+Also he wore di'mon's fit to handle with ice-tongs.
+
+"Says I, lookin' at his side elevation, 'What's accented your middle
+syllable so strong, Mexico?'
+
+"'Prosperity, politics, an' the Waldorf-Astorier,' says he. It seems
+Mex hadn't forgot old days. He claws me into a corner an' says, 'Bill,
+I'm goin' to pay you back for that Moralez deal.'
+
+"'It ain't comin' to me,' says I. 'That's a bygone!'
+
+"'Listen here,' says he, an', seein' he was in earnest, I let him run
+on.
+
+"'How much do you value that claim o' yourn at?'
+
+"'Hard tellin',' says I. 'If she holds out like she run last fall,
+there'd ought to be a million clear in her."
+
+"'How much'll you clean up this summer?'
+
+"''Bout four hundred thousand, with luck.'
+
+"'Bill,' says he, 'there's hell a-poppin' an' you've got to watch that
+ground like you'd watch a rattle-snake. Don't never leave 'em get a
+grip on it or you're down an' out.'
+
+"He was so plumb in earnest it scared me up, 'cause Mexico ain't a
+gabby man.
+
+"'What do you mean?' says I.
+
+"'I can't tell you nothin' more. I'm puttin' a string on my own neck,
+sayin' THIS much. You're a square man, Bill, an' I'm a gambler, but you
+saved my life oncet, an' I wouldn't steer you wrong. For God's sake,
+don't let 'em jump your ground, that's all.'
+
+"'Let who jump it? Congress has give us judges an' courts an'
+marshals--' I begins.
+
+"'That's just it. How you goin' to buck that hand? Them's the best
+cards in the deck. There's a man comin' by the name of McNamara. Watch
+him clost. I can't tell you no more. But don't never let 'em get a grip
+on your ground.' That's all he'd say."
+
+"Bah! He's crazy! I wish somebody would try to jump the Midas; we'd
+enjoy the exercise."
+
+The siren of the Santa Maria interrupted, its hoarse warning throbbing
+up the mountain.
+
+"We'll have to get aboard," said Dextry.
+
+"Sh-h! What's that?" the other whispered.
+
+At first the only sound they heard was a stir from the deck of the
+steamer. Then from the water below them came the rattle of rowlocks and
+a voice cautiously muffled.
+
+"Stop! Stop there!"
+
+A skiff burst from the darkness, grounding on the beach beneath. A
+figure scrambled out and up the ladder leading to the wharf.
+Immediately a second boat, plainly in pursuit of the first one, struck
+on the beach behind it.
+
+As the escaping figure mounted to their level the watchers perceived
+with amazement that it was a young woman. Breath sobbed from her lungs,
+and, stumbling, she would have fallen but for Glenister, who ran
+forward and helped her to her feet.
+
+"Don't let them get me," she panted.
+
+He turned to his partner in puzzled inquiry, but found that the old man
+had crossed to the head of the landing ladder up which the pursuers
+were climbing.
+
+"Just a minute--you there! Back up or I'll kick your face in." Dextry's
+voice was sharp and unexpected, and in the darkness he loomed tall and
+menacing to those below.
+
+"Get out of the way. That woman's a runaway," came from the one highest
+on the ladder.
+
+"So I jedge."
+
+"She broke qu--"
+
+"Shut up!" broke in another. "Do you want to advertise it? Get out of
+the way, there, ye damn fool! Climb up, Thorsen." He spoke like a bucko
+mate, and his words stirred the bile of Dextry.
+
+Thorsen grasped the dock floor, trying to climb up, but the old miner
+stamped on his fingers and the sailor loosened his hold with a yell,
+carrying the under men with him to the beach in his fall.
+
+"This way! Follow me!" shouted the mate, making up the bank for the
+shore end of the wharf.
+
+"You'd better pull your freight, miss," Dextry remarked; "they'll be
+here in a minute."
+
+"Yes, yes! Let us go! I must get aboard the Santa Maria. She's leaving
+now. Come, come!"
+
+Glenister laughed, as though there were a humorous touch in her remark,
+but did not stir.
+
+"I'm gettin' awful old an' stiff to run," said Dextry, removing his
+mackinaw, "but I allow I ain't too old for a little diversion in the
+way of a rough-house when it comes nosin' around." He moved lightly,
+though the girl could see in the half-darkness that his hair was
+silvery.
+
+"What do you mean?" she questioned, sharply.
+
+"You hurry along, miss; we'll toy with 'em till you're aboard." They
+stepped across to the dockhouse, backing against it. The girl followed.
+
+Again came the warning blast from the steamer, and the voice of an
+officer:
+
+"Clear away that stern line!"
+
+"Oh, we'll be left!" she breathed, and somehow it struck Glenister that
+she feared this more than the men whose approaching feet he heard.
+
+"YOU can make it all right," he urged her, roughly. "You'll get hurt if
+you stay here. Run along and don't mind us. We've been thirty days on
+shipboard, and were praying for something to happen." His voice was
+boyishly glad, as if he exulted in the fray that was to come; and no
+sooner had he spoken than the sailors came out of the darkness upon
+them.
+
+During the space of a few heart-beats there was only a tangle of
+whirling forms with the sound of fist on flesh, then the blot split up
+and forms plunged outward, falling heavily. Again the sailors rushed,
+attempting to clinch. They massed upon Dextry only to grasp empty air,
+for he shifted with remarkable agility, striking bitterly, as an old
+wolf snaps. It was baffling work, however, for in the darkness his
+blows fell short or overreached.
+
+Glenister, on the other hand, stood carelessly, beating the men off as
+they came to him. He laughed gloatingly, deep in his throat, as though
+the encounter were merely some rough sport. The girl shuddered, for the
+desperate silence of the attacking men terrified her more than a din,
+and yet she stayed, crouched against the wall.
+
+Dextry swung at a dim target, and, missing it, was whirled off his
+balance. Instantly his antagonist grappled with him, and they fell to
+the floor, while a third man shuffled about them. The girl throttled a
+scream.
+
+"I'm goin' to kick 'im, Bill," the man panted hoarsely. "Le' me fix
+'im." He swung his heavy shoe, and Bill cursed with stirring eloquence.
+
+"Ow! You're kickin' me! I've got 'im, safe enough. Tackle the big un."
+
+Bill's ally then started towards the others, his body bent, his arms
+flexed yet hanging loosely. He crouched beside the girl, ignoring her,
+while she heard the breath wheezing from his lungs; then silently he
+leaped. Glenister had hurled a man from him, then stepped back to avoid
+the others, when he was seized from behind and felt the man's arms
+wrapped about his neck, the sailor's legs locked about his thighs. Now
+came the girl's first knowledge of real fighting. The two spun back and
+forth so closely entwined as to be indistinguishable, the others
+holding off. For what seemed many minutes they struggled, the young man
+striving to reach his adversary, till they crashed against the wall
+near her and she heard her champion's breath coughing in his throat at
+the tightening grip of the sailor. Fright held her paralyzed, for she
+had never seen men thus. A moment and Glenister would be down beneath
+their stamping feet--they would kick his life out with their heavy
+shoes. At thought of it, the necessity of action smote her like a blow
+in the face. Her terror fell away, her shaking muscles stiffened, and
+before realizing what she did she had acted.
+
+The seaman's back was to her. She reached out and gripped him by the
+hair, while her fingers, tense as talons, sought his eyes. Then the
+first loud sound of the battle arose. The man yelled in sudden terror;
+and the others as suddenly fell back. The next instant she felt a hand
+upon her shoulder and heard Dextry's voice.
+
+"Are ye hurt? No? Come on, then, or we'll get left." He spoke quietly,
+though his breath was loud, and, glancing down, she saw the huddled
+form of the sailor whom he had fought.
+
+"That's all right--he ain't hurt. It's a Jap trick I learned. Hurry up!"
+
+They ran swiftly down the wharf, followed by Glenister and by the
+groans of the sailors in whom the lust for combat had been quenched. As
+they scrambled up the Santa Maria's gang-plank, a strip of water
+widened between the boat and the pier.
+
+"Close shave, that," panted Glenister, feeling his throat gingerly,
+"but I wouldn't have missed it for a spotted pup."
+
+"I've been through b'iler explosions and snowslides, not to mention a
+triflin' jail-delivery, but fer real sprightly diversions I don't
+recall nothin' more pleasin' than this." Dextry's enthusiasm was
+boylike.
+
+"What kind of men are you?" the girl laughed nervously, but got no
+answer.
+
+They led her to their deck cabin, where they switched on the electric
+light, blinking at each other and at their unknown guest.
+
+They saw a graceful and altogether attractive figure in a trim, short
+skirt and long, tan boots. But what Glenister first saw was her eyes;
+large and gray, almost brown under the electric light. They were active
+eyes, he thought, and they flashed swift, comprehensive glances at the
+two men. Her hair had fallen loose and crinkled to her waist, all
+agleam. Otherwise she showed no sign of her recent ordeal.
+
+Glenister had been prepared for the type of beauty that follows the
+frontier; beauty that may stun, but that has the polish and chill of a
+new-ground bowie. Instead, this girl with the calm, reposeful face
+struck a note almost painfully different from her surroundings,
+suggesting countless pleasant things that had been strange to him for
+the past few years.
+
+Pure admiration alone was patent in the older man's gaze.
+
+"I make oration," said he, "that you're the gamest little chap I ever
+fought over, Mexikin, Injun, or white. What's the trouble?"
+
+"I suppose you think I've done something dreadful, don't you?" she
+said. "But I haven't. I had to get away from the Ohio to-night
+for--certain reasons. I'll tell you all about it to-morrow. I haven't
+stolen anything, nor poisoned the crew--really I haven't." She smiled
+at them, and Glenister found it impossible not to smile with her,
+though dismayed by her feeble explanation.
+
+"Well, I'll wake up the steward and find a place for you to go," he
+said at length. "You'll have to double up with some of the women,
+though; it's awfully crowded aboard."
+
+She laid a detaining hand on his arm. He thought he felt her tremble.
+
+"No, no! I don't want you to do that. They mustn't see me to-night. I
+know I'm acting strangely and all that, but it's happened so quickly I
+haven't found myself yet. I'll tell you to-morrow, though, really.
+Don't let any one see me or it will spoil everything. Wait till
+to-morrow, please."
+
+She was very white, and spoke with eager intensity.
+
+"Help you? Why, sure Mike!" assured the impulsive Dextry, "an', see
+here, Miss--you take your time on explanations. We don't care a cuss
+what you done. Morals ain't our long suit, 'cause 'there's never a law
+of God or man runs north of Fifty-three,' as the poetry man remarked,
+an' he couldn't have spoke truer if he'd knowed what he was sayin'.
+Everybody is privileged to 'look out' his own game up here. A square
+deal an' no questions asked."
+
+She looked somewhat doubtful at this till she caught the heat of
+Glenister's gaze. Some boldness of his look brought home to her the
+actual situation, and a stain rose in her cheek. She noted him more
+carefully; noted his heavy shoulders and ease of bearing, an ease and
+looseness begotten of perfect muscular control. Strength was equally
+suggested in his face, she thought, for he carried a marked young
+countenance, with thrusting chin, aggressive thatching brows, and
+mobile mouth that whispered all the changes from strength to abandon.
+Prominent was a look of reckless energy. She considered him handsome in
+a heavy, virile, perhaps too purely physical fashion.
+
+"You want to stowaway?" he asked.
+
+"I've had a right smart experience in that line," said Dextry, "but I
+never done it by proxy. What's your plan?"
+
+"She will stay here to-night," said Glenister quickly. "You and I will
+go below. Nobody will see her."
+
+"I can't let you do that," she objected. "Isn't there some place where
+I can hide?" But they reassured her and left.
+
+When they had gone, she crouched trembling upon her seat for a long
+time, gazing fixedly before her. "I'm afraid!" she whispered; "I'm
+afraid. What am I getting into? Why do men look so at me? I'm
+frightened. Oh, I'm sorry I undertook it." At last she rose wearily.
+The close cabin oppressed her; she felt the need of fresh air. So,
+turning out the lights, she stepped forth into the night. Figures
+loomed near the rail and she slipped astern, screening herself behind a
+life-boat, where the cool breeze fanned her face.
+
+The forms she had seen approached, speaking earnestly. Instead of
+passing, they stopped abreast of her hiding-place; then, as they began
+to talk, she saw that her retreat was cut off and that she must not
+stir.
+
+"What brings her here?" Glenister was echoing a question of Dextry's.
+"Bah! What brings them all? What brought 'the Duchess,' and Cherry
+Malotte, and all the rest?"
+
+"No, no," said the old man. "She ain't that kind--she's too fine, too
+delicate--too pretty."
+
+"That's just it--too pretty! Too pretty to be alone--or anything except
+what she is."
+
+Dextry growled sourly. "This country has plumb ruined you, boy. You
+think they're all alike--an' I don't know but they are--all but this
+girl. Seems like she's different, somehow--but I can't tell."
+
+Glenister spoke musingly:
+
+"I had an ancestor who buccaneered among the Indies, a long time
+ago--so I'm told. Sometimes I think I have his disposition. He comes
+and whispers things to me in the night. Oh, he was a devil, and I've
+got his blood in me--untamed and hot--I can hear him saying something
+now--something about the spoils of war. Ha, ha! Maybe he's right. I
+fought for her to-night--Dex--the way he used to fight for his
+sweethearts along the Mexicos. She's too beautiful to be good--and
+'there's never a law of God or man runs north of Fifty-three.'"
+
+They moved on, his vibrant, cynical laughter stabbing the girl till she
+leaned against the yawl for support.
+
+She held herself together while the blood beat thickly in her ears,
+then fled to the cabin, hurling herself into her berth, where she
+writhed silently, beating the pillow with hands into which her nails
+had bitten, staring the while into the darkness with dry and aching
+eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE STOWAWAY
+
+
+She awoke to the throb of the engines, and, gazing cautiously through
+her stateroom window, saw a glassy, level sea, with the sun brightly
+agleam on it.
+
+So this was Bering? She had clothed it always with the mystery of her
+school-days, thinking of it as a weeping, fog-bound stretch of gray
+waters. Instead, she saw a flat, sunlit main, with occasional
+sea-parrots flapping their fat bodies out of the ship's course. A
+glistening head popped up from the waters abreast, and she heard the
+cry of "seal!"
+
+Dressing, the girl noted minutely the personal articles scattered about
+the cabin, striving to derive therefrom some fresh hint of the
+characteristics of the owners. First, there was an elaborate,
+copper-backed toilet-set, all richly ornamented and leather-bound. The
+metal was magnificently hand-worked and bore Glenister's initial. It
+spoke of elegant extravagance, and seemed oddly out of place in an
+Arctic miner's equipment, as did also a small set of De Maupassant.
+
+Next, she picked up Kipling's Seven Seas, marked liberally, and felt
+that she had struck a scent. The roughness and brutality of the poems
+had always chilled her, though she had felt vaguely their splendid
+pulse and swing. This was the girl's first venture from a sheltered
+life. She had not rubbed elbows with the world enough to find that
+Truth may be rough, unshaven, and garbed in homespun. The book
+confirmed her analysis of the junior partner.
+
+Pendent from a hook was a worn and blackened holster from which peeped
+the butt of a large Colt's revolver, showing evidence of many years'
+service. It spoke mutely of the white-haired Dextry, who, before her
+inspection was over, knocked at the door, and, when she admitted him,
+addressed her cautiously:
+
+"The boy's down forrad, teasin' grub out of a flunky. He'll be up in a
+minute. How'd ye sleep?"
+
+"Very well, thank you," she lied, "but I've been thinking that I ought
+to explain myself to you."
+
+"Now, see here," the old man interjected, "there ain't no explanations
+needed till you feel like givin' them up. You was in trouble--that's
+unfortunate; we help you--that's natural; no questions asked--that's
+Alaska."
+
+"Yes--but I know you must think--"
+
+"What bothers me," the other continued irrelevantly, "is how in blazes
+we're goin' to keep you hid. The steward's got to make up this room,
+and somebody's bound to see us packin' grub in."
+
+"I don't care who knows if they won't send me back. They wouldn't do
+that, would they?" She hung anxiously on his words.
+
+"Send you back? Why, don't you savvy that this boat is bound for Nome?
+There ain't no turnin' back on gold stampedes, and this is the wildest
+rush the world ever saw. The captain wouldn't turn back--he
+couldn't--his cargo's too precious and the company pays five thousand a
+day for this ship. No, we ain't puttin' back to unload no stowaways at
+five thousand per. Besides, we passengers wouldn't let him--time's too
+precious." They were interrupted by the rattle of dishes outside, and
+Dextry was about to open the door when his hand wavered uncertainly
+above the knob, for he heard the hearty greeting of the ship's captain.
+
+"Well, well, Glenister, where's all the breakfast going?"
+
+"Oo!" whispered the old man--"that's Cap' Stephens."
+
+"Dextry isn't feeling quite up to form this morning," replied Glenister
+easily.
+
+"Don't wonder! Why weren't you aboard sooner last night? I saw
+you--'most got left, eh? Served you right if you had." Then his voice
+dropped to the confidential: "I'd advise you to cut out those women.
+Don't misunderstand me, boy, but they're a bad lot on this boat. I saw
+you come aboard. Take my word for it--they're a bad lot. Cut 'em out.
+Guess I'll step inside and see what's up with Dextry."
+
+The girl shrank into her corner, gazing apprehensively at the other
+listener.
+
+"Well--er--he isn't up yet," they heard Glenister stammer; "better come
+around later."
+
+"Nonsense; it's time he was dressed." The master's voice was gruffly
+good-natured. "Hello, Dextry! Hey! Open up for inspection." He rattled
+the door.
+
+There was nothing to be done. The old miner darted an inquiring glance
+at his companion, then, at her nod, slipped the bolt, and the captain's
+blue bulk filled the room.
+
+His grizzled, close-bearded face was genially wrinkled till he spied
+the erect, gray figure in the corner, when his cap came off
+involuntarily. There his courtesy ended, however, and the smile died
+coldly from his face. His eyes narrowed, and the good-fellowship fell
+away, leaving him the stiff and formal officer.
+
+"Ah," he said, "not feeling well, eh? I thought I had met all of our
+lady passengers. Introduce me, Dextry."
+
+Dextry squirmed under his cynicism.
+
+"Well--I--ah--didn't catch the name myself."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Oh, there ain't much to say. This is the lady--we brought aboard last
+night--that's all."
+
+"Who gave you permission?"
+
+"Nobody. There wasn't time."
+
+"There wasn't TIME, eh? Which one of you conceived the novel scheme of
+stowing away ladies in your cabin? Whose is she? Quick! Answer me."
+Indignation was vibrant in his voice.
+
+"Oh!" the girl cried--her eyes widening darkly. She stood slim and pale
+and slightly trembling.
+
+His words had cut her bitterly, though through it all he had
+scrupulously avoided addressing her.
+
+The captain turned to Glenister, who had entered and closed the door.
+
+"Is this your work? Is she yours?"
+
+"No," he answered quietly, while Dextry chimed in:
+
+"Better hear details, captain, before you make breaks like that. We
+helped the lady side-step some sailors last night and we most got left
+doing it. It was up to her to make a quick get-away, so we helped her
+aboard."
+
+"A poor story! What was she running away from?" He still addressed the
+men, ignoring her completely, till, with hoarse voice, she broke in:
+
+"You mustn't talk about me that way--I can answer your questions. It's
+true--I ran away. I had to. The sailors came after me and fought with
+these men. I had to get away quickly, and your friends helped me on
+here from gentlemanly kindness, because they saw me unprotected. They
+are still protecting me. I can't explain how important it is for me to
+reach Nome on the first boat, because it isn't my secret. It was
+important enough to make me leave my uncle at Seattle at an hour's
+notice when we found there was no one else who could go. That's all I
+can say. I took my maid with me, but the sailors caught her just as she
+was following me down the ship's ladder. She had my bag of clothes when
+they seized her. I cast off the rope and rowed ashore as fast as I
+could, but they lowered another boat and followed me."
+
+The captain eyed her sharply, and his grim lines softened a bit, for
+she was clean-cut and womanly, and utterly out of place, He took her
+in, shrewdly, detail by detail, then spoke directly to her:
+
+"My dear young lady--the other ships will get there just as quickly as
+ours, maybe more quickly. To-morrow we strike the ice-pack and then it
+is all a matter of luck."
+
+"Yes, but the ship I left won't get there."
+
+At this the commander started, and, darting a great, thick-fingered
+hand at her, spoke savagely:
+
+"What's that? What ship? Which one did you come from? Answer me."
+
+"The Ohio," she replied, with the effect of a hand-grenade. The master
+glared at her.
+
+"The Ohio! Good God! You DARE to stand there and tell me that?" He
+turned and poured his rage upon the others.
+
+"She says the Ohio, d'ye hear? You've ruined me! I'll put you in
+irons--all of you. The Ohio!"
+
+"What d'ye mean? What's up?"
+
+"What's up? There's small-pox aboard the Ohio! This girl has broken
+quarantine. The health inspectors bottled up the boat at six o'clock
+last night! That's why I pulled out of Unalaska ahead of time, to avoid
+any possible delay. Now we'll all be held up when we get to Nome. Great
+Heavens! do you realize what this means--bringing this hussy aboard?"
+
+His eyes burned and his voice shook, while the two partners stared at
+each other in dismay. Too well they knew the result of a small-pox
+panic aboard this crowded troop-ship. Not only was every available
+cabin bulging with passengers, but the lower decks were jammed with
+both humanity and live stock all in the most unsanitary conditions. The
+craft, built for three hundred passengers, was carrying triple her
+capacity; men and women were stowed away like cattle. Order and a
+half-tolerable condition were maintained only by the efforts of the
+passengers themselves, who held to the thought that imprisonment and
+inconvenience would last but a few days longer. They had been aboard
+three weeks and every heart was aflame with the desire to reach
+Nome--to reach it ahead of the pressing horde behind.
+
+What would be the temper of this gold-frenzied army if thrown into
+quarantine within sight of their goal? The impatient hundreds would
+have to lie packed in their floating prison, submitting to the foul
+disease. Long they must lie thus, till a month should have passed after
+the disappearance of the last symptom. If the disease recurred
+sporadically, that might mean endless weeks of maddening idleness. It
+might even be impossible to impose the necessary restraint; there would
+be violence, perhaps mutiny.
+
+The fear of the sickness was nothing to Dextry and Glenister, but of
+their mine they thought with terror. What would happen in their
+absence, where conditions were as unsettled as in this new land; where
+titles were held only by physical possession of the premises? During
+the long winter of their absence, ice had held their treasure
+inviolate, but with the warming summer the jewel they had fought for so
+wearily would lie naked and exposed to the first comer. The Midas lay
+in the valley of the richest creek, where men had schemed and fought
+and slain for the right to inches. It was the fruit of cheerless,
+barren years of toil, and if they could not guard it--they knew the
+result.
+
+The girl interrupted their distressing reflections.
+
+"Don't blame these men, sir," she begged the captain. "I am the only
+one at fault. Oh! I HAD to get away. I have papers here that must be
+delivered quickly." She laid a hand upon her bosom. "They couldn't be
+trusted to the unsettled mail service. It's almost life and death. And
+I assure you there is no need of putting me in quarantine. I haven't
+the smallpox. I wasn't even exposed to it."
+
+"There's nothing else to do," said Stephens. "I'll isolate you in the
+deck smoking-cabin. God knows what these madmen on board will do when
+they hear about it, though. They're apt to tear you to shreds. They're
+crazy!"
+
+Glenister had been thinking rapidly.
+
+"If you do that, you'll have mutiny in an hour. This isn't the crowd to
+stand that sort of thing."
+
+"Bah! Let 'em try it. I'll put 'em down." The officer's square jaws
+clicked.
+
+"Maybe so; but what then? We reach Nome and the Health Inspector hears
+of small-pox suspects, then we're all quarantined for thirty days;
+eight hundred of us. We'll lie at Egg Island all summer while your
+company pays five thousand a day for this ship. That's not all. The
+firm is liable in damages for your carelessness in letting disease
+aboard."
+
+"MY CARELESSNESS!" The old man ground his teeth.
+
+"Yes; that's what it amounts to. You'll ruin your owners, all right.
+You'll tie up your ship and lose your job, that's a cinch!"
+
+Captain Stephens wiped the moisture from his brow angrily.
+
+"My carelessness! Curse you--you say it well. Don't you realize that I
+am criminally liable if I don't take every precaution?" He paused for a
+moment, considering. "I'll hand her over to the ship's doctor."
+
+"See here, now," Glenister urged. "We'll be in Nome in a week--before
+the young lady would have time to show symptoms of the disease, even if
+she were going to have it--and a thousand to one she hasn't been
+exposed, and will never show a trace of it. Nobody knows she's aboard
+but we three. Nobody will see her get off. She'll stay in this cabin,
+which will be just as effectual as though you isolated her in any other
+part of the boat. It will avoid a panic--you'll save your ship and your
+company--no one will be the wiser--then if the girl comes down with
+small-pox after she gets ashore, she can go to the pest-house and not
+jeopardize the health of all the people aboard this ship. You go up
+forrad to your bridge, sir, and forget that you stepped in to see old
+Bill Dextry this morning. Well take care of this matter all right. It
+means as much to us as it does to you. We've GOT to be on Anvil Creek
+before the ground thaws or we'll lose the Midas. If you make a fuss,
+you'll ruin us all."
+
+For some moments they watched him breathlessly as he frowned in
+indecision, then--
+
+"You'll have to look out for the steward," he said, and the girl sank
+to a stool while two great tears rolled down her cheeks. The captain's
+eyes softened and his voice was gentle as he laid his hand on her head.
+
+"Don't feel hurt over what I said, miss. You see, appearances don't
+tell much, hereabouts--most of the pretty ones are no good. They've
+fooled me many a time, and I made a mistake. These men will help you
+through; I can't. Then when you get to Nome, make your sweetheart marry
+you the day you land. You are too far north to be alone."
+
+He stepped out into the passage and closed the door carefully.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+IN WHICH GLENISTER ERRS
+
+
+"Well, bein' as me an' Glenister is gougin' into the bowels of Anvil
+Creek all last summer, we don't really get the fresh-grub habit
+fastened on us none. You see, the gamblers down-town cop out the few
+aigs an' green vegetables that stray off the ships, so they never get
+out as far as the Creek none; except, maybe, in the shape of anecdotes.
+
+"We don't get intimate with no nutriments except hog-boosum an' brown
+beans, of which luxuries we have unstinted measure, an' bein' as this
+is our third year in the country we hanker for bony fido grub,
+somethin' scan'lous. Yes, ma'am--three years without a taste of fresh
+fruit nor meat nor nuthin'--except pork an' beans. Why, I've et bacon
+till my immortal soul has growed a rind.
+
+"When it comes time to close down the claim, the boy is sick with the
+fever an' the only ship in port is a Point Barrow whaler, bound for
+Seattle. After I book our passage, I find they have nothin' aboard to
+eat except canned salmon, it bein' the end of a two years' cruise, so
+when I land in the States after seventeen days of a fish diet, I am
+what you might call sated with canned grub, and have added salmon to
+the list of things concernin' which I am goin' to economize.
+
+"Soon's ever I get the boy into a hospital, I gallop up to the best
+restarawnt in town an' prepare for the huge pot-latch. This here, I
+determine, is to be a gormandizin' jag which shall live in hist'ry, an'
+wharof in later years the natives of Puget Sound shall speak with bated
+breath.
+
+"First, I call for five dollars' worth of pork an' beans an' then a
+full-grown platter of canned salmon. When the waiter lays 'em out in
+front of me, I look them vittles coldly in their disgustin' visages,
+an' say in sarcastic accents:
+
+"'Set there, damn you! an' watch me eat REAL grub,' which I proceed to
+do, cleanin' the menu from soda to hock. When I have done my worst, I
+pile bones an' olive seeds an' peelin's all over them articles of
+nourishment, stick toothpicks into 'em, an' havin' offered 'em what
+other indignities occur to me, I leave the place."
+
+Dextry and the girl were leaning over the stern-rail, chatting idly in
+the darkness. It was the second night out and the ship lay dead in the
+ice-pack. All about them was a flat, floe-clogged sea, leprous and
+mottled in the deep twilight that midnight brought in this latitude.
+They had threaded into the ice-field as long as the light lasted,
+following the lanes of blue water till they closed, then drifting idly
+till others appeared; worming out into leagues of open sea, again
+creeping into the shifting labyrinth till darkness rendered progress
+perilous.
+
+Occasionally they had passed herds of walrus huddled sociably upon
+ice-pans, their wet hides glistening in the sunlight. The air had been
+clear and pleasant, while away on all quarters they had seen the smoke
+of other ships toiling through the barrier. The spring fleet was
+knocking at the door of the Golden North.
+
+Chafing at her imprisonment, the girl had asked the old man to take her
+out on deck under the shelter of darkness; then she had led him to
+speak of his own past experiences, and of Glenister's; which he had
+done freely. She was frankly curious about them, and she wondered at
+their apparent lack of interest in her own identity and her secret
+mission. She even construed their silence as indifference, not
+realizing that these Northmen were offering her the truest evidence of
+camaraderie.
+
+The frontier is capable of no finer compliment than this utter
+disregard of one's folded pages. It betokens that highest faith in
+one's fellow-man, the belief that he should be measured by his present
+deeds, not by his past. It says, translated: "This is God's free
+country where a man is a man, nothing more. Our land is new and pure,
+our faces are to the front. If you have been square, so much the
+better; if not, leave behind the taints of artificial things and start
+again on the level--that's all."
+
+It had happened, therefore, that since the men had asked her no
+questions, she had allowed the hours to pass and still hesitated to
+explain further than she had explained to Captain Stephens. It was much
+easier to let things continue as they were; and there was, after all,
+so little that she was at liberty to tell them.
+
+In the short time since meeting them, the girl had grown to like
+Dextry, with his blunt chivalry and boyish, whimsical philosophy, but
+she avoided Glenister, feeling a shrinking, hidden terror of him, ever
+since her eavesdropping of the previous night. At the memory of that
+scene she grew hot, then cold--hot with anger, icy at the sinister
+power and sureness which had vibrated in his voice. What kind of life
+was she entering where men spoke of strange women with this assurance
+and hinted thus of ownership? That he was handsome and unconscious of
+it, she acknowledged, and had she met him in her accustomed circle of
+friends, garbed in the conventionalities, she would perhaps have
+thought of him as a striking man, vigorous and intelligent; but here he
+seemed naturally to take on the attributes of his surroundings,
+acquiring a picturesque negligee of dress and morals, and suggesting
+rugged, elemental, chilling potentialities. While with him--and he had
+sought her repeatedly that day--she was uneasily aware of his strong
+personality tugging at her; aware of the unbridled passionate flood of
+a nature unbrooking of delay and heedless of denial. This it was that
+antagonized her and set her every mental sinew in rigid resistance.
+
+During Dextry's garrulous ramblings, Glenister emerged from the
+darkness and silently took his place beside her, against the rail.
+
+"What portent do you see that makes you stare into the night so
+anxiously?" he inquired.
+
+"I am wishing for a sight of the midnight sun or the aurora borealis,"
+she replied.
+
+"Too late for one an' too fur south for the other," Dextry interposed.
+"We'll see the sun further north, though."
+
+"Have you ever heard the real origin of the Northern Lights?" the young
+man inquired.
+
+"Naturally, I never have," she answered.
+
+"Well, here it is. I have it from the lips of a great hunter of the
+Tananas. He told it to me when I was sick, once, in his cabin, and
+inasmuch as he is a wise Indian and has a reputation for truth, I have
+no doubt that it is scrupulously correct.
+
+"In the very old days, before the white man or corned beef had invaded
+this land, the greatest tribe in all the North was the Tananas. The
+bravest hunter of these was Itika, the second chief. He could follow a
+moose till it fell exhausted in the snow and he had many belts made
+from the claws of the brown bear which is deadly wicked and, as every
+one knows, inhabited by the spirits of 'Yabla-men,' or devils.
+
+"One winter a terrible famine settled over the Tanana Valley. The moose
+departed from the gulches and the caribou melted from the hills like
+mist. The dogs grew gaunt and howled all night, the babies cried, the
+women became hollow-eyed and peevish.
+
+"Then it was that Itika decided to go hunting over the saw-tooth range
+which formed the edge of the world. They tried to dissuade him, saying
+it was certain death because a pack of monstrous white wolves, taller
+than the moose and swifter than the eagle, was known to range these
+mountains, running madly in chase. Always, on clear, cold nights, could
+be seen the flashing of the moonbeams from their gleaming hungry sides,
+and although many hunters had crossed the passes in other years, they
+never returned, for the pack slew them.
+
+"Nothing could deter Itika, however, so he threaded his way up through
+the range and, night coming, burrowed into a drift to sleep in his
+caribou-skin. Peering out into the darkness, he saw the flashing lights
+a thousand times brighter than ever before. The whole heavens were
+ablaze with shifting streamers that raced and writhed back and forth in
+wild revel. Listening, he heard the hiss and whine of dry snow under
+the feet of the pack, and a distant noise as of rushing winds, although
+the air was deathly still.
+
+"With daylight, he proceeded through the range, till he came out above
+a magnificent valley. Descending the slope, he entered a forest of
+towering spruce, while on all sides the snow was trampled with tracks
+as wide as a snow-shoe. There came to him a noise which, as he
+proceeded, increased till it filled the woods. It was a frightful din,
+as though a thousand wolves were howling with the madness of the kill.
+Cautiously creeping nearer, he found a monstrous white animal
+struggling beneath a spruce which had fallen upon it in such fashion as
+to pinion it securely.
+
+"All brave men are tender-hearted, so Itika set to work with his axe
+and cleared away the burden, regardless of the peril to himself. When
+he had released it, the beast arose and instead of running away
+addressed him in the most polite and polished Indian, without a trace
+of accent.
+
+"'You have saved my life. Now, what can I do for you?'
+
+"'I want to hunt in this valley. My people are starving,' said Itika,
+at which the wolf was greatly pleased and rounded up the rest of the
+pack to help in the kill.
+
+"Always thereafter when Itika came to the valley of the Yukon the giant
+drove hunted with him. To this day they run through the mountains on
+cold, clear nights, in a multitude, while the light of the moon
+flickers from their white sides, flashing up into the sky in weird,
+fantastic figures. Some people call it Northern Lights, but old Isaac
+assured me earnestly, toothlessly, and with the light of ancient truth,
+as I lay snow-blind in his lodge, that it is nothing more remarkable
+than the spirit of Itika and the great white wolves."
+
+"What a queer legend!" she said. "There must be many of them in this
+country. I feel that I am going to like the North."
+
+"Perhaps you will," Glenister replied, "although it is not a woman's
+land."
+
+"Tell me what led you out here in the first place. You are an Eastern
+man. You have had advantages, education--and yet you choose this. You
+must love the North."
+
+"Indeed I do! It calls to a fellow in some strange way that a gentler
+country never could. When once you've lived the long, lazy June days
+that never end, and heard geese honking under a warm, sunlit midnight;
+or when once you've hit the trail on a winter morning so sharp and
+clear that the air stings your lungs, and the whole white, silent world
+glistens like a jewel; yes--and when you've seen the dogs romping in
+harness till the sled runners ring; and the distant mountain-ranges
+come out like beautiful carvings, so close you can reach them--well,
+there's something in it that brings you back--that's all, no matter
+where you've lost yourself. It means health and equality and
+unrestraint. That's what I like best, I dare say--the utter unrestraint.
+
+"When I was a school-boy, I used to gaze at the map of Alaska for
+hours. I'd lose myself in it. It wasn't anything but a big, blank
+corner in the North then, with a name, and mountains, and mystery. The
+word 'Yukon' suggested to me everything unknown and weird--hairy
+mastodons, golden river bars, savage Indians with bone arrow-heads and
+seal-skin trousers. When I left college I came as fast as ever I
+could--the adventure, I suppose....
+
+"The law was considered my destiny. How the shades of old Choate and
+Webster and Patrick Henry must have wailed when I forswore it. I'll bet
+Blackstone tore his whiskers."
+
+"I think you would have made a success," said the girl, but he laughed.
+
+"Well, anyhow, I stepped out, leaving the way to the United States
+Supreme bench unobstructed, and came North. I found it was where I
+belonged. I fitted in. I'm not contented--don't think that. I'm
+ambitious, but I prefer these surroundings to the others--that's all.
+I'm realizing my desires. I've made a fortune--now I'll see what else
+the world has."
+
+He suddenly turned to her. "See here," he abruptly questioned, "what's
+your name?"
+
+She started, and glanced towards where Dextry had stood, only to find
+that the old frontiersman had slipped away during the tale.
+
+"Helen Chester," she replied.
+
+"Helen Chester," he repeated, musingly. "What a pretty name! It seems
+almost a pity to change it--to marry, as you will."
+
+"I am not going to Nome to get married."
+
+He glanced at her quickly.
+
+"Then you won't like this country. You are two years too early; you
+ought to wait till there are railroads and telephones, and tables
+d'hote, and chaperons. It's a man's country yet."
+
+"I don't see why it isn't a woman's country, too. Surely we can take a
+part in taming it. Yonder on the Oregon is a complete railroad, which
+will be running from the coast to the mines in a few weeks. Another
+ship back there has the wire and poles and fixings for a telephone
+system, which will go up in a night. As to tables d'hote, I saw a real
+French count in Seattle with a monocle. He's bringing in a restaurant
+outfit, imported snails, and pate de joies gras. All that's wanting is
+the chaperon. In my flight from the Ohio I left mine. The sailors
+caught her. You see I am not far ahead of schedule."
+
+"What part are you going to take in this taming process?" he asked.
+
+She paused long before replying, and when she did her answer sounded
+like a jest.
+
+"I herald the coming of the law," she said.
+
+"The law! Bah! Red tape, a dead language, and a horde of shysters! I'm
+afraid of law in this land; we're too new and too far away from things.
+It puts too much power in too few hands. Heretofore we men up here have
+had recourse to our courage and our Colts, but we'll have to unbuckle
+them both when the law comes. I like the court that hasn't any appeal."
+He laid hand upon his hip.
+
+"The Colts may go, but the courage never will," she broke in.
+
+"Perhaps. But I've heard rumors already of a plot to prostitute the
+law. In Unalaska a man warned Dextry, with terror in his eye, to beware
+of it; that beneath the cloak of Justice was a drawn dagger whetted for
+us fellows who own the rich diggings. I don't think there's any truth
+in it, but you can't tell."
+
+"The law is the foundation--there can't be any progress without it.
+There is nothing here now but disorder."
+
+"There isn't half the disorder you think there is. There weren't any
+crimes in this country till the tenderfeet arrived. We didn't know what
+a thief was. If you came to a cabin you walked in without knocking. The
+owner filled up the coffee-pot and sliced into the bacon; then when
+he'd started your meal, he shook hands and asked your name. It was just
+the same whether his cache was full or whether he'd packed his few
+pounds of food two hundred miles on his back. That was hospitality to
+make your Southern article look pretty small. If there was no one at
+home, you ate what you needed. There was but one unpardonable breach of
+etiquette--to fail to leave dry kindlings. I'm afraid of the transitory
+stage we're coming to--that epoch of chaos between the death of the old
+and the birth of the new. Frankly, I like the old way best. I love the
+license of it. I love to wrestle with nature; to snatch, and guard, and
+fight for what I have. I've been beyond the law for years and I want to
+stay there, where life is just what it was intended to be--a survival
+of the fittest."
+
+His large hands, as he gripped the bulwark, were tense and corded,
+while his rich voice issued softly from his chest with the hint of
+power unlimited behind it. He stood over her, tall, virile, and
+magnetic. She saw now why he had so joyously hailed the fight of the
+previous night; to one of his kind it was as salt air to the nostrils.
+Unconsciously she approached him, drawn by the spell of his strength.
+
+"My pleasures are violent and my hate is mighty bitter in my mouth.
+What I want, I take. That's been my way in the old life, and I'm too
+selfish to give it up."
+
+He was gazing out upon the dimly lucent miles of ice; but now he turned
+towards her, and, doing so, touched her warm hand next his on the rail.
+
+She was staring up at him unaffectedly, so close that the faint odor
+from her hair reached him. Her expression was simply one of wonder and
+curiosity at this type, so different from any she had known. But the
+man's eyes were hot and blinded with the sight of her, and he felt only
+her beauty heightened in the dim light, the brush of her garments, and
+the small, soft hand beneath his. The thrill from the touch of it
+surged over him--mastered him.
+
+"What I want--I take," he repeated, and then suddenly he reached forth
+and, taking her in his arms, crushed her to him, kissing her softly,
+fiercely, full upon the lips. For an instant she lay gasping and
+stunned against his breast, then she tore her fist free and, with all
+her force, struck him full in the face.
+
+It was as though she beat upon a stone. With one movement he forced her
+arm to her side, smiling into her terrified eyes; then, holding her
+like iron, he kissed her again and again upon the mouth, the eyes, the
+hair--and released her.
+
+"I am going to love you--Helen," said he.
+
+"And may God strike me dead if I ever stop HATING you!" she cried, her
+voice coming thick and hoarse with passion.
+
+Turning, she walked proudly forward towards her cabin, a trim,
+straight, haughty figure; and he did not know that her knees were
+shaking and weak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE KILLING
+
+
+For four days the Santa Maria felt blindly through the white fields,
+drifting north with the spring tide that sets through Behring Strait,
+till, on the morning of the fifth, open water showed to the east.
+Creeping through, she broke out into the last stage of the long race,
+amid the cheers of her weary passengers; and the dull jar of her
+engines made welcome music to the girl in the deck state-room.
+
+Soon they picked up a mountainous coast which rose steadily into
+majestic, barren ranges, still white with the melting snows; and at ten
+in the evening under a golden sunset, amid screaming whistles, they
+anchored in the roadstead of Nome. Before the rumble of her chains had
+ceased or the echo from the fleet's salute had died from the shoreward
+hills, the ship was surrounded by a swarm of tiny craft clamoring about
+her iron sides, while an officer in cap and gilt climbed the bridge and
+greeted Captain Stephens. Tugs with trailing lighters circled
+discreetly about, awaiting the completion of certain formalities. These
+over, the uniformed gentleman dropped back into his skiff and rowed
+away.
+
+"A clean bill of health, captain," he shouted, saluting the commander.
+
+"Thank ye, sir," roared the sailor, and with that the row-boats swarmed
+inward pirate-like, boarding the steamer from all quarters.
+
+As the master turned, he looked down from his bridge to the deck below,
+full into the face of Dextry, who had been an intent witness of the
+meeting. With unbending dignity, Captain Stephens let his left eyelid
+droop slowly, while a boyish grin spread widely over his face.
+Simultaneously, orders rang sharp and fast from the bridge, the crew
+broke into feverish life, the creak of booms and the clank of
+donkey-hoists arose.
+
+"We're here, Miss Stowaway," said Glenister, entering the girl's cabin.
+"The inspector passed us and it's time for you to see the magic city.
+Come, it's a wonderful sight."
+
+This was the first time they had been alone since the scene on the
+after-deck, for, besides ignoring Glenister, she had managed that he
+should not even see her except in Dextry's presence. Although he had
+ever since been courteous and considerate, she felt the leaping
+emotions that were hidden within him and longed to leave the ship, to
+fly from the spell of his personality. Thoughts of him made her writhe,
+and yet when he was near she could not hate him as she willed--he
+overpowered her, he would not be hated, he paid no heed to her slights.
+This very quality reminded her how willingly and unquestioningly he had
+fought off the sailors from the Ohio at a word from her. She knew he
+would do so again, and more, and it is hard to be bitter to one who
+would lay down his life for you, even though he has
+offended--particularly when he has the magnetism that sweeps you away
+from your moorings.
+
+"There's no danger of being seen," he continued, "The crowd's crazy,
+and, besides, we'll go ashore right away. You must be mad with the
+confinement--it's on my nerves, too."
+
+As they stepped outside, the door of an adjacent cabin opened, framing
+an angular, sharp-featured woman, who, catching sight of the girl
+emerging from Glenister's state-room, paused with shrewdly narrowed
+eyes, flashing quick, malicious glances from one to the other. They
+came later to remember with regret this chance encounter, for it was
+fraught with grave results for them both.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Glenister," the lady said with acid cordiality.
+
+"Howdy, Mrs. Champian?" He moved away.
+
+She followed a step, staring at Helen.
+
+"Are you going ashore to-night or wait for morning?"
+
+"Don't know yet, I'm sure." Then aside to the girl he muttered, "Shake
+her, she's spying on us."
+
+"Who is she?" asked Miss Chester, a moment later.
+
+"Her husband manages one of the big companies. She's an old cat."
+
+Gaining her first view of the land, the girl cried out, sharply. They
+rode on an oily sea, tinted like burnished copper, while on all sides,
+amid the faint rattle and rumble of machinery, scores of ships were
+belching cargoes out upon living swarms of scows, tugs, stern-wheelers,
+and dories. Here and there Eskimo oomiaks, fat, walrus-hide boats, slid
+about like huge, many-legged water-bugs. An endless, ant-like stream of
+tenders, piled high with freight, plied to and from the shore. A mile
+distant lay the city, stretched like a white ribbon between the gold of
+the ocean sand and the dun of the moss-covered tundra. It was like no
+other in the world. At first glance it seemed all made of new white
+canvas. In a week its population had swelled from three to thirty
+thousand. It now wandered in a slender, sinuous line along the coast
+for miles, because only the beach afforded dry camping ground. Mounting
+to the bank behind, one sank knee-deep in moss and water, and, treading
+twice in the same tracks, found a bog of oozing, icy mud. Therefore, as
+the town doubled daily in size, it grew endwise like a string of
+dominoes, till the shore from Cape Nome to Penny River was a long reach
+of white, glinting in the low rays of the arctic sunset like foamy
+breakers on a tropic island.
+
+"That's Anvil Creek up yonder," said Glenister. "There's where the
+Midas lies. See!" He indicated a gap in the buttress of mountains
+rolling back from the coast. "It's the greatest creek in the world.
+You'll see gold by the mule-load, and hillocks of nuggets. Oh, I'm glad
+to get back. THIS is life. That stretch of beach is full of gold. These
+hills are seamed with quartz. The bed-rock of that creek is yellow.
+There's gold, gold, gold, everywhere--more than ever was in old
+Solomon's mines--and there's mystery and peril and things unknown."
+
+"Let us make haste," said the girl. "I have something I must do
+to-night. After that, I can learn to know these things."
+
+Securing a small boat, they were rowed ashores the partners plying
+their ferryman with eager questions. Having arrived five days before,
+he was exploding with information and volunteered the fruits of his
+ripe experience till Dextry stated that they were "sourdoughs"
+themselves, and owned the Midas, whereupon Miss Chester marvelled at
+the awe which sat upon the man and the wondering stare with which he
+devoured the partners, to her own utter exclusion.
+
+"Sufferin' cats! Look at the freight!" ejaculated Dextry. "If a storm
+come up it would bust the community!"
+
+The beach they neared was walled and crowded to the high-tide mark with
+ramparts of merchandise, while every incoming craft deposited its quota
+upon whatever vacant foot was close at hand, till bales, boxes,
+boilers, and baggage of all kinds were confusedly intermixed in the
+narrow space. Singing longshoremen trundled burdens from the lighters
+and piled them on the heap, while yelling, cursing crowds fought over
+it all, selecting, sorting, loading.
+
+There was no room for more, yet hourly they added to the mass. Teams
+splashed through the lapping surf or stuck in the deep sand between
+hillocks of goods. All was noise, profanity, congestion, and feverish
+hurry. This burning haste rang in the voice of the multitude, showed in
+its violence of gesture and redness of face, permeated the atmosphere
+with a magnetic, electrifying energy.
+
+"It's somethin' fierce ashore," said the oarsman. "I been up fer three
+days an' nights steady--there ain't no room, nor time, nor darkness to
+sleep in. Ham an' eggs is a dollar an' a half, an' whiskey's four bits
+a throw." He wailed the last, sadly, as a complaint unspeakable.
+
+"Any trouble doin'?" inquired the old man.
+
+"You KNOW it!" the other cried, colloquially. "There was a massacree in
+the Northern last night."
+
+"Gamblin' row?"
+
+"Yep. Tin-horn called 'Missou' done it."
+
+"Sho!" said Dextry. "I know him. He's a bad actor." All three men
+nodded sagely, and the girl wished for further light, but they
+volunteered no explanation.
+
+Leaving the skiff, they plunged into turmoil. Dodging through the
+tangle, they came out into fenced lots where tents stood wall to wall
+and every inch was occupied. Here and there was a vacant spot guarded
+jealously by its owner, who gazed sourly upon all men with the
+forbidding eye of suspicion. Finding an eddy in the confusion, the men
+stopped.
+
+"Where do you want to go?" they asked Miss Chester.
+
+There was no longer in Glenister's glance that freedom with which he
+had come to regard the women of the North. He had come to realize dully
+that here was a girl driven by some strong purpose into a position
+repellent to her. In a man of his type, her independence awoke only
+admiration and her coldness served but to inflame him the more.
+Delicacy, in Glenister, was lost in a remarkable singleness of purpose.
+He could laugh at her loathing, smile under her abuse, and remain
+utterly ignorant that anything more than his action in seizing her that
+night lay at the bottom of her dislike. He did not dream that he
+possessed characteristics abhorrent to her; and he felt a keen
+reluctance at parting.
+
+She extended both hands.
+
+"I can never thank you enough for what you have done--you two; but I
+shall try. Good-bye!"
+
+Dextry gazed doubtfully at his own hand, rough and gnarly, then taking
+hers as he would have handled a robin's egg, waggled it limply.
+
+"We ain't goin' to turn you adrift this-a-way. Whatever your
+destination is, we'll see you to it."
+
+"I can find my friends," she assured him.
+
+"This is the wrong latitude in which to dispute a lady, but knowin'
+this camp from soup to nuts, as I do, I su'gests a male escort."
+
+"Very well! I wish to find Mr. Struve, of Dunham & Struve, lawyers."
+
+"I'll take you to their offices," said Glenister. "You see to the
+baggage, Dex. Meet me at the Second Class in half an hour and we'll run
+out to the Midas." They pushed through the tangle of tents, past piles
+of lumber, and emerged upon the main thoroughfare, which ran parallel
+to the shore.
+
+Nome consisted of one narrow street, twisted between solid rows of
+canvas and half-erected frame buildings, its every other door that of a
+saloon. There were fair-looking blocks which aspired to the dizzy
+height of three stories, some sheathed in corrugated iron, others
+gleaming and galvanized. Lawyers' signs, doctors', surveyors', were in
+the upper windows. The street was thronged with men from every
+land--Helen Chester heard more dialects than she could count.
+Laplanders in quaint, three-cornered, padded caps idled past. Men with
+the tan of the tropics rubbed elbows with yellow-haired Norsemen, and
+near her a carefully groomed Frenchman with riding-breeches and monocle
+was in pantomime with a skin-clad Eskimo. To her left was the sparkling
+sea, alive with ships of every class. To her right towered timberless
+mountains, unpeopled, unexplored, forbidding, and desolate--their
+hollows inlaid with snow. On one hand were the life and the world she
+knew; on the other, silence, mystery, possible adventure.
+
+The roadway where she stood was a crush of sundry vehicles from
+bicycles to dog-hauled water-carts, and on all sides men were laboring
+busily, the echo of hammers mingling with the cries of teamsters and
+the tinkle of music within the saloons.
+
+"And this is midnight!" exclaimed Helen, breathlessly. "Do they ever
+rest?"
+
+"There isn't time--this is a gold stampede. You haven't caught the
+spirit of it yet." They climbed the stairs in a huge, iron-sheeted
+building to the office of Dunham.
+
+"Anybody else here besides you?" asked her escort of the lawyer.
+
+"No. I'm runnin' the law business unassisted. Don't need any help.
+Dunham's in Wash'n'ton, D. C., the lan' of the home, the free of the
+brave. What can I do for you?"
+
+He made to cross the threshold hospitably, but tripped, plunged
+forward, and would have rolled down the stairs had not Glenister
+gathered him up and borne him back into the office, where he tossed him
+upon a bed in a rear room.
+
+"Now what, Miss Chester?" asked the young man, returning.
+
+"Isn't that dreadful?" she shuddered. "Oh, and I must see him
+to-night!" She stamped impatiently. "I must see him alone."
+
+"No, you mustn't," said Glenister, with equal decision. "In the first
+place, he wouldn't know what you were talking about, and in the second
+place--I know Struve. He's too drunk to talk business and too sober
+to--well, to see you alone."
+
+"But I MUST see him," she insisted. "It's what brought me here. You
+don't understand."
+
+"I understand more than he could. He's in no condition to act on any
+important matter. You come around to-morrow when he's sober."
+
+"It means so much," breathed the girl. "The beast!"
+
+Glenister noted that she had not wrung her hands nor even hinted at
+tears, though plainly her disappointment and anxiety were consuming her.
+
+"Well, I suppose I'll have to wait, but I don't know where to go--some
+hotel, I suppose."
+
+"There aren't any. They're building two, but to-night you couldn't hire
+a room in Nome for money. I was about to say 'love or money.' Have you
+no other friends here--no women? Then you must let me find a place for
+you. I have a friend whose wife will take you in."
+
+She rebelled at this. Was she never to have done with this man's
+favors? She thought of returning to the ship, but dismissed that. She
+undertook to decline his aid, but he was half-way down the stairs and
+paid no attention to her beginning--so she followed him.
+
+It was then that Helen Chester witnessed her first tragedy of the
+frontier, and through it came to know better the man whom she disliked
+and with whom she had been thrown so fatefully. Already she had
+thrilled at the spell of this country, but she had not learned that
+strength and license carry blood and violence as corollaries.
+
+Emerging from the doorway at the foot of the stairs, they drifted
+slowly along the walk, watching the crowd. Besides the universal
+tension, there were laughter and hope and exhilaration in the faces.
+The enthusiasm of this boyish multitude warmed one. The girl wished to
+get into this spirit--to be one of them. Then suddenly from the babble
+at their elbows came a discordant note, not long nor loud, only a few
+words, penetrating and harsh with the metallic quality lent by passion.
+
+Helen glanced over her shoulder to find that the smiles of the throng
+were gone and that its eyes were bent on some scene in the street, with
+an eager interest she had never seen mirrored before. Simultaneously
+Glenister spoke:
+
+"Come away from here."
+
+With the quickened eye of experience he foresaw trouble and tried to
+drag her on, but she shook off his grasp impatiently, and, turning,
+gazed absorbed at the spectacle which unfolded itself before her.
+Although not comprehending the play of events, she felt vaguely the
+quick approach of some crisis, yet was unprepared for the swiftness
+with which it came.
+
+Her eyes had leaped to the figures of two men in the street from whom
+the rest had separated like oil from water. One was slim and well
+dressed; the other bulky, mackinawed, and lowering of feature. It was
+the smaller who spoke, and for a moment she misjudged his bloodshot
+eyes and swaying carriage to be the result of alcohol, until she saw
+that he was racked with fury.
+
+"Make good, I tell you, quick! Give me that bill of sale, you--."
+
+The unkempt man swung on his heel with a growl and walked away, his
+course leading him towards Glenister and the girl. With two strides he
+was abreast of them; then, detecting the flashing movement of the
+other, he whirled like a wild animal. His voice had the snarl of a
+beast in it.
+
+"Ye had to have it, didn't ye? Well, there!"
+
+The actions of both men were quick as light, yet to the girl's taut
+senses they seemed theatrical and deliberate. Into her mind was seared
+forever the memory of that second, as though the shutter of a camera
+had snapped, impressing upon her brain the scene, sharp, clear-cut, and
+vivid. The shaggy back of the large man almost brushing her, the
+rage-drunken, white shirted man in the derby hat, the crowd sweeping
+backward like rushes before a blast, men with arms flexed and feet
+raised in flight, the glaring yellow sign of the "Gold Belt Dance Hall"
+across the way--these were stamped upon her retina, and then she was
+jerked violently backward, two strong arms crushed her down upon her
+knees against the wall, and she was smothered in the arms of Roy
+Glenister.
+
+"My God! Don't move! We're in line!"
+
+He crouched over her, his cheek against her hair, his weight forcing
+her down into the smallest compass, his arms about her, his body
+forming a living shield against the flying bullets. Over them the big
+man stood, and the sustained roar of his gun was deafening. In an
+instant they heard the thud and felt the jar of lead in the thin boards
+against which they huddled. Again the report echoed above their heads,
+and they saw the slender man in the street drop his weapon and spin
+half round as though hit with some heavy hand. He uttered a cry and,
+stooping for his gun, plunged forward, burying his face in the sand.
+
+The man by Glenister's side shouted curses thickly, and walked towards
+his prostrate enemy, firing at every step. The wounded man rolled to
+his side, and, raising himself on his elbow, shot twice, so rapidly
+that the reports blended--but without checking his antagonist's
+approach. Four more times the relentless assailant fired deliberately,
+his last missile sent as he stood over the body which twitched and
+shuddered at his feet, its garments muddy and smeared. Then he turned
+and retraced his steps. Back within arm's-length of the two who pressed
+against the building he came, and as he went by they saw his coarse and
+sullen features drawn and working pallidly, while the breath whistled
+through his teeth. He held his course to the door they had just
+quitted, then as he turned he coughed bestially, spitting out a
+mouthful of blood. His knees wavered. He vanished within the portals
+and, in the sickly silence that fell, they heard his hob-nailed boots
+clumping slowly up the stairs.
+
+Noise awoke and rioted down the thoroughfare. Men rushed forth from
+every quarter, and the ghastly object in the dirt was hidden by a
+seething mass of miners.
+
+Glenister raised the girl, but her head rolled limply, and she would
+have slipped to her knees again had he not placed his arm about her
+waist. Her eyes were staring and horror-filled.
+
+"Don't be frightened," said he, smiling at her reassuringly; but his
+own lips shook and the sweat stood out like dew on him; for they had
+both been close to death. There came a surge and swirl through the
+crowd, and Dextry swooped upon them like a hawk.
+
+"Be ye hurt? Holy Mackinaw! When I see 'em blaze away I yells at ye fit
+to bust my throat. I shore thought you was gone. Although I can't say
+but this killin' was a sight for sore eyes--so neat an' genteel--still,
+as a rule, in these street brawls it's the innocuous bystander that has
+flowers sent around to his house afterwards."
+
+"Look at this," said Glenister. Breast-high in the wall against which
+they had crouched, not three feet apart, were bullet holes.
+
+"Them's the first two he unhitched," Dextry remarked, jerking his head
+towards the object in the street. "Must have been a new gun an' pulled
+hard--throwed him to the right. See!"
+
+Even to the girl it was patent that, had she not been snatched as she
+was, the bullet would have found her.
+
+"Come away quick," she panted, and they led her into a near-by store,
+where she sank upon a seat and trembled until Dextry brought her a
+glass of whiskey.
+
+"Here, Miss," he said. "Pretty tough go for a 'cheechako.' I'm afraid
+you ain't gettin' enamoured of this here country a whole lot."
+
+For half an hour he talked to her, in his whimsical way, of foreign
+things, till she was quieted. Then the partners arose to go. Although
+Glenister had arranged for her to stop with the wife of the merchant
+for the rest of the night, she would not.
+
+"I can't go to bed. Please don't leave me! I'm too nervous. I'll go MAD
+if you do. The strain of the last week has been too much for me. If I
+sleep I'll see the faces of those men again."
+
+Dextry talked with his companion, then made a purchase which he laid at
+the lady's feet.
+
+"Here's a pair of half-grown gum boots. You put 'em on an' come with
+us. We'll take your mind off of things complete. An' as fer sweet
+dreams, when you get back you'll make the slumbers of the just seem as
+restless as a riot, or the antics of a mountain-goat which nimbly leaps
+from crag to crag, and--well, that's restless enough. Come on!"
+
+As the sun slanted up out of Behring Sea, they marched back towards the
+hills, their feet ankle-deep in the soft fresh moss, while the air
+tasted like a cool draught and a myriad of earthy odors rose up and
+encircled them. Snipe and reed birds were noisy in the hollows and from
+the misty tundra lakes came the honking of brant. After their weary
+weeks on shipboard, the dewy freshness livened them magically,
+cleansing from their memories the recent tragedy, so that the girl
+became herself again.
+
+"Where are we going?" she asked, at the end of an hour, pausing for
+breath.
+
+"Why, to the Midas, of course," they said; and one of them vowed
+recklessly, as he drank in the beauty of her clear eyes and the grace
+of her slender, panting form, that he would gladly give his share of
+all its riches to undo what he had done one night on the Santa Maria.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WHEREIN A MAN APPEARS
+
+
+In the lives of countries there are crises where, for a breath,
+destinies lie in the laps of the gods and are jumbled, heads or tails.
+Thus are marked distinctive cycles like the seven ages of a man, and
+though, perhaps, they are too subtle to be perceived at the time, yet,
+having swung past the shadowy milestones, the epochs disclose
+themselves.
+
+Such a period in the progress of the Far Northwest was the nineteenth
+day of July, although to those concerned in the building of this new
+empire the day appealed only as the date of the coming of the law. All
+Nome gathered on the sands as lighters brought ashore Judge Stillman
+and his following. It was held fitting that the Senator should be the
+ship to safeguard the dignity of the first court and to introduce
+Justice into this land of the wild.
+
+The interest awakened by His Honor was augmented by the fact that he
+was met on the beach by a charming girl, who flung herself upon him
+with evident delight.
+
+"That's his niece," said some one. "She came up on the first
+boat--name's Chester--swell looker, eh?"
+
+Another new-comer attracted even more notice than the limb of the law;
+a gigantic, well-groomed man, with keen, close-set eyes, and that
+indefinable easy movement and polished bearing that come from
+confidence, health, and travel. Unlike the others, he did not dally on
+the beach nor display much interest in his surroundings; but, with
+purposeful frown strode through the press, up into the heart of the
+city. His companion was Struve's partner, Dunham, a middle-aged,
+pompous man. They went directly to the offices of Dunham & Struve,
+where they found the white-haired junior partner.
+
+"Mighty glad to meet you, Mr. McNamara," said Struve. "Your name is a
+household word in my part of the country. My people were mixed up in
+Dakota politics somewhat, so I've always had a great admiration for you
+and I'm glad you've come to Alaska. This is a big country and we need
+big men."
+
+"Did you have any trouble?" Dunham inquired when the three had
+adjourned to a private room.
+
+"Trouble," said Struve, ruefully; "well, I wonder if I did. Miss
+Chester brought me your instructions O.K. and I got busy right off.
+But, tell me this--how did you get the girl to act as messenger?"
+
+"There was no one else to send," answered McNamara. "Dunham intended
+sailing on the first boat, but he was detained in Washington with, me,
+and the Judge had to wait for us at Seattle. We were afraid to trust a
+stranger for fear he might get curious and examine the papers. That
+would have meant--" He moved his hand eloquently.
+
+Struve nodded. "I see. Does she know what was in the documents?"
+
+"Decidedly not. Women and business don't mix. I hope you didn't tell
+her anything."
+
+"No; I haven't had a chance. She seemed to take a dislike to me for
+some reason, I haven't seen her since the day after she got here."
+
+"The Judge told her it had something to do with preparing the way for
+his court," said Dunham, "and that if the papers were not delivered
+before he arrived it might cause a lot of trouble--litigation, riots,
+bloodshed, and all that. He filled her up on generalities till the girl
+was frightened to death and thought the safety of her uncle and the
+whole country depended on her."
+
+"Well," continued Struve, "it's dead easy to hire men to jump claims
+and it's dead easy to buy their rights afterwards, particularly when
+they know they haven't got any--but what course do you follow when
+owners go gunning for you?"
+
+McNamara laughed.
+
+"Who did that?"
+
+"A benevolent, silver-haired old Texan pirate by the name of Dextry.
+He's one half owner in the Midas and the other half mountain-lion; as
+peaceable, you'd imagine, as a benediction, but with the temperament of
+a Geronimo. I sent Galloway out to relocate the claim, and he got his
+notices up in the night when they were asleep, but at 6 A.M. he came
+flying back to my room and nearly hammered the door down. I've seen
+fright in varied forms and phases, but he had them all, with some added
+starters.
+
+"'Hide me out, quick!' he panted.
+
+"'What's up?' I asked.
+
+"'I've stirred up a breakfast of grizzly bear, smallpox, and sudden
+death and it don't set well on my stummick. Let me in.'
+
+"I had to keep him hidden three days, for this gentle-mannered old
+cannibal roamed the streets with a cannon in his hand, breathing fire
+and pestilence."
+
+"Anybody else act up?" queried Dunham.
+
+"No; all the rest are Swedes and they haven't got the nerve to fight.
+They couldn't lick a spoon if they tried. These other men are
+different, though. There are two of them, the old one and a young
+fellow. I'm a little afraid to mix it up with them, and if their claim
+wasn't the best in the district, I'd say let it alone."
+
+"I'll attend to that," said McNamara.
+
+Struve resumed:
+
+"Yes, gentlemen, I've been working pretty hard and also pretty much in
+the dark so far. I'm groping for light. When Miss Chester brought in
+the papers I got busy instanter. I clouded the title to the richest
+placers in the region, but I'm blamed if I quite see the use of it.
+We'd be thrown out of any court in the land if we took them to law.
+What's the game--blackmail?"
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated McNamara. "What do you take me for?"
+
+"Well, it does seem small for Alec McNamara, but I can't see what else
+you're up to."
+
+"Within a week I'll be running every good mine in the Nome district."
+
+McNamara's voice was calm but decisive, his glance keen and alert,
+while about him clung such a breath of power and confidence that it
+compelled belief even in the face of this astounding speech.
+
+In spite of himself, Wilton Struve, lawyer, rake, and gentlemanly
+adventurer, felt his heart leap at what the other's daring implied. The
+proposition was utterly past belief, and yet, looking into the man's
+purposeful eyes, he believed.
+
+"That's big--awful big--TOO big," the younger man murmured. "Why, man,
+it means you'll handle fifty thousand dollars a day!"
+
+Dunham shifted his feet in the silence and licked his dry lips.
+
+"Of course it's big, but Mr. McNamara's the biggest man that ever came
+to Alaska," he said.
+
+"And I've got the biggest scheme that ever came north, backed by the
+biggest men in Washington," continued the politician. "Look here!" He
+displayed a type-written sheet bearing parallel lists of names and
+figures. Struve gasped incredulously.
+
+"Those are my stockholders and that is their share in the venture. Oh,
+yes; we're incorporated--under the laws of Arizona--secret, of course;
+it would never do for the names to get out. I'm showing you this only
+because I want you to be satisfied who's behind me."
+
+"Lord! I'm satisfied," said Struve, laughing nervously. "Dunham was
+with you when you figured the scheme out and he met some of your
+friends in Washington and New York. If he says it's all right, that
+settles it. But say, suppose anything went wrong with the company and
+it leaked out who those stockholders are?"
+
+"There's no danger. I have the books where they will be burned at the
+first sign. We'd have had our own land laws passed but for Sturtevant
+of Nevada, damn him. He blocked us in the Senate. However, my plan is
+this." He rapidly outlined his proposition to the listeners, while a
+light of admiration grew and shone in the reckless face of Struve.
+
+"By heavens! you're a wonder!" he cried, at the close, "and I'm with
+you body and soul. It's dangerous--that's why I like it."
+
+"Dangerous?" McNamara shrugged his shoulders. "Bah! Where is the
+danger? We've got the law--or rather, we ARE the law. Now, let's get to
+work."
+
+It seemed that the Boss of North Dakota was no sluggard. He discarded
+coat and waistcoat and tackled the documents which Struve laid before
+him, going through them like a whirlwind. Gradually he infected the
+others with his energy, and soon behind the locked doors of Dunham &
+Struve there were only haste and fever and plot and intrigue.
+
+As Helen Chester led the Judge towards the flamboyant, three-storied
+hotel she prattled to him light-heartedly. The fascination of a new
+land already held her fast, and now she felt, in addition, security and
+relief. Glenister saw them from a distance and strode forward to greet
+them.
+
+He beheld a man of perhaps threescore years, benign of aspect save for
+the eyes, which were neither clear nor steady, but had the trick of
+looking past one. Glenister thought the mouth, too, rather weak and
+vacillating; but the clean-shaven face was dignified by learning a
+acumen and was wrinkled in pleasant fashion.
+
+"My niece has just told me of your service to her," the old gentleman
+began. "I am happy to know you, sir."
+
+"Besides being a brave knight and assisting ladies in distress, Mr.
+Glenister is a very great and wonderful man," Helen explained, lightly.
+"He owns the Midas."
+
+"Indeed!" said the old man, his shifting eyes now resting full on the
+other with a flash of unmistakable interest. "I hear that is a
+wonderful mine. Have you begun work yet?"
+
+"No. We'll commence sluicing day after to-morrow. It has been a late
+spring. The snow in the gulch was deep and the ground thaws slowly.
+We've been building houses and doing dead work, but we've got our men
+on the ground, waiting."
+
+"I am greatly interested. Won't you walk with us to the hotel? I want
+to hear more about these wonderful placers."
+
+"Well, they ARE great placers," said the miner, as the three walked on
+together; "nobody knows HOW great because we've only scratched at them
+yet. In the first place the ground is so shallow and the gold is so
+easy to get, that if nature didn't safeguard us in the winter we'd
+never dare leave our claims for fear of 'snipers.' They'd run in and
+rob us."
+
+"How much will the Anvil Creek mines produce this summer?" asked the
+Judge.
+
+"It's hard to tell, sir; but we expect to average five thousand a day
+from the Midas alone, and there are other claims just as good."
+
+"Your title is all clear, I dare say, eh?"
+
+"Absolutely, except for one jumper, and we don't take him seriously. A
+fellow named Galloway relocated us one night last month, but he didn't
+allege any grounds for doing so, and we could never find trace of him.
+If we had, our title would be as clean as snow again." He said the last
+with a peculiar inflection.
+
+"You wouldn't use violence, I trust?"
+
+"Sure! Why not? It has worked all right heretofore."
+
+"But, my dear sir, those days are gone. The law is here and it is the
+duty of every one to abide by it."
+
+"Well, perhaps it is; but in this country we consider a man's mine as
+sacred as his family. We didn't know what a lock and key were in the
+early times and we didn't have any troubles except famine and hardship.
+It's different now, though. Why, there have been more claims jumped
+around here this spring than in the whole length and history of the
+Yukon."
+
+They had reached the hotel, and Glenister paused, turning to the girl
+as the Judge entered. When she started to follow, he detained her.
+
+"I came down from the hills on purpose to see you. It has been a long
+week--"
+
+"Don't talk that way," she interrupted, coldly. "I don't care to hear
+it."
+
+"See here--what makes you shut me out and wrap yourself up in your
+haughtiness? I'm sorry for what I did that night--I've told you so
+repeatedly. I've wrung my soul for that act till there's nothing left
+but repentance."
+
+"It is not that," she said, slowly. "I have been thinking it over
+during the past month, and now that I have gained an insight into this
+life I see that it wasn't an unnatural thing for you to do. It's
+terrible to think of, but it's true. I don't mean that it was
+pardonable," she continued, quickly, "for it wasn't, and I hate you
+when I think about it, but I suppose I put myself into a position to
+invite such actions. No; I'm sufficiently broad-minded not to blame you
+unreasonably, and I think I could like you in spite of it, just for
+what you have done for me; but that isn't all. There is something
+deeper. You saved my life and I'm grateful, but you frighten me,
+always. It is the cruelty in your strength, it is something away back
+in you--lustful, and ferocious, and wild, and crouching."
+
+He smiled wryly.
+
+"It is my local color, maybe--absorbed from this country. I'll try to
+change, though, if you want me to. I'll let them rope and throw and
+brand me. I'll take on the graces of civilization and put away revenge
+and ambition and all the rest of it, if it will make you like me any
+better. Why, I'll even promise not to violate the person of our
+claim-jumper if I catch him; and Heaven knows THAT means that Samson
+has parted with his locks."
+
+"I think I could like you if you did," she said, "but you can't do it.
+You are a savage."
+
+ There are no clubs nor marts where men foregather for business in
+the North--nothing but the saloon, and this is all and more than a
+club. Here men congregate to drink, to gamble, and to traffic.
+
+It was late in the evening when Glenister entered the Northern and
+passed idly down the row of games, pausing at the crap-table, where he
+rolled the dice when his turn came. Moving to the roulette-wheel, he
+lost a stack of whites, but at the faro "lay-out" his luck was better,
+and he won a gold coin on the "high-card." Whereupon he promptly
+ordered a round of drinks for the men grouped about him, a formality
+always precedent to overtures of general friendship.
+
+As he paused, glass in hand, his eyes were drawn to a man who stood
+close by, talking earnestly. The aspect of the stranger challenged
+notice, for he stood high above his companions with a peculiar grace of
+attitude in place of the awkwardness common in men of great stature.
+Among those who were listening intently to the man's carefully
+modulated tones, Glenister recognized Mexico Mullins, the ex-gambler
+who had given Dextry the warning at Unalaska. As he further studied the
+listening group, a drunken man staggered uncertainly through the wide
+doors of the saloon and, gaining sight of the tall stranger, blinked,
+then approached him, speaking with a loud voice:
+
+"Well, if 'tain't ole Alec McNamara! How do, ye ole pirate!"
+
+McNamara nodded and turned his back coolly upon the new-comer.
+
+"Don't turn your dorsal fin to me; I wan' to talk to ye."
+
+McNamara continued his calm discourse till he received a vicious whack
+on the shoulder; then he turned for a moment to interrupt his
+assailant's garrulous profanity:
+
+"Don't bother me. I am engaged."
+
+"Ye won' talk to me, eh? Well, I'm goin' to talk to YOU, see? I guess
+you'd listen if I told these people all I know about you. Turn around
+here."
+
+His voice was menacing and attracted general notice. Observing this,
+McNamara addressed him, his words dropping clear, concise, and cold:
+
+"Don't talk to me. You are a drunken nuisance. Go away before something
+happens to you."
+
+Again he turned away, but the drunken man seized and whirled him about,
+repeating his abuse, encouraged by this apparent patience.
+
+"Your pardon for an instant, gentlemen." McNamara laid a large white
+and manicured hand upon the flannel sleeve of the miner and gently
+escorted him through the entrance to the sidewalk, while the crowd
+smiled.
+
+As they cleared the threshold, however, he clenched his fist without a
+word and, raising it, struck the sot fully and cruelly upon the jaw.
+His victim fell silently, the back of his head striking the boards with
+a hollow thump; then, without even observing how he lay, McNamara
+re-entered the saloon and took up his conversation where he had been
+interrupted. His voice was as evenly regulated as his movements,
+betraying not a sign of anger, excitement, or bravado. He lit a
+cigarette, extracted a note-book, and jotted down certain memoranda
+supplied him by Mexico Mullins.
+
+All this time the body lay across the threshold without a sign of life.
+The buzz of the roulette-wheel was resumed and the crap-dealer began
+his monotonous routine. Every eye was fixed on the nonchalant man at
+the bar, but the unconscious creature outside the threshold lay
+unheeded, for in these men's code it behooves the most humane to
+practise a certain aloofness in the matter of private brawls.
+
+Having completed his notes, McNamara shook hands gravely with his
+companions and strode out through the door, past the bulk that sprawled
+across his path, and, without pause or glance, disappeared.
+
+A dozen willing, though unsympathetic, hands laid the drunkard on the
+roulette-table, where the bartender poured pitcher upon pitcher of
+water over him.
+
+"He ain't hurt none to speak of," said a bystander; then added, with
+enthusiasm:
+
+"But say! There's a MAN in this here camp!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AND A MINE IS JUMPED
+
+
+"Who's your new shift boss?" Glenister inquired of his partner, a few
+days later, indicating a man in the cut below, busied in setting a line
+of sluices.
+
+"That's old 'Slapjack' Simms, friend of mine from up Dawson way."
+
+Glenister laughed immoderately, for the object was unusually tall and
+loose-jointed, and wore a soiled suit of yellow mackinaw. He had laid
+off his coat, and now the baggy, bilious trousers hung precariously
+from his angular shoulders by suspenders of alarming frailty. His legs
+were lost in gum boots, also loose and cavernous, and his entire
+costume looked relaxed and flapping, so that he gave the impression of
+being able to shake himself out of his raiment, and to rise like a
+burlesque Aphrodite. His face was overgrown with a grizzled tangle that
+looked as though it had been trimmed with button-hole scissors, while
+above the brush heap grandly soared a shiny, dome-like head.
+
+"Has he always been bald?"
+
+"Naw! He ain't bald at all. He shaves his nob. In the early days he
+wore a long flowin' mane which was inhabited by crickets, tree-toads,
+and such fauna. It got to be a hobby with him finally, so that he
+growed superstitious about goin' uncurried, and would back into a
+corner with both guns drawed if a barber came near him. But once
+Hank--that's his real name--undertook to fry some slapjacks, and in
+givin' the skillet a heave, the dough lit among his forest primeval,
+jest back of his ears, soft side down. Hank polluted the gulch with
+langwidge which no man had ought to keep in himself without it was
+fumigated. Disreppitableness oozed out through him like sweat through
+an ice-pitcher, an' since then he's been known as Slapjack Simms, an'
+has kept his head shingled smooth as a gun bar'l. He's a good miner,
+though; ain't none better--an' square as a die."
+
+Sluicing had begun on the Midas. Long sinuous lengths of canvas hose
+wound down the creek bottom from the dam, like gigantic serpents, while
+the roll of gravel through the flumes mingled musically with the rush
+of waters, the tinkle of tools, and the song of steel on rock. There
+were four "strings" of boxes abreast, and the heaving line of
+shovellers ate rapidly into the creek bed, while teams with scrapers
+splashed through the tail races in an atmosphere of softened profanity.
+In the big white tents which sat back from the bluffs, fifty men of the
+night shift were asleep; for there is no respite here--no night, no
+Sunday, no halt, during the hundred days in which the Northland lends
+herself to pillage.
+
+The mine lay cradled between wonderful, mossy, willow-mottled
+mountains, while above and below the gulch was dotted with tents and
+huts, and everywhere, from basin to hill crest, men dug and blasted,
+punily, patiently, while their tracks grew daily plainer over the face
+of this inscrutable wilderness.
+
+A great contentment filled the two partners as they looked on this
+scene. To wrest from reluctant earth her richest treasures, to add to
+the wealth of the world, to create--here was satisfaction.
+
+"We ain't robbin' no widders an' orphans doin' it, neither," Dextry
+suddenly remarked, expressing his partner's feelings closely. They
+looked at each other and smiled with that rare understanding that
+exceeds words.
+
+Descending into the cut, the old man filled a gold-pan with dirt taken
+from under the feet of the workers, and washed it in a puddle, while
+the other watched his dexterous whirling motions. When he had finished,
+they poked the stream of yellow grains into a pile, then, with heads
+together, guessed its weight, laughing again delightedly, in perfect
+harmony and contentment.
+
+"I've been waitin' a turrible time fer this day," said the elder. "I've
+suffered the plagues of prospectin' from the Mexicos to the Circle, an'
+yet I don't begretch it none, now that I've struck pay."
+
+While they spoke, two miners struggled with a bowlder they had
+unearthed, and having scraped and washed it carefully, staggered back
+to place it on the cleaned bed-rock behind. One of them slipped, and it
+crashed against a brace which held the sluices in place. These boxes
+stand more than a man's height above the bed-rock, resting on
+supporting posts and running full of water. Should a sluice fall, the
+rushing stream carries out the gold which has lodged in the riffles and
+floods the bed-rock, raising havoc. Too late the partners saw the
+string of boxes sway and bend at the joint. Then, before they could
+reach the threatened spot to support it, Slapjack Simms, with a shriek,
+plunged flapping down into the cut and seized the flume. His great
+height stood him in good stead now, for where the joint had opened,
+water poured forth in a cataract, He dived under the breach
+unhesitatingly and, stooping, lifted the line as near to its former
+level as possible, holding the entire burden upon his naked pate. He
+gesticulated wildly for help, while over him poured the deluge of icy,
+muddy water. It entered his gaping waistband, bulging out his yellow
+trousers till they were fat and full and the seams were bursting, while
+his yawning boot-tops became as boiling springs. Meanwhile he chattered
+forth profanity in such volume that the ear ached under it as must have
+ached the heroic Slapjack under the chill of the melting snow. He was
+relieved quickly, however, and emerged triumphant, though blue and
+puckered, his wilderness of whiskers streaming like limber stalactites,
+his boots loosely "squishing," while oaths still poured from him in
+such profusion that Dextry whispered:
+
+"Ain't he a ring-tailed wonder? It's plumb solemn an' reverent the way
+he makes them untamed cuss-words sit up an' beg. It's a privilege to be
+present. That's a GIFT, that is."
+
+"You'd better get some dry clothes," they suggested, and Slapjack
+proceeded a few paces towards the tents, hobbling as though treading on
+pounded glass.
+
+"Ow--w!" he yelled. "These blasted boots is full of gravel."
+
+He seated himself and tugged at his foot till the boot came away with a
+sucking sound, then, instead of emptying the accumulation at random, he
+poured the contents into Dextry's empty gold-pan, rinsing it out
+carefully. The other boot he emptied likewise. They held a surprising
+amount of sediment, because the stream that had emerged from the crack
+in the sluices had carried with it pebbles, sand, and all the
+concentration of the riffles at this point. Standing directly beneath
+the cataract, most of it had dived fairly into his inviting waistband,
+following down the lines of least resistance into his boot-legs and
+boiling out at the knees.
+
+"Wash that," he said. "You're apt to get a prospect."
+
+With artful passes Dextry settled it in the pan bottom and washed away
+the gravel, leaving a yellow, glittering pile which raised a yell from
+the men who had lingered curiously.
+
+"He pans forty dollars to the boot-leg," one shouted.
+
+"How much do you run to the foot, Slapjack?"
+
+"He's a reg'lar free-milling ledge."
+
+"No, he ain't--he's too thin. He's nothing but a stringer, but he'll
+pay to work."
+
+The old miner grinned toothlessly.
+
+"Gentlemen, there ain't no better way to save fine gold than with
+undercurrents an' blanket riffles. I'll have to wash these garments of
+mine an' clean up the soapsuds 'cause there's a hundred dollars in
+gold-dust clingin' to my person this minute." He went dripping up the
+bank, while the men returned to their work singing.
+
+After lunch Dextry saddled his bronco.
+
+"I'm goin' to town for a pair of gold-scales, but I'll be back by
+supper, then we'll clean up between shifts. She'd ought to give us a
+thousand ounces, the way that ground prospects." He loped down the
+gulch, while his partner returned to the pit, the flashing shovel
+blades, and the rumbling undertone of the big workings that so
+fascinated him. It was perhaps four o'clock when he was aroused from
+his labors by a shout from the bunk-tent, where a group of horsemen had
+clustered. As Glenister drew near, he saw among them Wilton Struve, the
+lawyer, and the big, well-dressed tenderfoot of the
+Northern--McNamara--the man of the heavy hand. Struve straightway
+engaged him.
+
+"Say, Glenister, we've come out to see about the title to this claim."
+
+"What about it?"
+
+"Well, it was relocated about a month ago." He paused.
+
+"Yes. What of that?"
+
+"Galloway has commenced suit."
+
+"The ground belongs to Dextry and me. We discovered it, we opened it
+up, we've complied with the law, and we're going to hold it." Glenister
+spoke with such conviction and heat as to nonplus Struve, but McNamara,
+who had sat his horse silently until now, answered:
+
+"Certainly, sir; if your title is good you will be protected, but the
+law has arrived in Alaska and we've got to let it take its course.
+There's no need of violence--none whatever--but, briefly, the situation
+is this: Mr. Galloway has commenced action against you; the court has
+enjoined you from working and has appointed me as receiver to operate
+the mine until the suit is settled. It's an extraordinary procedure, of
+course, but the conditions are extraordinary in this country. The
+season is so short that it would be unjust to the rightful owner if the
+claim lay idle all summer--so, to avoid that, I've been put in charge,
+with instructions to operate it and preserve the proceeds subject to
+the court's order. Mr. Voorhees here is the United States Marshal. He
+will serve the papers."
+
+Glenister threw up his hand in a gesture of restraint.
+
+"Hold on! Do you mean to tell me that any court would recognize such a
+claim as Galloway's?"
+
+"The law recognizes everything. If his grounds are no good, so much the
+better for you."
+
+"You can't put in a receiver without notice to us. Why, good Lord! we
+never heard of a suit being commenced. We've never even been served
+with a summons and we haven't had a chance to argue in our own defence."
+
+"I have just said that this is a remarkable state of affairs and
+unusual action had to be taken," McNamara replied, but the young miner
+grew excited.
+
+"Look here--this gold won't get away. It's safe in the ground. We'll
+knock off work and let the claim lie idle till the thing is settled.
+You can't really expect us to surrender possession of our mine on the
+mere allegation of some unknown man. That's ridiculous. We won't do it.
+Why, you'll have to let us argue our case, at least, before you try to
+put us off."
+
+Voorhees shook his head. "We'll have to follow instructions. The thing
+for you to do is to appear before the court to-morrow and have the
+receiver dismissed. If your title is as good as you say it is, you
+won't have any trouble."
+
+"You're not the only ones to suffer," added McNamara. "We've taken
+possession of all the mines below here." He nodded down the gulch. "I'm
+an officer of the court and under bond--"
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars for each claim."
+
+"What! Why, heavens, man, the poorest of these mines is producing that
+much every day!"
+
+While he spoke, Glenister was rapidly debating what course to follow.
+
+"The place to argue this thing is before Judge Stillman," said
+Struve--but with little notion of the conflict going on within
+Glenister. The youth yearned to fight--not with words nor quibbles nor
+legal phrases, but with steel and blows. And he felt that the impulse
+was as righteous as it was natural, for he knew this process was
+unjust, an outrage. Mexico Mullins's warning recurred to him. And
+yet--. He shifted slowly as he talked till his back was to the door of
+the big tent. They were watching him carefully, for all their apparent
+languor and looseness in saddle; then as he started to leap within and
+rally his henchmen, his mind went back to the words of Judge Stillman
+and his niece. Surely that old man was on the square. He couldn't be
+otherwise with her beside him, believing in him; and a suspicion of
+deeper plots behind these actions was groundless. So far, all was
+legal, he supposed, with his scant knowledge of law; though the methods
+seemed unreasonable. The men might be doing what they thought to be
+right. Why be the first to resist? The men on the mines below had not
+done so. The title to this ground was capable of such easy proof that
+he and Dex need have no uneasiness. Courts do not rob honest people
+nowadays, he argued, and moreover, perhaps the girl's words were true,
+perhaps she WOULD think more of him if he gave up the old fighting ways
+for her sake. Certainly armed resistance to her uncle's first edict
+would not please her. She had said he was too violent, so he would show
+her he could lay his savagery aside. She might smile on him
+approvingly, and that was worth taking a chance for--anyway it would
+mean but a few days' delay in the mine's run. As he reasoned he heard a
+low voice speaking within the open door. It was Slapjack Simms.
+
+"Step aside, lad. I've got the big un covered."
+
+Glenister saw the men on horseback snatch at their holsters, and, just
+in time, leaped at his foreman, for the old man had moved out into the
+open, a Winchester at shoulder, his cheek cuddling the stock, his eyes
+cold and narrow. The young man flung the barrel up and wrenched the
+weapon from his hands.
+
+"None of that, Hank!" he cried, sharply. "I'll say when to shoot." He
+turned to look into the muzzles of guns held in the hands of every
+horseman--every horseman save one, for Alec McNamara sat unmoved, his
+handsome features, nonchalant and amused, nodding approval. It was at
+him that Hank's weapon had been levelled.
+
+"This is bad enough at the best. Don't let's make it any worse," said
+he.
+
+Slapjack inhaled deeply, spat with disgust, and looked over his boss
+incredulously.
+
+"Well, of all the different kinds of damn fools," he snorted, "you are
+the kindest." He marched past the marshal and his deputies down to the
+cut, put on his coat, and vanished down the trail towards town, not
+deigning a backward glance either at the mine or at the man unfit to
+fight for.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE "BRONCO KID'S" EAVESDROPPING
+
+
+Late in July it grows dark as midnight approaches, so that the many
+lights from doorway and window seem less garish and strange than they
+do a month earlier. In the Northern there was good business doing. The
+new bar fixtures, which had cost a king's ransom, or represented the
+one night's losings of a Klondike millionaire, shone rich, dark, and
+enticing, while the cut glass sparkled with iridescent hues,
+reflecting, in a measure, the prismatic moods, the dancing spirits of
+the crowd that crushed past, halting at the gambling games, or
+patronizing the theatre in the rear. The old bar furniture, brought
+down by dog team from "Up River," was established at the rear extremity
+of the long building, just inside the entrance to the dancehall, where
+patrons of the drama might, with a modicum of delay and inconvenience,
+quaff as deeply of the beaker as of the ballet.
+
+Now, however, the show had closed, the hall had been cleared of chairs
+and canvas, exposing a glassy, tempting surface, and the orchestra had
+moved to the stage. They played a rollicking, blood-stirring two-step,
+while the floor swam with dancers.
+
+At certain intervals the musicians worked feverishly up to a crashing
+crescendo, supported by the voices of the dancers, until all joined at
+the top note in a yell, while the drummer fired a .44 Colt into a box
+of wet sawdust beside his chair--all in time, all in the swinging
+spirit of the tune.
+
+The men, who were mostly young, danced like college boys, while the
+women, who were all young and good dancers, floated through the
+measures with the ease of rose-leaves on a summer stream. Faces were
+flushed, eyes were bright, and but rarely a voice sounded that was not
+glad. Most of the noise came from the men, and although one caught,
+here and there, a hint of haggard lines about the girlish faces, and
+glimpsed occasional eyes that did not smile, yet as a whole the scene
+was one of genuine enjoyment.
+
+Suddenly the music ceased and the couples crowded to the bar. The women
+took harmless drinks, the men, mostly whiskey. Rarely was the choice of
+potations criticised, though occasionally some ruddy eschewer of
+sobriety insisted that his lady "take the same," avowing that "hootch,"
+having been demonstrated beneficial in his case, was good for her also.
+Invariably the lady accepted without dispute, and invariably the man
+failed to note her glance at the bartender, or the silent substitution
+by that capable person of ginger-ale for whiskey or of plain water for
+gin. In turn, the mixers collected one dollar from each man, flipping
+to the girl a metal percentage-check which she added to her store. In
+the curtained boxes overhead, men bought bottles with foil about the
+corks, and then subterfuge on the lady's part was idle, but, on the
+other hand, she was able to pocket for each bottle a check redeemable
+at five dollars.
+
+A stranger, straight from the East, would have remarked first upon the
+good music, next upon the good looks of the women, and then upon the
+shabby clothes of the men--for some of them were in "mukluk," others in
+sweaters with huge initials and winged emblems, and all were collarless.
+
+Outside in the main gambling-room there were but few women. Men crowded
+in dense masses about the faro lay-out, the wheel, craps, the Klondike
+game, pangingi, and the card-tables. They talked of business, of home,
+of women, bought and sold mines, and bartered all things from hams to
+honor. The groomed and clean, the unkempt and filthy jostled shoulder
+to shoulder, equally affected by the license of the goldfields and the
+exhilaration of the New. The mystery of the North had touched them all.
+The glad, bright wine of adventure filled their veins, and they spoke
+mightily of things they had resolved to do, or recounted with simple
+diffidence the strange stories of their accomplishment.
+
+The "Bronco Kid," familiar from Atlin to Nome as the best "bank" dealer
+on the Yukon, worked the shift from eight till two. He was a slender
+man of thirty, dexterous in movement, slow to smile, soft of voice, and
+known as a living flame among women. He had dealt the biggest games of
+the early days, and had no enemies. Yet, though many called him friend,
+they wondered inwardly.
+
+It was a strong play the Kid had to-night, for Swede Sam, of Dawson,
+ventured many stacks of yellow chips, and he was a quick, aggressive
+gambler. A Jew sat at the king end with ten neatly creased
+one-thousand-dollar bills before him, together with piles of smaller
+currency. He adventured viciously and without system, while outsiders
+to the number of four or five cut in sporadically with small bets. The
+game was difficult to follow; consequently the lookout, from his raised
+dais, was leaning forward, chin in hand, while the group was hedged
+about by eager on-lookers.
+
+Faro is a closed book to most people, for its intricacies are
+confusing. Lucky is he who has never persevered in solving its
+mysteries nor speculated upon the "systems" of beating it. From those
+who have learned it, the game demands practice, dexterity, and
+coolness. The dealer must run the cards, watch the many shifting bets,
+handle the neatly piled checks, figure, lightning-like, the profits and
+losses. It was his unerring, clock like regularity in this that had won
+the Kid his reputation. This night his powers were taxed. He dealt
+silently, scowlingly, his long white fingers nervously caressing the
+cards.
+
+This preoccupation prevented his noticing the rustle and stir of a
+new-comer who had crowded up behind him, until he caught the wondering
+glances of those in front and saw that the Israelite was staring past
+him, his money forgotten, his eyes beady and sharp, his rat-like teeth
+showing in a grin of admiration. Swede Sam glared from under his
+unkempt shock and felt uncertainly towards the open collar of his
+flannel shirt where a kerchief should have been. The men who were
+standing gazed at the new-comer, some with surprise, others with a half
+smile of recognition.
+
+Bronco glanced quickly over his shoulder, and as he did so the breath
+caught in his throat--but for only an instant. A girl stood so close
+beside him that the lace of her gown brushed his sleeve. He was
+shuffling at the moment and dropped a card, then nodded to her.
+speaking quietly, as he stooped to regain the pasteboard:
+
+"Howdy, Cherry?"
+
+She did not answer--only continued to look at the "lay-out." "What a
+woman!" he thought. She was not too tall, with smoothly rounded bust
+and hips, and long waist, all well displayed by her perfectly fitting
+garments. Her face was oval, the mouth rather large, the eyes of dark,
+dark-blue, prominently outlined under thin, silken lids. Her dull-gold
+hair was combed low over the ears, and her smile showed rows of
+sparkling teeth before it dived into twin dimples. Strangest of all, it
+was an innocent face, the face and smile of a school-girl.
+
+The Kid finished his shuffling awkwardly and slid the cards into the
+box. Then the woman spoke:
+
+"Let me have your place, Bronco."
+
+The men gasped, the Jew snickered, the lookout straightened in his
+chair.
+
+"Better not. It's a hard game," said the Kid, but her voice was
+imperious as she commanded him:
+
+"Hurry up. Give me your place."
+
+Bronco arose, whereupon she settled in his chair, tucked in her skirts,
+removed her gloves, and twisted into place the diamonds on her hands.
+
+"What the devil's this?" said the lookout, roughly. "Are you drunk,
+Bronco? Get out of that chair, miss."
+
+She turned to him slowly. The innocence had fled from her features and
+the big eyes flashed warningly. A change had coarsened her like a puff
+of air on a still pool. Then, while she stared at him, her lids drooped
+dangerously and her lip curled.
+
+"Throw him out, Bronco," she said, and her tones held the hardness of a
+mistress to her slave.
+
+"That's all right," the Kid reassured the lookout. "She's a better
+dealer than I am. This is Cherry Malotte."
+
+Without noticing the stares this evoked, the girl commenced. Her hands,
+beautifully soft and white, flashed over the board. She dealt rapidly,
+unfalteringly, with the finish of one bred to the cards, handling chips
+and coppers with the peculiar mannerisms that spring from long
+practice. It was seen that she never looked at her check-rack, but,
+when a bet required paying, picked up a stack without turning her head;
+and they saw further that she never reached twice, nor took a large
+pile and sized it up against its mate, removing the extra disks, as is
+the custom. When she stretched forth her hand she grasped the right
+number unerringly. This is considered the acme of professional finish,
+and the Bronco Kid smiled delightedly as he saw the wonder spread from
+the lookout to the spectators and heard the speech of the men who stood
+on chairs and tables for sight of the woman dealer.
+
+For twenty minutes she continued, until the place became congested, and
+never once did the lookout detect an error.
+
+While she was busy, Glenister entered the front-door and pushed his way
+back towards the theatre. He was worried and distrait, his manner
+perturbed and unnatural. Silently and without apparent notice he passed
+friends who greeted him.
+
+"What ails Glenister to-night?" asked a by-stander. "He acts funny,"
+
+"Ain't you heard? Why, the Midas has been jumped. He's in a bad
+way--all broke up."
+
+The girl suddenly ceased without finishing the deck, and arose.
+
+"Don't stop," said the Kid, while a murmur of dismay came from the
+spectators. She only shook her head and drew on her gloves with a show
+of ennui.
+
+Gliding through the crowd, she threaded about aimlessly, the recipient
+of many stares though but few greetings, speaking with no one, a
+certain dignity serving her as a barrier even here. She stopped a
+waiter and questioned him.
+
+"He's up-stairs in a gallery box."
+
+"Alone?"
+
+"Yes'm. Anyhow, he was a minute ago, unless some of the rustlers has
+broke in on him."
+
+A moment later Glenister, watching the scene below, was aroused from
+his gloomy absorption by the click of the box door and the rustle of
+silken skirts.
+
+"Go out, please," he said, without turning. "I don't want company."
+Hearing no answer, he began again, "I came here to be alone"--but there
+he ceased, for the girl had come forward and laid her two hot hands
+upon his cheeks.
+
+"Boy," she breathed--and he arose swiftly.
+
+"Cherry! When did you come?"
+
+"Oh, DAYS ago," she said, impatiently, "from Dawson. They told me you
+had struck it. I stood it as long as I could--then I came to you. Now,
+tell me about yourself. Let me see you first, quick!"
+
+She pulled him towards the light and gazed upward, devouring him
+hungrily with her great, languorous eyes. She held to his coat lapels,
+standing close beside him, her warm breath beating up into his face.
+
+"Well," she said, "kiss me!"
+
+He took her wrists in his and loosed her hold, then looked down on her
+gravely and said:
+
+"No--that's all over. I told you so when I left Dawson."
+
+"All over! Oh no, it isn't, boy. You think so, but it isn't--it can't
+be. I love you too much to let you go."
+
+"Hush!" said he. "There are people in the next box."
+
+"I don't care! Let them hear," she cried, with feminine recklessness.
+"I'm proud of my love for you. I'll tell it to them--to the whole
+world."
+
+"Now, see here, little girl," he said, quietly, "we had a long talk in
+Dawson and agreed that it was best to divide our ways. I was mad over
+you once, as a good many other men have been, but I came to my senses.
+Nothing could ever result from it, and I told you so."
+
+"Yes, yes--I know. I thought I could give you up, but I didn't realize
+till you had gone how I wanted you. Oh, it's been a TORTURE to me every
+day for the past two years." There was no semblance now to the cold
+creature she had appeared upon entering the gambling-hall. She spoke
+rapidly, her whole body tense with emotion, her voice shaken with
+passion. "I've seen men and men and men, and they've loved me, but I
+never cared for anybody in the world till I saw you. They ran after me,
+but you were cold. You made me come to you. Perhaps that was it.
+Anyhow, I can't stand it. I'll give up everything--I'll do anything
+just to be where you are. What do you think of a woman who will beg?
+Oh, I've lost my pride--I'm a fool--a fool--but I can't help it."
+
+"I'm sorry you feel this way," said Glenister. "It isn't my fault, and
+it isn't of any use."
+
+For an instant she stood quivering, while the light died out of her
+face; then, with a characteristic change, she smiled till the dimples
+laughed in her cheeks. She sank upon a seat beside him and pulled
+together the curtains, shutting out the sight below.
+
+"Very well"--then she put his hand to her cheek and cuddled it. "I'm
+glad to see you just the same, and you can't keep me from loving you."
+
+With his other hand he smoothed her hair, while, unknown to him and
+beneath her lightness, she shrank and quivered at his touch like a
+Barbary steed under the whip.
+
+"Things are very bad with me," he said. "We've had our mine jumped."
+
+"Bah! You know what to do. You aren't a cripple--you've got five
+fingers on your gun hand."
+
+"That's it! They all tell me that--all the old-timers; but I don't know
+what to do. I thought I did--but I don't. The law has come into this
+country and I've tried to meet it half-way. They jumped us and put in a
+receiver--a big man--by the name of McNamara. Dex wasn't there and I
+let them do it. When the old man learned of it he nearly went crazy. We
+had our first quarrel. He thought I was afraid--"
+
+"Not he," said the girl. "I know him and he knows you."
+
+"That was a week ago. We've hired the best lawyer in Nome--Bill
+Wheaton--and we've tried to have the injunction removed. We've offered
+bond in any sum, but the Judge refuses to accept it. We've argued for
+leave to appeal, but he won't give us the right. The more I look into
+it the worse it seems, for the court wasn't convened in accordance with
+law, we weren't notified to appear in our own behalf, we weren't
+allowed a chance to argue our own case--nothing. They simply slapped on
+a receiver, and now they refuse to allow us redress. From a legal
+stand-point, it's appalling, I'm told--but what's to be done? What's
+the game? That's the thing. What are they up to? I'm nearly out of my
+mind, for it's all my fault. I didn't think it meant anything like this
+or I'd have made a fight for possession and stood them off at least. As
+it is, my partner's sore and he's gone to drinking--first time in
+twelve years. He says I gave the claim away, and now it's up to me and
+the Almighty to get it back. If he gets full he'll drive a four-horse
+wagon into some church, or go up and pick the Judge to pieces with his
+fingers to see what makes him go round."
+
+"What've they got against you and Dextry--some grudge?" she questioned.
+
+"No, no! We're not the only ones in trouble; they've jumped the rest of
+the good mines and put this McNamara in as receiver on all of them, but
+that's small comfort. The Swedes are crazy; they've hired all the
+lawyers in town, and are murdering more good American language than
+would fill Bering Strait. Dex is in favor of getting our friends
+together and throwing the receiver off. He wants to kill somebody, but
+we can't do that. They've got the soldiers to fall back on. We've been
+warned that the troops are instructed to enforce the court's action. I
+don't know what the plot is, for I can't believe the old Judge is
+crooked--the girl wouldn't let him."
+
+"Girl?"
+
+Cherry Malotte leaned forward where the light shone on the young man's
+worried face.
+
+"The girl? What girl? Who is she?"
+
+Her voice had lost its lazy caress, her lips had thinned. Never was a
+woman's face more eloquent, mused Glenister as he noted her. Every
+thought fled to this window to peer forth, fearful, lustful, hateful,
+as the case might be. He had loved to play with her in the former days,
+to work upon her passions and watch the changes, to note her features
+mirror every varying emotion from tenderness to flippancy, from anger
+to delight, and, at his bidding, to see the pale cheeks glow with
+love's fire, the eyes grow heavy, the dainty lips invite kisses. Cherry
+was a perfect little spoiled animal, he reflected, and a very dangerous
+one.
+
+"What girl?" she questioned again, and he knew beforehand the look that
+went with it.
+
+"The girl I intend to marry," he said, slowly, looking her between the
+eyes.
+
+He knew he was cruel--he wanted to be--it satisfied the clamor and
+turmoil within him, while he also felt that the sooner she knew and the
+colder it left her the better. He could not note the effect of the
+remark on her, however, for, as he spoke, the door of the box opened
+and the head of the Bronco Kid appeared, then retired instantly with
+apologies.
+
+"Wrong stall," he said, in his slow voice. "Looking for another party."
+Nevertheless, his eyes had covered every inch of them--noted the drawn
+curtains and the breathless poise of the woman--while his ears had
+caught part of Glenister's speech.
+
+"You won't marry her," said Cherry, quietly. "I don't know who she is,
+but I won't let you marry her."
+
+She rose and smoothed her skirts.
+
+"It's time nice people were going now." She said it with a sneer at
+herself. "Take me out through this crowd. I'm living quietly and I
+don't want these beasts to follow me."
+
+As they emerged from the theatre the morning air was cool and quiet,
+while the sun was just rising. The Bronco Kid lighted a cigar as they
+passed, nodding silently at their greeting. His eyes followed them,
+while his hands were so still that the match burned through to his
+fingers--then when they had gone his teeth met and ground savagely
+through the tobacco so that the cigar fell, while he muttered:
+
+"So that's the girl you intend to marry? We'll see, by God!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DEXTRY MAKES A CALL
+
+
+The water front had a strong attraction for Helen Chester, and rarely
+did a fair day pass without finding her in some quiet spot from which
+she could watch the shifting life along its edge, the ships at anchor,
+and the varied incidents of the surf.
+
+This morning she sat in a dory pulled high up on the beach, bathed in
+the bright sunshine, and staring at the rollers, while lines of
+concentration wrinkled her brow. The wind had blown for some days till
+the ocean beat heavily across the shallow bar, and now, as it became
+quieter, longshoremen were launching their craft, preparing to resume
+their traffic.
+
+Not until the previous day had the news of her friends' misfortune come
+to her, and although she had heard no hint of fraud, she began to
+realize that they were involved in a serious tangle. To the questions
+which she anxiously put to her uncle he had replied that their
+difficulty arose from a technicality in the mining laws which another
+man had been shrewd enough to profit by. It was a complicated question,
+he said, and one requiring time to thrash out to an equitable
+settlement. She had undertaken to remind him of the service these men
+had done her, but, with a smile, he interrupted; he could not allow
+such things to influence his judicial attitude, and she must not
+endeavor to prejudice him in the discharge of his duty. Recognizing the
+justice of this, she had desisted.
+
+For many days the girl had caught scattered talk between the Judge and
+McNamara, and between Struve and his associates, but it all seemed
+foreign and dry, and beyond the fact that it bore on the litigation
+over the Anvil Creek mines, she understood nothing and cared less,
+particularly as a new interest had but recently come into her life, an
+interest in the form of a man--McNamara.
+
+He had begun with quiet, half-concealed admiration of her, which had
+rapidly increased until his attentions had become of a singularly
+positive and resistless character.
+
+Judge Stillman was openly delighted, while the court of one like Alec
+McNamara could but flatter any girl. In his presence, Helen felt
+herself rebelling at his suit, yet as distance separated them she
+thought ever more kindly of it. This state of mind contrasted oddly
+with her feelings towards the other man she had met, for in this
+country there were but two. When Glenister was with her she saw his
+love lying nakedly in his eyes and it exercised some spell which drew
+her to him in spite of herself, but when he had gone, back came the
+distrust, the terror of the brute she felt was there behind it all. The
+one appealed to her while present, the other pled strongest while away.
+Now she was attempting to analyze her feelings and face the future
+squarely, for she realized that her affairs neared a crisis, and this,
+too, not a month after meeting the men. She wondered if she would come
+to love her uncle's friend. She did not know. Of the other she was
+sure--she never could.
+
+Busied with these reflections, she noticed the familiar figure of
+Dextry wandering aimlessly. He was not unkempt, and yet his air gave
+her the impression of prolonged sleeplessness. Spying her, he
+approached and seated himself in the sand against the boat, while at
+her greeting he broke into talk as if he was needful only of her
+friendly presence to stir his confidential chords into active vibration.
+
+"We're in turrible shape, miss," he said. "Our claim's jumped. Somebody
+run in and talked the boy out of it while I was gone, and now we can't
+get 'em off. He's been tryin' this here new law game that you-all
+brought in this summer. I've been drunk--that's what makes me look so
+ornery."
+
+He said the last, not in the spirit of apology, for rarely does your
+frontiersman consider that his self-indulgences require palliation, but
+rather after the manner of one purveying news of mild interest, as he
+would inform you that his surcingle had broken or that he had witnessed
+a lynching.
+
+"What made them jump your claim?"
+
+"I don't know. I don't know nothin' about it, because, as I remarked
+previous, I 'ain't follered the totterin' footsteps of the law none too
+close. Nor do I intend to. I simply draws out of the game fer a spell,
+and lets the youngster have his fling; then if he can't make good, I'll
+take the cards and finish it for him.
+
+"It's like the time I was ranchin' with an Englishman up in Montana.
+This here party claimed the misfortune of bein' a younger son, whatever
+that is, and is grubstaked to a ranch by his people back home. Havin'
+acquired an intimate knowledge of the West by readin' Bret Harte, and
+havin' assim'lated the secrets of ranchin' by correspondence school, he
+is fitted, ample, to teach us natives a thing or two--and he does it. I
+am workin' his outfit as foreman, and it don't take long to show me
+that he's a good-hearted feller, in spite of his ridin'-bloomers an'
+pinochle eye-glass. He ain't never had no actual experience, but he's
+got a Henry Thompson Seton book that tells him all about everything
+from field-mice to gorrillys.
+
+"We're troubled a heap with coyotes them days, and finally this party
+sends home for some Rooshian wolf-hounds. I'm fer pizenin' a sheep
+carcass, but he says:
+
+"'No, no, me deah man; that's not sportsman-like; we'll hunt 'em. Ay,
+hunt 'em! Only fawncy the sport we'll have, ridin' to hounds!'
+
+"'We will not,' says I. 'I ain't goin' to do no Simon Legree stunts. It
+ain't man's size. Bein' English, you don't count, but I'm growed up.'
+
+"Nothin' would do him but those Uncle Tom's Cabin dogs, however, and he
+had 'em imported clean from Berkshire or Sibeery or thereabouts, four
+of 'em, great, big, blue ones. They was as handsome and imposin' as a
+set of solid-gold teeth, but somehow they didn't seem to savvy our play
+none. One day the cook rolled a rain bar'l down-hill from the kitchen,
+and when them blooded critters saw it comin' they throwed down their
+tails and tore out like rabbits. After that I couldn't see no good in
+'em with a spy-glass.
+
+"'They 'ain't got no grit. What makes you think they can fight?' I
+asked one day.
+
+"'Fight?' says H'Anglish. 'My deah man, they're full-blooded. Cost
+seventy pun each. They're dreadful creatures when they're
+roused--they'll tear a wolf to pieces like a rag--kill bears--anything.
+Oh! Rully, perfectly dreadful!'
+
+"Well, it wasn't a week later that he went over to the east line with
+me to mend a barb wire. I had my pliers and a hatchet and some staples.
+About a mile from the house we jumped up a little brown bear that
+scampered off when he seen us, but bein' agin' a bluff where he
+couldn't get away, he climbed a cotton-wood. H'Anglish was simply
+frothin' with excitement.
+
+"'What a misfortune! Neyther gun nor hounds.'
+
+"'I'll scratch his back and talk pretty to him,' says I, 'while you run
+back and get a Winchester and them ferocious bull-dogs.'
+
+"'Wolf-hounds,' says he, with dignity, 'full-blooded, seventy pun each.
+They'll rend the poor beast limb from limb. I hate to do it, but it 'll
+be good practice for them.'
+
+"'They may be good renders,' says I, 'but don't forgit the gun.'
+
+"Well, I throwed sticks at the critter when he tried to unclimb the
+tree, till finally the boss got back with his dogs. They set up an
+awful holler when they see the bear--first one they'd ever smelled, I
+reckon--and the little feller crawled up in some forks and watched
+things, cautious, while they leaped about, bayin' most fierce and
+blood-curdlin'.
+
+"'How you goin' to get him down?' says I.
+
+"'I'll shoot him in the lower jaw,' says the Britisher, 'so he cawn't
+bite the dogs. It 'll give 'em cawnfidence.'
+
+"He takes aim at Mr. Bear's chin and misses it three times runnin',
+he's that excited.
+
+"'Settle down, H'Anglish,' says I. 'He 'ain't got no double chins. How
+many shells left in your gun?'" When he looks he finds there's only one
+more, for he hadn't stopped to fill the magazine, so I cautions him.
+
+"'You're shootin' too low. Raise her.'
+
+"He raised her all right, and caught Mr. Bruin in the snout. What
+followed thereafter was most too quick to notice, for the poor bear let
+out a bawl, dropped off his limb into the midst of them ragin',
+tur'ble, seventy-pun hounds, an' hugged 'em to death, one after
+another, like he was doin' a system of health exercises. He took 'em to
+his boosum as if he'd just got back off a long trip, then, droppin' the
+last one, he made at that younger son an' put a gold fillin' in his
+leg. Yes, sir; most chewed it off. H'Anglish let out a Siberian-wolf
+holler hisself, an' I had to step in with the hatchet and kill the
+brute though I was most dead from laughin'.
+
+"That's how it is with me an' Glenister," the old man concluded. "When
+he gets tired experimentin' with this new law game of hisn, I'll step
+in an' do business on a common-sense basis."
+
+"You talk as if you wouldn't get fair play," said Helen.
+
+"We won't," said he, with conviction. "I look on all lawyers with
+suspicion, even to old bald-face--your uncle, askin' your pardon an'
+gettin' it, bein' as I'm a friend an' he ain't no real relation of
+yours, anyhow. No, sir; they're all crooked."
+
+Dextry held the Western distrust of the legal
+profession--comprehensive, unreasoning, deep.
+
+"Is the old man all the kin you've got?" he questioned, when she
+refused to discuss the matter.
+
+"He is--in a way. I have a brother, or I hope I have, somewhere. He ran
+away when we were both little tads and I haven't seen him since. I
+heard about him, indirectly, at Skagway--three years ago--during the
+big rush to the Klondike, but he has never been home. When father died,
+I went to live with Uncle Arthur--some day, perhaps, I'll find my
+brother. He's cruel to hide from me this way, for there are only we two
+left and I've loved him always."
+
+She spoke sadly and her mood blended well with the gloom of her
+companion, so they stared silently out over the heaving green waters.
+
+"It's a good thing me an' the kid had a little piece of money ahead,"
+Dextry resumed later, reverting to the thought that lay uppermost in
+his mind, "'cause we'd be up against it right if we hadn't. The boy
+couldn't have amused himself none with these court proceedings, because
+they come high. I call 'em luxuries, like brandied peaches an' silk
+undershirts.
+
+"I don't trust these Jim Crow banks no more than I do lawyers, neither.
+No, sirree! I bought a iron safe an' hauled it out to the mine. She
+weighs eighteen hundred, and we keep our money locked up there. We've
+got a feller named Johnson watchin' it now. Steal it? Well, hardly.
+They can't bust her open without a stick of 'giant' which would rouse
+everybody in five miles, an' they can't lug her off bodily--she's too
+heavy. No; it's safer there than any place I know of. There ain't no
+abscondin' cashiers an' all that. Tomorrer I'm goin' back to live on
+the claim an' watch this receiver man till the thing's settled."
+
+When the girl arose to go, he accompanied her up through the deep sand
+of the lane-like street to the main, muddy thoroughfare of the camp. As
+yet, the planked and gravelled pavements, which later threaded the
+town, were unknown, and the incessant traffic had worn the road into a
+quagmire of chocolate-colored slush, almost axle-deep, with which the
+store fronts, show-windows, and awnings were plentifully shot and
+spattered from passing teams. Whenever a wagon approached, pedestrians
+fled to the shelter of neighboring doorways, watching a chance to dodge
+out again. When vehicles passed from the comparative solidity of the
+main street out into the morasses that constituted the rest of the
+town, they adventured perilously, their horses plunging, snorting,
+terrified, amid an atmosphere of profanity. Discouraged animals were
+down constantly, and no foot-passenger, even with rubber boots,
+ventured off the planks that led from house to house.
+
+To avoid a splashing team, Dextry pulled his companion close in against
+the entrance to the Northern saloon, standing before her protectingly.
+
+Although it was late in the afternoon the Bronco Kid had just arisen
+and was now loafing preparatory to the active duties of his profession.
+He was speaking with the proprietor when Dextry and the girl sought
+shelter just without the open door, so he caught a fair though fleeting
+glimpse of her as she flashed a curious look inside. She had never been
+so close to a gambling-hall before, and would have liked to peer in
+more carefully had she dared, but her companion moved forward. At the
+first look the Bronco Kid had broken off in his speech and stared at
+her as though at an apparition. When she had vanished, he spoke to
+Reilly:
+
+"Who's that?"
+
+Reilly shrugged his shoulders, then without further question the Kid
+turned back towards the empty theatre and out of the back door.
+
+He moved nonchalantly till he was outside, then with the speed of a
+colt ran down the narrow planking between the buildings, turned
+parallel to the front street, leaped from board to board, splashed
+through puddles of water till he reached the next alley. Stamping the
+mud from his shoes and pulling down his sombrero, he sauntered out into
+the main thoroughfare.
+
+Dextry and his companion had crossed to the other side and were
+approaching, so the gambler gained a fair view of them. He searched
+every inch of the girl's face and figure, then, as she made to turn her
+eyes in his direction, he slouched away. He followed, however, at a
+distance, till he saw the man leave her, then on up to the big hotel he
+shadowed her. A half-hour later he was drinking in the Golden Gate
+bar-room with an acquaintance who ministered to the mechanical details
+behind the hotel counter.
+
+"Who's the girl I saw come in just now?" he inquired.
+
+"I guess you mean the Judge's niece."
+
+Both men spoke in the dead, restrained tones that go with their
+callings.
+
+"What's her name?"
+
+"Chester, I think. Why? Look good to you, Kid?"
+
+Although the other neither spoke nor made sign, the bartender construed
+his silence as acquiescence and continued, with a conscious glance at
+his own reflection while he adjusted his diamond scarf-pin: "Well, she
+can have ME! I've got it fixed to meet her."
+
+"BAH! I guess not," said the Kid, suddenly, with an inflection that
+startled the other from his preening. Then, as he went out, the man
+mused:
+
+"Gee! Bronco's got the worst eye in the camp! Makes me creep when he
+throws it on me with that muddy look. He acted like he was jealous."
+
+ At noon the next day, as he prepared to go to the claim, Dextry's
+partner burst in upon him. Glenister was dishevelled, and his eyes
+shone with intense excitement.
+
+"What d'you think they've done now?" he cried, as greeting.
+
+"I dunno. What is it?"
+
+"They've broken open the safe and taken our money."
+
+"What!"
+
+The old man in turn was on his feet, the grudge which he had felt
+against Glenister in the past few days forgotten in this common
+misfortune.
+
+"Yes, by Heaven, they've swiped our money--our tents, tools, teams,
+books, hose, and all of our personal property--everything! They threw
+Johnson off and took the whole works. I never heard of such a thing. I
+went out to the claim and they wouldn't let me go near the workings.
+They've got every mine on Anvil Creek guarded the same way, and they
+aren't going to let us come around even when they clean up. They told
+me so this morning."
+
+"But, look here," demanded Dextry, sharply, "the money in that safe
+belongs to us. That's money we brought in from the States. The court
+'ain't got no right to it. What kind of a damn law is that?"
+
+"Oh, as to law, they don't pay any attention to it any more," said
+Glenister, bitterly. "I made a mistake in not killing the first man
+that set foot on the claim. I was a sucker, and now we're up against a
+stiff game. The Swedes are in the same fix, too. This last order has
+left them groggy." "I don't understand it yet," said Dextry.
+
+"Why, it's this way. The Judge has issued what he calls an order
+enlarging the powers of the receiver, and it authorizes McNamara to
+take possession of everything on the claims--tents, tools, stores, and
+personal property of all kinds. It was issued last night without notice
+to our side, so Wheaton says, and they served it this morning early. I
+went out to see McNamara, and when I got there I found him in our
+private tent with the safe broken open."
+
+"'What does this mean?' I said. And then he showed me the new order.
+
+"'I'm responsible to the court for every penny of this money,' said he,
+'and for every tool on the claim. In view of that I can't allow you to
+go near the workings.'
+
+"'Not go near the workings?' said I. 'Do you mean you won't let us see
+the clean-ups from our own mine? How do we know we're getting a square
+deal if we don't see the gold weighed?'
+
+"'I'm an officer of the court and under bond,' said he, and the smiling
+triumph in his eyes made me crazy.
+
+"'You're a lying thief,' I said, looking at him square. 'And you're
+going too far. You played me for a fool once and made it stick, but it
+won't work twice.'
+
+"He looked injured and aggrieved and called in Voorhees, the marshal. I
+can't grasp the thing at all; everybody seems to be against us, the
+Judge, the marshal, the prosecuting attorney--everybody. Yet they've
+done it all according to law, they claim, and have the soldiers to back
+them up."
+
+"It's just as Mexico Mullins said," Dextry stormed; "there's a deal on
+of some kind. I'm goin' up to the hotel an' call on the Judge myself. I
+'ain't never seen him nor this McNamara, either. I allus want to look a
+man straight in the eyes once, then I know what course to foller in my
+dealings."
+
+"You'll find them both," said Glenister, "for McNamara rode into town
+behind me."
+
+The old prospector proceeded to the Golden Gate Hotel and inquired for
+Judge Stillman's room. A boy attempted to take his name, but he seized
+him by the scruff of the neck and sat him in his seat, proceeding
+unannounced to the suite to which he had been directed. Hearing voices,
+he knocked, and then, without awaiting a summons, walked in.
+
+The room was fitted like an office, with desk, table, type-writer, and
+law-books. Other rooms opened from it on both sides. Two men were
+talking earnestly--one gray-haired, smooth-shaven, and clerical, the
+other tall, picturesque, and masterful. With his first glance the miner
+knew that before him were the two he had come to see, and that in
+reality he had to deal with but one, the big man who shot at him the
+level glances.
+
+"We are engaged," said the Judge, "very busily engaged, sir. Will you
+call again in half an hour?"
+
+Dextry looked him over carefully from head to foot, then turned his
+back on him and regarded the other. Neither he nor McNamara spoke, but
+their eyes were busy and each instinctively knew that here was a foe.
+
+"What do you want?" McNamara inquired, finally.
+
+"I just dropped in to get acquainted. My name is Dextry--Joe
+Dextry--from everywhere west of the Missouri--an' your name is
+McNamara, ain't it? This here, I reckon, is your little French
+poodle--eh?" indicating Stillman.
+
+"What do you mean?" said McNamara, while the Judge murmured indignantly.
+
+"Just what I say. However, that ain't what I want to talk about. I
+don't take no stock in such truck as judges an' lawyers an' orders of
+court. They ain't intended to be took serious. They're all right for
+children an' Easterners an' non compos mentis people, I s'pose, but
+I've always been my own judge, jury, an' hangman, an' I aim to continue
+workin' my legislatif, executif, an' judicial duties to the end of the
+string. You look out! My pardner is young an' seems to like the idee of
+lettin' somebody else run his business, so I'm goin' to give him rein
+and let him amuse himself for a while with your dinky little writs an'
+receiverships. But don't go too far--you can rob the Swedes, 'cause
+Swedes ain't entitled to have no money, an' some other crook would get
+it if you didn't, but don't play me an' Glenister fer Scandinavians.
+It's a mistake. We're white men, an' I'm apt to come romancin' up here
+with one of these an' bust you so you won't hold together durin' the
+ceremonies."
+
+With his last words he made the slightest shifting movement, only a
+lifting shrug of the shoulder, yet in his palm lay a six-shooter. He
+had slipped it from his trousers band with the ease of long practice
+and absolute surety. Judge Stillman gasped and backed against the desk,
+but McNamara idly swung his leg as he sat sidewise on the table. His
+only sign of interest was a quickening of the eyes, a fact of which
+Dextry made mental note.
+
+"Yes," said the miner, disregarding the alarm of the lawyer, "you can
+wear this court in your vest-pocket like a Waterbury, if you want to,
+but if you don't let me alone, I'll uncoil its main-spring. That's all."
+
+He replaced his weapon and, turning, walked out the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+SLUICE ROBBERS
+
+
+"We must have money," said Glenister a few days later. "When McNamara
+jumped our safe he put us down and out. There's no use fighting in this
+court any longer, for the Judge won't let us work the ground ourselves,
+even if we give bond, and he won't grant an appeal. He says his orders
+aren't appealable. We ought to send Wheaton out to 'Frisco and have him
+take the case to the higher courts. Maybe he can get a writ of
+supersedeas."
+
+"I don't rec'nize the name, but if it's as bad as it sounds it's sure
+horrible. Ain't there no cure for it?"
+
+"It simply means that the upper court would take the case away from
+this one."
+
+"Well, let's send him out quick. Every day means ten thousand dollars
+to us. It 'll take him a month to make the round trip, so I s'pose he
+ought to leave tomorrow on the Roanoke."
+
+"Yes, but where's the money to do it with? McNamara has ours. My God!
+What a mess we're in! What fools we've been, Dex! There's a conspiracy
+here. I'm beginning to see it now that it's too late. This man is
+looting our country under color of law, and figures on gutting all the
+mines before we can throw him off. That's his game. He'll work them as
+hard and as long as he can, and Heaven only knows what will become of
+the money. He must have big men behind him in order to fix a United
+States judge this way. Maybe he has the 'Frisco courts corrupted, too."
+
+"If he has, I'm goin' to kill him," said Dextry. "I've worked like a
+dog all my life, and now that I've struck pay I don't aim to lose it.
+If Bill Wheaton can't win out accordin' to law, I'm goin' to proceed
+accordin' to justice."
+
+During the past two days the partners had haunted the court-room where
+their lawyer, together with the counsel for the Scandinavians, had
+argued and pleaded, trying every possible professional and
+unprofessional artifice in search of relief from the arbitrary rulings
+of the court, while hourly they had become more strongly suspicious of
+some sinister plot--some hidden, powerful understanding back of the
+Judge and the entire mechanism of justice. They had fought with the
+fury of men who battle for life, and had grown to hate the lines of
+Stillman's vacillating face, the bluster of the district-attorney, and
+the smirking confidence of the clerks, for it seemed that they all
+worked mechanically, like toys, at the dictates of Alec McNamara. At
+last, when they had ceased, beaten and exhausted, they were too
+confused with technical phrases to grasp anything except the fact that
+relief was denied them; that their claims were to be worked by the
+receiver; and, as a crowning defeat, they learned that the Judge would
+move his court to St. Michael's and hear no cases until he returned, a
+month later.
+
+Meanwhile, McNamara hired every idle man he could lay hand upon, and
+ripped the placers open with double shifts. Every day a stream of
+yellow dust poured into the bank and was locked in his vaults, while
+those mine-owners who attempted to witness the clean-ups were ejected
+from their claims. The politician had worked with incredible swiftness
+and system, and a fortnight after landing he had made good his boast to
+Struve, and was in charge of every good claim in the district, the
+owners were ousted, their appeals argued and denied, and the court gone
+for thirty days, leaving him a clear field for his operations. He felt
+a contempt for most of his victims, who were slow-witted Swedes,
+grasping neither the purport nor the magnitude of his operation, and as
+to those litigants who were discerning enough to see its enormity, he
+trusted to his organization to thwart them.
+
+The two partners had come to feel that they were beating against a
+wall, and had also come squarely to face the proposition that they were
+without funds wherewith to continue their battle. It was maddening for
+them to think of the daily robbery that they suffered, for the Midas
+turned out many ounces of gold at every shift; and more maddening to
+realize the receiver's shrewdness in crippling them by his theft of the
+gold in their safe. That had been his crowning stroke.
+
+"We MUST get money quick," said Glenister. "Do you think we can borrow?"
+
+"Borrow?" sniffed Dextry. "Folks don't lend money in Alaska."
+
+They relapsed into a moody silence.
+
+"I met a feller this mornin' that's workin' on the Midas," the old man
+resumed. "He came in town fer a pair of gum boots, an' he says they've
+run into awful rich ground--so rich that they have to clean up every
+morning when the night shift goes off 'cause the riffles clog with
+gold."
+
+"Think of it!" Glenister growled. "If we had even a part of one of
+those clean-ups we could send Wheaton outside."
+
+In the midst of his bitterness a thought struck him. He made as though
+to speak, then closed his mouth; but his partner's eyes were on him,
+filled with a suppressed but growing fire. Dextry lowered his voice
+cautiously:
+
+"There'll be twenty thousand dollars in them sluices to-night at
+midnight."
+
+Glenister stared back while his pulse pounded at something that lay in
+the other's words.
+
+"It belongs to us," the young man said. "There wouldn't be anything
+wrong about it, would there?"
+
+Dextry sneered. "Wrong! Right! Them is fine an' soundin' titles in a
+mess like this. What do they mean? I tell you, at midnight to-night
+Alec McNamara will have twenty thousand dollars of our money--"
+
+"God! What would happen if they caught us?" whispered the younger,
+following out his thought. "They'd never let us get off the claim
+alive. He couldn't find a better excuse to shoot us down and get rid of
+us. If we came up before this Judge for trial, we'd go to Sitka for
+twenty years."
+
+"Sure! But it's our only chance. I'd ruther die on the Midas in a fair
+fight than set here bitin' my hangnails. I'm growin' old and I won't
+never make another strike. As to bein' caught--them's our chances. I
+won't be took alive--I promise you that--and before I go I'll get my
+satisfy. Castin' things up, that's about all a man gets in this vale of
+tears, jest satisfaction of one kind or another. It'll be a fight in
+the open, under the stars, with the clean, wet moss to lie down on, and
+not a scrappin'-match of freak phrases and law-books inside of a
+stinkin' court-room. The cards is shuffled and in the box, pardner, and
+the game is started. If we're due to win, we'll win. If we're due to
+lose, we'll lose. These things is all figgered out a thousand years
+back. Come on, boy. Are you game?"
+
+"Am I game?" Glenister's nostrils dilated and his voice rose a tone.
+"Am I game? I'm with you till the big cash-in, and Lord have mercy on
+any man that blocks our game to-night."
+
+"We'll need another hand to help us," said Dextry. "Who can we get?"
+
+At that moment, as though in answer, the door opened with the scant
+ceremony that friends of the frontier are wont to observe, admitting
+the attenuated, flapping, dome-crowned figure of Slapjack Simms, and
+Dextry fell upon him with the hunger of a wolf.
+
+ It was midnight and over the dark walls of the valley peered a
+multitude of stars, while away on the southern horizon there glowed a
+subdued effulgence as though from hidden fires beneath the Gold God's
+caldron, or as though the phosphorescence of Bering had spread upward
+into the skies. Although each night grew longer, it was not yet
+necessary to light the men at work in the cuts. There were perhaps two
+hours in which it was difficult to see at a distance, but the dawn came
+early, hence no provision had been made for torches.
+
+Five minutes before the hour the night-shift boss lowered the gates in
+the dam, and, as the rush from the sluices subsided, his men quit work
+and climbed the bluff to the mess tent. The dwellings of the Midas, as
+has already been explained, sat back from the creek at a distance of a
+city block, the workings being thus partially hidden under the brow of
+the steep bank.
+
+It is customary to leave a watchman in the pit during the noon and
+midnight hours, not only to see that strangers preserve a neutral
+attitude, but also to watch the waste-gates and water supply. The night
+man of the Midas had been warned of his responsibility, and, knowing
+that much gold lay in his keeping, was disposed to gaze on the
+curious-minded with the sourness of suspicion. Therefore, as a man
+leading a pack-horse approached out of the gloom of the creek-trail,
+his eyes were on him from the moment he appeared. The road wound along
+the gravel of the bars and passed in proximity to the flumes. However,
+the wayfarer paid no attention to them, and the watchman detected an
+explanatory weariness in his slow gait.
+
+"Some prospector getting in from a trip," he thought.
+
+The stranger stopped, scratched a match, and, as he undertook to light
+his pipe, the observer caught the mahogany shine of a negro's face. The
+match sputtered out and then came impatient blasphemy as he searched
+for another.
+
+"Evenin', sah! You-all oblige me with a match?"
+
+He addressed the watcher on the bank above, and, without waiting a
+reply, began to climb upward.
+
+No smoker on the trail will deny the luxury of a light to the most
+humble, so as the negro gained his level the man reached forth to
+accommodate him. Without warning, the black man leaped forward with the
+ferocity of an animal and struck the other a fearful blow. The watchman
+sank with a faint, startled cry, and the African dragged him out of
+sight over the brow of the bank, where he rapidly tied him hand and
+foot, stuffing a gag into his mouth. At the same moment two other
+figures rounded the bend below and approached. They were mounted and
+leading a third saddle-horse, as well as other pack-animals. Reaching
+the workings, they dismounted. Then began a strange procedure, for one
+man clambered upon the sluices and, with a pick, ripped out the
+riffles. This was a matter of only a few seconds; then, seizing a
+shovel, he transferred the concentrates which lay in the bottom of the
+boxes into canvas sacks which his companion held. As each bag was
+filled, it was tied and dumped into the cut. They treated but four
+boxes in this way, leaving the lower two-thirds of the flume untouched,
+for Anvil Creek gold is coarse and the heart of the clean-up lies where
+it is thrown in. Gathering the sacks together, they lashed them upon
+the pack-animals, then mounted the second string of sluices and began
+as before. Throughout it all they worked with feverish haste and in
+unbroken silence, every moment flashing quick glances at the figure of
+the lookout who stood on the crest above, half dimmed in the shadow of
+a willow clump. Judging by their rapidity and sureness, they were
+expert miners.
+
+From the tent came the voices of the night shift at table, and the
+faint rattle of dishes, while the canvas walls glowed from the lights
+within like great fire-flies hidden in the grass. The foreman,
+finishing his meal, appeared at the door of the mess tent, and, pausing
+to accustom his eyes to the gloom, peered perfunctorily towards the
+creek. The watchman detached himself from the shadow, moving out into
+plain sight, and the boss turned back. The two men below were now
+working on the sluices which lay close under the bank and were thus
+hidden from the tent.
+
+ McNamara's description of Anvil Creek's riches had fired Helen
+Chester with the desire to witness a clean-up, so they had ridden out
+from town in time for supper at the claim. She had not known whither he
+led her, only understanding that provision for her entertainment would
+be made with the superintendent's wife. Upon recognizing the Midas, she
+had endeavored to question him as to why her friends had been
+dispossessed, and he had answered, as it seemed, straight and true.
+
+The ground was in dispute, he said--another man claimed it--and while
+the litigation pended he was in charge for the court, to see that
+neither party received injury. He spoke adroitly, and it satisfied her
+to have the proposition resolved into such simplicity.
+
+She had come prepared to spend the night and witness the early morning
+operation, so the receiver made the most of his opportunity. He showed
+her over the workings, explaining the many things that were strange to
+her. Not only was he in himself a fascinating figure to any woman, but
+wherever he went men regarded him deferentially, and nothing affects a
+woman's judgment more promptly than this obvious sign of power. He
+spent the evening with her, talking of his early days and the things he
+had done in the West, his story matching the picturesqueness of her
+canvas-walled quarters with their rough furnishings of skins and
+blankets. Being a keen observer as well as a finished raconteur, he had
+woven a spell of words about the girl, leaving her in a state of tumult
+and indecision when at last, towards midnight, he retired to his own
+tent. She knew to what end all this was working, and yet knew not what
+her answer would be when the question came which lay behind it all. At
+moments she felt the wonderful attraction of the man, and still there
+was some distrust of him which she could not fathom. Again her thoughts
+reverted to Glenister, the impetuous, and she compared the two, so
+similar in some ways, so utterly opposed in others.
+
+It was when she heard the night shift at their meal that she threw a
+silken shawl about her head, stepped into the cool night, and picked
+her way down towards the roar of the creek. "A breath of air and then
+to bed," she thought. She saw the tall figure of the watchman and made
+for him. He seemed oddly interested in her approach, watching her very
+closely, almost as though alarmed. It was doubtless because there were
+so few women out here, or possibly on account of the lateness of the
+hour. Away with conventions! This was the land of instinct and impulse.
+She would talk to him. The man drew his hat more closely about his face
+and moved off as she came up. Glenister had been in her thoughts a
+moment since, and she now noted that here was another with the same
+great, square shoulders and erect head. Then she saw with a start that
+this one was a negro. He carried a Winchester and seemed to watch her
+carefully, yet with indecision.
+
+To express her interest and to break the silence, she questioned him,
+but at the sound of her voice he stepped towards her and spoke roughly.
+
+"What!"
+
+Then he paused, and stammered in a strangely altered and unnatural
+voice:
+
+"Yass'm. I'm the watchman."
+
+She noted two other darkies at work below and was vaguely surprised,
+not so much at their presence, as at the manner in which they moved,
+for they seemed under stress of some great haste, running hither and
+yon. She saw horses standing in the trail and sensed something
+indefinably odd and alarming in the air. Turning to the man, she opened
+her mouth to speak, when from the rank grass under her feet came a
+noise which set her a-tingle, and at which her suspicions leaped full
+to the solution. It was the groan of a man. Again he gave voice to his
+pain, and she knew that she stood face to face with something sinister.
+Tales of sluice robbers had come to her, and rumors of the daring raids
+into which men were lured by the yellow sheen--and yet this was
+incredible. A hundred men lay within sound of her voice; she could hear
+their laughter; one was whistling a popular refrain. A quarter-mile
+away on every hand were other camps; a scream from her would bring them
+all. Nonsense, this was no sluice robbery--and then the man in the
+bushes below moaned for the third time.
+
+"What is that?" she said.
+
+Without reply the negro lowered the muzzle of his rifle till it covered
+her breast and at the same time she heard the double click of the
+hammer.
+
+"Keep still and don't move," he warned. "We're desperate and we can't
+take any chances, Miss."
+
+"Oh, you are stealing the gold--"
+
+She was wildly frightened, yet stood still while the lookout anxiously
+divided his attention between her and the tents above until his
+companions signalled him that they were through and the horses were
+loaded. Then he spoke:
+
+"I don't know what to do with you, but I guess I'll tie you up."
+
+"What!" she said.
+
+"I'm going to tie and gag you so you can't holler."
+
+"Oh, don't you DARE!" she cried, fiercely. "I'll stand right here till
+you've gone and I won't scream. I promise." She looked up at him
+appealingly, at which he dipped his head, so that she caught only a
+glimpse of his face, and then backed away.
+
+"All right! Don't try it, because I'll be hidden in those bushes yonder
+at the bend and I'll keep you covered till the others are gone." He
+leaped down the bank, ran to the cavalcade, mounted quickly, and the
+three lashed their horses into a run, disappearing up the trail around
+the sharp curve. She heard the blows of their quirts as they whipped
+the pack-horses.
+
+They were long out of sight before the girl moved or made sound,
+although she knew that none of the three had paused at the bend. She
+only stood and gazed, for as they galloped off she had heard the scrap
+of a broken sentence. It was but one excited word, sounding through the
+rattle of hoofs--her own name--"Helen"; and yet because of it she did
+not voice the alarm, but rather began to piece together, bit by bit,
+the strange points of this adventure. She recalled the outlines of her
+captor with a wrinkle of perplexity. Her fright disappeared entirely,
+giving place to intense excitement. "No, no--it can't be--and yet I
+wonder if it IS!" she cried. "Oh, I wonder if it could be!" She opened
+her lips to cry aloud, then hesitated. She started towards the tents,
+then paused, and for many moments after the hoof-beats had died out she
+stayed undecided. Surely she wished to give the signal, to force the
+fierce pursuit. What meant this robbery, this defiance of the law, of
+her uncle's edicts and of McNamara? They were common thieves,
+criminals, outlaws, these men, deserving punishment, and yet she
+recalled a darker night, when she herself had sobbed and quivered with
+the terrors of pursuit and two men had shielded her with their bodies.
+
+She turned and sped towards the tents, bursting in through the canvas
+door; instantly every man rose to his feet at sight of her pallid face,
+her flashing eyes, and rumpled hair.
+
+"Sluice robbers!" she cried, breathlessly. "Quick! A hold-up! The
+watchman is hurt!"
+
+A roar shook the night air, and the men poured out past her, while the
+day shift came tumbling forth from every quarter in various stages of
+undress.
+
+"Where? Who did it? Where did they go?"
+
+McNamara appeared among them, fierce and commanding, seeming to grasp
+the situation intuitively, without explanation from her.
+
+"Come on, men. We'll run 'em down. Get out the horses. Quick!"
+
+He was mounted even as he spoke, and others joined him. Then turning,
+he waved his long arm up the valley towards the mountains. "Divide into
+squads of five and cover the hills! Run down to Discovery, one of you,
+and telephone to town for Voorhees and a posse."
+
+As they made ready to ride away, the girl cried:
+
+"Stop! Not that way. They went DOWN the gulch--three negroes."
+
+She pointed out of the valley, towards the dim glow on the southern
+horizon, and the cavalcade rode away into the gloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE WIT OF AN ADVENTURESS
+
+
+Up creek the three negroes fled, past other camps, to where the stream
+branched. Here they took to the right and urged their horses along a
+forsaken trail to the head-waters of the little tributary and over the
+low saddle. They had endeavored to reach unfrequented paths as soon as
+possible in order that they might pass unnoticed. Before quitting the
+valley they halted their heaving horses, and, selecting a stagnant
+pool, scoured the grease paint from their features as best they could.
+Their ears were strained for sounds of pursuit, but, as the moments
+passed and none came, the tension eased somewhat and they conversed
+guardedly. As the morning light spread they crossed the moss-capped
+summit of the range, but paused again, and, removing two saddles, hid
+them among the rocks. Slapjack left the others here and rode southward
+down the Dry Creek Trail towards town, while the partners shifted part
+of the weight from the overloaded pack-mules to the remaining
+saddle-animals and continued eastward along the barren comb of hills on
+foot, leading the five horses.
+
+"It don't seem like we'll get away this easy," said Dextry, scanning
+the back trail. "If we do, I'll be tempted to foller the business
+reg'lar. This grease paint on my face makes me smell like a minstrel
+man. I bet we'll get some bully press notices to-morrow."
+
+"I wonder what Helen was doing there," Glenister answered,
+irrelevantly, for he had been more shaken by his encounter with her
+than at his part in the rest or the enterprise, and his mind, which
+should have been busied with the flight, held nothing but pictures of
+her as she stood in the half darkness under the fear of his Winchester.
+"What if she ever learned who that black ruffian was!" He quailed at
+the thought.
+
+"Say, Dex, I am going to marry that girl."
+
+"I dunno if you be or not," said Dextry. "Better watch McNamara."
+
+"What!" The younger man stopped and stared. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Go on. Don't stop the horses. I ain't blind. I kin put two an' two
+together."
+
+"You'll never put those two together. Nonsense! Why, the man's a
+rascal. I wouldn't let him have her. Besides, it couldn't be. She'll
+find him out. I love her so much that--oh, my feelings are too big to
+talk about." He moved his hands eloquently. "You can't understand."
+
+"Um-m! I s'pose not," grunted Dextry, but his eyes were level and held
+the light of the past.
+
+"He may be a rascal," the old man continued, after a little; "I'll put
+in with you on that; but he's a handsome devil, and, as for manners, he
+makes you look like a logger. He's a brave man, too. Them three
+qualities are trump-cards and warranted to take most any queen in the
+human deck--red, white, or yellow."
+
+"If he dares," growled Glenister, while his thick brows came forward
+and ugly lines hardened in his face.
+
+In the gray of the early morning they descended the foot-hills into the
+wide valley of the Nome River and filed out across the rolling country
+to the river bluffs where, cleverly concealed among the willows, was a
+rocker. This they set up, then proceeded to wash the dirt from the
+sacks carefully, yet with the utmost speed, for there was serious
+danger of discovery. It was wonderful, this treasure of the richest
+ground since the days of '49, and the men worked with shining eyes and
+hands a-tremble. The gold was coarse, and many ragged, yellow lumps,
+too large to pass through the screen, rolled in the hopper, while the
+aprons bellied with its weight. In the pans which they had provided
+there grew a gleaming heap of wet, raw gold.
+
+Shortly, by divergent routes, the partners rode unnoticed into town,
+and into the excitement of the hold-up news, while the tardy still
+lingered over their breakfasts. Far out in the roadstead lay the
+Roanoke, black smoke pouring from her stack. A tug was returning from
+its last trip to her.
+
+Glenister forced his lathered horse down to the beach and questioned
+the longshoremen who hung about.
+
+"No; it's too late to get aboard--the last tender is on its way back,"
+they informed him. "If you want to go to the 'outside' you'll have to
+wait for the fleet. That only means another week, and--there she blows
+now."
+
+A ribbon of white mingled with the velvet from the steamer's funnel and
+there came a slow, throbbing, farewell blast.
+
+Glenister's jaw clicked and squared.
+
+"Quick! You men!" he cried to the sailors. "I want the lightest dory on
+the beach and the strongest oarsmen in the crowd. I'll be back in five
+minutes. There's a hundred dollars in it for you if we catch that ship."
+
+He whirled and spurred up through the mud of the streets. Bill Wheaton
+was snoring luxuriously when wrenched from his bed by a dishevelled man
+who shook him into wakefulness and into a portion of his clothes, with
+a storm of excited instructions. The lawyer had neither time nor
+opportunity for expostulation, for Glenister snatched a valise and
+swept into it a litter of documents from the table.
+
+"Hurry up, man," he yelled, as the lawyer dived frantically about his
+office in a rabbit-like hunt for items. "My Heavens! Are you dead? Wake
+up! The ship's leaving." With sleep still in his eyes Wheaton was
+dragged down the street to the beach, where a knot had assembled to
+witness the race. As they tumbled into the skiff, willing hands ran it
+out into the surf on the crest of a roller. A few lifting heaves and
+they were over the bar with the men at the oars bending the white ash
+at every swing.
+
+"I guess I didn't forget anything," gasped Wheaton as he put on his
+coat. "I got ready yesterday, but I couldn't find you last night, so I
+thought the deal was off."
+
+Glenister stripped off his coat and, facing the bow, pushed upon the
+oars at every stroke, thus adding his strength to that of the oarsmen.
+They crept rapidly out from the beach, eating up the two miles that lay
+towards the ship. He urged the men with all his power till the sweat
+soaked through their clothes and, under their clinging shirts, the
+muscles stood out like iron. They had covered half the distance when
+Wheaton uttered a cry and Glenister desisted from his work with a
+curse. The Roanoke was moving slowly.
+
+The rowers rested, but the young man shouted at them to begin again,
+and, seizing a boat-hook, stuck it into the arms of his coat. He waved
+this on high while the men redoubled their efforts. For many moments
+they hung in suspense, watching the black hull as it gathered speed,
+and then, as they were about to cease their effort, a puff of steam
+burst from its whistle and the next moment a short toot of recognition
+reached them. Glenister wiped the moisture from his brow and grinned at
+Wheaton.
+
+A quarter of an hour later, as they lay heaving below the ship's steel
+sides, he thrust a heavy buckskin sack into the lawyer's hand.
+
+"There's money to win the fight, Bill. I don't know how much, but it's
+enough. God bless you. Hurry back!"
+
+A sailor cast them a whirling rope, up which Wheaton clambered; then,
+tying the gripsack to its end, they sent it after.
+
+"Important!" the young man yelled at the officer on the bridge.
+"Government business." He heard a muffled clang in the engine-room, the
+thrash of the propellers followed, and the big ship glided past.
+
+As Glenister dragged himself up the beach, upon landing, Helen Chester
+called to him, and made room for him beside her. It had never been
+necessary to call him to her side before; and equally unfamiliar was
+the abashment, or perhaps physical weariness, that led the young man to
+sink back in the warm sand with a sigh of relief. She noted that, for
+the first time, the audacity was gone from his eyes.
+
+"I watched your race," she began. "It was very exciting and I cheered
+for you."
+
+He smiled quietly.
+
+"What made you keep on after the ship started? I should have given
+up--and cried."
+
+"I never give up anything that I want," he said.
+
+"Have you never been forced to? Then it is because you are a man. Women
+have to sacrifice a great deal."
+
+Helen expected him to continue to the effect that he would never give
+her up--it was in accordance with his earlier presumption--but he was
+silent; and she was not sure that she liked him as well thus as when he
+overwhelmed her with the boldness of his suit. For Glenister it was
+delightful, after the perils of the night, to rest in the calm of her
+presence and to feel dumbly that she was near. She saw him secretly
+caress a fold of her dress.
+
+If only she had not the memory of that one night on the ship. "Still,
+he is trying to make amends in the best way he can," she thought.
+"Though, of course, no woman could care for a man who would do such a
+thing." Yet she thrilled at the thought of how he had thrust his body
+between her and danger; how, but for his quick, insistent action, she
+would have failed in escaping from the pest ship, failed in her
+mission, and met death on the night of her landing. She owed him much.
+
+"Did you hear what happened to the good ship Ohio?" she asked.
+
+"No; I've been too busy to inquire. I was told the health officers
+quarantined her when she arrived, that's all."
+
+"She was sent to Egg Island with every one aboard. She has been there
+more than a month now and may not get away this summer."
+
+"What a disappointment for the poor devils on her!"
+
+"Yes, and only for what you did, I should be one of them," Helen
+remarked.
+
+"I didn't do much," he said. "The fighting part is easy. It's not half
+so hard as to give up your property and lie still while--"
+
+"Did you do that because I asked you to--because I asked you to put
+aside the old ways?" A wave of compassion swept over her.
+
+"Certainly," he answered. "It didn't come easy, but--"
+
+"Oh, I thank you," said she. "I know it is all for the best. Uncle
+Arthur wouldn't do anything wrong, and Mr. McNamara is an honorable
+man."
+
+He turned towards her to speak, but refrained. He could not tell her
+what he felt certain of. She believed in her own blood and in her
+uncle's friends--and it was not for him to speak of McNamara. The rules
+of the game sealed his lips.
+
+She was thinking again, "If only you had not acted as you did." She
+longed to help him now in his trouble as he had helped her, but what
+could she do? The law was such a confusing, intricate, perplexing thing.
+
+"I spent last night at the Midas," she told him, "and rode back early
+this morning. That was a daring hold-up, wasn't it?"
+
+"What hold-up?"
+
+"Why, haven't you heard the news?"
+
+"No" he answered, steadily. "I just got up."
+
+"Your claim was robbed. Three men overcame the watchman at midnight and
+cleaned the boxes."
+
+His simulation of excited astonishment was perfect and he rained a
+shower of questions upon her. She noted with approval that he did not
+look her in the eye, however. He was not an accomplished liar. Now
+McNamara had a countenance of iron. Unconsciously she made comparison,
+and the young man at her side did not lose thereby.
+
+"Yes, I saw it all," she concluded, after recounting the details. "The
+negro wanted to bind me so that I couldn't give the alarm, but his
+chivalry prevented. He was a most gallant darky."
+
+"What did you do when they left?"
+
+"Why, I kept my word and waited until they were out of sight, then I
+roused the camp, and set Mr. McNamara and his men right after them down
+the gulch."
+
+"DOWN the gulch!" spoke Glenister, off his guard.
+
+"Yes, of course. Did you think they went UP-stream?" She was looking
+squarely at him now, and he dropped his eyes. "No, the posse started in
+that direction, but I put them right." There was an odd light in her
+glance, and he felt the blood drumming in his ears.
+
+She sent them down-stream! So that was why there had been no pursuit!
+Then she must suspect--she must know everything! Glenister was stunned.
+Again his love for the girl surged tumultuously within him and demanded
+expression. But Miss Chester, no longer feeling sure that she had the
+situation in hand, had already started to return to the hotel. "I saw
+the men distinctly," she told him, before they separated, "and I could
+identify them all."
+
+At his own house Glenister found Dextry removing the stains of the
+night's adventure.
+
+"Miss Chester recognized us last night," he announced.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"She told me so just now, and, what's more, she sent McNamara and his
+crowd down the creek instead of up. That's why we got away so easily."
+
+"Well, well--ain't she a brick? She's even with us now. By-the-way, I
+wonder how much we cleaned up, anyhow--let's weigh it." Going to the
+bed, Dextry turned back the blankets, exposing four moose-skin sacks,
+wet and heavy, where he had thrown them.
+
+"There must have been twenty thousand dollars with what I gave
+Wheaton," said Glenister.
+
+At that moment, without warning, the door was flung open, and as the
+young man jerked the blankets into place he whirled, snatched the
+six-shooter that Dextry had discarded, and covered the entrance.
+
+"Don't shoot, boy!" cried the new-comer, breathlessly. "My, but you're
+nervous!"
+
+Glenister dropped his gun. It was Cherry Malotte; and, from her heaving
+breast and the flying colors in her cheeks, the men saw she had been
+running. She did not give them time to question, but closed and locked
+the door while the words came tumbling from her:
+
+"They're on to you, boys--you'd better duck out quick. They're on their
+way up here now."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Quick! I heard McNamara and Voorhees, the marshal, talking. Somebody
+has spotted you for the hold-ups. They're on their way now, I tell you.
+I sneaked out by the back way and came here through the mud. Say, but
+I'm a sight!" She stamped her trimly booted feet and flirted her skirt.
+
+"I don't savvy what you mean," said Dextry, glancing at his partner
+warningly. "We ain't done nothin'."
+
+"Well, it's all right then. I took a long chance so you could make a
+get-away if you wanted to, because they've got warrants for you for
+that sluice robbery last night. Here they are now." She darted to the
+window, the men peering over her shoulder. Coming up the narrow walk
+they saw Voorhees, McNamara, and three others.
+
+The house stood somewhat isolated and well back on the tundra, so that
+any one approaching it by the planking had an unobstructed view of the
+premises. Escape was impossible, for the back door led out into the
+ankle-deep puddles of the open prairie; and it was now apparent that a
+sixth man had made a circuit and was approaching from the rear.
+
+"My God! They'll search the place," said Dextry, and the men looked
+grimly in each other's faces.
+
+Then in a flash Glenister stripped back the blankets and seized the
+"pokes," leaping into the back room. In another instant he returned
+with them and faced desperately the candid bareness of the little room
+that they lived and slept in. Nothing could be hidden; it was folly to
+think of it. There was a loft overhead, he remembered, hopefully, then
+realized that the pursuers would search there first of all.
+
+"I told you he was a hard fighter," said Dextry, as the quick footsteps
+grew louder. "He ain't no fool neither. 'Stead of our bein' caught in
+the mountains, I reckon we'll shoot it out here. We should have cached
+that gold somewhere."
+
+He spun the cylinder of his blackened Colt, while his face grew hard
+and vulture-like.
+
+Meanwhile, Cherry Malotte watched the hunted look in Glenister's face
+grow wilder and then stiffen into the stubbornness of a man at bay. The
+posse was at the door now, knocking. The three inside stood rigid and
+strained. Then Glenister tossed his burden on the bed.
+
+"Go into the back room, Cherry; there's going to be trouble."
+
+"Who's there?" inquired Dextry through the door, to gain time.
+Suddenly, without a word, the girl glided to the hot-blast heater, now
+cold and empty, which stood in a corner of the room. These stoves, used
+widely in the North, are vertical iron cylinders into which coal is
+poured from above. She lifted the lid and peered in to find it a
+quarter full of dead ashes, then turned with shining eyes and parted
+lips to Glenister. He caught the hint, and in an instant the four sacks
+were dropped softly into the feathery bottom and the ashes raked over.
+The daring manoeuvre was almost as quick as the flash of woman's wit
+that prompted it, and was carried through while the answer to Dextry's
+question was still unspoken.
+
+Then Glenister opened the door carelessly and admitted the group of men.
+
+"We've got a search-warrant to look through your house," said Voorhees.
+
+"What are you looking for?"
+
+"Gold-dust from Anvil Creek."
+
+"All right--search away."
+
+They rapidly scoured the premises, covering every inch, paying no heed
+to the girl, who watched them with indifferent eyes, nor to the old
+man, who glared at their every movement. Glenister was carelessly
+sarcastic, although he kept his right arm free, while beneath his
+sang-froid was a thoroughly trained alertness.
+
+McNamara directed the search with a manner wholly lacking in his former
+mock courtesy. It was as though he had been soured by the gall of
+defeat. The mask had fallen off now, and his character
+showed--insistent, overbearing, cruel. Towards the partners he
+preserved a contemptuous silence.
+
+The invaders ransacked thoroughly, while a dozen times the hearts of
+Cherry Malotte and her two companions stopped, then lunged onward, as
+McNamara or Voorhees approached, then passed the stove. At last
+Voorhees lifted the lid and peered into its dark interior. At the same
+instant the girl cried out, sharply, flinging herself from her
+position, while the marshal jerked his head back in time to see her
+dash upon Dextry.
+
+"Don't! Don't!" She cried her appeal to the old man. "Keep cool. You'll
+be sorry, Dex--they're almost through."
+
+The officer had not seen any movement on Dextry's part, but doubtless
+her quick eye had detected signs of violence. McNamara emerged,
+glowering, from the back room at that moment.
+
+"Let them hunt," the girl was saying, while Dextry stared dazedly over
+her head. "They won't find anything. Keep cool and don't act rash."
+
+Voorhees's duties sat uncomfortably upon him at the best, and, looking
+at the smouldering eyes of the two men, he became averse to further
+search in a powdery household whose members itched to shoot him in the
+back.
+
+"It isn't here," he reported; but the politician only scowled, then
+spoke for the first time directly to the partners:
+
+"I've got warrants for both of you and I'm tempted to take you in, but
+I won't. I'm not through yet--not by any means. I'll get you--get you
+both." He turned out of the door, followed by the marshal, who called
+off his guards, and the group filed back along the walk.
+
+"Say, you're a jewel, Cherry. You've saved us twice. You caught
+Voorhees just in time. My heart hit my palate when he looked into that
+stove, but the next instant I wanted to laugh at Dextry's expression."
+
+Impulsively Glenister laid his hands upon her shoulders. At his look
+and touch her throat swelled, her bosom heaved, and the silken lids
+fluttered until she seemed choked by a very flood of sweet womanliness.
+She blushed like a little maid and laughed a timid, broken laugh; then
+pulling herself together, the merry, careless tone came into her voice
+and her cheeks grew cool and clear.
+
+"You wouldn't trust me at first, eh? Some day you'll find that your old
+friends are the best, after all."
+
+And as she left them she added, mockingly:
+
+"Say, you're a pair of 'shine' desperadoes. You need a governess."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+WHEREIN A WRIT AND A RIOT FAIL
+
+
+A Raw, gray day with a driving drizzle from seaward and a leaden rack
+of clouds drifting low matched the sullen, fitful mood of Glenister.
+
+During the last month he had chafed and fretted like an animal in leash
+for word of Wheaton. This uncertainty, this impotent waiting with
+folded hands, was maddening to one of his spirit. He could apply
+himself to no fixed duty, for the sense of his wrong preyed on him
+fiercely, and he found himself haunting the vicinity of the Midas,
+gazing at it from afar, grasping hungrily for such scraps of news as
+chanced to reach him. McNamara allowed access to none but his minions,
+so the partners knew but vaguely of what happened on their property,
+even though, under fiction of law, it was being worked for their
+protection.
+
+No steps regarding a speedy hearing of the case were allowed, and the
+collusion between Judge Stillman and the receiver had become so
+generally recognized that there were uneasy mutterings and threats in
+many quarters. Yet, although the politician had by now virtually
+absorbed all the richest properties in the district and worked them
+through his hirelings, the people of Nome as a whole did not grasp the
+full turpitude of the scheme nor the system's perfect working.
+
+Strange to say, Dextry, the fire-eater, had assumed an Oriental
+patience quite foreign to his peppery disposition, and spent much of
+his time in the hills prospecting.
+
+On this day, as the clouds broke, about noon, close down on the angry
+horizon a drift of smoke appeared, shortly resolving itself into a
+steamer. She lay to in the offing, and through his glasses Glenister
+saw that it was the Roanoke. As the hours passed and no boat put off,
+he tried to hire a crew, but the longshoremen spat wisely and shook
+their heads as they watched the surf.
+
+"There's the devil of an undertow settin' along this beach," they told
+him, "and the water's too cold to drownd in comfortable." So he laid
+firm hands upon his impatience.
+
+Every day meant many dollars to the watcher, and yet it seemed that
+nature was resolute in thwarting him, for that night the wind freshened
+and daylight saw the ship hugging the lee of Sledge Island, miles to
+the westward, while the surf, white as boiling milk, boomed and
+thundered against the shore.
+
+Word had gone through the street that Bill Wheaton was aboard with a
+writ, or a subpoena, or an alibi, or whatever was necessary to put the
+"kibosh" on McNamara, so public excitement grew. McNamara hoarded his
+gold in the Alaska Bank, and it was taken for granted that there would
+lie the scene of the struggle. No one supposed for an instant that the
+usurper would part with the treasure peaceably.
+
+On the third morning the ship lay abreast of the town again and a
+life-boat was seen to make off from her, whereupon the idle population
+streamed towards the beach.
+
+"She'll make it to the surf all right, but then watch out."
+
+"We'd better make ready to haul 'em out," said another. "It's mighty
+dangerous." And sure enough, as the skiff came rushing in through the
+breakers she was caught.
+
+She had made it past the first line, soaring over the bar on a foamy
+roller-crest like a storm-driven gull winging in towards the land. The
+wiry figure of Bill Wheaton crouched in the stern while two sailors
+fought with their oars. As they gathered for their rush through the
+last zone of froth, a great comber rose out of the sea behind them,
+rearing high above their heads. The crowd at the surf's edge shouted.
+The boat wavered, sucked back into the ocean's angry maw, and with a
+crash the deluge engulfed them. There remained nothing but a swirling
+flood through which the life-boat emerged bottom up, amid a tangle of
+oars, gratings, and gear.
+
+Men rushed into the water, and the next roller pounded them back upon
+the marble-hard sand. There came the sound of splitting wood, and then
+a group swarmed in waist-deep and bore out a dripping figure. It was a
+hempen-headed seaman, who shook the water from his mane and grinned
+when his breath had come.
+
+A step farther down the beach the by-standers seized a limp form which
+the tide rolled to them. It was the second sailor, his scalp split from
+a blow of the gunwale. Nowhere was Wheaton.
+
+Glenister had plunged to the rescue first, a heaving-line about his
+middle, and although buffeted about he had reached the wreck, only to
+miss sight of the lawyer utterly. He had time for but a glance when he
+was drawn outward by the undertow till the line at his waist grew taut,
+then the water surged over him and he was hurled high up on the beach
+again. He staggered dizzily back to the struggle, when suddenly a wave
+lifted the capsized cutter and righted it, and out from beneath shot
+the form of Wheaton, grimly clutching the life-ropes. They brought him
+in choking and breathless.
+
+"I got it," he said, slapping his streaming breast. "It's all right,
+Glenister, I knew what delay meant so I took a long chance with the
+surf." The terrific ordeal he had undergone had blanched him to the
+lips, his legs wabbled uncertainly, and he would have fallen but for
+the young man, who thrust an arm about his waist and led him up into
+the town.
+
+"I went before the Circuit Court of Appeals in 'Frisco," he explained
+later, "and they issued orders allowing an appeal from this court and
+gave me a writ of supersedeas directed against old Judge Stillman. That
+takes the litigation out of his hands altogether, and directs McNamara
+to turn over the Midas and all the gold he's got. What do you think of
+that? I did better than I expected."
+
+Glenister wrung his hand silently while a great satisfaction came upon
+him. At last this waiting was over and his peaceful yielding to
+injustice had borne fruit; had proven the better course after all, as
+the girl had prophesied. He could go to her now with clean hands. The
+mine was his again. He would lay it at her feet, telling her once more
+of his love and the change it was working in him. He would make her see
+it, make her see that beneath the harshness his years in the wild had
+given him, his love for her was gentle and true and all absorbing. He
+would bid her be patient till she saw he had mastered himself, till he
+could come with his soul in harness.
+
+"I am glad I didn't fight when they jumped us," he said. "Now we'll get
+our property back and all the money they took out--that is, if McNamara
+hasn't salted it."
+
+"Yes; all that's necessary is to file the documents, then serve the
+Judge and McNamara. You'll be back on Anvil Creek to-morrow."
+
+Having placed their documents on record at the court-house, the two men
+continued to McNamara's office. He met them with courtesy.
+
+"I heard you had a narrow escape this morning, Mr. Wheaton. Too bad!
+What can I do for you?"
+
+The lawyer rapidly outlined his position and stated in conclusion:
+
+"I filed certified copies of these orders with the clerk of the court
+ten minutes ago, and now I make formal demand upon you to turn over the
+Midas to Messrs. Glenister and Dextry, and also to return all the
+gold-dust in your safe-deposit boxes in accordance with this writ." He
+handed his documents to McNamara, who tossed them on his desk without
+examination.
+
+"Well," said the politician, quietly, "I won't do it."
+
+Had he been slapped in the face the attorney would not have been more
+astonished.
+
+"Why--you--"
+
+"I won't do it, I said," McNamara repeated, sharply. "Don't think for a
+minute that I haven't gone into this fight armed for everything. Writs
+of supersedeas! Bah!" He snapped his fingers.
+
+"We'll see whether you'll obey or not," said Wheaton and when he and
+Glenister were outside he continued:
+
+"Let's get to the Judge quick."
+
+As they neared the Golden Gate Hotel they spied McNamara entering. It
+was evident that he had slipped from the rear door of his office and
+beaten them to the judicial ear.
+
+"I don't like that," said Glenister. "He's up to something."
+
+So it appeared, for they were fifteen minutes in gaining access to the
+magistrate and then found McNamara with him. Both men were astounded at
+the change in Stillman's appearance. During the last month his weak
+face had shrunk and altered until vacillation was betrayed in every
+line, and he had acquired the habit of furtively watching McNamara's
+slightest movement. It seemed that the part he played sat heavily upon
+him.
+
+The Judge examined the papers perfunctorily, and, although his air was
+deliberate, his fingers made clumsy work of it. At last he said:
+
+"I regret that I am forced to doubt the authenticity of these
+documents."
+
+"My Heavens, man!" Wheaton cried. "They're certified copies of orders
+from your superior court. They grant the appeal that you have denied us
+and take the case out of your hands altogether. Yes--and they order
+this man to surrender the mine and everything connected with it. Now,
+sir, we want you to enforce these orders."
+
+Stillman glanced at the silent man in the window and replied:
+
+"You will, of course, proceed regularly and make application in court
+in the proper way, but I tell you now that I won't do anything in the
+matter."
+
+Wheaton stared at him fixedly until the old man snapped out:
+
+"You say they are certified copies. How do I know they are? The
+signatures may all be false. Maybe you signed them yourself."
+
+The lawyer grew very white at this and stammered until Glenister drew
+him out of the room.
+
+"Come, come," he said, "we'll carry this thing through in open court.
+Maybe his nerve will go back on him then. McNamara has him hypnotized,
+but he won't dare refuse to obey the orders of the Circuit Court of
+Appeals."
+
+"He won't, eh? Well, what do you think he's doing right now?" said
+Wheaton. "I must think. This is the boldest game I ever played in. They
+told me things while I was in 'Frisco which I couldn't believe, but I
+guess they're true. Judges don't disobey the orders of their courts of
+appeal unless there is power back of them."
+
+They proceeded to the attorney's office, but had not been there long
+before Slapjack Simms burst in upon them.
+
+"Hell to pay!" he panted. "McNamara's taking your dust out of the bank."
+
+"What's that?" they cried.
+
+"I goes into the bank just now for an assay on some quartz samples. The
+assayer is busy, and I walk back into his room, and while I'm there in
+trots McNamara in a hurry. He don't see me, as I'm inside the private
+office, and I overhear him tell them to get his dust out of the vault
+quick."
+
+"We've got to stop that," said Glenister. "If he takes ours, he'll take
+the Swedes', too. Simms, you run up to the Pioneer Company and tell
+them about it. If he gets that gold out of there, nobody knows what'll
+become of it. Come on, Bill."
+
+He snatched his hat and ran out of the room, followed by the others.
+That the loose-jointed Slapjack did his work with expedition was
+evidenced by the fact that the Swedes were close upon their heels as
+the two entered the bank. Others had followed, sensing something
+unusual, and the space within the doors filled rapidly. At the
+disturbance the clerks suspended their work, the barred doors of the
+safe-deposit vault clanged to, and the cashier laid hand upon the navy
+Colt's at his elbow. "What's the matter?" he cried.
+
+"We want Alec McNamara," said Glenister.
+
+The manager of the bank appeared, and Glenister spoke to him through
+the heavy wire netting.
+
+"Is McNamara in there?"
+
+No one had ever known Morehouse to lie. "Yes, sir." He spoke
+hesitatingly, in a voice full of the slow music of Virginia. "He is in
+here. What of it?"
+
+"We hear he's trying to move that dust of ours and we won't stand for
+it. Tell him to come out and not hide in there like a dog."
+
+At these words the politician appeared beside the Southerner, and the
+two conversed softly an instant, while the impatience of the crowd grew
+to anger. Some one cried:
+
+"Let's go in and drag him out," and the rumble at this was not
+pleasant. Morehouse raised his hand.
+
+"Gentlemen, Mr. McNamara says he doesn't intend to take any of the gold
+away."
+
+"Then he's taken it already."
+
+"No, he hasn't."
+
+The receiver's course had been quickly chosen at the interruption. It
+was not wise to anger these men too much. Although he had planned to
+get the money into his own possession, he now thought it best to leave
+it here for the present. He could come back at any time when they were
+off guard and get it. Beyond the door against which he stood lay three
+hundred thousand dollars--weighed, sacked, sealed, and ready to move
+out of the custody of this Virginian whose confidence he had tried so
+fruitlessly to gain.
+
+As McNamara looked into the angry eyes of the lean-faced men beyond the
+grating, he felt that the game was growing close, and his blood tingled
+at the thought. He had not planned on a resistance so strong and swift,
+but he would meet it. He knew that they hungered for his destruction
+and that Glenister was their leader. He saw further that the man's
+hatred now stared at him openly for the first time. He knew that back
+of it was something more than love for the dull metal over which they
+wrangled, and then a thought came to him.
+
+"Some of your work, eh, Glenister?" he mocked. "Were you afraid to come
+alone, or did you wait till you saw me with a lady?"
+
+At the same instant he opened a door behind him, revealing Helen
+Chester. "You'd better not walk out with me, Miss Chester. This man
+might--well, you're safer here, you know. You'll pardon me for leaving
+you." He hoped he could incite the young man to some rash act or word
+in the presence of the girl, and counted on the conspicuous heroism of
+his own position, facing the mob single-handed, one against fifty.
+
+"Come out," said his enemy, hoarsely, upon whom the insult and the
+sight of the girl in the receiver's company had acted powerfully.
+
+"Of course I'll come out, but I don't want this young lady to suffer
+any violence from your friends," said McNamara. "I am not armed, but I
+have the right to leave here unmolested--the right of an American
+citizen." With that he raised his arms above his head. "Out of my way!"
+he cried. Morehouse opened the gate, and McNamara strode through the
+mob.
+
+It is a peculiar thing that although under fury of passion a man may
+fire even upon the back of a defenceless foe, yet no one can offer
+violence to a man whose arms are raised on high and in whose glance is
+the level light of fearlessness. Moreover, it is safer to face a crowd
+thus than a single adversary.
+
+McNamara had seen this psychological trick tried before and now took
+advantage of it to walk through the press slowly, eye to eye. He did it
+theatrically, for the benefit of the girl, and, as he foresaw, the men
+fell away before him--all but Glenister, who blocked him, gun in hand.
+It was plain that the persecuted miner was beside himself with passion.
+McNamara came within an arm's-length before pausing. Then he stopped
+and the two stared malignantly at each other, while the girl behind the
+railing heard her heart pounding in the stillness. Glenister raised his
+hand uncertainly, then let it fall. He shook his head, and stepped
+aside so that the other brushed past and out into the street.
+
+Wheaton addressed the banker:
+
+"Mr. Morehouse, we've got orders and writs of one kind or another from
+the Circuit Court of Appeals at 'Frisco directing that this money be
+turned over to us." He shoved the papers towards the other. "We're not
+in a mood to trifle. That gold belongs to us, and we want it."
+
+Morehouse looked carefully at the papers.
+
+"I can't help you," he said. "These documents are not directed to me.
+They're issued to Mr. McNamara and Judge Stillman. If the Circuit Court
+of Appeals commands me to deliver it to you I'll do it, but otherwise
+I'll have to keep this dust here till it's drawn out by order of the
+court that gave it to me. That's the way it was put in here, and that's
+the way it'll be taken out."
+
+"We want it now."
+
+"Well, I can't let my sympathies influence me"
+
+"Then we'll take it out, anyway," cried Glenister. "We've had the worst
+of it everywhere else and we're sick of it. Come on, men."
+
+"Stand back!--all of you!" cried Morehouse. "Don't lay a hand on that
+gate. Boys, pick your men."
+
+He called this last to his clerks, at the same instant whipping from
+behind the counter a carbine, which he cocked. The assayer brought into
+view a shot-gun, while the cashier and clerks armed themselves. It was
+evident that the deposits of the Alaska Bank were abundantly
+safeguarded.
+
+"I don't aim to have any trouble with you-all," continued the
+Southerner, "but that money stays here till it's drawn out right."
+
+The crowd paused at this show of resistance, but Glenister railed at
+them:
+
+"Come on--come on! What's the matter with you?" And from the light in
+his eye it was evident that he would not be balked.
+
+Helen felt that a crisis was come, and braced herself. These men were
+in deadly earnest: the white-haired banker, his pale helpers, and those
+grim, quiet ones outside. There stood brawny, sun-browned men, with set
+jaws and frowning faces, and yellow-haired Scandinavians in whose blue
+eyes danced the flame of battle. These had been baffled at every turn,
+goaded by repeated failure, and now stood shoulder to shoulder in their
+resistance to a cruel law. Suddenly Helen heard a command from the
+street and the quick tramp of men, while over the heads before her she
+saw the glint of rifle barrels. A file of soldiers with fixed bayonets
+thrust themselves roughly through the crowd at the entrance.
+
+"Clear the room!" commanded the officer.
+
+"What does this mean?" shouted Wheaton.
+
+"It means that Judge Stillman has called upon the military to guard
+this gold, that's all. Come, now, move quick." The men hesitated, then
+sullenly obeyed, for resistance to the blue of Uncle Sam comes only at
+the cost of much consideration.
+
+"They're robbing us with our own soldiers," said Wheaton, when they
+were outside.
+
+"Ay," said Glenister, darkly. "We've tried the law, but they're forcing
+us back to first principles. There's going to be murder here."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+COUNTERPLOTS
+
+
+Glenister had said that the Judge would not dare to disobey the
+mandates of the Circuit Court of Appeals, but he was wrong. Application
+was made for orders directing the enforcement of the writs--steps which
+would have restored possession of the Midas to its owners, as well as
+possession of the treasure in bank--but Stillman refused to grant them.
+
+Wheaton called a meeting of the Swedes and their attorneys, advising a
+junction of forces. Dextry, who had returned from the mountains, was
+present. When they had finished their discussion, he said:
+
+"It seems like I can always fight better when I know what the other
+feller's game is. I'm going to spy on that outfit."
+
+"We've had detectives at work for weeks," said the lawyer for the
+Scandinavians; "but they can't find out anything we don't know already."
+
+Dextry said no more, but that night found him busied in the building
+adjoining the one wherein McNamara had his office. He had rented a back
+room on the top floor, and with the help of his partner sawed through
+the ceiling into the loft and found his way thence to the roof through
+a hatchway. Fortunately, there was but little space between the two
+buildings, and, furthermore, each boasted the square fronts common in
+mining-camps, which projected high enough to prevent observation from
+across the way. Thus he was enabled, without discovery, to gain the
+roof adjoining and to cut through into the loft. He crept cautiously in
+through the opening, and out upon a floor of joists sealed on the lower
+side, then lit a candle, and, locating McNamara's office, cut a
+peep-hole so that by lying flat on the timbers he could command a
+considerable portion of the room beneath. Here, early the following
+morning, he camped with the patience of an Indian, emerging in the
+still of that night stiff, hungry, and atrociously cross. Meanwhile,
+there had been another meeting of the mine-owners, and it had been
+decided to send Wheaton, properly armed with affidavits and transcripts
+of certain court records, back to San Francisco on the return trip of
+the Santa Maria, which had arrived in port. He was to institute
+proceedings for contempt of court, and it was hoped that by
+extraordinary effort he could gain quick action.
+
+At daybreak Dextry returned to his post, and it was midnight before he
+crawled from his hiding-place to see the lawyer and Glenister.
+
+"They have had a spy on you all day, Wheaton," he began, "and they know
+you're going out to the States. You'll be arrested to-morrow morning
+before breakfast."
+
+"Arrested! What for?"
+
+"I don't just remember what the crime is--bigamy, or mayhem, or
+attainder of treason, or something--anyway, they'll get you in jail and
+that's all they want. They think you're the only lawyer that's wise
+enough to cause trouble and the only one they can't bribe."
+
+"Lord! What 'll I do? They'll watch every lighter that leaves the
+beach, and if they don't catch me that way, they'll search the ship."
+
+"I've thought it all out," said the old man, to whom obstruction acted
+as a stimulant.
+
+"Yes--but how?"
+
+"Leave it to me. Get your things together and be ready to duck in two
+hours."
+
+"I tell you they'll search the Santa Maria from stem to stern,"
+protested the lawyer, but Dextry had gone.
+
+"Better do as he says. His schemes are good ones," recommended
+Glenister, and accordingly the lawyer made preparation.
+
+In the mean time the old prospector had begun at the end of Front
+Street to make a systematic search of the gambling-houses. Although it
+was very late they were running noisily, and at last he found the man
+he wanted playing "Black Jack," the smell of tar in his clothes, the
+lilt of the sea in his boisterous laughter. Dextry drew him aside.
+
+"Mac, there's only two things about you that's any good--your silence
+and your seamanship. Otherwise, you're a disreppitable, drunken insect."
+
+The sailor grinned.
+
+"What is it you want now? If it's concerning money, or business, or the
+growed-up side of life, run along and don't disturb the carousals of a
+sailorman. If it's a fight, lemme get my hat."
+
+"I want you to wake up your fireman and have steam on the tug in an
+hour, then wait for me below the bridge. You're chartered for
+twenty-four hours, and--remember, not a word."
+
+"I'm on! Compared to me the Spinks of Egyp' is as talkative as a
+phonograph."
+
+The old man next turned his steps to the Northern Theatre. The
+performance was still in progress, and he located the man he was
+hunting without difficulty.
+
+Ascending the stairs, he knocked at the door of one of the boxes and
+called for Captain Stephens.
+
+"I'm glad I found you, Cap," said he. "It saved me a trip out to your
+ship in the dark."
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+Dextry drew him to an isolated corner. "Me an' my partner want to send
+a man to the States with you."
+
+"All right."
+
+"Well--er--here's the point," hesitated the miner, who rebelled at
+asking favors. "He's our law sharp, an' the McNamara outfit is tryin'
+to put the steel on him."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Why, they've swore out a warrant an' aim to guard the shore to-morrow.
+We want you to--"
+
+"Mr. Dextry, I'm not looking for trouble. I get enough in my own
+business."
+
+"But, see here," argued the other, "we've GOT to send him out so he can
+make a pow-wow to the big legal smoke in 'Frisco. We've been
+cold-decked with a bum judge. They've got us into a corner an' over the
+ropes."
+
+"I'm sorry I can't help you, Dextry, but I got mixed up in one of your
+scrapes and that's plenty."
+
+"This ain't no stowaway. There's no danger to you," began Dextry, but
+the officer interrupted him:
+
+"There's no need of arguing. I won't do it."
+
+"Oh, you WON'T, eh?" said the old man, beginning to lose his temper.
+"Well, you listen to me for a minute. Everybody in camp knows that me
+an' the kid is on the square an' that we're gettin' the hunk passed to
+us. Now, this lawyer party must get away to-night or these grafters
+will hitch the horses to him on some phony charge so he can't get to
+the upper court. It 'll be him to the bird-cage for ninety days. He's
+goin' to the States, though, an' he's goin'--in--your--wagon! I'm
+talkin' to you--man to man. If you don't take him, I'll go to the
+health inspector--he's a friend of mine--an' I'll put a crimp in you
+an' your steamboat, I don't want to do that--it ain't my reg'lar graft
+by no means--but this bet goes through as she lays. I never belched up
+a secret before. No, sir; I am the human huntin'-case watch, an' I
+won't open my face unless you press me. But if I should, you'll see
+that it's time for you to hunt a new job. Now, here's my scheme." He
+outlined his directions to the sailor, who had fallen silent during the
+warning. When he had done, Stephens said:
+
+"I never had a man talk to me like that before, sir--never. You've
+taken advantage of me, and under the circumstances I can't refuse. I'll
+do this thing--not because of your threat, but because I heard about
+your trouble over the Midas--and because I can't help admiring your
+blamed insolence." He went back into his stall.
+
+Dextry returned to Wheaton's office. As he neared it, he passed a
+lounging figure in an adjacent doorway.
+
+"The place is watched," he announced as he entered. "Have you got a
+back door? Good! Leave your light burning and we'll go out that way."
+They slipped quietly into an inky, tortuous passage which led back
+towards Second Street. Floundering through alleys and over garbage
+heaps, by circuitous routes, they reached the bridge, where, in the
+swift stream beneath, they saw the lights from Mac's tug.
+
+Steam was up, and when the Captain had let them aboard Dextry gave him
+instructions, to which he nodded acquiescence. They bade the lawyer
+adieu, and the little craft slipped its moorings, danced down the
+current, across the bar, and was swallowed up in the darkness to
+seaward. "I'll put out Wheaton's light so they'll think he's gone to
+bed."
+
+"Yes, and at daylight I'll take your place in McNamara's loft," said
+Glenister. "There will be doings to-morrow when they don't find him."
+
+They returned by the way they had come to the lawyer's room,
+extinguished his light, went to their own cabin and to bed. At dawn
+Glenister arose and sought his place above McNamara's office.
+
+To lie stretched at length on a single plank with eye glued to a crack
+is not a comfortable position, and the watcher thought the hours of the
+next day would never end. As they dragged wearily past, his bones began
+to ache beyond endurance, yet owing to the flimsy structure of the
+building he dared not move while the room below was tenanted. In fact,
+he would not have stirred had he dared, so intense was his interest in
+the scenes being enacted beneath him.
+
+First had come the marshal, who imported his failure to find Wheaton.
+
+"He left his room some time last night. My men followed him in and saw
+a light in his window until two o'clock this morning. At seven o'clock
+we broke in and he was gone."
+
+"He must have got wind of our plan. Send deputies aboard the Santa
+Maria; search her from keel to topmast, and have them watch the beach
+close or he'll put off in a small boat. You look over the passengers
+that go aboard yourself. Don't trust any of your men for that, because
+he may try to slip through disguised. He's liable to make up like a
+woman. You understand--there's only one ship in port, and--he mustn't
+get away."
+
+"He won't," said Voorhees, with conviction, and the listener overhead
+smiled grimly to himself, for at that moment, twenty miles offshore,
+lay Mac's little tug, hove to in the track of the outgoing steamship,
+and in her tiny cabin sat Bill Wheaton eating breakfast.
+
+As the morning wore by with no news of the lawyer, McNamara's
+uneasiness grew. At noon the marshal returned with a report that the
+passengers were all aboard and the ship about to clear.
+
+"By Heavens! He's slipped through you," stormed the politician.
+
+"No, he hasn't. He may be hidden aboard somewhere among the
+coal-bunkers, but I think he's still ashore and aiming to make a quick
+run just before she sails. He hasn't left the beach since daylight,
+that's sure. I'm going out to the ship now with four men and search her
+again. If we don't bring him off you can bet he's lying out somewhere
+in town and we'll get him later. I've stationed men along the shore for
+two miles."
+
+"I won't have him get away. If he should reach 'Frisco--Tell your men
+I'll give five hundred dollars to the one that finds him."
+
+Three hours later Voorhees returned.
+
+"She sailed without him."
+
+The politician cursed. "I don't believe it. He tricked you. I know he
+did."
+
+Glenister grinned into a half-eaten sandwich, then turned upon his back
+and lay thus on the plank, identifying the speakers below by their
+voices.
+
+He kept his post all day. Later in the evening he heard Struve enter.
+The man had been drinking.
+
+"So he got away, eh?" he began. "I was afraid he would. Smart fellow,
+that Wheaton."
+
+"He didn't get away," said McNamara. "He's in town yet. Just let me
+land him in jail on some excuse! I'll hold him till snow flies." Struve
+sank into a chair and lit a cigarette with wavering hand.
+
+"This's a hell of a game, ain't it, Mac? D'you s'pose we'll win?"
+
+The man overhead pricked up his ears.
+
+"Win? Aren't we winning? What do you call this? I only hope we can lay
+hands on Wheaton. He knows things. A little knowledge is a dangerous
+thing, but more is worse. Lord! If only I had a MAN for judge in place
+of Stillman! I don't know why I brought him."
+
+"That's right. Too weak. He hasn't got the backbone of an angleworm. He
+ain't half the man that his niece is. THERE'S a girl for you! Say!
+What'd we do without her, eh? She's a pippin!" Glenister felt a sudden
+tightening of every muscle. What right had that man's liquor-sodden
+lips to speak so of her?
+
+"She's a brave little woman all right. Just look how she worked
+Glenister and his fool partner. It took nerve to bring in those
+instructions of yours alone; and if it hadn't been for her we'd never
+have won like this. It makes me laugh to think of those two men stowing
+her away in their state-room while they slept between decks with the
+sheep, and her with the papers in her bosom all the time. Then, when we
+got ready to do business, why, she up and talks them into giving us
+possession of their mine without a fight. That's what I call
+reciprocating a man's affection."
+
+Glenister's nails cut into his flesh, while his face went livid at the
+words. He could not grasp it at once. It made him sick--physically
+sick--and for many moments he strove blindly to beat back the hideous
+suspicion, the horror that the lawyer had aroused. His was not a
+doubting disposition, and to him the girl had seemed as one pure,
+mysterious, apart, angelically incapable of deceit. He had loved her,
+feeling that some day she would return his affection without fail. In
+her great, unclouded eyes he had found no lurking-place for
+double-dealing. Now--God! It couldn't be that all the time she had
+KNOWN!
+
+He had lost a part of the lawyer's speech, but peered through his
+observation-hole again.
+
+McNamara was at the window gazing out into the dark street, his back
+towards the lawyer, who lolled in the chair, babbling garrulously of
+the girl. Glenister ground his teeth--a frenzy possessed him to loose
+his anger, to rip through the frail ceiling with naked hands and fall
+vindictively upon the two men.
+
+"She looked good to me the first time I saw her," continued Struve. He
+paused, and when he spoke again a change had coarsened his features,
+"Say, I'm crazy about her, Mac. I tell you, I'm crazy--and she likes
+me--I know she does--or, anyway, she would--"
+
+"Do you mean that you're in love with her?" asked the man at the
+window, without shifting his position. It seemed that utter
+indifference was in his question, although where the light shone on his
+hands, tight-clinched behind his back, they were bloodless.
+
+"Love her? Well--that depends--ha! You know how it is--" he chuckled,
+coarsely. His face was gross and bestial. "I've got the Judge where I
+want him, and I'll have her--"
+
+His miserable words died with a gurgle, for McNamara had silently
+leaped and throttled him where he sat, pinning him to the wall.
+Glenister saw the big politician shift his fingers slightly on Struve's
+throat and then drop his left hand to his side, holding his victim
+writhing and helpless with his right despite the man's frantic
+struggles. McNamara's head was thrust forward from his shoulders,
+peering into the lawyer's face. Strove tore ineffectually at the iron
+arm which was squeezing his life out, while for endless minutes the
+other leaned his weight against him, his idle hand behind his back, his
+legs braced like stone columns, as he watched his victim's struggles
+abate.
+
+Struve fought and wrenched while his breath caught in his throat with
+horrid, sickening sounds, but gradually his eyes rolled farther and
+farther back till they stared out of his blackened visage, straight up
+towards the ceiling, towards the hole through which Glenister peered.
+His struggles lessened, his chin sagged, and his tongue protruded, then
+he sat loose and still. The politician flung him out into the room so
+that he fell limply upon his face, then stood watching him. Finally,
+McNamara passed out of the watcher's vision, returning with a
+water-bucket. With his foot he rolled the unconscious wretch upon his
+back, then drenched him. Replacing the pail, he seated himself, lit a
+cigar, and watched the return of life into his victim. He made no move,
+even to drag him from the pool in which he lay.
+
+Struve groaned and shuddered, twisted to his side, and at last sat up
+weakly. In his eyes there was now a great terror, while in place of his
+drunkenness was only fear and faintness--abject fear of the great bulk
+that sat and smoked and stared at him so fishily. He felt uncertainly
+of his throat, and groaned again.
+
+"Why did you do that?" he whispered; but the other made no sign. He
+tried to rise, but his knees relaxed; he staggered and fell. At last he
+gained his feet and made for the door; then, when his hand was on the
+knob, McNamara spoke through his teeth, without removing his cigar.
+
+"Don't ever talk about her again. She is going to marry me."
+
+When he was alone he looked curiously up at the ceiling over his head.
+"The rats are thick in this shack," he mused. "Seems to me I heard a
+whole swarm of them."
+
+A few moments later a figure crept through the hole in the roof of the
+house next door and thence down into the street. A block ahead was the
+slow-moving form of Attorney Struve. Had a stranger met them both he
+would not have known which of the two had felt at his throat the clutch
+of a strangler, for each was drawn and haggard and swayed as he went.
+
+Glenister unconsciously turned towards his cabin, but at leaving the
+lighted streets the thought of its darkness and silence made him
+shudder. Not now! He could not bear that stillness and the company of
+his thoughts. He dared not be alone. Dextry would be down-town,
+undoubtedly, and he, too, must get into the light and turmoil. He
+licked his lips and found that they were cracked and dry.
+
+At rare intervals during the past years he had staggered in from a long
+march where, for hours, he had waged a bitter war with cold and hunger,
+his limbs clumsy with fatigue, his garments wet and stiff, his mind
+slack and sullen. At such extreme seasons he had felt a consuming
+thirst, a thirst which burned and scorched until his very bones cried
+out feverishly. Not a thirst for water, nor a thirst which eaten snow
+could quench, but a savage yearning of his whole exhausted system for
+some stimulant, for some coursing fiery fluid that would burn and
+strangle. A thirst for whiskey--for brandy! Remembering these
+occasional ferocious desires, he had become charitable to such
+unfortunates as were too weak to withstand similar temptations.
+
+Now with a shock he caught himself in the grip of a thirst as insistent
+as though the cold bore down and the weariness of endless heavy miles
+wrapped him about. It was no foolish wish to drown his thoughts nor to
+banish the grief that preyed upon him, but only thirst! Thirst!--a
+crying, trembling, physical lust to quench the fires that burned
+inside. He remembered that it had been more than a year since he had
+tasted whiskey. Now the fever of the past few hours had parched his
+every tissue.
+
+As he elbowed in through the crowd at the Northern, those next him made
+room at the bar for they recognized the hunger that peers thus from
+men's faces. Their manner recalled Glenister to his senses, and he
+wrenched himself away. This was not some solitary, snow-banked
+road-house. He would not stand and soak himself, shoulder to shoulder
+with stevedores and longshoremen. This was something to be done in
+secret. He had no pride in it. The man on his right raised a glass, and
+the young man strangled a madness to tear it from his hands. Instead,
+he hurried back to the theatre and up to a box, where he drew the
+curtains.
+
+"Whiskey!" he said, thickly, to the waiter. "Bring it to me fast. Don't
+you hear? Whiskey!"
+
+Across the theatre Cherry Malotte had seen him enter and jerk the
+curtains together. She arose and went to him, entering without ceremony.
+
+"What's the matter, boy?" she questioned.
+
+"Ah! I am glad you came. Talk to me."
+
+"Thank you for your few well-chosen remarks," she laughed. "Why don't
+you ask me to spring some good, original jokes? You look like the
+finish to a six-day go-as-you please. What's up?"
+
+She talked to him for a moment until the waiter entered, then, when she
+saw what he bore, she snatched the glass from the tray and poured the
+whiskey on the floor. Glenister was on his feet and had her by the
+wrist.
+
+"What do you mean?" he said, roughly.
+
+"It's whiskey, boy," she cried, "and you don't drink."
+
+"Of course it's whiskey. Bring me another," he shouted at the attendant.
+
+"What's the matter?" Cherry insisted. "I never saw you act so. You know
+you don't drink. I won't let you. It's booze--booze, I tell you, fit
+for fools and brawlers. Don't drink it, Roy. Are you in trouble?"
+
+"I say I'm thirsty--and I will have it! How do you know what it is to
+smoulder inside, and feel your veins burn dry?"
+
+"It's something about that girl," the woman said, with quiet
+conviction. "She's double-crossed you."
+
+"Well, so she has--but what of it? I'm thirsty. She's going to marry
+McNamara. I've been a fool." He ground his teeth and reached for the
+drink with which the boy had returned.
+
+"McNamara is a crook, but he's a man, and he never drank a drop in his
+life." The girl said it, casually, evenly, but the other stopped the
+glass half-way to his lips.
+
+"Well, what of it? Goon. You're good at W. C. T. U. talk. Virtue
+becomes you."
+
+She flushed, but continued, "It simply occurred to me that if you
+aren't strong enough to handle your own throat, you're not strong
+enough to beat a man who has mastered his."
+
+Glenister looked at the whiskey a moment, then set it back on the tray.
+
+"Bring two lemonades," he said, and with a laugh which was half a sob
+Cherry Malotte leaned forward and kissed him.
+
+"You're too good a man to drink. Now, tell me all about it."
+
+"Oh, it's too long! I've just learned that the girl is in, hand and
+glove, with the Judge and McNamara--that's all. She's an advance
+agent--their lookout. She brought in their instructions to Struve and
+persuaded Dex and me to let them jump our claim. She got us to trust in
+the law and in her uncle. Yes, she hypnotized my property out of me and
+gave it to her lover, this ward politician. Oh, she's smooth, with all
+her innocence! Why, when she smiles she makes you glad and good and
+warm, and her eyes are as honest and clear as a mountain pool, but
+she's wrong--she's wrong--and--great God! how I love her!" He dropped
+his face into his hands.
+
+When she had pled with him for himself a moment before Cherry Malotte
+was genuine and girlish but now as he spoke thus of the other woman a
+change came over her which he was too disturbed to note. She took on
+the subtleness that masked her as a rule, and her eyes were not
+pleasant.
+
+"I could have told you all that and more."
+
+"More! What more?" he questioned.
+
+"Do you remember when I warned you and Dextry that they were coming to
+search your cabin for the gold? Well, that girl put them on to you. I
+found it out afterwards. She keeps the keys to McNamara's safety vault
+where your dust lies, and she's the one who handles the Judge. It isn't
+McNamara at all." The woman lied easily, fluently, and the man believed
+her.
+
+"Do you remember when they broke into your safe and took that money?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, what made them think you had ten thousand in there?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"I do. Dextry told her."
+
+Glenister arose. "That's all I want to hear now. I'm going crazy. My
+mind aches, for I've never had a fight like this before and it hurts.
+You see, I've been an animal all these years. When I wanted to drink, I
+drank, and what I wanted, I got, because I've been strong enough to
+take it. This is new to me. I'm going down-stairs now and try to think
+of something else--then I'm going home."
+
+When he had gone she pulled back the curtains, and, leaning her chin in
+her hands, with elbows on the ledge, gazed down upon the crowd. The
+show was over and the dance had begun, but she did not see it, for she
+was thinking rapidly with the eagerness of one who sees the end of a
+long and weary search. She did not notice the Bronco Kid beckoning to
+her nor the man with him, so the gambler brought his friend along and
+invaded her box. He introduced the man as Mr. Champian.
+
+"Do you feel like dancing?" the new-comer inquired.
+
+"No; I'd rather look on. I feel sociable. You're a society man, Mr.
+Champian. Don't you know anything of interest? Scandal or the like?"
+
+"Can't say that I do. My wife attends to all that for the family. But I
+know there's lots of it. It's funny to me, the airs some of these
+people assume up here, just as though we weren't all equal, north of
+Fifty-three. I never heard the like."
+
+"Anything new and exciting?" inquired Bronco, mildly interested.
+
+"The last I heard was about the Judge's niece, Miss Chester."
+
+Cherry Malotte turned abruptly, while the Kid slowly lowered the front
+legs of his chair to the floor.
+
+"What was it?" she inquired.
+
+"Why, it seems she compromised herself pretty badly with this fellow
+Glenister coming up on the steamer last spring. Mighty brazen,
+according to my wife. Mrs. Champian was on the same ship and says she
+was horribly shocked."
+
+Ah! Glenister had told her only half the tale, thought the girl. The
+truth was baring itself. At that moment Champian thought she looked the
+typical creature of the dance-halls, the crafty, jealous, malevolent
+adventuress.
+
+"And the hussy masquerades as a lady," she sneered.
+
+"She IS a lady," said the Kid. He sat bolt upright and rigid, and the
+knuckles of his clinched hands were very white. In the shadow they did
+not note that his dark face was ghastly, nor did he say more except to
+bid Champian good-bye when he left, later on. After the door had
+closed, however, the Kid arose and stretched his muscles, not
+languidly, but as though to take out the cramp of long tension. He wet
+his lips, and his mouth was so dry that the sound caused the girl to
+look up.
+
+"What are you grinning at?" Then, as the light struck his face, she
+started. "My! How you look! What ails you? Are you sick?" No one, from
+Dawson down, had seen the Bronco Kid as he looked to-night.
+
+"No. I'm not sick," he answered, in a cracked voice.
+
+Then the girl laughed harshly.
+
+"Do YOU love that girl, too? Why, she's got every man in town crazy."
+
+She wrung her hands, which is a bad sign in a capable person, and as
+Glenister crossed the floor below in her sight she said, "Ah-h--I could
+kill him for that!"
+
+"So could I," said the Kid, and left her without adieu.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+IN WHICH A MAN IS POSSESSED OF A DEVIL
+
+
+For a long time Cherry Malotte sat quietly thinking, removed by her
+mental stress to such an infinite distance from the music and turmoil
+beneath that she was conscious of it only as a formless clamor. She had
+tipped a chair back against the door, wedging it beneath the knob so
+that she might be saved from interruption, then flung herself into
+another seat and stared unseeingly. As she sat thus, and thought, and
+schemed, harsh and hateful lines seemed to eat into her face. Now and
+then she moaned impatiently, as though fearing lest the strategy she
+was plotting might prove futile; then she would rise and pace her
+narrow quarters. She was unconscious of time, and had spent perhaps two
+hours thus, when amid the buzz of talk in the next compartment she
+heard a name which caused her to start, listen, then drop her
+preoccupation like a mantle. A man was speaking of Glenister.
+Excitement thrilled his voice.
+
+"I never saw anything like it since McMaster's Night in Virginia City,
+thirteen years ago. He's RIGHT."
+
+"Well, perhaps so," the other replied, doubtfully, "but I don't care to
+back you. I never 'staked' a man in my life."
+
+"Then LEND me the money. I'll pay it back in an hour, but for Heaven's
+sake be quick. I tell you he's as right as a golden guinea. It's the
+lucky night of his life. Why, he turned over the Black Jack game in
+four bets. In fifteen minutes more we can't get close enough to a table
+to send in our money with a messenger-boy--every sport in camp will be
+here."
+
+"I'll stake you to fifty," the second man replied, in a tone that
+showed a trace of his companion's excitement.
+
+So Glenister was gambling, the girl learned, and with such luck as to
+break the Black Jack game and excite the greed of every gambler in
+camp. News of his winnings had gone out into the street, and the
+sporting men were coming to share his fortune, to fatten like vultures
+on the adversity of their fellows. Those who had no money to stake were
+borrowing, like the man next door.
+
+She left her retreat, and, descending the stairs, was greeted by a
+strange sight. The dance-hall was empty of all but the musicians, who
+blew and fiddled lustily in vain endeavor to draw from the rapidly
+swelling crowd that thronged the gambling-room and stretched to the
+door. The press was thickest about a table midway down the hall. Cherry
+could see nothing of what went on there, for men and women stood ten
+deep about it and others perched on chairs and tables along the walls.
+A roar arose suddenly, followed by utter silence; then came the clink
+and rattle of silver. A moment, and the crowd resumed its laughter and
+talk.
+
+"All down, boys," sounded the level voice of the dealer. "The field or
+the favorite. He's made eighteen straight passes. Get your money on the
+line." There ensued another breathless instant wherein she heard the
+thud of dice, then followed the shout of triumph that told what the
+spots revealed. The dealer payed off. Glenister reared himself head and
+shoulders above the others and pushed out through the ring to the
+roulette-wheel. The rest followed. Behind the circular table they had
+quitted, the dealer was putting away his dice, and there was not a coin
+in his rack. Mexico Mullins approached Cherry, and she questioned him.
+
+"He just broke the crap game," Mullins told her; "nineteen passes
+without losing the bones."
+
+"How much did he win?"
+
+"Oh, he didn't win much himself, but it's the people betting with him
+that does the damage! They're gamblers, most of them, and they play the
+limit. He took out the Black Jack bank-roll first, $4,000, then cleaned
+the 'Tub.' By that time the tin horns began to come in. It's the
+greatest run I ever see."
+
+"Did you get in?"
+
+"Now, don't you know that I never play anything but 'bank'? If he lasts
+long enough to reach the faro lay-out, I'll get mine."
+
+The excitement of the crowd began to infect the girl, even though she
+looked on from the outside. The exultant voices, the sudden hush, the
+tensity of nerve it all betokened, set her a-thrill. A stranger left
+the throng and rushed to the spot where Cherry and Mexico stood
+talking. He was small and sandy, with shifting glance and chinless jaw.
+His eyes glittered, his teeth shone rat-like through his dry lips, and
+his voice was shrill. He darted towards them like some furtive,
+frightened little animal, unnaturally excited.
+
+"I guess that isn't so bad for three bets!" He shook a sheaf of
+bank-notes at them.
+
+"Why don't you stick?" inquired Mullins.
+
+"I am too wise. Ha! I know when to quit. He can't win steady--he don't
+play any system."
+
+"Then he has a good chance," said the girl.
+
+"There he goes now," the little man cried as the uproar arose. "I told
+you he'd lose." At the voice of the multitude he wavered as though
+affected by some powerful magnet.
+
+"But he won again," said Mexico.
+
+"No! Did he? Lord! I quit too soon!"
+
+He scampered back into the other room, only to return, hesitating, his
+money tightly clutched.
+
+"Do you s'pose it's safe? I never saw a man bet so reckless. I guess
+I'd better quit, eh?" He noted the sneer on the woman's face, and
+without waiting a reply dashed off again. They saw him clamorously
+fight his way in towards a post at the roulette-table. "Let me through!
+I've got money and I want to play it!"
+
+"Pah!" said Mullins, disgustedly. "He's one of them Vermont desperadoes
+that never laid a bet till he was thirty. If Glenister loses he'll hate
+him for life."
+
+"There are plenty of his sort here," the girl remarked; "his soul would
+fit in a flea-track." She spied the Bronco Kid sauntering back towards
+her and joined him. He leaned against the wall, watching the gossamer
+thread of smoke twist upward from his cigarette, seemingly oblivious to
+the surroundings, and showing no hint of the emotion he had displayed
+two hours before.
+
+"This is a big killing, isn't it?" said the girl. The gambler nodded,
+murmuring indifferently.
+
+"Why aren't you dealing bank? Isn't this your shift?"
+
+"I quit last night."
+
+"Just in time to miss this affair. Lucky for you."
+
+"Yes; I own the place now. Bought it yesterday."
+
+"Good Heavens! Then it's YOUR money he's winning."
+
+"Sure, at the rate of a thousand a minute."
+
+She glanced at the long trail of devastated tables behind Glenister and
+his followers. At that instant the sound told that the miner had won
+again, and it dawned upon Cherry that the gambler beside her stood too
+quietly, that his hand and voice were too steady, his glance too cold
+to be natural. The next moment approved her instinct.
+
+The musicians, grown tired of their endeavors to lure back the dancers,
+determined to join the excitement, and ceased playing. The leader laid
+down his violin, the pianist trailed up the key-board with a departing
+twitter and quit his stool. They all crossed the hall, headed for the
+crowd, some of them making ready to bet. As they approached the Bronco
+Kid, his lips thinned and slid apart slightly, while out of his
+heavy-lidded eyes there flared unreasoning rage. Stepping forward, he
+seized the foremost man and spun him about violently.
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"Why, nobody wants to dance, so we thought we'd go out front for a bit."
+
+"Get back, damn you!" It was his first chance to vent the passion
+within him. A glance at his maddened features was sufficient for the
+musicians, and they did not delay. By the time they had resumed their
+duties, however, the curtains of composure had closed upon the Kid,
+masking his emotion again; but from her brief glimpse Cherry Malotte
+knew that this man was not of ice, as some supposed. He turned to her
+and said, "Do you mean what you said up-stairs?"
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"You said you could kill Glenister."
+
+"I could."
+
+"Don't you love--"
+
+"I HATE him," she interrupted, hoarsely. He gave her a mirthless smile,
+and spying the crap-dealer leaving his bankrupt table, called him over
+and said:
+
+"Toby, I want you to 'drive the hearse' when Glenister begins to play
+faro. I'll deal. Understand?"
+
+"Sure! Going to give him a little 'work,' eh?"
+
+"I never dealt a crooked card in this camp," exclaimed the Kid, "but
+I'll 'lay' that man to-night or I'll kill him! I'll use a 'sand-tell,'
+see! And I want to explain my signals to you. If you miss the signs
+you'll queer us both and put the house on the blink."
+
+He rapidly rehearsed his signals in a jargon which to a layman would
+have been unintelligible, illustrating them by certain almost
+imperceptible shiftings of the fingers or changes in the position of
+his hand, so slight as to thwart discovery. Through it all the girl
+stood by and followed his every word and motion with eager attention.
+She needed no explanation of the terms they used. She knew them all,
+knew that the "hearse-driver" was the man who kept the cases, knew all
+the code of the "inside life." To her it was all as an open page, and
+she memorized more quickly than did Toby the signs by which the Bronco
+Kid proposed to signal what card he had smuggled from the box or held
+back.
+
+In faro it is customary for the case-keeper to sit on the opposite side
+of the table from the dealer, with a device before him resembling an
+abacus, or Chinese adding-machine. When a card is removed from the
+faro-box by the dealer, the "hearse-driver" moves a button opposite a
+corresponding card on his little machine, in order that the players, at
+a glance, may tell what spots have been played or are still in the box.
+His duties, though simple, are important, for should he make an error,
+and should the position of his counters not tally with the cards in the
+box on the "last turn," all bets on the table are declared void. When
+honestly dealt, faro is the fairest of all gambling games, but it is
+intricate, and may hide much knavery. When the game is crooked, it is
+fatal, for out of the ingenuity of generations of card sharks there
+have been evolved a multitude of devices with which to fleece the
+unsuspecting. These are so carefully masked that none but the initiated
+may know them, while the freemasonry of the craft is strong and
+discovery unusual.
+
+Instead of using a familiar arrangement like the "needle-tell," wherein
+an invisible needle pricks the dealer's thumb, thus signalling the
+presence of certain cards, the Bronco Kid had determined to use the
+"sand-tell." In other words, he would employ a "straight box," but a
+deck of cards, certain ones of which had been roughened or sand-papered
+slightly, so that, by pressing more heavily on the top or exposed card,
+the one beneath would stick to its neighbor above, and thus enable him
+to deal two with one motion if the occasion demanded. This roughness
+would likewise enable him to detect the hidden presence of a marked
+card by the faintest scratching sound when he dealt. In this
+manipulation it would be necessary, also, to shave the edges of some of
+the pasteboards a trifle, so that, when the deck was forced firmly
+against one side of the box, there would be exposed a fraction of the
+small figure in the left-hand corner of the concealed cards. Long
+practice in the art of jugglery lends such proficiency as to baffle
+discovery and rob the game of its uncertainty as surely as the player
+is robbed of his money. It is, of course, vital that the confederate
+case-keeper be able to interpret the dealer's signs perfectly in order
+to move the sliding ebony disks to correspond, else trouble will accrue
+at the completion of the hand when the cases come out wrong.
+
+Having completed his instructions, the proprietor went forward, and
+Cherry wormed her way towards the roulette-wheel. She wished to watch
+Glenister, but could not get near him because of the crowd. The men
+would not make room for her. Every eye was glued upon the table as
+though salvation lurked in its rows of red and black. They were packed
+behind it until the croupier had barely room to spin the ball, and
+although he forced them back, they pressed forward again inch by inch,
+drawn by the song of the ivory, drunk with its worship, maddened by the
+breath of Chance.
+
+Cherry gathered that Glenister was still winning, for a glimpse of the
+wheel-rack between the shoulders of those ahead showed that the checks
+were nearly out of it.
+
+Plainly it was but a question of minutes, so she backed out and took
+her station beside the faro-table where the Bronco Kid was dealing. His
+face wore its colorless mask of indifference; his long white hands
+moved slowly with the certainty that betokened absolute mastery of his
+art. He was waiting. The ex-crap dealer was keeping cases.
+
+The group left the roulette-table in a few moments and surrounded her,
+Glenister among the others. He was not the man she knew. In place of
+the dreary hopelessness with which he had left her, his face was
+flushed and reckless, his collar was open, showing the base of his
+great, corded neck, while the lust of the game had coarsened him till
+he was again the violent, untamed, primitive man of the frontier. His
+self-restraint and dignity were gone. He had tried the new ways, and
+they were not for him. He slipped back, and the past swallowed him.
+
+After leaving Cherry he had sought some mental relief by idly risking
+the silver in his pocket. He had let the coins lie and double, then
+double again and again. He had been indifferent whether he won or lost,
+so assumed a reckless disregard for the laws of probability, thinking
+that he would shortly lose the money he had won and then go home. He
+did not want it. When his luck remained the same, he raised the stakes,
+but it did not change--he could not lose. Before he realized it, other
+men were betting with him, animated purely by greed and craze of the
+sport. First one, then another joined till game after game was closed,
+and each moment the crowd had grown in size and enthusiasm so that its
+fever crept into him, imperceptibly at first, but ever increasing, till
+the mania mastered him.
+
+He paid no attention to Cherry as he took his seat. He had eyes for
+nothing but the "lay-out." She clenched her hands and prayed for his
+ruin.
+
+"What's your limit, Kid?" he inquired.
+
+"One hundred, and two," the Kid answered, which in the vernacular means
+that any sum up to $200 be laid on one card save only on the last turn,
+when the amount is lessened by half.
+
+Without more ado they commenced. The Kid handled his cards smoothly,
+surely, paying and taking bets with machine-like calm. The on-lookers
+ceased talking and prepared to watch, for now came the crucial test of
+the evening. Faro is to other games as war is to jackstraws.
+
+For a time Glenister won steadily till there came a moment when many
+stacks of chips lay on the deuce. Cherry saw the Kid "flash" to the
+case-keeper, and the next moment he had "pulled two." The deuce lost.
+It was his first substantial gain, and the players paid no attention.
+At the end of half an hour the winnings were slightly in favor of the
+"house." Then Glenister said, "This is too slow. I want action."
+
+"All right," smiled the proprietor. "We'll double the limit."
+
+Thus it became possible to wager $400 on a card, and the Kid began
+really to play. Glenister now lost steadily, not in large amounts, but
+with tantalizing regularity. Cherry had never seen cards played like
+this. The gambler was a revelation to her--his work was wonderful. Ill
+luck seemed to fan the crowd's eagerness, while, to add to its
+impatience, the cases came wrong twice in succession, so that those who
+would have bet heavily upon the last turn had their money given back.
+Cherry saw the confusion of the "hearse-driver" even quicker than did
+Bronco. Toby was growing rattled. The dealer's work was too fast for
+him, and yet he could offer no signal of distress for fear of
+annihilation at the hands of those crowded close to his shoulder. In
+the same way the owner of the game could make no objection to his
+helper's incompetence for fear that some by-stander would volunteer to
+fill the man's part--there were many present capable of the trick. He
+could only glare balefully across the table at his unfortunate
+confederate.
+
+They had not gone far on the next game before Cherry's quick eye
+detected a sign which the man misinterpreted. She addressed him,
+quietly, "You'd better brush up your plumes."
+
+In spite of his anger the Bronco Kid smiled. Humor in him was strangely
+withered and distorted, yet here was a thrust he would always remember
+and recount with glee in years to come. He feared there were other
+faro-dealers present who might understand the hint, but there was none
+save Mexico Mullins, whose face was a study--mirth seemed to be
+strangling him. A moment later the girl spoke to the case-keeper again.
+
+"Let me take your place; your reins are unbuckled."
+
+Toby glanced inquiringly at the Kid, who caught Cherry's reassuring
+look and nodded, so he arose and the girl slid into the vacant chair.
+This woman would make no errors--the dealer knew that; her keen wits
+were sharpened by hate--it showed in her face. If Glenister escaped
+destruction to-night it would be because human means could not
+accomplish his downfall.
+
+In the mind of the new case-keeper there was but one thought--Roy must
+be broken. Humiliation, disgrace, ruin, ridicule were to be his. If he
+should be downed, discredited, and discouraged, then, perhaps, he would
+turn to her as he had in the by-gone days. He was slipping away from
+her--this was her last chance. She began her duties easily, and her
+alertness stimulated Bronco till his senses, too, grew sharper, his
+observation more acute and lightning-like. Glenister swore beneath his
+breath that the cards were bewitched. He was like a drunken man, now as
+truly intoxicated as though the fumes of wine had befogged his brain.
+He swayed in his seat, the veins of his neck thickened and throbbed,
+his features were congested. After a while he spoke.
+
+"I want a bigger limit. Is this some boy's game? Throw her open."
+
+The gambler shot a triumphant glance at the girl and acquiesced. "All
+right, the limit is the blue sky. Pile your checks to the roof-pole."
+He began to shuffle.
+
+Within the crowded circle the air was hot and fetid with the breath of
+men. The sweat trickled down Glenister's brown skin, dripping from his
+jaw unnoticed. He arose and ripped off his coat, while those standing
+behind shifted and scuffed their feet impatiently. Besides Roy, there
+were but three men playing. They were the ones who had won heaviest at
+first. Now that luck was against them they were loath to quit.
+
+Cherry was annoyed by stertorous breathing at her shoulder, and glanced
+back to find the little man who had been so excited earlier in the
+evening. His mouth was agape, his eyes wide, the muscles about his lips
+twitching. He had lost back, long since, the hundreds he had won and
+more besides. She searched the figures walling her about and saw no
+women. They had been crowded out long since. It seemed as though the
+table formed the bottom of a sloping pit of human faces--eager, tense,
+staring. It was well she was here, she thought, else this task might
+fail. She would help to blast Glenister, desolate him, humiliate him.
+Ah, but wouldn't she!
+
+Roy bet $100 on the "popular" card. On the third turn he lost. He bet
+$200 next and lost. He set out a stack of $400 and lost for the third
+time. Fortune had turned her face. He ground his teeth and doubled
+until the stakes grew enormous, while the dealer dealt monotonously.
+The spots flashed and disappeared, taking with them wager after wager.
+Glenister became conscious of a raging, red fury which he had hard
+shift to master. It was not his money--what if he did lose? He would
+stay until he won. He would win. This luck would not, could not,
+last--and yet with diabolic persistence he continued to choose the
+losing cards. The other men fared better till be yielded to their
+judgment, when the dealer took their money also.
+
+Strange to say, the fickle goddess had really shifted her banner at
+last, and the Bronco Kid was dealing straight faro now. He was too good
+a player to force a winning hand, and Glenister's ill-fortune became as
+phenomenal as his winning had been. The girl who figured in this drama
+was keyed to the highest tension, her eyes now on her counters, now
+searching the profile of her victim. Glenister continued to lose and
+lose and lose, while the girl gloated over his swift-coming ruin. When
+at long intervals he won a bet she shrank and shivered for fear he
+might escape. If only he would risk it all--everything he had. He would
+have to come to her then!
+
+The end was closer than she realized. The throng hung breathless upon
+each move of the players, while there was no sound but the noise of
+shifting chips and the distant jangle of the orchestra. The lookout sat
+far forward upon his perch, his hands upon his knees, his eyes frozen
+to the board, a dead cigar clenched between his teeth. Crowded upon his
+platform were miners tense and motionless as statues. When a man spoke
+or coughed, a score of eyes stared at him accusingly, then dropped to
+the table again.
+
+Glenister took from his clothes a bundle of bank-notes, so thick that
+it required his two hands to compass it. On-lookers saw that the bills
+were mainly yellow. No one spoke while he counted them rapidly, glanced
+at the dealer, who nodded, then slid them forward till they rested on
+the king. He placed a "copper" on the pile. A great sigh of indrawn
+breaths swept through the crowd. The North had never known a bet like
+this--it meant a fortune. Here was a tale for one's grandchildren--that
+a man should win opulence in an evening, then lose it in one deal. This
+final bet represented more than many of them had ever seen a one time
+before. Its fate lay on a single card.
+
+Cherry Malotte's fingers were like ice and shook till the buttons of
+her case-keeper rattled, her heart raced till she could not breathe,
+while something rose up and choked her. If Glenister won this bet he
+would quit; she felt it. If he lost, ah! what could the Kid there feel,
+the man who was playing for a paltry vengeance, compared to her whose
+hope of happiness, of love, of life hinged on this wager?
+
+Evidently the Bronco Kid knew what card lay next below, for he offered
+her no sign, and as Glenister leaned back he slowly and firmly pushed
+the top card out of the box. Although this was the biggest turn of his
+life, he betrayed no tremor. His gesture displayed the nine of
+diamonds, and the crowd breathed heavily. The king had not won. Would
+it lose? Every gaze was welded to the tiny nickelled box. If the
+face-card lay next beneath the nine-spot, the heaviest wager in Alaska
+would have been lost; if it still remained hidden on the next turn, the
+money would be safe for a moment.
+
+Slowly the white hand of the dealer moved back; his middle finger
+touched the nine of diamonds; it slid smoothly out of the box, and
+there in its place frowned the king of clubs. At last the silence was
+broken.
+
+Men spoke, some laughed, but in their laughter was no mirth. It was
+more like the sound of choking. They stamped their feet to relieve the
+grip of strained muscles. The dealer reached forth and slid the stack
+of bills into the drawer at his waist without counting. The case-keeper
+passed a shaking hand over her face, and when it came away she saw
+blood on her fingers where she had sunk her teeth into her lower lip.
+Glenister did not rise. He sat, heavy-browed and sullen, his jaw thrust
+forward, his hair low upon his forehead, his eyes bloodshot and dead.
+
+"I'll sit the hand out if you'll let me bet the 'finger,'" said he.
+
+"Certainly," replied the dealer.
+
+When a man requests this privilege it means that he will call the
+amount of his wager without producing the visible stakes, and the
+dealer may accept or refuse according to his judgment of the bettor's
+responsibility. It is safe, for no man shirks a gambling debt in the
+North, and thousands may go with a nod of the head though never a cent
+be on the board.
+
+There were still a few cards in the box, and the dealer turned them,
+paying the three men who played. Glenister took no part, but sat bulked
+over his end of the table glowering from beneath his shock of hair.
+
+Cherry was deathly tired. The strain of the last hour had been so
+intense that she could barely sit in her seat, yet she was determined
+to finish the hand. As Bronco paused before the last turn, many of the
+by-standers made bets. They were the "case-players" who risked money
+only on the final pair, thus avoiding the chance of two cards of like
+denomination coming together, in which event ("splits" it is called)
+the dealer takes half the money. The stakes were laid at last and the
+deal about to start when Glenister spoke. "Wait! What's this place
+worth, Bronco?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You own this outfit?" He waved his hand about the room. "Well, what
+does it stand you?"
+
+The gambler hesitated an instant while the crowd pricked up its ears,
+and the girl turned wondering, troubled eyes upon the miner. What would
+he do now?
+
+"Counting bank rolls, fixtures, and all, about a hundred and twenty
+thousand dollars. Why?"
+
+"I'll pick the ace to lose, my one-half interest in the Midas against
+your whole damned lay-out!"
+
+There was an absolute hush while the realization of this offer smote
+the on-lookers. It took time to realize it. This man was insane. There
+were three cards to choose from--one would win, one would lose, and one
+would have no action.
+
+Of all those present only Cherry Malotte divined even vaguely the real
+reason which prompted the man to do this. It was not "gameness," nor
+altogether a brutish stubbornness which would not let him quit, It was
+something deeper. He was desolate and his heart was gone. Helen was
+lost to him--worse yet, was unworthy, and she was all he cared for.
+What did he want of the Midas with its lawsuits, its intrigues, and its
+trickery? He was sick of it all--of the whole game--and wanted to get
+away. If he won, very well. If he lost, the land of the Aurora would
+know him no more.
+
+When he put his proposition, the Bronco Kid dropped his eyes as though
+debating. The girl saw that he studied the cards in his box intently
+and that his fingers caressed the top one ever so softly during the
+instant the eyes of the rest were on Glenister. The dealer looked up at
+last, and Cherry saw the gleam of triumph in his eye; he could not mask
+it from her, though his answering words were hesitating. She knew by
+the look that Glenister was a pauper.
+
+"Come on," insisted Roy, hoarsely. "Turn the cards."
+
+"You're on!"
+
+The girl felt that she was fainting. She wanted to scream. The triumph
+of this moment stifled her--or was it triumph, after all? She heard the
+breath of the little man behind her rattle as though he were being
+throttled, and saw the lookout pass a shaking hand to his chin, then
+wet his parched lips. She saw the man she had helped to ruin bend
+forward, his lean face strained and hard, an odd look of pain and
+weariness in his eyes. She never forgot that look. The crowd was frozen
+in various attitudes of eagerness, although it had not yet recovered
+from the suspense of the last great wager. It knew the Midas and what
+it meant. Here lay half of it, hidden beneath a tawdry square of
+pasteboard. With maddening deliberation the Kid dealt the top card.
+Beneath it was the trey of spades. Glenister said no word nor made a
+move. Some one coughed, and it sounded like a gunshot. Slowly the
+dealer's fingers retraced their way. He hesitated purposely and leered
+at the girl, then the three-spot disappeared and beneath it lay the ace
+as the king had lain on that other wager. It spelled utter ruin to
+Glenister. He raised his eyes blindly, and then the deathlike silence
+of the room was shattered by a sudden crash. Cherry Malotte had closed
+her check-rack violently, at the same instant crying shrill and clear:
+"That bet is off! The cases are wrong!"
+
+Glenister half rose, overturning his chair; the Kid lunged forward
+across the table, and his wonderful hands, tense and talon-like, thrust
+themselves forward as though reaching for the riches she had snatched
+away. They worked and writhed and trembled as though in dumb fury, the
+nails sinking into the oil-cloth table-cover. His face grew livid and
+cruel, while his eyes blazed at her till she shrank from him
+affrightedly, bracing herself away from the table with rigid arms.
+
+Reason came slowly back to Glenister, and understanding with it. He
+seemed to awake from a nightmare. He could read all too plainly the
+gambler's look of baffled hate as the man sprawled on the table, his
+arms spread wide, his eyes glaring at the cowering woman, who shrank
+before him like a rabbit before a snake. She tried to speak, but
+choked. Then the dealer came to himself, and cried harshly through his
+teeth one word:
+
+"Christ!"
+
+He raised his fist and struck the table so violently that chips and
+coppers leaped and rolled, and Cherry closed her eyes to lose sight of
+his awful grimace. Glenister looked down on him and said:
+
+"I think I understand; but the money was yours, anyhow, so I don't
+mind." His meaning was plain. The Kid suddenly jerked open the drawer
+before him, but Glenister clenched his right hand and leaned forward.
+The miner could have killed him with a blow, for the gambler was seated
+and at his mercy. The Kid checked himself, while his face began to
+twitch as though the nerves underlying it had broken bondage and were
+dancing in a wild, ungovernable orgy.
+
+"You have taught me a lesson," was all that Glenister said, and with
+that he pushed through the crowd and out into the cool night air.
+Overhead the arctic stars winked at him, and the sea smells struck him,
+clean and fresh. As he went homeward he heard the distant,
+full-throated plaint of a wolf-dog. It held the mystery and sadness of
+the North. He paused, arid, baring his thick, matted head, stood for a
+long time gathering himself together. Standing so, he made certain
+covenants with himself, and vowed solemnly never to touch another card.
+
+At the same moment Cherry Malotte came hurrying to her cottage door,
+fleeing as though from pursuit or from some hateful, haunted spot. She
+paused before entering and flung her arms outward into the dark in a
+wide gesture of despair.
+
+"Why did I do it? Oh! WHY did I do it? I can't understand myself."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A MIDNIGHT MESSENGER
+
+
+"My dear Helen, don't you realize that my official position carries
+with it a certain social obligation which it is our duty to discharge?"
+
+"I suppose so, Uncle Arthur; but I would much rather stay at home."
+
+"Tut, tut! Go and have a good time."
+
+"Dancing doesn't appeal to me any more. I left that sort of thing back
+home. Now, if you would only come along--"
+
+"No--I'm too busy. I must work to-night, and I'm not in a mood for such
+things, anyhow."
+
+"You're not well," his niece said. "I have noticed it for weeks. Is it
+hard work or are you truly ill? You're nervous; you don't eat; you're
+growing positively gaunt. Why--you're getting wrinkles like an old
+man." She rose from her seat at the breakfast-table and went to him,
+smoothing his silvered head with affection.
+
+He took her cool hand and pressed it to his cheek, while the worry that
+haunted him habitually of late gave way to a smile.
+
+"It's work, little girl--hard and thankless work, that's all. This
+country is intended for young men, and I'm too far along." His eyes
+grew grave again, and he squeezed her fingers nervously as though at
+the thought. "It's a terrible country--this--I--I--wish we had never
+seen it."
+
+"Don't say that," Helen cried, spiritedly. "Why, it's glorious. Think
+of the honor. You're a United States judge and the first one to come
+here. You're making history--you're building a State--people will read
+about you." She stooped and kissed him; but he seemed to flinch beneath
+her caress.
+
+"Of course I'll go if you think I'd better," she said, "though I'm not
+fond of Alaskan society. Some of the women are nice, but the others--"
+She shrugged her dainty shoulders. "They talk scandal all the time. One
+would think that a great, clean, fresh, vigorous country like this
+would broaden the women as it broadens the men--but it doesn't."
+
+"I'll tell McNamara to call for you at nine o'clock," said the Judge as
+he arose. So, later in the day she prepared her long unused finery to
+such good purpose that when her escort called for her that evening he
+believed her the loveliest of women.
+
+Upon their arrival at the hotel he regarded her with a fresh access of
+pride, for the function proved to bear little resemblance to a
+mining-camp party. The women wore handsome gowns, and every man was in
+evening dress. The wide hall ran the length of the hotel and was
+flanked with boxes, while its floor was like polished glass and its
+walls effectively decorated.
+
+"Oh, how lovely!" exclaimed Helen as she first caught sight of it.
+"It's just like home."
+
+"I've seen quick-rising cities before," he said, "but nothing like
+this. Still, if these Northerners can build a railroad in a month and a
+city in a summer, why shouldn't they have symphony orchestras and Louis
+Quinze ballrooms?"
+
+"I know you're a splendid dancer," she said.
+
+"You shall be my judge and jury. I'll sign this card as often as I dare
+without the certainty of violence at the hands of these young men, and
+the rest of the time I'll smoke in the lobby. I don't care to dance
+with any one but you."
+
+After the first waltz he left her surrounded by partners and made his
+way out of the ballroom. This was his first relaxation since landing in
+the North. It was well not to become a dull boy, he mused, and as he
+chewed his cigar he pictured with an odd thrill, quite unusual with
+him, that slender, gray-eyed girl, with her coiled mass of hair, her
+ivory shoulders, and merry smile. He saw her float past to the measure
+of a two-step, and caught himself resenting the thought of another
+man's enjoyment of the girl's charms even for an instant.
+
+"Hold on, Alec," he muttered. "You're too old a bird to lose your
+head." However, he was waiting for her before the time for their next
+dance. She seemed to have lost a part of her gayety.
+
+"What's the matter? Aren't you enjoying yourself?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" she returned, brightly. "I'm having a delightful time."
+
+When he came for his third dance, she was more distraite than ever. As
+he led her to a seat they passed a group of women, among whom were Mrs.
+Champian and others whom he knew to be wives of men prominent in the
+town. He had seen some of them at tea in Judge Stillman's house, and
+therefore was astonished when they returned his greeting but ignored
+Helen. She shrank slightly, and he realized that there was something
+wrong; he could not guess what. Affairs of men he could cope with, but
+the subtleties of women were out of his realm.
+
+"What ails those people? Have they offended you?"
+
+"I don't know what it is. I have spoken to them, but they cut me."
+
+"Cut YOU?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes." Her voice trembled, but she held her head high. "It seems as
+though all the women in Nome were here and in league to ignore me. It
+dazes me--I do not understand."
+
+"Has anybody said anything to you?" he inquired, fiercely. "Any man, I
+mean?"
+
+"No, no! The men are kind. It's the women."
+
+"Come--we'll go home."
+
+"Indeed, we will not," she said, proudly. "I shall stay and face it
+out. I have done nothing to run away from, and I intend to find out
+what is the matter."
+
+When he had surrendered her, at the beginning of the next dance,
+McNamara sought for some acquaintance whom he might question. Most of
+the men in Nome either hated or feared him, but he espied one that he
+thought suited his purpose, and led him into a corner.
+
+"I want you to answer a question. No beating about the bush.
+Understand? I'm blunt, and I want you to be."
+
+"All right."
+
+"Your wife has been entertained at Miss Chester's house. I've seen her
+there. To-night she refuses to speak to the girl. She cut her dead, and
+I want to know what it's about."
+
+"How should I know?"
+
+"If you don't know, I'll ask you to find out."
+
+The other shook his head amusedly, at which McNamara flared up.
+
+"I say you will, and you'll make your wife apologize before she leaves
+this hall, too, or you'll answer to me, man to man. I won't stand to
+have a girl like Miss Chester cold-decked by a bunch of mining-camp
+swells, and that goes as it lies." In his excitement, McNamara reverted
+to his Western idiom.
+
+The other did not reply at once, for it is embarrassing to deal with a
+person who disregards the conventions utterly, and at the same time has
+the inclination and force to compel obedience. The boss's reputation
+had gone abroad.
+
+"Well--er--I know about it in a general way, but of course I don't go
+much on such things. You'd better let it drop."
+
+"Go on."
+
+"There has been a lot of talk among the ladies about--well, er--the
+fact is, it's that young Glenister. Mrs. Champian had the next
+state-room to them--er--him--I should say--on the way up from the
+States, and she saw things. Now, as far as I'm concerned, a girl can do
+what she pleases, but Mrs. Champian has her own ideas of propriety.
+From what my wife could learn, there's some truth in the story, too, so
+you can't blame her."
+
+With a word McNamara could have explained the gossip and made this man
+put his wife right, forcing through her an elucidation of the silly
+affair in such a way as to spare Helen's feelings and cover the
+busy-tongued magpies with confusion. Yet he hesitated. It is a wise
+skipper who trims his sails to every breeze. He thanked his informant
+and left him. Entering the lobby, he saw the girl hurrying towards him.
+
+"Take me away, quick! I want to go home."
+
+"You've changed your mind?"'
+
+"Yes, let us go," she panted, and when they were outside she walked so
+rapidly that he had difficulty in keeping pace with her. She was
+silent, and he knew better than to question, but when they arrived at
+her house he entered, took off his overcoat, and turned up the light in
+the tiny parlor. She flung her wraps over a chair, storming back and
+forth like a little fury. Her eyes were starry with tears of anger, her
+face was flushed, her hands worked nervously. He leaned against the
+mantel, watching her through his cigar smoke.
+
+"You needn't tell me," he said, at length. "I know all about it."
+
+"I am glad you do. I never could repeat what they said. Oh, it was
+brutal!" Her voice caught and she bit her lip. "What made me ask them?
+Why didn't I keep still? After you left, I went to those women and
+faced them. Oh, but they were brutal? Yet, why should I care?" She
+stamped her slippered foot.
+
+"I shall have to kill that man some day," he said, flecking his cigar
+ashes into the grate.
+
+"What man?" She stood still and looked at him.
+
+"Glenister, of course. If I had thought the story would ever reach you,
+I'd have shut him up long ago."
+
+"It didn't come from him," she cried, hot with indignation. "He's a
+gentleman. It's that cat, Mrs. Champian."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders the slightest bit, but it was eloquent, and
+she noted it. "Oh, I don't mean that he did it intentionally--he's too
+decent a chap for that--but anybody's tongue will wag to a beautiful
+girl! My lady Malotte is a jealous trick."
+
+"Malotte! Who is she?" Helen questioned, curiously.
+
+He seemed surprised. "I thought every one knew who she is. It's just as
+well that you don't."
+
+"I am sure Mr. Glenister would not talk of me." There was a pause. "Who
+is Miss Malotte?"
+
+He studied for a moment, while she watched him. What a splendid figure
+he made in his evening clothes! The cosey room with its shaded lights
+enhanced his size and strength and rugged outlines. In his eyes was
+that admiration which women live for. He lifted his bold, handsome face
+and met her gaze.
+
+"I had rather leave that for you to find out, for I'm not much at
+scandal. I have something more important to tell you. It's the most
+important thing I have ever said to you, Helen." It was the first time
+he had used that name, and she began to tremble, while her eyes sought
+the door in a panic. She had expected this moment, and yet was not
+ready.
+
+"Not to-night--don't say it now," she managed to articulate.
+
+"Yes, this is a good time. If you can't answer, I'll come back
+to-morrow. I want you to be my wife. I want to give you everything the
+world offers, and I want to make you happy, girl. There'll be no gossip
+hereafter--I'll shield you from everything unpleasant, and if there is
+anything you want in life, I'll lay it at your feet. I can do it." He
+lifted his massive arms, and in the set of his strong, square face was
+the promise that she should have whatever she craved if mortal man
+could give it to her--love, protection, position, adoration.
+
+She stammered uncertainly till the humiliation and chagrin she had
+suffered this night swept over her again. This town--this crude,
+half-born mining-camp--had turned against her, misjudged her cruelly.
+The women were envious, clacking scandal-mongers, all of them, who
+would ostracize her and make her life in the Northland a misery, make
+her an outcast with nothing to sustain her but her own solitary pride.
+She could picture her future clearly, pitilessly, and see herself
+standing alone, vilified, harassed in a thousand cutting ways, yet
+unable to run away, or to explain. She would have to stay and face it,
+for her life was bound up here during the next few years or so, or as
+long as her uncle remained a judge. This man would free her. He loved
+her; he offered her everything. He was bigger than all the rest
+combined. They were his playthings, and they knew it. She was not sure
+that she loved him, but his magnetism was overpowering, and her
+admiration intense. No other man she had ever known compared with him,
+except Glenister--Bah! The beast! He had insulted her at first; he
+wronged her now.
+
+"Will you be my wife, Helen?" the man repeated, softly.
+
+She dropped her head, and he strode forward to take her in his arms,
+then stopped, listening. Some one ran up on the porch and hammered
+loudly at the door. McNamara scowled, walked into the hall, and flung
+the portal open, disclosing Struve.
+
+"Hello, McNamara! Been looking all over for you. There's the deuce to
+pay!" Helen sighed with relief and gathered up her cloak, while the hum
+of their voices reached her indistinctly. She was given plenty of time
+to regain her composure before they appeared. When they did, the
+politician spoke, sourly:
+
+"I've been called to the mines, and I must go at once."
+
+"You bet! It may be too late now. The news came an hour ago, but I
+couldn't find you," said Struve. "Your horse is saddled at the office.
+Better not wait to change your clothes."
+
+"You say Voorhees has gone with twenty deputies, eh? That's good. You
+stay here and find out all you can."
+
+"I telephoned out to the Creek for the boys to arm themselves and throw
+out pickets. If you hurry you can get there in time. It's only midnight
+now."
+
+"What is the trouble?" Miss Chester inquired, anxiously.
+
+"There's a plot on to attack the mines to-night," answered the lawyer.
+"The other side are trying to seize them, and there's apt to be a
+fight."
+
+"You mustn't go out there," she cried, aghast. "There will be
+bloodshed."
+
+"That's just why I MUST go," said McNamara. "I'll come back in the
+morning, though, and I'd like to see you alone. Good-night!" There was
+a strange, new light in his eyes as he left her. For one unversed in
+woman's ways he played the game surprisingly well, and as he hurried
+towards his office he smiled grimly into the darkness.
+
+"She'll answer me to-morrow. Thank you, Mr. Glenister," he said to
+himself.
+
+Helen questioned Struve at length, but gained nothing more than that
+secret-service men had been at work for weeks and had to-day unearthed
+the fact that Vigilantes had been formed. They had heard enough to make
+them think the mines would be jumped again to-night, and so had given
+the alarm.
+
+"Have you hired spies?" she asked, incredulously.
+
+"Sure. We had to. The other people shadowed us, and it's come to a
+point where it's life or death to one side or the other. I told
+McNamara we'd have bloodshed before we were through, when he first
+outlined the scheme--I mean when the trouble began."
+
+She wrung her hands. "That's what uncle feared before we left Seattle.
+That's why I took the risks I did in bringing you those papers. I
+thought you got them in time to avoid all this."
+
+Struve laughed a bit, eying her curiously.
+
+"Does Uncle Arthur know about this?" she continued.
+
+"No, we don't let him know anything more than necessary; he's not a
+strong man."
+
+"Yes, yes. He's not well." Again the lawyer smiled. "Who is behind this
+Vigilante movement?"
+
+"We think it is Glenister and his New Mexican bandit partner. At least
+they got the crowd together." She was silent for a time.
+
+"I suppose they really think they own those mines."
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"But they don't, do they?" Somehow this question had recurred to her
+insistently of late, for things were constantly happening which showed
+there was more back of this great, fierce struggle than she knew. It
+was impossible that injustice had been done the mine-owners, and yet
+scattered talk reached her which was puzzling. When she strove to
+follow it up, her acquaintances adroitly changed the subject. She was
+baffled on every side. The three local newspapers upheld the court. She
+read them carefully, and was more at sea than ever. There was a
+disturbing undercurrent of alarm and unrest that caused her to feel
+insecure, as though standing on hollow ground.
+
+"Yes, this whole disturbance is caused by those two. Only for them we'd
+be all right."
+
+"Who is Miss Malotte?"
+
+He answered, promptly: "The handsomest woman in the North, and the most
+dangerous."
+
+"In what way? Who is she?"
+
+"It's hard to say who or what she is--she's different from other women.
+She came to Dawson in the early days--just came--we didn't know how,
+whence, or why, and we never found out. We woke up one morning and
+there she was. By night we were all jealous, and in a week we were most
+of us drivelling idiots. It might have been the mystery or, perhaps,
+the competition. That was the day when a dance-hall girl could make a
+homestake in a winter or marry a millionaire in a month, but she never
+bothered. She toiled not, neither did she spin on the waxed floors, yet
+Solomon in all his glory would have looked like a tramp beside her."
+
+"You say she is dangerous?"
+
+"Well, there was the young nobleman, in the winter of '98, Dane, I
+think--fine family and all that--big, yellow-haired boy. He wanted to
+marry her, but a faro-dealer shot him. Then there was Rock, of the
+mounted police, the finest officer in the service. He was cashiered.
+She knew he was going to pot for her, but she didn't seem to care--and
+there were others. Yet, with it all, she is the most generous person
+and the most tender-hearted. Why, she has fed every 'stew bum' on the
+Yukon, and there isn't a busted prospector in the country who wouldn't
+swear by her, for she has grubstaked dozens of them. I was horribly in
+love with her myself. Yes, she's dangerous, all right--to everybody but
+Glenister."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"She had been across the Yukon to nurse a man with scurvy, and coming
+back she was caught in the spring break-up. I wasn't there, but it
+seems this Glenister got her ashore somehow when nobody else would
+tackle the job. They were carried five miles down-stream in the
+ice-pack before he succeeded."
+
+"What happened then?"
+
+"She fell in love with him, of course."
+
+"And he worshipped her as madly as all the rest of you, I suppose," she
+said, scornfully.
+
+"That's the peculiar part. She hypnotized him at first, but he ran
+away, and I didn't hear of him again till I came to Nome. She followed
+him, finally, and last week evened up her score. She paid him back for
+saving her."
+
+"I haven't heard about it."
+
+He detailed the story of the gambling episode at the Northern saloon,
+and concluded: "I'd like to have seen that 'turn,' for they say the
+excitement was terrific. She was keeping cases, and at the finish
+slammed her case-keeper shut and declared the bet off because she had
+made a mistake. Of course they couldn't dispute her, and she stuck to
+it. One of the by-standers told me she lied, though."
+
+"So, in addition to his other vices, Mr. Glenister is a reckless
+gambler, is he?" said Helen, with heat. "I am proud to be indebted to
+such a character. Truly this country breeds wonderful species."
+
+"There's where you're wrong," Struve chuckled. "He's never been known
+to bet before."
+
+"Oh, I'm tired of these contradictions!" she cried, angrily. "Saloons,
+gambling-halls, scandals, adventuresses! Ugh! I hate it! I HATE it! Why
+did I ever come here?"
+
+"Those things are a part of every new country. They were about all we
+had till this year. But it is women like you that we fellows need, Miss
+Helen. You can help us a lot." She did not like the way he was looking
+at her, and remembered that her uncle was up-stairs and asleep.
+
+"I must ask you to excuse me now, for it's late and I am very tired."
+
+The clock showed half-past twelve, so, after letting him out, she
+extinguished the light and dragged herself wearily up to her room. She
+removed her outer garments and threw over her bare shoulders a negligee
+of many flounces and bewildering, clinging looseness. As she took down
+her heavy braids, the story of Cherry Malotte returned to her
+tormentingly. So Glenister had saved HER life also at risk of his own.
+What a very gallant cavalier he was, to be sure! He should bear a coat
+of arms--a dragon, an armed knight, and a fainting maiden. "I succor
+ladies in distress--handsome ones," should be the motto on his shield.
+"The handsomest woman in the North," Struve had said. She raised her
+eyes to the glass and made a mouth at the petulant, tired reflection
+there. She pictured Glenister leaping from floe to floe with the hungry
+river surging and snapping at his feet, while the cheers of the crowd
+on shore gave heart to the girl crouching out there. She could see him
+snatch her up and fight his way back to safety over the plunging
+ice-cakes with death dragging at his heels. What a strong embrace he
+had! At this she blushed and realized with a shock that while she was
+mooning that very man might be fighting hand to hand in the darkness of
+a mountain-gorge with the man she was going to marry.
+
+A moment later some one mounted the front steps below and knocked
+sharply. Truly this was a night of alarms. Would people never cease
+coming? She was worn out, but at the thought of the tragedy abroad and
+the sick old man sleeping near by, she lit a candle and slipped
+down-stairs to avoid disturbing him. Doubtless it was some message from
+McNamara, she thought, as she unchained the door.
+
+As she opened it, she fell back amazed while it swung wide and the
+candle flame flickered and sputtered in the night air. Roy Glenister
+stood there, grim and determined, his soft, white Stetson pulled low,
+his trousers tucked into tan half-boots, in his hand a Winchester
+rifle. Beneath his corduroy coat she saw a loose cartridge-belt, yellow
+with shells, and the nickelled flash of a revolver. Without invitation
+he strode across the threshold, closing the door behind him.
+
+"Miss Chester, you and the Judge must dress quickly and come with me."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"The Vigilantes are on their way here to hang him. Come with me to my
+house where I can protect you."
+
+She laid a trembling hand on her bosom and the color died out of her
+face, then at a slight noise above they both looked up to see Judge
+Stillman leaning far over the banister. He had wrapped himself in a
+dressing-gown and now gripped the rail convulsively, while his features
+were blanched to the color of putty and his eyes were wide with terror,
+though puffed and swollen from sleep. His lips moved in a vain endeavor
+to speak.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+VIGILANTES
+
+
+On the morning after the episode in the Northern, Glenister awoke under
+a weight of discouragement and desolation. The past twenty-four hours
+with their manifold experiences seemed distant and unreal. At breakfast
+he was ashamed to tell Dextry of the gambling debauch, for he had dealt
+treacherously with the old man in risking half of the mine, even though
+they had agreed that either might do as he chose with his interest,
+regardless of the other. It all seemed like a nightmare, those tense
+moments when he lay above the receiver's office and felt his belief in
+the one woman slipping away, the frenzied thirst which Cherry Malotte
+had checked, the senseless, unreasoning lust for play that possessed
+him later. This lapse was the last stand of his old, untamed instincts.
+The embers of revolt in him were dead. He felt that he would never
+again lose mastery of himself, that his passions would never best him
+hereafter.
+
+Dextry spoke. "We had a meeting of the 'Stranglers' last night." He
+always spoke of the Vigilantes in that way, because of his early
+Western training.
+
+"What was done?"
+
+"They decided to act quick and do any odd jobs of lynchin',
+claim-jumpin', or such as needs doin'. There's a lot of law sharps and
+storekeepers in the bunch who figure McNamara's gang will wipe them off
+the map next."
+
+"It was bound to come to this."
+
+"They talked of ejectin' the receiver's men and puttin' all us fellers
+back on our mines."
+
+"Good. How many can we count on to help us?"
+
+"About sixty. We've kept the number down, and only taken men with so
+much property that they'll have to keep their mouths shut."
+
+"I wish we might engineer some kind of an encounter with the court
+crowd and create such an uproar that it would reach Washington.
+Everything else has failed, and our last chance seems to be for the
+government to step in; that is, unless Bill Wheaton can do something
+with the California courts."
+
+"I don't count on him. McNamara don't care for California courts no
+more 'n he would for a boy with a pea-shooter--he's got too much pull
+at headquarters. If the 'Stranglers' don't do no good, we'd better go
+in an' clean out the bunch like we was killin' snakes. If that fails,
+I'm goin' out to the States an' be a doctor."
+
+"A doctor? What for?"
+
+"I read somewhere that in the United States every year there is forty
+million gallons of whiskey used for medical purposes."
+
+Glenister laughed. "Speaking of whiskey, Dex--I notice that you've been
+drinking pretty hard of late--that is, hard for you."
+
+The old man shook his head. "You're mistaken. It ain't hard for me."
+
+"Well, hard or easy, you'd better cut it out."
+
+It was some time later that one of the detectives employed by the
+Swedes met Glenister on Front Street, and by an almost imperceptible
+sign signified his desire to speak with him. When they were alone he
+said:
+
+"You're being shadowed."
+
+"I've known that for a long time."
+
+"The district-attorney has put on some new men. I've fixed the woman
+who rooms next to him, and through her I've got a line on some of them,
+but I haven't spotted them all. They're bad ones--'up-river' men
+mostly--remnants of Soapy Smith's Skagway gang. They won't stop at
+anything."
+
+"Thank you--I'll keep my eyes open."
+
+A few nights after, Glenister had reason to recall the words of the
+sleuth and to realize that the game was growing close and desperate. To
+reach his cabin, which sat on the outskirts of the town, he ordinarily
+followed one of the plank walks which wound through the confusion of
+tents, warehouses, and cottages lying back of the two principal streets
+along the water front. This part of the city was not laid out in
+rectangular blocks, for in the early rush the first-comers had seized
+whatever pieces of ground they found vacant and erected thereon some
+kind of buildings to make good their titles. There resulted a formless
+jumble of huts, cabins, and sheds, penetrated by no cross streets and
+quite unlighted. At night, one leaving the illuminated portion of the
+town found this darkness intensified.
+
+Glenister knew his course so well that he could have walked it
+blindfolded. Nearing a corner of the warehouse this evening he
+remembered that the planking at this point was torn up, so, to avoid
+the mud, he leaped lightly across. Simultaneously with his jump he
+detected a movement in the shadows that banked the wall at his elbow
+and saw the flaming spurt of a revolver-shot. The man had crouched
+behind the building and was so close that it seemed impossible to miss.
+Glenister fell heavily upon his side and the thought flashed over him,
+"McNamara's thugs have shot me."
+
+His assailant leaped out from his hiding-place and ran down the walk,
+the sound of his quick, soft footfalls thudding faintly out into the
+silence. The young man felt no pain, however, so scrambled to his feet,
+felt himself over with care, and then swore roundly. He was untouched;
+the other had missed him cleanly. The report, coming while he was in
+the act of leaping, had startled him so that he had lost his balance,
+slipped upon the wet boards, and fallen. His assailant was lost in the
+darkness before he could rise. Pursuit was out of the question, so he
+continued homeward, considerably shaken, and related the incident to
+Dextry.
+
+"You think it was some of McNamara's work, eh?" Dextry inquired when he
+had finished.
+
+"Of course. Didn't the detective warn me to-day?"
+
+Dextry shook his head. "It don't seem like the game is that far along
+yet. The time is coming when we'll go to the mat with them people, but
+they've got the aige on us now, so what could they gain by putting you
+away? I don't believe it's them, but whoever it is, you'd better be
+careful or you'll be got."
+
+"Suppose we come home together after this," Roy suggested, and they
+arranged to do so, realizing that danger lurked in the dark corners and
+that it was in some such lonely spot that the deed would be tried
+again. They experienced no trouble for a time, though on nearing their
+cabin one night the younger man fancied that he saw a shadow glide away
+from its vicinity and out into the blackness of the tundra, as though
+some one had stood at his very door waiting for him, then became
+frightened at the two figures approaching. Dextry had not observed it,
+however, and Glenister was not positive himself, but it served to give
+him the uncanny feeling that some determined, unscrupulous force was
+bent on his destruction. He determined to go nowhere unarmed.
+
+A few evenings later he went home early and was busied in writing when
+Dextry came in about ten o'clock. The old miner hung up his coat before
+speaking, lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply, then, amid mouthfuls of
+smoke, began:
+
+"I had my own toes over the edge to-night. I was mistook for you, which
+compliment I don't aim to have repeated."
+
+Glenister questioned him eagerly.
+
+"We're about the same height an' these hats of ours are alike. Just as
+I come by that lumber-pile down yonder, a man hopped out an throwed a
+'gat' under my nose. He was quicker than light, and near blowed my
+skelp into the next block before he saw who I was; then he dropped his
+weepon and said:
+
+"'My mistake. Go on.' I accepted his apology."
+
+"Could you see who he was?"
+
+"Sure. Guess."
+
+"I can't."
+
+"It was the Bronco Kid."
+
+"Lord!" ejaculated Glenister. "Do you think he's after me?"
+
+"He ain't after nobody else, an', take my word for it, it's got nothin'
+to do with McNamara nor that gamblin' row. He's too game for that.
+There's some other reason."
+
+This was the first mention Dextry had made of the night at the Northern.
+
+"I don't know why he should have it in for me--I never did him any
+favors," Glenister remarked, cynically.
+
+"Well, you watch out, anyhow. I'd sooner face McNamara an' all the
+crooks he can hire than that gambler."
+
+During the next few days Roy undertook to meet the proprietor of the
+Northern face to face, but the Kid had vanished completely from his
+haunts. He was not in his gambling-hall at night nor on the street by
+day. The young man was still looking for him on the evening of the
+dance at the hotel, when he chanced to meet one of the Vigilantes, who
+inquired of him:
+
+"Aren't you late for the meeting?"
+
+"What meeting?"
+
+After seeing that they were alone, the other stated:
+
+"There's an assembly to-night at eleven o'clock. Something important, I
+think. I supposed, of course, you knew about it."
+
+"It's strange I wasn't notified," said Roy. "It's probably an
+oversight. Ill go along with you."
+
+Together they crossed the river to the less frequented part of town and
+knocked at the door of a large, unlighted warehouse, flanked by a high
+board fence. The building faced the street, but was enclosed on the
+other three sides by this ten-foot wall, inside of which were stored
+large quantities of coal and lumber. After some delay they were
+admitted, and, passing down through the dim-lit, high-banked lanes of
+merchandise, came to the rear room, where they were admitted again.
+This compartment had been fitted up for the warm storage of perishable
+goods during the cold weather, and, being without windows, made an
+ideal place for clandestine gatherings.
+
+Glenister was astonished to find every man of the organization present,
+including Dextry, whom he supposed to have gone home an hour since.
+Evidently a discussion had been in progress, for a chairman was
+presiding, and the boxes, kegs, and bales of goods had been shoved back
+against the walls for seats. On these were ranged the threescore men of
+the "Stranglers," their serious faces lighted imperfectly by scattered
+lanterns. A certain constraint seized them upon Glenister's entrance;
+the chairman was embarrassed. It was but momentary, however. Glenister
+himself felt that tragedy was in the air, for it showed in the men's
+attitudes and spoke eloquently from their strained faces. He was about
+to question the man next to him when the presiding officer continued:
+
+"We will assemble here quietly with our arms at one o'clock. And let me
+caution you again not to talk or do anything to scare the birds away."
+
+Glenister arose. "I came late, Mr. Chairman, so I missed hearing your
+plan. I gather that you're out for business, however, and I want to be
+in it. May I ask what is on foot?"
+
+"Certainly. Things have reached such a pass that moderate means are
+useless. We have decided to act, and act quickly. We have exhausted
+every legal resource and now we're going to stamp out this gang of
+robbers in our own way. We will get together in an hour, divide into
+three groups of twenty men, each with a leader, then go to the houses
+of McNamara, Stillman, and Voorhees, take them prisoners, and--" He
+waved his hand in a large gesture.
+
+Glenister made no answer for a moment, while the crowd watched him
+intently.
+
+"You have discussed this fully?" he asked.
+
+"We have. It has been voted on, and we're unanimous."
+
+"My friends, when I stepped into this room just now I felt that I
+wasn't wanted. Why, I don't know, because I have had more to do with
+organizing this movement than any of you, and because I have suffered
+just as much as the rest. I want to know if I was omitted from this
+meeting intentionally."
+
+"This is an embarrassing position to put me in," said the chairman,
+gravely. "But I shall answer as spokesman for these men if they wish."
+
+"Yes. Go ahead," said those around the room.
+
+"We don't question your loyalty, Mr. Glenister, but we didn't ask you
+to this meeting because we know your attitude--perhaps I'd better say
+sentiment--regarding Judge Stillman's niece--er--family. It has come to
+us from various sources that you have been affected to the prejudice of
+your own and your partner's interest. Now, there isn't going to be any
+sentiment in the affairs of the Vigilantes. We are going to do justice,
+and we thought the simplest way was to ignore you in this matter and
+spare all discussion and hard feeling in every quarter."
+
+"It's a lie!" shouted the young man, hoarsely. "A damned lie! You
+wouldn't let me in for fear I'd kick, eh? Well, you were right. I will
+kick. You've hinted about my feelings for Miss Chester. Let me tell you
+that she is engaged to marry McNamara, and that she's nothing to me.
+Now, then, let me tell you, further, that you won't break into her
+house and hang her uncle, even if he is a reprobate. No, sir! This
+isn't the time for violence of that sort--we'll win without it. If we
+can't, let's fight like men, and not hunt in a pack like wolves. If you
+want to do something, put us back on our mines and help us hold them,
+but, for God's sake, don't descend to assassination and the tactics of
+the Mafia!"
+
+"We knew you would make that kind of a talk," said the speaker, while
+the rest murmured grudgingly. One of them spoke up.
+
+"We've talked this over in cold blood, Glenister, and it's a question
+of their lives or our liberty. The law don't enter into it."
+
+"That's right," echoed another at his elbow. "We can't seize the
+claims, because McNamara's got soldiers to back him up. They'd shoot us
+down. You ought to be the last one to object."
+
+He saw that dispute was futile. Determination was stamped on their
+faces too plainly for mistake, and his argument had no more effect on
+them than had the pale rays of the lantern beside him, yet he continued:
+
+"I don't deny that McNamara deserves lynching, but Stillman doesn't.
+He's a weak old man"--some one laughed derisively--"and there's a woman
+in the house. He's all she has in the world to depend upon, and you
+would have to kill her to get at him. If you MUST follow this course,
+take the others, but leave him alone."
+
+They only shook their heads, while several pushed by him even as he
+spoke. "We're going to distribute our favors equal," said a man as he
+left. They were actuated by what they called justice, and he could not
+sway them. The life and welfare of the North were in their hands, as
+they thought, and there was not one to hesitate. Glenister implored the
+chairman, but the man answered him:
+
+"It's too late for further discussion, and let me remind you of your
+promise. You're bound by every obligation that exists for an honorable
+man--"
+
+"Oh, don't think that I'll give the snap away!" said the other; "but I
+warn you again not to enter Stillman's house."
+
+He followed out into the night to find that Dextry had disappeared,
+evidently wishing to avoid argument. Roy had seen signs of unrest
+beneath the prospector's restraint during the past few days, and
+indications of a fierce hunger to vent his spleen on the men who had
+robbed him of his most sacred rights. He was of an intolerant,
+vindictive nature that would go to any length for vengeance.
+Retribution was part of his creed.
+
+On his way home, the young man looked at his watch, to find that he had
+but an hour to determine his course. Instinct prompted him to join his
+friends and to even the score with the men who had injured him so
+bitterly, for, measured by standards of the frontier, they were pirates
+with their lives forfeit. Yet, he could not countenance this step. If
+only the Vigilantes would be content with making an example--but he
+knew they would not. The blood hunger of a mob is easy to whet and hard
+to hold. McNamara would resist, as would Voorhees and the
+district-attorney, then there would be bloodshed, riot, chaos. The
+soldiers would be called out and martial law declared, the streets
+would become skirmish-grounds. The Vigilantes would rout them without
+question, for every citizen of the North would rally to their aid, and
+such men could not be stopped. The Judge would go down with the rest of
+the ring, and what would happen to--her?
+
+He took down his Winchester, oiled and cleaned it, then buckled on a
+belt of cartridges. Still he wrestled with himself. He felt that he was
+being ground between his loyalty to the Vigilantes and his own
+conscience. The girl was one of the gang, he reasoned--she had schemed
+with them to betray him through his love, and she was pledged to the
+one man in the world whom he hated with fanatical fury. Why should he
+think of her in this hour? Six months back he would have looked with
+jealous eyes upon the right to lead the Vigilantes, but this change
+that had mastered him--what was it? Not cowardice, nor caution. No.
+Yet, being intangible, it was none the less marked, as his friends had
+shown him an hour since.
+
+He slipped out into the night. The mob might do as it pleased
+elsewhere, but no man should enter her house. He found a light shining
+from her parlor window, and, noting the shade up a few inches, stole
+close. Peering through, he discovered Struve and Helen talking. He
+slunk back into the shadows and remained hidden for a considerable time
+after the lawyer left, for the dancers were returning from the hotel
+and passed close by. When the last group had chattered away down the
+street, he returned to the front of the house and, mounting the steps,
+knocked sharply. As Helen appeared at the door, he stepped inside and
+closed it after him.
+
+The girl's hair lay upon her neck and shoulders in tumbled brown
+masses, while her breast heaved tumultuously at the sudden, grim sight
+of him. She stepped back against the wall, her wondrous, deep, gray
+eyes wide and troubled, the blush of modesty struggling with the pallor
+of dismay.
+
+The picture pained him like a knife-thrust. This girl was for his
+bitterest enemy--no hope of her was for him. He forgot for a moment
+that she was false and plotting, then, recalling it, spoke as roughly
+as he might and stated his errand. Then the old man had appeared on the
+stairs above, speechless with fright at what he overheard. It was
+evident that his nerves, so sorely strained by the events of the past
+week, were now snapped utterly. A human soul naked and panic-stricken
+is no pleasant sight, so Glenister dropped his eyes and addressed the
+girl again:
+
+"Don't take anything with you. Just dress and come with me."
+
+The creature on the stairs above stammered and stuttered, inquiringly:
+
+"What outrage is this, Mr. Glenister?"
+
+"The people of Nome are up in arms, and I've come to save you. Don't
+stop to argue." He spoke impatiently.
+
+"Is this some r-ruse to get me into your power?"
+
+"Uncle Arthur!" exclaimed the girl, sharply. Her eyes met Glenister's
+and begged him to take no offence.
+
+"I don't understand this atrocity. They must be mad!" wailed the Judge.
+"You run over to the jail, Mr. Glenister, and tell Voorhees to hurry
+guards here to protect me. Helen, 'phone to the military post and give
+the alarm. Tell them the soldiers must come at once."
+
+"Hold on!" said Glenister. "There's no use of doing that--the wires are
+cut; and I won't notify Voorhees--he can take care of himself. I came
+to help you, and if you want to escape you'll stop talking and hurry
+up."
+
+"I don't know what to do," said Stillman, torn by terror and
+indecision. "You wouldn't hurt an old man, would you? Wait! I'll be
+down in a minute."
+
+He scrambled up the stairs, tripping on his robe, seemingly forgetting
+his niece till she called up to him, sharply:
+
+"Stop, Uncle Arthur! You mustn't RUN AWAY." She stood erect and
+determined, "You wouldn't do THAT, would you? This is our house. You
+represent the law and the dignity of the government. You mustn't fear a
+mob of ruffians. We will stay here and meet them, of course."
+
+"Good Lord!" said Glenister. "That's madness. These men aren't
+ruffians; they are the best citizens of Nome. You don't realize that
+this is Alaska and that they have sworn to wipe out McNamara's gang.
+Come along."
+
+"Thank you for your good intentions," she said, "but we have done
+nothing to run away from. We will get ready to meet these cowards. You
+had better go or they will find you here."
+
+She moved up the stairs, and, taking the Judge by the arm, led him with
+her. Of a sudden she had assumed control of the situation
+unfalteringly, and both men felt the impossibility of thwarting her.
+Pausing at the top, she turned and looked down.
+
+"We are grateful for your efforts just the same. Good-night."
+
+"Oh, I'm not going," said the young man. "If you stick I'll do the
+same." He made the rounds of the first-floor rooms, locking doors and
+windows. As a place of defence it was hopeless, and he saw that he
+would have to make his stand up-stairs. When sufficient time had
+elapsed he called up to Helen:
+
+"May I come?"
+
+"Yes," she replied. So he ascended, to find Stillman in the hall, half
+clothed and cowering, while by the light from the front chamber he saw
+her finishing her toilet.
+
+"Won't you come with me--it's our last chance?" She only shook her
+head. "Well, then, put out the light. I'll stand at that front window,
+and when my eyes get used to the darkness I'll be able to see them
+before they reach the gate."
+
+She did as directed, taking her place beside him at the opening, while
+the Judge crept in and sat upon the bed, his heavy breathing the only
+sound in the room. The two young people stood so close beside each
+other that the sweet scent of her person awoke in him an almost
+irresistible longing. He forgot her treachery again, forgot that she
+was another's, forgot all save that he loved her truly and purely, with
+a love which was like an agony to him. Her shoulder brushed his arm; he
+heard the soft rustling of her garment at her breast as she breathed.
+Some one passed in the street, and she laid a hand upon him fearfully.
+It was very cold, very tiny, and very soft, but he made no move to take
+it. The moments dragged along, still, tense, interminable. Occasionally
+she leaned towards him, and he stooped to catch her whispered words. At
+such times her breath beat warm against his cheek, and he closed his
+teeth stubbornly. Out in the night a wolfdog saddened the air, then
+came the sound of others wrangling and snarling in a near-by corral.
+This is a chickless land and no cock-crow breaks the midnight peace.
+The suspense enhanced the Judge's perturbation till his chattering
+teeth sounded like castanets. Now and then he groaned.
+
+The watchers had lost track of time when their strained eyes detected
+dark blots materializing out of the shadows.
+
+"There they come," whispered Glenister, forcing her back from the
+aperture; but she would not be denied, and returned to his side.
+
+As the foremost figures reached the gate, Roy leaned forth and spoke,
+not loudly, but in tones that sliced through the silence, sharp, clean,
+and without warning.
+
+"Halt! Don't come inside the fence." There was an instant's confusion;
+then, before the men beneath had time to answer or take action, he
+continued: "This is Roy Glenister talking. I told you not to molest
+these people and I warn you again. We're ready for you."
+
+The leader spoke. "You're a traitor, Glenister."
+
+He winced. "Perhaps I am. You betrayed me first, though; and, traitor
+or not, you can't come into this house."
+
+There was a murmur at this, and some one said:
+
+"Miss Chester is safe. All we want is the Judge. We won't hang him, not
+if he'll wear this suit we brought along. He needn't be afraid. Tar is
+good for the skin."
+
+"Oh, my God!" groaned the limb of the law.
+
+Suddenly a man came running down the planked pavement and into the
+group.
+
+"McNamara's gone, and so's the marshal and the rest," he panted. There
+was a moment's silence, and then the leader growled to his men,
+"Scatter out and rush the house, boys." He raised his voice to the man
+in the window. "This is your work--you damned turncoat." His followers
+melted away to right and left, vaulted the fence, and dodged into the
+shelter of the walls. The click, click of Glenister's Winchester
+sounded through the room while the sweat stood out on him. He wondered
+if he could do this deed, if he could really fire on these people. He
+wondered if his muscles would not wither and paralyze before they
+obeyed his command.
+
+Helen crowded past him and, leaning half out of the opening, called
+loudly, her voice ringing clear and true:
+
+"Wait! Wait a moment. I have something to say. Mr. Glenister didn't
+warn them. They thought you were going to attack the mines and so they
+rode out there before midnight. I am telling you the truth, really.
+They left hours ago." It was the first sign she had made, and they
+recognized her to a man.
+
+There were uncertain mutterings below till a new man raised his voice.
+Both Roy and Helen recognised Dextry.
+
+"Boys, we've overplayed. We don't want THESE people--McNamara's our
+meat. Old bald-face up yonder has to do what he's told, and I'm ag'in'
+this twenty-to-one midnight work. I'm goin' home." There were some
+whisperings, then the original spokesman called for Judge Stillman. The
+old man tottered to the window, a palsied, terror-stricken object. The
+girl was glad he could not be seen from below.
+
+"We won't hurt you this time, Judge, but you've gone far enough. We'll
+give you another chance, then, if you don't make good, we'll stretch
+you to a lamp-post. Take this as a warning."
+
+"I--s-shall do my d-d-duty," said the Judge.
+
+The men disappeared into the darkness, and when they had gone Glenister
+closed the window, pulled down the shades, and lighted a lamp. He knew
+by how narrow a margin a tragedy had been averted. If he had fired on
+these men his shot would have kindled a feud which would have consumed
+every vestige of the court crowd and himself among them. He would have
+fallen under a false banner, and his life would not have reached to the
+next sunset. Perhaps it was forfeit now--he could not tell. The
+Vigilantes would probably look upon his part as traitorous; and, at the
+very least, he had cut himself off from their support, the only support
+the Northland offered him. Henceforth he was a renegade, a pariah,
+hated alike by both factions. He purposely avoided sight of Stillman
+and turned his back when the Judge extended his hand with expressions
+of gratitude. His work was done and he wished to leave this house.
+Helen followed him down to the door and, as he opened it, laid her hand
+upon his sleeve.
+
+"Words are feeble things, and I can never make amends for all you've
+done for us."
+
+"For US!" cried Roy, with a break in his voice. "Do you think I
+sacrificed my honor, betrayed my friends, killed my last hope,
+ostracized myself, for 'US'? This is the last time I'll trouble you.
+Perhaps the last time I'll see you. No matter what else you've done,
+however, you've taught me a lesson, and I thank you for it. I have
+found myself at last. I'm not an Eskimo any longer--I'm a man!"
+
+"You've always been that," she said. "I don't understand as much about
+this affair as I want to, and it seems to me that no one will explain
+it. I'm very stupid, I guess; but won't you come back to-morrow and
+tell it to me?"
+
+"No," he said, roughly. "You're not of my people. McNamara and his are
+no friends of mine, and I'm no friend of theirs." He was half down the
+steps before she said, softly:
+
+"Good-night, and God bless you--friend."
+
+She returned to the Judge, who was in a pitiable state, and for a long
+time she labored to soothe him as though he were a child. She undertook
+to question him about the things which lay uppermost in her mind and
+which this night had half revealed, but he became fretful and irritated
+at the mention of mines and mining. She sat beside his bed till he
+dozed off, puzzling to discover what lay behind the hints she had
+heard, till her brain and body matched in absolute weariness. The
+reflex of the day's excitement sapped her strength till she could
+barely creep to her own couch, where she rolled and sighed--too tired
+to sleep at once. She awoke finally, with one last nervous flicker,
+before complete oblivion took her. A sentence was on her mind--it
+almost seemed as though she had spoken it aloud:
+
+"The handsomest woman in the North...but Glenister ran away."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+IN WHICH THE TRUTH BEGINS TO BARE ITSELF
+
+
+It was nearly noon of the next day when Helen awoke to find that
+McNamara had ridden in from the Creek and stopped for breakfast with
+the Judge. He had asked for her, but on hearing the tale of the night's
+adventure would not allow her to be disturbed. Later, he and the Judge
+had gone away together.
+
+Although her judgment approved the step she had contemplated the night
+before, still the girl now felt a strange reluctance to meet McNamara.
+It is true that she knew no ill of him, except that implied in the
+accusations of certain embittered men; and she was aware that every
+strong and aggressive character makes enemies in direct proportionate
+the qualities which lend him greatness. Nevertheless, she was aware of
+an inner conflict that she had not foreseen. This man who so
+confidently believed that she would marry him did not dominate her
+consciousness.
+
+She had ridden much of late, taking long, solitary gallops beside the
+shimmering sea that she loved so well, or up the winding valleys into
+the foot-hills where echoed the roar of swift waters or glinted the
+flash of shovel blades. This morning her horse was lame, so she
+determined to walk. In her early rambles she had looked timidly askance
+at the rough men she met till she discovered their genuine respect and
+courtesy. The most unkempt among them were often college-bred,
+although, for that matter, the roughest of the miners showed abundant
+consideration for a woman. So she was glad to allow the men to talk to
+her with the fine freedom inspired by the new country and its wide
+spaces. The wilderness breeds a chivalry all its own.
+
+Thus there seemed to be no danger abroad, though they had told the girl
+of mad dogs which roamed the city, explaining that the hot weather
+affects powerfully the thick-coated, shaggy "malamoots." This is the
+land of the dog, and whereas in winter his lot is to labor and shiver
+and starve, in summer he loafs, fights, grows fat, and runs mad with
+the heat.
+
+Helen walked far and, returning, chose an unfamiliar course through the
+outskirts of the town to avoid meeting any of the women she knew,
+because of that vivid memory of the night before. As she walked swiftly
+along she thought that she heard faint cries far behind her. Looking
+up, she noted that it was a lonely, barren quarter and that the only
+figure in sight was a woman some distance away. A few paces farther on
+the shouts recurred--more plainly this time, and a gunshot sounded.
+Glancing back, she saw several men running, one bearing a smoking
+revolver, and heard, nearer still, the snarling hubbub of fighting
+dogs. In a flash the girl's curiosity became horror, for, as she
+watched, one of the dogs made a sudden dash through the now subdued
+group of animals and ran swiftly along the planking on which she stood.
+It was a handsome specimen of the Eskimo malamoot--tall, gray, and
+coated like a wolf, with the speed, strength, and cunning of its
+cousin. Its head hung low and swung from side to side as it trotted,
+the motion flecking foam and slaver. The creature had scattered the
+pack, and now, swift, menacing, relentless, was coming towards Helen.
+There was no shelter near, no fence, no house, save the distant one
+towards which the other woman was making her way. The men, too far away
+to protect her, shouted hoarse warnings.
+
+Helen did not scream nor hesitate--she turned and ran, terror-stricken,
+towards the distant cottage. She was blind with fright and felt an
+utter certainty that the dog would attack her before she could reach
+safety. Yes--there was the quick patter of his pads close up behind
+her; her knees weakened; the sheltering door was yet some yards away.
+But a horse, tethered near the walk, reared and snorted as the flying
+pair drew near. The mad creature swerved, leaped at the horse's legs,
+and snapped in fury. Badly frightened at this attack, the horse lunged
+at his halter, broke it, and galloped away; but the delay had served
+for Helen, weak and faint, to reach the door. She wrenched at the knob.
+It was locked. As she turned hopelessly away, she saw that the other
+woman was directly behind her, and was, in her turn, awaiting the mad
+animal's onslaught, but calmly, a tiny revolver in her hand.
+
+"Shoot!" screamed Helen. "Why don't you shoot?" The little gun spoke,
+and the dog spun around, snarling and yelping. The woman fired several
+times more before it lay still, and then remarked, calmly, as she
+"broke" the weapon and ejected the shells:
+
+"The calibre is too small to be good for much."
+
+Helen sank down upon the steps.
+
+"How well you shoot!" she gasped. Her eyes were on the gray bundle
+whose death agonies had thrust it almost to her feet. The men had run
+up and were talking excitedly, but after a word with them the woman
+turned to Helen.
+
+"You must come in for a moment and recover yourself," she said, and led
+her inside.
+
+It was a cosey room in which the girl found herself--more than
+that--luxurious. There was a piano with scattered music, and many of
+the pretty, feminine things that Helen had not seen since leaving home.
+The hostess had stepped behind some curtains for an instant and was
+talking to her from the next room.
+
+"That is the third mad dog I have seen this month. Hydrophobia is
+becoming a habit in this neighborhood." She returned, bearing a tiny
+silver tray with decanter and glasses.
+
+"You're all unstrung, but this brandy will help you--if you don't
+object to a swallow of it. Then come right in here and lie down for a
+moment and you'll be all right." She spoke with such genuine kindness
+and sympathy that Helen flashed a grateful glance at her. She was tall,
+slender, and with a peculiar undulating suggestion in her movements, as
+though she had been bred to the clinging folds of silken garments.
+Helen watched the charm of her smile, the friendly solicitude of her
+expression, and felt her heart warm towards this one kind woman in Nome.
+
+"You're very good," she answered; "but I'm all right now. I was badly
+frightened. It was wonderful, your saving me." She followed the other's
+graceful motion as she placed her burden on the table, and in doing so
+gazed squarely at a photograph of Roy Glenister.
+
+"Oh--!" Helen exclaimed, then paused as it flashed over her who this
+girl was. She looked at her quickly. Yes, probably men would consider
+the woman beautiful, with that smile. The revelation came with a shock,
+and she arose, trying to mask her confusion.
+
+"Thank you so much for your kindness. I'm quite myself now and I must
+go."
+
+Her change of face could not escape the quick perceptions of one
+schooled by experience in the slights of her sex. Times without number
+Cherry Malotte had marked that subtle, scornful change in other women,
+and reviled herself for heeding it. But in some way this girl's manner
+hurt her worst of all. She betrayed no sign, however, save a widening
+of the eyes and a certain fixity of smile as she answered:
+
+"I wish you would stay until you are rested, Miss--" She paused with
+out-stretched hand.
+
+"Chester. My name is Helen Chester. I'm Judge Stillman's niece,"
+hurried the other, in embarrassment.
+
+Cherry Malotte withdrew her proffered hand and her face grew hard and
+hateful.
+
+"Oh! So you are Miss Chester--and I--saved you!" She laughed harshly.
+
+Helen strove for calmness. "I'm sorry you feel that way," she said,
+coolly. "I appreciate your service to me." She moved towards the door.
+
+"Wait a moment. I want to talk to you." Then, as Helen paid no heed,
+the woman burst out, bitterly: "Oh, don't be afraid! I know you are
+committing an unpardonable sin by talking to me, but no one will see
+you, and in your code the crime lies in being discovered. Therefore,
+you're quite safe. That's what makes me an outcast--I was found out. I
+want you to know, however, that, bad as I am, I'm better than you, for
+I'm loyal to those that like me, and I don't betray my friends."
+
+"I don't pretend to understand you," said Helen, coldly.
+
+"Oh yes, you do! Don't assume such innocence. Of course it's your role,
+but you can't play it with me." She stepped in front of her visitor,
+placing her back against the door, while her face was bitter and
+mocking. "The little service I did you just now entitles me to a
+privilege, I suppose, and I'm going to take advantage of it to tell you
+how badly your mask fits. Dreadfully rude of me, isn't it? You're in
+with a fine lot of crooks, and I admire the way you've done your share
+of the dirty work, but when you assume these scandalized, supervirtuous
+airs it offends me."
+
+"Let me out!"
+
+"I've done bad things," Cherry continued, unheedingly, "but I was
+forced into them, usually, and I never, deliberately, tried to wreck a
+man's life just for his money."
+
+"What do you mean by saying that I have betrayed my friends and wrecked
+anybody's life?" Helen demanded, hotly.
+
+"Bah! I had you sized up at the start, but Roy couldn't see it. Then
+Struve told me what I hadn't guessed. A bottle of wine, a woman, and
+that fool will tell all he knows. It's a great game McNamara's playing
+and he did well to get you in on it, for you're clever, your nerve is
+good, and your make-up is great for the part. I ought to know, for I've
+turned a few tricks myself. You'll pardon this little burst of
+feeling--professional pique. I'm jealous of your ability, that's all.
+However, now that you realize we're in the same class, don't look down
+on me hereafter." She opened the door and bowed her guest out with
+elaborate mockery.
+
+Helen was too bewildered and humiliated to make much out of this
+vicious and incoherent attack except the fact that Cherry Malotte
+accused her of a part in this conspiracy which every one seemed to
+believe existed. Here again was that hint of corruption which she
+encountered on all sides. This might be merely a woman's jealousy--and
+yet she said Struve had told her all about it--that a bottle of wine
+and a pretty face would make the lawyer disclose everything. She could
+believe it from what she knew and had heard of him. The feeling that
+she was groping in the dark, that she was wrapped in a mysterious woof
+of secrecy, came over her again as it had so often of late. If Struve
+talked to that other woman, why wouldn't he talk to her? She paused,
+changing her direction towards Front Street, revolving rapidly in her
+mind as she went her course of action. Cherry Malotte believed her to
+be an actress. Very well--she would prove her judgment right.
+
+She found Struve busy in his private office, but he leaped to his feet
+on her entrance and came forward, offering her a chair.
+
+"Good-morning, Miss Helen. You have a fine color, considering the night
+you passed. The Judge told me all about the affair; and let me state
+that you're the pluckiest girl I know."
+
+She smiled grimly at the thought of what made her cheeks glow, and
+languidly loosened the buttons of her jacket.
+
+"I suppose you're very busy, you lawyer man?" she inquired.
+
+"Yes--but not too busy to attend to anything you want."
+
+"Oh, I didn't come on business," she said, lightly. "I was out walking
+and merely sauntered in."
+
+"Well, I appreciate that all the more," he said, in an altered tone,
+twisting his chair about. "I'm more than delighted." She judged she was
+getting on well from the way his professionalism had dropped off.
+
+"Yes, I get tired of talking to uncle and Mr. McNamara. They treat me
+as though I were a little girl."
+
+"When do you take the fatal step?"
+
+"What step do you mean?"
+
+"Your marriage. When does it occur? You needn't hesitate," he added.
+"McNamara told we about it a month ago."
+
+He felt his throat gingerly at the thought, but his eyes brightened
+when she answered, lightly:
+
+"I think you are mistaken. He must have been joking."
+
+For some time she led him on adroitly, talking of many things, in a way
+to make him wonder at her new and flippant humor. He had never dreamed
+she could be like this, so tantalizingly close to familiarity, and yet
+so maddeningly aloof and distant. He grew bolder in his speech.
+
+"How are things going with us?" she questioned, as his warmth grew
+pronounced. "Uncle won't talk and Mr. McNamara is as close-mouthed as
+can be, lately."
+
+He looked at her quickly. "In what respect?"
+
+She summoned up her courage and walked past the ragged edge of
+uncertainty.
+
+"Now, don't you try to keep me in short dresses, too. It's getting
+wearisome. I've done my part and I want to know what the rest of you
+are doing." She was prepared for any answer.
+
+"What do you want to know?" he asked, cautiously.
+
+"Everything. Don't you think I can hear what people are saying?"
+
+"Oh, that's it! Well, don't you pay any attention to what people say."
+
+She recognized her mistake and continued, hurriedly:
+
+"Why shouldn't I? Aren't we all in this together? I object to being
+used and then discarded. I think I'm entitled to know how the scheme is
+working. Don't you think I can keep my mouth shut?"
+
+"Of course," he laughed, trying to change the subject of their talk;
+but she arose and leaned against the desk near him, vowing that she
+would not leave the office without piercing some part of this mystery.
+His manner strengthened her suspicion that there WAS something behind
+it all. This dissipated, brilliant creature knew the situation
+thoroughly; and yet, though swayed by her efforts, he remained chained
+by caution. She leaned forward and smiled at him.
+
+"You're just like the others, aren't you? You won't give me any
+satisfaction at all."
+
+"Give, give, give," said Struve, cynically. "That's always the woman's
+cry. Give me this--give me that. Selfish sex! Why don't you offer
+something in return? Men are traders, women usurers. You are curious,
+hence miserable. I can help you, therefore I should, do it for a smile.
+You ask me to break my promises and risk my honor on your caprice.
+Well, that's woman-like, and I'll do it. I'll put myself in your power,
+but I won't do it gratis. No, we'll trade."
+
+"It isn't curiosity," she denied, indignantly. "It is my due."
+
+"No; you've heard the common talk and grown suspicious, that's all. You
+think I know something that will throw a new light or a new shadow on
+everything you have in the world, and you're worked up to such a
+condition that you can't take your own people's word; and, on the other
+hand, you can't go to strangers, so you come to me. Suppose I told you
+I had the papers you brought to me last spring in that safe and that
+they told the whole story--whether your uncle is unimpeachable or
+whether he deserved hanging by that mob. What would you do, eh? What
+would you give to see them? Well, they're there and ready to speak for
+themselves. If you're a woman you won't rest till you've seen them.
+Will you trade?"
+
+"Yes, yes! Give them to me," she cried, eagerly, at which a wave of
+crimson rushed up to his eyes and he rose abruptly from his chair. He
+made towards her, but she retreated to the wall, pale and wide-eyed.
+
+"Can't you see," she flung at him, "that I MUST know?"
+
+He paused. "Of course I can, but I want a kiss to bind the bargain--to
+apply on account." He reached for her hand with his own hot one, but
+she pushed him away and slipped past him towards the door.
+
+"Suit yourself," said he, "but if I'm not mistaken, you'll never rest
+till you've seen those papers. I've studied you, and I'll place a bet
+that you can't marry McNamara nor look your uncle in the eye till you
+know the truth. You might do either if you KNEW them to be crooks, but
+you couldn't if you only suspected it--that's the woman. When you get
+ready, come back; I'll show you proof, because I don't claim to be
+anything but what I am--Wilton Struve, bargainer of some mean ability.
+When they come to inscribe my headstone I hope they can carve thereon
+with truth, 'He got value received.'"
+
+"You're a panther," she said, loathingly.
+
+"Graceful and elegant brute, that," he laughed. "Affectionate and full
+of play, but with sharp teeth and sharper claws. To follow out the
+idea, which pleases me, I believe the creature owes no loyalty to its
+fellows and hunts alone. Now, when you've followed this conspiracy out
+and placed the blame where it belongs, won't you come and tell me about
+it? That door leads into an outer hall which opens into the street. No
+one will see you come or go."
+
+As she hurried away she wondered dazedly why she had stayed to listen
+so long. What a monster he was! His meaning was plain, had always been
+so from the first day he laid eyes upon her, and he was utterly
+conscienceless. She had known all this; and yet, in her proud, youthful
+confidence, and in her need, every hour more desperate and urgent, to
+know the truth, she had dared risk herself with him. Withal, the man
+was shrewd and observant and had divined her mental condition with
+remarkable sagacity. She had failed with him; but the girl now knew
+that she could never rest till she found an answer to her questions.
+She MUST kill this suspicion that ate into her so. She thought tenderly
+of her uncle's goodness to her, clung with despairing faith to the last
+of her kin. The blood ties of the Chesters were close and she felt in
+dire need of that lost brother who was somewhere in this mysterious
+land--need of some one in whom ran the strain that bound her to the
+weak old man up yonder. There was McNamara; but how could he help her,
+how much did she know of him, this man who was now within the darkest
+shadow of her new suspicions?
+
+Feeling almost intolerably friendless and alone, weakened both by her
+recent fright and by her encounter with Struve, Helen considered as
+calmly as her emotions would allow and decided that this was no day in
+which pride should figure. There were facts which it was imperative she
+should know, and immediately; therefore, a few minutes later, she
+knocked at the door of Cherry Malotte. When the girl appeared, Helen
+was astonished to see that she had been crying. Tears burn hottest and
+leave plainest trace in eyes where they come most seldom. The younger
+girl could not guess the tumult of emotion the other had undergone
+during her absence, the utter depths of self-abasement she had
+fathomed, for the sight of Helen and her fresh young beauty had roused
+in the adventuress a very tempest of bitterness and jealousy. Whether
+Helen Chester were guilty or innocent, how could Glenister hesitate
+between them? Cherry had asked herself. Now she stared at her visitor
+inhospitably and without sign.
+
+"Will you let me come in?" Helen asked her. "I have something to say to
+you."
+
+When they were inside, Cherry Malotte stood and gazed at her visitor
+with inscrutable eyes and stony face.
+
+"It isn't easy for me to come back," Helen began, "but I felt that I
+had to. If you can help me, I hope you will. You said that you knew a
+great wrong was being done. I have suspected it, but I didn't know, and
+I've been afraid to doubt my own people. You said I had a part in
+it--that I'd betrayed my friends. Wait a moment," she hurried on, at
+the other's cynical smile. "Won't you tell me what you know and what
+you think my part has been? I've heard and seen things that make me
+think--oh, they make me afraid to think, and yet I can't find the
+TRUTH! You see, in a struggle like this, people will make all sorts of
+allegations, but do they KNOW, have they any proof, that my uncle has
+done wrong?"
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"No. You said Struve told you the whole scheme. I went to him and tried
+to cajole the story out of him, but--" She shivered at the memory.
+
+"What success did you have?" inquired the listener, oddly curious for
+all her cold dislike.
+
+"Don't ask me. I hate to think of it."
+
+Cherry laughed cruelly. "So, failing there, you came back to me, back
+for another favor from the waif. Well, Miss Helen Chester, I don't
+believe a word you've said and I'll tell you nothing. Go back to the
+uncle and the rawboned lover who sent you, and inform them that I'll
+speak when the time comes. They think I know too much, do they?--so
+they've sent you to spy? Well, I'll make a compact. You play your game
+and I'll play mine. Leave Glenister alone and I'll not tell on
+McNamara. Is it a bargain?"
+
+"No, no, no! Can't you SEE? That's not it. All I want is the truth of
+this thing."
+
+"Then go back to Struve and get it. He'll tell you; I won't. Drive your
+bargain with him--you're able. You've fooled better men--now, see what
+you can do with him."
+
+Helen left, realizing the futility of further effort, though she felt
+that this woman did not really doubt her, but was scourged by jealousy
+till she deliberately chose this attitude.
+
+Reaching her own house, she wrote two brief notes and called in her Jap
+boy from the kitchen.
+
+"Fred, I want you to hunt up Mr. Glenister and give him this note. If
+you can't find him, then look for his partner and give the other to
+him." Fred vanished, to return in an hour with the letter for Dextry
+still in his hand.
+
+"I don' catch dis feller," he explained. "Young mans say he gone, come
+back mebbe one, two, 'leven days."
+
+"Did you deliver the one to Mr. Glenister?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Was there an answer?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Well, give it to me."
+
+The note read:
+
+"DEAR MISS CHESTER,--A discussion of a matter so familiar to us both as
+the Anvil Creek controversy would be useless. If your inclination is
+due to the incidents of last night, pray don't trouble yourself. We
+don't want your pity. I am,
+
+ "Your servant,
+
+  "ROY GLENISTER."
+
+As she read the note, Judge Stillman entered, and it seemed to the girl
+that he had aged a year for every hour in the last twelve, or else the
+yellow afternoon light limned the sagging hollows and haggard lines of
+his face most pitilessly. He showed in voice and manner the nervous
+burden under which he labored.
+
+"Alec has told me about your engagement, and it lifts a terrible load
+from me. I'm mighty glad you're going to marry him. He's a wonderful
+man, and he's the only one who can save us."
+
+"What do you mean by that? What are we in danger of?" she inquired,
+avoiding discussion of McNamara's announcement.
+
+"Why, that mob, of course. They'll come back. They said so. But Alec
+can handle the commanding officer at the post, and, thanks to him,
+we'll have soldiers guarding the house hereafter."
+
+"Why--they won't hurt us--"
+
+"Tut, tut! I know what I'm talking about. We're in worse danger now
+than ever, and if we don't break up those Vigilantes there'll be
+bloodshed--that's what. They're a menace, and they're trying to force
+me off the bench so they can take the law into their own hands again.
+That's what I want to see you about. They're planning to kill Alec and
+me--so he says--and we've got to act quick to prevent murder. Now, this
+young Glenister is one of them, and he knows who the rest are. Do you
+think you could get him to talk?"
+
+"I don't think I quite understand you," said the girl, through
+whitening lips.
+
+"Oh yes, you do. I want the names of the ring-leaders, so that I can
+jail them. You can worm it out of that fellow if you try."
+
+Helen looked at the old man in a horror that at first was dumb. "You
+ask this of me?" she demanded, hoarsely, at last.
+
+"Nonsense," he said, irritably. "This isn't any time for silly
+scruples. It's life or death for me, maybe, and for Alec, too." He said
+the last craftily, but she stormed at him:
+
+"It's infamous! You're asking me to betray the very man who saved us
+not twelve hours ago. He risked his life for us."
+
+"It isn't treachery at all, it's protection. If we don't get them,
+they'll get us. I wouldn't punish that young fellow, but I want the
+others. Come, now, you've got to do it."
+
+But she said "No" firmly, and quietly went to her own room, where,
+behind the locked door, she sat for a long time staring with unseeing
+eyes, her hands tight clenched in her lap. At last she whispered:
+
+"I'm afraid it's true. I'm afraid it's true."
+
+She remained hidden during the dinner-hour, and pleaded a headache when
+McNamara called in the early evening. Although she had not seen him
+since he left her the night before, bearing her tacit promise to wed
+him, yet how could she meet him now with the conviction growing on her
+hourly that he was a master-rogue? She wrestled with the thought that
+he and her uncle, her own uncle who stood in the place of a father,
+were conspirators. And yet, at memory of the Judge's cold-blooded
+request that she should turn traitress, her whole being was revolted.
+If he could ask a thing like that, what other heartless, selfish act
+might he not be capable of? All the long, solitary evening she kept her
+room, but at last, feeling faint, slipped down-stairs in search of
+Fred, for she had eaten nothing since her late breakfast.
+
+Voices reached her from the parlor, and as she came to the last step
+she froze there in an attitude of listening. The first sentence she
+heard through the close-drawn curtains banished all qualms at
+eavesdropping. She stood for many breathless minutes drinking in the
+plot that came to her plainly from within, then turned, gathered up her
+skirts, and tiptoed back to her room. Here she made haste madly,
+tearing off her house clothes and donning others.
+
+She pressed her face to the window and noted that the night was like a
+close-hung velvet pall, without a star in sight. Nevertheless, she
+wound a heavy veil about her hat and face before she extinguished the
+light and stepped into the hall. Hearing McNamara's "Good-night" at the
+front-door, she retreated again while her uncle slowly mounted the
+stairs and paused before her chamber. He called her name softly, but
+when she did not answer continued on to his own room. When he was
+safely within she descended quietly, went out, and locked the
+front-door behind her, placing the key in her bosom. She hurried now,
+feeling her way through the thick gloom in a panic, while in her mind
+was but one frightened thought: "I'll be too late. I'll be too late."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE DRIP OF WATER IN THE DARK
+
+
+Even after Helen had been out for some time she could barely see
+sufficiently to avoid collisions. The air, weighted by a low-hung roof
+of clouds, was surcharged with the electric suspense of an impending
+storm, and seemed to sigh and tremble at the hint of power in leash. It
+was that pause before the conflict wherein the night laid finger upon
+its lips.
+
+As the girl neared Glenister's cabin she was disappointed at seeing no
+light there. She stumbled towards the door, only to utter a
+half-strangled cry as two men stepped out of the gloom and seized her
+roughly. Something cold and hard was thrust violently against her
+cheek, forcing her head back and bruising her. She struggled and cried
+out.
+
+"Hold on--it's a woman!" ejaculated the man who had pinioned her arms,
+loosing his hold till only a hand remained on her shoulder. The other
+lowered the weapon he had jammed to her face and peered closely.
+
+"Why, Miss Chester," he said. "What are you doing here? You came near
+getting hurt."
+
+"I am bound for the Wilsons', but I must have lost my way in the
+darkness. I think you have cut my face." She controlled her fright
+firmly.
+
+"That's too bad," one said. "We mistook you for--" And the other broke
+in, sharply, "You'd better run along. We're waiting for some one."
+
+Helen hastened back by the route she had come, knowing that there was
+still time, and that as yet her uncle's emissaries had not laid hands
+upon Glenister. She had overheard the Judge and McNamara plotting to
+drag the town with a force of deputies, seizing not only her two
+friends, but every man suspected of being a Vigilante. The victims were
+to be jailed without bond, without reason, without justice, while the
+mechanism of the court was to be juggled in order to hold them until
+fall, if necessary. They had said that the officers were already busy,
+so haste was a crying thing. She sped down the dark streets towards the
+house of Cherry Malotte, but found no light nor answer to her knock.
+She was distracted now, and knew not where to seek next among the
+thousand spots which might hide the man she wanted. What chance had she
+against the posse sweeping the town from end to end? There was only
+one; he might be at the Northern Theatre. Even so, she could not reach
+him, for she dared not go there herself. She thought of Fred, her Jap
+boy, but there was no time. Wasted moments meant failure.
+
+Roy had once told her that he never gave up what he undertook. Very
+well, she would show that even a girl may possess determination. This
+was no time for modesty or shrinking indecision, so she pulled the veil
+more closely about her face and took her good name into her hands. She
+made rapidly towards the lighted streets which cast a skyward glare,
+and from which, through the breathless calm, arose the sound of
+carousal. Swiftly she threaded the narrow alleys in search of the
+theatre's rear entrance, for she dared not approach from the front. In
+this way she came into a part of the camp which had lain hidden from
+her until now, and of the existence of which she had never dreamed.
+
+The vices of a city, however horrible, are at least draped scantily by
+the mantle of convention, but in a great mining-camp they stand naked
+and without concealment. Here there were rows upon rows of crib-like
+houses clustered over tortuous, ill-lighted lanes, like blow-flies
+swarming to an unclean feast. From within came the noise of ribaldry
+and debauch. Shrill laughter mingled with coarse, maudlin songs, till
+the clinging night reeked with abominable revelry. The girl saw painted
+creatures of every nationality leaning from windows or beckoning from
+doorways, while drunken men collided with her, barred her course,
+challenged her, and again and again she was forced to slip from their
+embraces. At last the high bulk of the theatre building loomed a short
+distance ahead. Panting and frightened, she tried the door with weak
+hands, to find it locked. From behind it rose the blare of brass and
+the sound of singing. She accosted a man who approached her through the
+narrow alley, but he had cruised from the charted course in search of
+adventure and was not minded to go in quest of doormen; rather, he
+chose to sing a chantey, to the bibulous measures of which he invited
+her to dance with him, so she slipped away till he had teetered past.
+He was some longshoreman in that particular epoch of his inebriety
+where life had no burden save the dissipation of wages.
+
+Returning, she pounded on the door, possessed of the sense that the man
+she sought was here, till at last it was flung open, framing the
+silhouette of a shirt-sleeved, thick-set youth, who shouted:
+
+"What 'n 'ell do you want to butt in for while the show's on? Go round
+front." She caught a glimpse of disordered scenery, and before he could
+slam the door in her face thrust a silver dollar into his hand, at the
+same time wedging herself into the opening. He pocketed the coin and
+the door clicked to behind her.
+
+"Well, speak up. The act's closin'." Evidently he was the directing
+genius of the performance, for at that moment the chorus broke into
+full cry, and he said, hurriedly:
+
+"Wait a minute. There goes the finally," and dashed away to tend his
+drops and switches. When the curtain was down and the principals had
+sought their dressing-rooms he returned.
+
+"Do you know Mr. Glenister?" she asked.
+
+"Sure. I seen him to-night. Come here." He led her towards the
+footlights, and, pulling back the edge of the curtain, allowed her to
+peep past him out into the dance-hall. She had never pictured a place
+like this, and in spite of her agitation was astonished at its gaudy
+elegance. The gallery was formed of a continuous row of compartments
+with curtained fronts, in which men and women were talking, drinking,
+singing. The seats on the lower floor were disappearing, and the canvas
+cover was rolling back, showing the polished hardwood underneath, while
+out through the wide folding-doors that led to the main gambling-room
+she heard a brass-lunged man calling the commencement of the dance.
+Couples glided into motion while she watched.
+
+"I don't see him," said her guide. "You better walk out front and help
+yourself." He indicated the stairs which led up to the galleried boxes
+and the steps leading down on to the main floor, but she handed him
+another coin, begging him to find Glenister and bring him to her.
+"Hurry; hurry!" she implored.
+
+The stage-manager gazed at her curiously, remarking, "My! You spend
+your money like it had been left to you. You're a regular pie-check for
+me. Come around any time."
+
+She withdrew to a dark corner and waited interminably till her
+messenger appeared at the head of the gallery stairs and beckoned to
+her. As she drew near he said, "I told him there was a thousand-dollar
+filly flaggin' him from the stage door, but he's got a grouch an' won't
+stir. He's in number seven." She hesitated, at which he said, "Go
+on--you're in right;" then continued, reassuringly: "Say, pal, if he's
+your white-haired lad, you needn't start no roughhouse, 'cause he don't
+flirt wit' these dames none whatever. Naw! Take it from me."
+
+She entered the door her counsellor indicated to find Roy lounging back
+watching the dancers. He turned inquiringly--then, as she raised her
+veil, leaped to his feet and jerked the curtains to.
+
+"Helen! What are you doing here?"
+
+"You must go away quickly," she gasped. "They're trying to arrest you."
+
+"They! Who? Arrest me for what?"
+
+"Voorhees and his men--for riot, or something about last night."
+
+"Nonsense," he said. "I had no part in it. You know that."
+
+"Yes, yes--but you're a Vigilante, and they're after you and all your
+friends. Your house is guarded and the town is alive with deputies.
+They've planned to jail you on some pretext or other and hold you
+indefinitely. Please go before it's too late."
+
+"How do you know this?" he asked, gravely.
+
+"I overheard them plotting."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Uncle Arthur and Mr. McNamara." She faced him squarely as she said it,
+and therefore saw the light flame up in his eyes as he cried:
+
+"And you came here to save me--came HERE at the risk of your good name?"
+
+"Of course. I would have done the same for Dextry." The gladness died
+away, leaving him listless.
+
+"Well, let them come. I'm done, I guess. I heard from Wheaton to-night.
+He's down and out, too--some trouble with the 'Frisco courts about
+jurisdiction over these cases. I don't know that it's worth while to
+fight any longer."
+
+"Listen," she said. "You must go. I am sure there is a terrible wrong
+being done, and you and I must stop it. I have seen the truth at last,
+and you're in the right. Please hide for a time at least."
+
+"Very well. If you have taken sides with us there's some hope left.
+Thank you for the risk you ran in warning me."
+
+She had moved to the front of the compartment and was peering forth
+between the draperies when she stifled a cry.
+
+"Too late! Too late! There they are. Don't part the curtains. They'll
+see you."
+
+Pushing through the gambling-hall were Voorhees and four others,
+seemingly in quest of some one.
+
+"Run down the back stairs," she breathed, and pushed him through the
+door. He caught and held her hand with a last word of gratitude. Then
+he was gone. She drew down her veil and was about to follow when the
+door opened and he reappeared.
+
+"No use," he remarked, quietly. "There are three more waiting at the
+foot." He looked out to find that the officers had searched the crowd
+and were turning towards the front stairs, thus cutting off his
+retreat. There were but two ways down from the gallery and no outside
+windows from which to leap. As they had made no armed display, the
+presence of the officers had not interrupted the dance.
+
+Glenister drew his revolver, while into his eyes came the dancing
+glitter that Helen had seen before, cold as the glint of winter
+sunlight.
+
+"No, not that--for God's sake!" she shuddered, clasping his arm.
+
+"I must for your sake, or they'll find you here, and that's worse than
+ruin. I'll fight it out in the corridors so that you can escape in the
+confusion. Wait till the firing stops and the crowd gathers." His hand
+was on the knob when she tore it loose, whispering hoarsely:
+
+"They'll kill you. Wait! There's a better way. Jump." She dragged him
+to the front of the box and pulled aside the curtains. "It isn't high
+and they won't see you till it's too late. Then you can run through the
+crowd." He grasped her idea, and, slipping his weapon back into its
+holster, laid hold of the ledge before him and lowered himself down
+over the dancers. He swung out unhesitatingly, and almost before he had
+been observed had dropped into their midst. The gallery was but twice
+the height of a man's head from the floor, so he landed on his feet and
+had drawn his Colts even while the men at the stairs were shouting at
+him to halt.
+
+At sight of the naked weapons there was confusion, wherein the commands
+of the deputies mingled with the shrieks of the women, the crash of
+overturned chairs, and the sound of tramping feet, as the crowd divided
+before Glenister and swept back against the wall in the same ominous
+way that a crowd in the street had once divided on the morning of
+Helen's arrival. The trombone player, who had sunk low in his chair
+with closed eyes, looked out suddenly at the disturbance, and his alarm
+was blown through the horn in a startled squawk. A large woman
+whimpered, "Don't shoot," and thrust her palms to her ears, closing her
+eyes tightly.
+
+Glenister covered the deputies, from whose vicinity the by-standers
+surged as though from the presence of lepers.
+
+"Hands up!" he cried, sharply, and they froze into motionless
+attitudes, one poised on the lowest step of the stairs, the other a
+pace forward. Voorhees appeared at the head of the flight and rushed
+down a few steps only to come abruptly into range and to assume a like
+rigidity, for the young man's aim shifted to him.
+
+"I have a warrant for you," the officer cried, his voice loud in the
+hush.
+
+"Keep it," said Glenister, showing his teeth in a smile in which there
+was no mirth. He backed diagonally across the hall, his boot-heels
+clicking in the silence, his eyes shifting rapidly up and down the
+stairs where the danger lay.
+
+From her station Helen could see the whole tableau, all but the men on
+the stairs, where her vision was cut off. She saw the dance girls
+crouched behind their partners or leaning far out from the wall with
+parted lips, the men eager yet fearful, the bartender with a
+half-polished glass poised high. Then a quick movement across the hall
+suddenly diverted her absorbed attention. She saw a man rip aside the
+drapery of the box opposite and lean so far out that he seemed in peril
+of falling. He undertook to sight a weapon at Glenister, who was just
+passing from his view. At her first glance Helen gasped--her heart gave
+one fierce lunge, and she cried out.
+
+The distance across the pit was so short that she saw his every line
+and lineament clearly; it was the brother she had sought these years
+and years. Before she knew or could check it the blood call leaped
+forth.
+
+"Drury!" she cried, aloud, at which he whipped his head about, while
+amazement and some other emotion she could not gauge spread slowly over
+his features. For a long moment he stared at her without movement or
+sign while the drama beneath went on, then he drew back into his
+retreat with the dazed look of one doubting his senses, yet fearful of
+putting them to the test. For her part, she saw nothing except her
+brother vanishing slowly into the shadows as though stricken at her
+glance, the curtains closing before his livid face--and then
+pandemonium broke loose at her feet.
+
+Glenister, holding his enemies at bay, had retreated to the double
+doors leading to the theatre. His coup had been executed so quickly and
+with such lack of turmoil that the throng outside knew nothing of it
+till they saw a man walk backward through the door. As he did so he
+reached forth and slammed the wide wings shut before his face, then
+turned and dashed into the press. Inside the dance-hall loud sounds
+arose as the officers clattered down the stairs and made after their
+quarry. They tore the barrier apart in time to see, far down the
+saloon, an eddying swirl as though some great fish were lashing through
+the lily-pads of a pond, and then the swinging doors closed behind
+Glenister.
+
+Helen made her way from the theatre as she had come, unobserved and
+unobserving, but she walked in a dream. Emotions had chased each other
+too closely to-night to be distinguishable, so she went mechanically
+through the narrow alley to Front Street and thence to her home.
+
+Glenister, meanwhile, had been swallowed up by the darkness, the night
+enfolding him without sign or trace. As he ran he considered what
+course to follow--whether to carry the call to his comrades in town or
+to make for the Creek and Dextry. The Vigilantes might still distrust
+him, and yet he owed them warning. McNamara's men were moving so
+swiftly that action must be speedy to forestall them. Another hour and
+the net would be closed, while it seemed that whichever course he chose
+they would snare one or the other--either the friends who remained in
+town, or Dex and Slapjack out in the hills. With daylight those two
+would return and walk unheeding into the trap, while if he bore the
+word to them first, then the Vigilantes would be jailed before dawn. As
+he drew near Cherry Malotte's house he saw a light through the drawn
+curtains. A heavy raindrop plashed upon his face, another followed, and
+then he heard the patter of falling water increasing swiftly. Before he
+could gain the door the storm had broken. It swept up the street with
+tropical violence, while a breath sighed out of the night, lifting the
+litter from underfoot and pelting him with flying particles. Over the
+roofs the wind rushed with the rising moan of a hurricane while the
+night grew suddenly noisy ahead of the tempest.
+
+He entered the door without knocking, to find the girl removing her
+coat. Her face gladdened at sight of him, but he checked her with quick
+and cautious words, his speech almost drowned by the roar outside.
+
+"Are you alone?" She nodded, and he slipped the bolt behind him, saying:
+
+"The marshals are after me. We just had a 'run in' at the Northern, and
+I'm on the go. No--nothing serious yet, but they want the Vigilantes,
+and I must get them word. Will you help me?" He rapidly recounted the
+row of the last ten minutes while she nodded her quick understanding.
+
+"You're safe here for a little while," she told him, "for the storm
+will check them. If they should come, there's a back door leading out
+from the kitchen and a side entrance yonder. In my room you'll find a
+French window. They can't corner you very well."
+
+"Slapjack and Dex are out at the shaft house--you know--that quartz
+claim on the mountain above the Midas." He hesitated. "Will you lend me
+your saddle-horse? It's a black night and I may kill him."
+
+"What about these men in town?"
+
+"I'll warn them first, then hit for the hills."
+
+She shook her head. "You can't do it. You can't get out there before
+daylight if you wait to rouse these people, and McNamara has probably
+telephoned the mines to send a party up to the quartz claim after Dex.
+He knows where the old man is as well as you do, and they'll raid him
+before dawn."
+
+"I'm afraid so, but it's all I can offer. Will you give me the horse?"
+
+"No! He's only a pony, and you'd founder him in the tundra. The mud is
+knee-deep. I'll go myself."
+
+"Good Heavens, girl, in such a night! Why, it's worth your life! Listen
+to it! The creeks will be up and you'll have to swim. No, I can't let
+you."
+
+"He's a good little horse, and he'll take me through." Then, coming
+close, she continued: "Oh, boy! Can't you see that I want to help?
+Can't you see that I--I'd DIE for you if it would do any good?" He
+gazed gravely into her wide blue eyes and said, awkwardly: "Yes, I
+know. I'm sorry things are--as they are--but you wouldn't have me lie
+to you, little woman?"
+
+"No. You're the only true man I ever knew. I guess that's why I love
+you. And I do love you, oh, so much! I want to be good and worthy to
+love you, too."
+
+She laid her face against his arm and caressed him with clinging
+tenderness, while the wind yelled loudly about the eaves and the
+windows drummed beneath the rain. His heavy brows knit themselves
+together as she whispered:
+
+"I love you! I love you! I love you!" with such an agony of longing in
+her voice that her soft accents were sharply distinguishable above the
+turmoil. The growing wildness seemed a part of the woman's passion,
+which whipped and harried her like a willow in a blast.
+
+"Things are fearfully jumbled," he said, finally. "And this is a bad
+time to talk about them. I wish they might be different. No other girl
+would do what you have offered to-night."
+
+"Then why do you think of that woman?" she broke in, fiercely. "She's
+bad and false. She betrayed you once; she's in the play now; you've
+told me so yourself. Why don't you be a man and forget her?"
+
+"I can't," he said, simply. "You're wrong, though, when you think she's
+bad. I found to-night that she's good and brave and honest. The part
+she played was played innocently, I'm sure of that, in spite of the
+fact that she'll marry McNamara. It was she who overheard them plotting
+and risked her reputation to warn me."
+
+Cherry's face whitened, while the shadowy eagerness that had rested
+there died utterly. "She came into that dive alone? She did that?" He
+nodded, at which she stood thinking for some time, then continued:
+"You're honest with me, Roy, and I'll be the same with you. I'm tired
+of deceit, tired of everything. I tried to make you think she was bad,
+but in my own heart I knew differently all the time. She came here
+to-day and humbled herself to get the truth, humbled herself to me, and
+I sent her away. She suspected, but she didn't know, and when she asked
+for information I insulted her. That's the kind of a creature I am. I
+sent her back to Struve, who offered to tell her the whole story."
+
+"What does that renegade want?"
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+"Why, I'd rather--" The young man ground his teeth, but Cherry hastened.
+
+"You needn't worry; she won't see him again. She loathes the ground he
+walks on."
+
+"And yet he's no worse than that other scoundrel. Come, girl, we have
+work to do; we must act, and act quickly." He gave her his message to
+Dextry, then she went to her room and slipped into a riding-habit. When
+she came out he asked: "Where is your raincoat? You'll be drenched in
+no time."
+
+"I can't ride with it. I'll be thrown, anyway, and I don't want to be
+all bound up. Water won't hurt me."
+
+She thrust her tiny revolver into her dress, but he took it and upon
+examination shook his head.
+
+"If you need a gun you'll need a good one." He removed the belt from
+his own waist and buckled his Colts about her.
+
+"But you!" she objected.
+
+"I'll get another in ten minutes." Then, as they were leaving, he said:
+"One other request, Cherry. I'll be in hiding for a time, and I must
+get word to Miss Chester to keep watch of her uncle, for the big fight
+is on at last and the boys will hang him sure if they catch him. I owe
+her this last warning. Will you send it to her?"
+
+"I'll do it for your sake, not for her--no, no; I don't mean that. I'll
+do the right thing all round. Leave it here and I'll see that she gets
+it to-morrow. And--Roy--be careful of yourself." Her eyes were starry
+and in their depths lurked neither selfishness nor jealousy now, only
+that mysterious glory of a woman who makes sacrifice.
+
+Together they scurried back to the stable, and yet, in that short
+distance, she would have been swept from her feet had he not seized
+her. They blew in through the barn door, streaming and soaked by the
+blinding sheets that drove scythe-like ahead of the wind. He struck a
+light, and the pony whinnied at recognition of his mistress. She
+stroked the little fellow's muzzle while Glenister cinched on her
+saddle. Then, when she was at last mounted, she leaned forward:
+
+"Will you kiss me once, Roy, for the last time?"
+
+He took her rain-wet face between his hands and kissed her upon the
+lips as he would have saluted a little maid. As he did so, unseen by
+both of them, a face was pressed for an instant against the pane of
+glass in the stable wall.
+
+"You're a brave girl and may God bless you," he said, extinguishing the
+light. He flung the door wide and she rode out into the storm. Locking
+the portal, he plunged back towards the house to write his hurried
+note, for there was much to do and scant time for its accomplishment,
+despite the helping hand of the hurricane. He heard the voice of Bering
+as it thundered on the Golden Sands, and knew that the first great
+storm of the fall had come. Henceforth he saw that the violence of men
+would rival the rising elements, for the deeds of this night would stir
+their passions as AEolus was rousing the hate of the sea.
+
+He neglected to bolt the house door as he entered, but flung off his
+dripping coat and, seizing pad and pencil, scrawled his message. The
+wind screamed about the cabin, the lamp flared smokily, and Glenister
+felt a draught suck past him as though from an open door at his back as
+he wrote:
+
+"I can't do anything more. The end has come and it has brought the
+hatred and bloodshed that I have been trying to prevent. I played the
+game according to your rules, but they forced me back to first
+principles in spite of myself, and now I don't know what the finish
+will be. To-morrow will tell. Take care of your uncle, and if you
+should wish to communicate with me, go to Cherry Malotte. She is a
+friend to both of us.
+
+ "Always your servant, ROY GLENISTER."
+
+As he sealed this he paused, while he felt the hair on his neck rise
+and bristle and a chill race up his spine. His heart fluttered, then
+pounded onward till the blood thumped audibly at his ear-drums and he
+found himself swaying in rhythm to its beat. The muscles of his back
+cringed and rippled at the proximity of some hovering peril, and yet an
+irresistible feeling forbade him to turn. A sound came from close
+behind his chair--the drip, drip, drip of water. It was not from the
+eaves, nor yet from a faulty shingle. His back was to the kitchen door,
+through which he had come, and, although there were no mirrors before
+him, he felt a menacing presence as surely as though it had touched
+him. His ears were tuned to the finest pin-pricks of sound, so that he
+heard the faint, sighing "squish" of a sodden shoe upon which a weight
+had shifted. Still something chained him to his seat. It was as though
+his soul laid a restraining hand upon his body, waiting for the instant.
+
+He let his hand seek his hip carelessly, but remembered where his gun
+was. Mechanically, he addressed the note in shaking characters, while
+behind him sounded the constant drip, drip, drip that he knew came from
+saturated garments. For a long moment he sat, till he heard the
+stealthy click of a gun-lock muffled by finger pressure. Then he set
+his face and slowly turned to find the Bronco Kid standing behind him
+as though risen from the sea, his light clothes wet and clinging, his
+feet centred in a spreading puddle. The dim light showed the convulsive
+fury of his features above the levelled weapon, whose hammer was curled
+back like the head of a striking adder, his eyes gleaming with frenzy.
+Glenister's mouth was powder dry, but his mind was leaping riotously
+like dust before a gale, for he divined himself to be in the deadliest
+peril of his life. When he spoke the calmness of his voice surprised
+himself.
+
+"What's the matter, Bronco?" The Kid made no reply, and Roy repeated,
+"What do you want?"
+
+"That's a hell of a question," the gambler said, hoarsely. "I want you,
+of course, and I've got you."
+
+"Hold up! I am unarmed. This is your third try, and I want to know
+what's back of it."
+
+"DAMN the talk!" cried the faro-dealer, moving closer till the light
+shone on his features, which commenced to twitch. He raised the
+revolver he had half lowered. "There's reason enough, and you know it."
+
+Glenister looked him fairly between the eyes, gripping himself with
+firm hands to stop the tremor he felt in his bones. "You can't kill
+me," he said. "I am too good a man to murder. You might shoot a crook,
+but you can't kill a brave man when he's unarmed. You're no assassin."
+He remained rigid in his chair, however, moving nothing but his lips,
+meeting the other's look unflinchingly. The Kid hesitated an instant,
+while his eyes, which had been fixed with the glare of hatred, wavered
+a moment, betraying the faintest sign of indecision. Glenister cried
+out, exultantly:
+
+"Ha! I knew it. Your neck cords quiver."
+
+The gambler grimaced. "I can't do it. If I could, I'd have shot you
+before you turned. But you'll have to fight, you dog. Get up and draw."
+
+Roy refused. "I gave Cherry my gun."
+
+"Yes, and more too," the man gritted. "I saw it all."
+
+Even yet Glenister had made no slightest move, realizing that a
+feather's weight might snap the gambler's nervous tension and bring the
+involuntary twitch that would put him out swifter than a whip is
+cracked.
+
+"I have tried it before, but murder isn't my game." The Kid's eye
+caught the glint of Cherry's revolver where she had discarded it.
+"There's a gun--get it."
+
+"It's no good. You'd carry the six bullets and never feel them. I don't
+know what this is all about, but I'll fight you whenever I'm heeled
+right."
+
+"Oh, you black-hearted hound," snarled the Kid. "I want to shoot, but
+I'm afraid. I used to be a gentleman and I haven't lost it all, I
+guess. But I won't wait the next time. I'll down you on sight, so you'd
+better get ironed in a hurry." He backed out of the room into the
+semi-darkness of the kitchen, watching with lynx-like closeness the man
+who sat so quietly under the shaded light. He felt behind him for the
+outer door-knob and turned it to let in a white sheet of rain, then
+vanished like a storm wraith, leaving a parched-lipped man and a zigzag
+trail of water, which gleamed in the lamplight like a pool of blood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+WHEREIN A TRAP IS BAITED
+
+
+Glenister did not wait long after his visitor's departure, but
+extinguished the light, locked the door, and began the further
+adventures of this night. The storm welcomed him with suffocating
+violence, sucking the very breath from his lips, while the rain beat
+through till his flesh was cold and aching. He thought with a pang of
+the girl facing this tempest, going out to meet the thousand perils of
+the night. And it remained for him to bear his part as she bore hers,
+smilingly.
+
+The last hour had added another and mysterious danger to his full
+measure. Could the Kid be jealous of Cherry? Surely not. Then what else?
+
+The tornado had driven his trailers to cover, evidently, for the
+streets were given over to its violence, and Roy encountered no hostile
+sign as he was buffeted from house to house. He adventured cautiously
+and yet with haste, finding certain homes where the marshals had been
+before him peopled now only by frightened wives and children. A
+scattered few of the Vigilantes had been taken thus, while the warring
+elements had prevented their families from spreading the alarm or
+venturing out for succor. Those whom he was able to warn dressed
+hurriedly, took their rifles, and went out into the drifting night,
+leaving empty cabins and weeping women. The great fight was on.
+
+Towards daylight the remnants of the Vigilantes straggled into the big
+blank warehouse on the sand-spit, and there beneath the smoking glare
+of lanterns cursed the name of McNamara. As dawn grayed the ragged
+eastern sky-line, Dextry and Slapjack blew in through the spindrift,
+bringing word from Cherry and lifting a load from Glenister's mind.
+
+"There's a game girl," said the old miner, as he wrung out his clothes.
+"She was half gone when she got to us, and now she's waiting for the
+storm to break so that she can come back."
+
+"It's clearing up to the east," Slapjack chattered. "D'you know, I'm
+gettin' so rheumatic that ice-water don't feel comfortable to me no
+more."
+
+"Uriatic acid in the blood," said Dextry. "What's our next move?" he
+asked of his partner. "When do we hang this politician? Seems like
+we've got enough able-bodied piano-movers here to tie a can onto the
+whole outfit, push the town site of Nome off the map, and start afresh."
+
+"I think we had better lie low and watch developments," the other
+cautioned. "There's no telling what may turn up during the day."
+
+"That's right. Stranglers is like spirits--they work best in the dark."
+
+ As the day grew, the storm died, leaving ramparts of clouds
+hanging sullenly above the ocean's rim, while those skilled in weather
+prophecy foretold the coming of the equinoctial. In McNamara's office
+there was great stir and the coming of many men. The boss sat in his
+chair smoking countless cigars, his big face set in grim lines, his
+hard eyes peering through the pall of blue at those he questioned. He
+worked the wires of his machine until his dolls doubled and danced and
+twisted at his touch. After a gusty interview he had dismissed Voorhees
+with a merciless tongue-lashing, raging bitterly at the man's failure.
+
+"You're not fit to herd sheep. Thirty men out all night and what do you
+get? A dozen mullet-headed miners. You bag the mud-hens and the big
+game runs to cover. I wanted Glenister, but you let him slip through
+your fingers--now it's war. What a mess you've made! If I had even ONE
+helper with a brain the size of a flaxseed, this game would be a gift,
+but you've bungled every move from the start. Bah! Put a spy in the
+bull-pen with those prisoners and make them talk. Offer them anything
+for information. Now get out!"
+
+He called for a certain deputy and questioned him regarding the night's
+quest, remarking, finally:
+
+"There's treachery somewhere. Those men were warned."
+
+"Nobody came near Glenister's house except Miss Chester," the man
+replied.
+
+"What?"
+
+"The Judge's niece. We caught her by mistake in the dark."
+
+Later, one of the men who had been with Voorhees at the Northern asked
+to see the receiver and told him:
+
+"The chief won't believe that I saw Miss Chester in the dance-hall last
+night, but she was there with Glenister. She must have put him wise to
+our game or he wouldn't have known we were after him."
+
+His hearer made no comment, but, when alone, rose and paced the floor
+with heavy tread while his face grew savage and brutal.
+
+"So that's the game, eh? It's man to man from now on. Very well,
+Glenister, I'll have your life for that, and then--you'll pay, Miss
+Helen." He considered carefully. A plot for a plot. If he could not
+swap intrigue with these miners and beat them badly, he deserved to
+lose. Now that the girl gave herself to their cause he would use her
+again and see how well she answered. Public opinion would not stand too
+great a strain, and, although he had acted within his rights last
+night, he dared not go much further. Diplomacy, therefore, must serve.
+He must force his enemies beyond the law and into his trap. She had
+passed the word once; she would do so again.
+
+He hurried to Stillman's house and stormed into the presence of the
+Judge. He told the story so artfully that the Judge's astonished
+unbelief yielded to rage and cowardice, and he sent for his niece. She
+came down, white and silent, having heard the loud voices. The old man
+berated her with shrewish fury, while McNamara stood silent. The girl
+listened with entire self-control until her uncle made a reference to
+Glenister that she found intolerable.
+
+"Hush! I will not listen!" she cried, passionately. "I warned him
+because you would have sacrificed him after he had saved our lives.
+That is all. He is an honest man, and I am grateful to him. That is the
+only foundation for your insult."
+
+McNamara, with apparent candor, broke in:
+
+"You thought you were doing right, of course, but your action will have
+terrible consequences. Now we'll have riot, bloodshed, and Heaven knows
+what. It was to save all this that I wanted to break up their
+organization. A week's imprisonment would have done it, but now they're
+armed and belligerent and we'll have a battle to-night."
+
+"No, no!" she cried. "There mustn't be any violence."
+
+"There is no use trying to check them. They are rushing to their own
+destruction. I have learned that they plan to attack the Midas
+to-night, and I'll have fifty soldiers waiting for them there. It is a
+shame, for they are decent fellows, blinded by ignorance and misled by
+that young miner. This will be the blackest night the North has ever
+seen."
+
+With this McNamara left the house and went in search of Voorhees,
+remarking to himself: "Now, Miss Helen--send your warning--the sooner
+the better. If I know those Vigilantes, it will set them crazy, and yet
+not crazy enough to attack the Midas. They will strike for me, and when
+they hit my poor, unguarded office, they'll think hell has moved North."
+
+"Mr. Marshal," said he to his tool, "I want you to gather forty men
+quietly and to arm them with Winchesters. They must be fellows who
+won't faint at blood--you know the kind. Assemble them at my office
+after dark, one at a time, by the back way. It must be done with
+absolute secrecy. Now, see if you can do this one thing and not get
+balled up. If you fail, I'll make you answer to me."
+
+"Why don't you get the troops?" ventured Voorhees.
+
+"If there's one thing I want to avoid, it's soldiers, either here or at
+the mines. When they step in, we step out, and I'm not ready for that
+just yet." The receiver smiled sinisterly.
+
+Helen meanwhile had fled to her room, and there received Glenister's
+note through Cherry Malotte's messenger. It rekindled her worst fears
+and bore out McNamara's prophecy. The more she read of it the more
+certain she grew that the crisis was only a question of hours, and that
+with darkness, Tragedy would walk the streets of Nome. The thought of
+the wrong already done was lost in the lonely girl's terror of the
+crime about to happen, for it seemed to her she had been the instrument
+to set these forces in motion, that she had loosed this swift-speeding
+avalanche of greed, hatred, and brutality. And when the crash should
+come--the girl shuddered. It must not be. She would shriek a warning
+from the house-tops even at cost of her uncle, of McNamara, and of
+herself. And yet she had no proof that a crime existed. Although it all
+lay clear in her own mind, the certainty of it arose only from her
+intuition. If only she were able to take a hand--if only she were not a
+woman. Then Cherry Malotte's words anent Struve recurred to her, "A
+bottle of wine and a woman's face." They brought back the lawyer's
+assurance that those documents she had safeguarded all through the long
+spring-time journey really contained the proof. If they did, then they
+held the power to check this impending conflict. Her uncle and the boss
+would not dare continue if threatened with exposure and prosecution.
+The more she thought of it, the more urgent seemed the necessity to
+prevent the battle of to-night. There was a chance here, at least, and
+the only one.
+
+Adding to her mental torment was the constant vision of that face in
+the curtains at the Northern. It was her brother, yet what mystery
+shrouded this affair, also? What kept him from her? What caused him to
+slink away like a thief discovered? She grew dizzy and hysterical.
+
+ Struve turned in his chair as the door to his private office
+opened, then leaped to his feet at sight of the gray-eyed girl standing
+there.
+
+"I came for the papers," she said.
+
+"I knew you would." The blood went out of his cheeks, then surged back
+up to his eyes. "It's a bargain, then?"
+
+She nodded. "Give them to me first."
+
+He laughed unpleasantly. "What do you take me for? I'll keep my part of
+the bargain if you'll keep yours. But this is no place, nor time.
+There's riot in the air, and I'm busy preparing for to-night. Come back
+to-morrow when it's all over."
+
+But it was the terror of to-night's doings that led her into his power.
+
+"I'll never come back," she said. "It is my whim to know to-day--yes,
+at once."
+
+He meditated for a time. "Then to-day it shall be. I'll shirk the
+fight, I'll sacrifice what shreds of duty have clung to me, because the
+fever for you is in my bones, and it seems to me I'd do murder for it.
+That's the kind of a man I am, and I have no pride in myself because of
+it. But I've always been that way We'll ride to the Sign of the Sled.
+It's a romantic little road-house ten miles from here, perched high
+above the Snake River trail. We'll take dinner there together."
+
+"But the papers?"
+
+"I'll have them with me. We'll start in an hour."
+
+"In an hour," she echoed, lifelessly, and left him.
+
+He chuckled grimly and seized the telephone. "Central--call the Sled
+road-house--seven rings on the Snake River branch. Hello! That you,
+Shortz? This is Struve. Anybody at the house? Good. Turn them away if
+they come and say that you're closed. None of your business. I'll be
+out about dark, so have dinner for two. Spread yourself and keep the
+place clear. Good-bye."
+
+Strengthened by Glenister's note, Helen went straight to the other
+woman and this time was not kept waiting nor greeted with sneers, but
+found Cherry cloaked in a shy dignity, which she clasped tightly about
+herself. Under her visitor's incoherence she lost her diffidence,
+however, and, when Helen had finished, remarked, with decision: "Don't
+go with him. He's a bad man."
+
+"But I MUST. The blood of those men will be on me if I don't stop this
+tragedy. If those papers tell the tale I think they do, I can call off
+my uncle and make McNamara give back the mines. You said Struve told
+you the whole scheme. Did you see the PROOF?"
+
+"No, I have only his word, but he spoke of those documents repeatedly,
+saying they contained his instructions to tie up the mines in order to
+give a foothold for the lawsuits. He bragged that the rest of the gang
+were in his power and that he could land them in the penitentiary for
+conspiracy. That's all."
+
+"It's the only chance," said Helen. "They are sending soldiers to the
+Midas to lie in ambush, and you must warn the Vigilantes." Cherry paled
+at this and ejaculated:
+
+"Good Lord! Roy said he'd lead an attack to-night." The two stared at
+each other.
+
+"If I succeed with Struve I can stop it all--all of this injustice and
+crime--everything."
+
+"Do you realize what you're risking?" Cherry demanded. "That man is an
+animal. You'll have to kill him to save yourself, and he'll never give
+up those proofs."
+
+"Yes, he will," said Helen, fiercely, "and I defy him to harm me. The
+Sign of the Sled is a public roadhouse with a landlord, a telephone,
+and other guests. Will you warn Mr. Glenister about the troops?"
+
+"I will, and bless you for a brave girl. Wait a moment." Cherry took
+from the dresser her tiny revolver. "Don't hesitate to use this. I want
+you to know also that I'm sorry for what I said yesterday."
+
+As she hurried away, Helen realized with a shock the change that the
+past few months had wrought in her. In truth, it was as Glenister had
+said, his Northland worked strangely with its denizens. What of that
+shrinking girl who had stepped out of the sheltered life, strong only
+in her untried honesty, to become a hunted, harried thing, juggling
+with honor and reputation, in her heart a half-formed fear that she
+might kill a man this night to gain her end? The elements were moulding
+her with irresistible hands. Roy's contact with the primitive had not
+roughened him more quickly than had hers.
+
+She met her appointment with Struve, and they rode away together, he
+talkative and elated, she silent and icy.
+
+Late in the afternoon the cloud banks to the eastward assumed alarming
+proportions. They brought with them an early nightfall, and when they
+broke let forth a tempest which rivalled that of the previous night.
+During the first of it armed men came sifting into McNamara's office
+from the rear and were hidden throughout the building. Whenever he
+descried a peculiarly desperate ruffian the boss called him aside for
+private instruction and gave minute description of a wide-shouldered,
+erect, youth in white hat and half-boots. Gradually he set his trap
+with the men Voorhees had raked from the slums, and when it was done
+smiled to himself. As he thought it over he ceased to regret the
+miscarriage of last night's plan, for it had served to goad his enemies
+to the point he desired, to the point where they would rush to their
+own undoing. He thought with satisfaction of the role he would play in
+the United States press when the sensational news of this night's
+adventure came out. A court official who dared to do his duty despite a
+lawless mob. A receiver who turned a midnight attack into a rout and
+shambles. That is what they would say. What if he did exceed his
+authority thereafter? What if there were a scandal? Who would question?
+As to soldiers--no, decidedly no. He wished no help of soldiers at this
+time.
+
+The sight of a ship in the offing towards dark caused him some
+uneasiness, for, notwithstanding the assurance that the course of
+justice in the San Francisco courts had been clogged, he knew Bill
+Wheaton to be a resourceful lawyer and a determined man. Therefore, it
+relieved him to note the rising gale, which precluded the possibility
+of interference from that source. Let them come to-morrow if they
+would. By that time some of the mines would be ownerless and his
+position strengthened a hundredfold.
+
+He telephoned the mines to throw out guards, although he reasoned that
+none but madmen would think of striking there in the face of the
+warning which he knew must have been transmitted through Helen. Putting
+on his rain-coat he sought Stillman.
+
+"Bring your niece over to my place to-night. There's trouble in the air
+and I'm prepared for it."
+
+"She hasn't returned from her ride yet. I'm afraid she's caught in the
+storm." The Judge gazed anxiously into the darkness.
+
+ During all the long day the Vigilantes lay in hiding, impatient
+at their idleness and wondering at the lack of effort made towards
+their discovery, not dreaming that McNamara had more cleverly hidden
+plans behind. When Cherry's note of warning came they gathered in the
+back room and gave voice to their opinions.
+
+"There's only one way to clear the atmosphere," said the chairman.
+
+"You bet," chorussed the others. "They've garrisoned the mines, so
+let's go through the town and make a clean job of it. Let's hang the
+whole outfit to one post."
+
+This met with general approval, Glenister alone demurring. Said he: "I
+have reasoned it out differently, and I want you to hear me through
+before deciding. Last night I got word from Wheaton that the California
+courts are against us. He attributes it to influence, but, whatever the
+reason, we are cut off from all legal help either in this court or on
+appeal. Now, suppose we lynch these officials to-night--what do we
+gain? Martial law in two hours, our mines tied up for another year, and
+who knows what else? Maybe a corrupter court next season. Suppose, on
+the other hand, we fail--and somehow I feel that we will, for that boss
+is no fool. What then? Those of us who don't find the morgue will end
+in jail. You say we can't meet the soldiers. I say we can and must. We
+must carry this row to them. We must jump it past the courts of Alaska,
+past the courts of California, and up to the White House, where there's
+one honest man, at least. We must do something to wake up the men in
+Washington. We must get out of politics, for McNamara can beat us
+there. Although he's a strong man he can't corrupt the President. We
+have one shot left, and it must reach the Potomac. When Uncle Sam takes
+a hand we'll get a square deal, so I say let us strike at the Midas
+to-night and take her if we can. Some of us will go down, but what of
+it?"
+
+Following this harangue, he outlined a plan which in its unique daring
+took away their breaths, and as he filled in detail after detail they
+brightened with excitement and that love of the long chance which makes
+gamblers of those who thread the silent valleys or tread the edge of
+things. His boldness stirred them and enthusiasm did the rest.
+
+"All I want for myself," he said, "is the chance to run the big risk.
+It's mine by right."
+
+Dextry spoke, breathlessly, to Slapjack in the pause which ensued:
+
+"Ain't he a heller?"
+
+"We'll go you," the miners chimed to a man. And the chairman added:
+"Let's have Glenister lead this forlorn hope. I am willing to stand or
+fall on his judgment." They acquiesced without a dissenting voice and
+with the firm hands of a natural leader the young man took control.
+
+"Let's hurry up," said one. "It's a long 'mush' and the mud is
+knee-deep."
+
+"No walking for us," said Roy. "We'll go by train."
+
+"By train? How can we get a train?"
+
+"Steal it," he answered, at which Dextry grinned delightedly at his
+loose-jointed companion, and Slapjack showed his toothless gums in
+answer, saying:
+
+"He sure is."
+
+A few more words and Glenister, accompanied by these two, slipped out
+into the whirling storm, and a half-hour later the rest followed. One
+by one the Vigilantes left, the blackness blotting them up an
+arm's-length from the door, till at last the big, bleak warehouse
+echoed hollowly to the voice of the wind and water.
+
+Over in the eastern end of town, behind dark windows upon which the
+sheeted rain beat furiously, other armed men lay patiently
+waiting--waiting some word from the bulky shadow which stood with
+folded arms close against a square of gray, while over their heads a
+wretched old man paced back and forth, wringing his hands, pausing at
+every turn to peer out into the night and to mumble the name of his
+sister's child.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+DYNAMITE
+
+
+Early in the evening Cherry Malotte opened her door to find the Bronco
+Kid on her step. He entered and threw off his rubber coat. Knowing him
+well, she waited for his disclosure of his errand. His sallow skin was
+without trace of color, his eyes were strangely tired, deep lines had
+gathered about his lips, while his hands kept up constant little
+nervous explorations as though for days and nights he had not slept and
+now hovered on the verge of some hysteria. He gave her the impression
+of a smouldering mine with the fire eating close up to the powder. She
+judged that his body had been racked by every passion till now it hung
+jaded and weary, yielding only to the spur of his restless, revengeful
+spirit.
+
+After a few objectless remarks, he began, abruptly:
+
+"Do you love Roy Glenister?" His voice, like his manner, was jealously
+eager, and he watched her carefully as she replied, without quibble or
+deceit:
+
+"Yes, Kid; and I always shall. He is the only true man I have ever
+known, and I'm not ashamed of my feelings."
+
+For a long time he studied her, and then broke into rapid speech,
+allowing her no time for interruption.
+
+"I've held back and held back because I'm no talker. I can't be, in my
+business; but this is my last chance, and I want to put myself right
+with you. I've loved you ever since the Dawson days, not in the way
+you'd expect from a man of my sort, perhaps, but with the kind of love
+that a woman wants. I never showed my hand, for what was the use? That
+man outheld me. I'd have quit faro years back only I wouldn't leave
+this country as long as you were a part of it, and up here I'm only a
+gambler, fit for nothing else. I'd made up my mind to let you have him
+till something happened a couple of months ago, but now it can't go
+through. I'll have to down him. It isn't concerning you--I'm not a
+welcher. No, it's a thing I can't talk about, a thing that's made me
+into a wolf, made me skulk and walk the alleys like a dago. It's put
+murder into my heart. I've tried to assassinate him. I tried it here
+last night--but--I was a gentleman once--till the cards came. He knows
+the answer now, though, and he's ready for me--so one of us will go out
+like a candle when we meet. I felt that I had to tell you before I cut
+him down or before he got me."
+
+"You're talking like a madman, Kid," she replied, "and you mustn't turn
+against him now. He has troubles enough. I never knew you cared for me.
+What a tangle it is, to be sure. You love me, I love him, he loves that
+girl, and she loves a crook. Isn't that tragedy enough without your
+adding to it? You come at a bad time, too, for I'm half insane. There's
+something dreadful in the air to-night--"
+
+"I'll have to kill him," the man muttered, doggedly, and, plead or
+reason as she would, she could get nothing from him except those words,
+till at last she turned upon him fiercely.
+
+"You say you love me. Very well--let's see if you do. I know the kind
+of a man you are and I know what this feud will mean to him, coming
+just at this time. Put it aside and I'll marry you."
+
+The gambler rose slowly to his feet. "You do love him, don't you?" She
+bowed her face, and he winced, but continued: "I wouldn't make you my
+wife that way. I didn't mean it that way."
+
+At this she laughed bitterly, "Oh, I see. Of course not. How foolish of
+me to expect it of a man like you. I understand what you mean now, and
+the bargain will stand just the same, if that is what you came for. I
+wanted to leave this life and be good, to go away and start over and
+play the game square, but I see it's no use. I'll pay. I know how
+relentless you are, and the price is low enough. You can have me--and
+that--marriage talk--I'll not speak of again. I'll stay what I am for
+his sake."
+
+"Stop!" cried the Kid. "You're wrong. I'm not that kind of a sport."
+His voice broke suddenly, its vehemence shaking his slim body. "Oh,
+Cherry, I love you the way a man ought to love a woman. It's one of the
+two good things left in me, and I want to take you away from here where
+we can both hide from the past, where we can start new, as you say."
+
+"You would marry me?" she asked.
+
+"In an hour, and give my heart's blood for the privilege; but I can't
+stop this thing, not even if your own dear life hung upon it. I MUST
+kill that man."
+
+She approached him and laid her arms about his neck, every line of her
+body pleading, but he refused steadfastly, while the sweat stood out
+upon his brow.
+
+She begged: "They're all against him, Kid. He's fighting a hopeless
+fight. He laid all he had at that girl's feet, and I'll do the same for
+you."
+
+The man growled savagely. "He got his reward. He took all she had--"
+
+"Don't be a fool. I guess I know. You're a faro-dealer, but you haven't
+any right to talk like that about a good woman, even to a bad one like
+me."
+
+Into his dark eyes slowly crept a hungry look, and she felt him begin
+to tremble the least bit. He undertook to speak, paused, wet his lips,
+then carefully chose these words:
+
+"Do you mean--that he did not--that she is--a good girl?"
+
+"Absolutely."
+
+He sat down weakly and passed a shaking hand over his face, which had
+begun to twitch and jerk again as it had on that night when his
+vengeance was thwarted.
+
+"I may as well tell you that I know she's more than that. She's honest
+and high-principled. I don't know why I'm saying this, but it was on my
+mind and I was half distracted when you came. She's in danger to-night,
+though--at this minute. I don't dare to think of what may have
+happened, for she's risked everything to make reparation to Roy and his
+friends."
+
+"What?"
+
+"She's gone to the Sign of the Sled alone with Struve."
+
+"Struve!" shouted the gambler, leaping to his feet. "Alone with Struve
+on a night like this?" He shook her fiercely, crying: "What for? Tell
+me quick!"
+
+She recounted the reasons for Helen's adventure, while the man's face
+became terrible.
+
+"Oh, Kid, I am to blame for letting her go. Why did I do it? I'm
+afraid--afraid."
+
+"The Sign of the Sled belongs to Struve, and the fellow who runs it is
+a rogue." The Bronco looked at the clock, his eyes bloodshot and dull
+like those of a goaded, fly-maddened bull. "It's eight o'clock now--ten
+miles--two hours. Too late!"
+
+"What ails you?" she questioned, baffled by his strange demeanor. "You
+called ME the one woman just now, and yet--"
+
+He swung towards her heavily. "She's my sister."
+
+"Your--sister? Oh, I--I'm glad. I'm glad--but don't stand there like a
+wooden man, for you've work to do. Wake up. Can't you hear? She's in
+peril!" Her words whipped him out of his stupor so that he drew himself
+somewhat under control. "Get into your coat. Hurry! Hurry! My pony will
+take you there." She snatched his garment from the chair and held it
+for him while the life ran back into his veins. Together they dashed
+out into the storm as she and Roy had done, and as he flung the saddle
+on the buckskin, she said:
+
+"I understand it all now. You heard the talk about her and Glenister;
+but it's wrong. I lied and schemed and intrigued against her, but it's
+over now. I guess there's a little streak of good in me somewhere,
+after all."
+
+He spoke to her from the saddle. "It's more than a streak, Cherry, and
+you're my kind of people." She smiled wanly back at him under the
+lantern-light.
+
+"That's left-handed, Kid. I don't want to be your kind. I want to be
+his kind--or your sister's kind."
+
+Upon leaving the rendezvous, Glenister and his two friends slunk
+through the night, avoiding the life and lights of the town, while the
+wind surged out of the voids to seaward, driving its wet burden through
+their flapping slickers, pelting their faces as though enraged at its
+failure to wash away the purposes written there. Their course brought
+them to a cabin at the western outskirts of the city, where they paused
+long enough to adjust something beneath the brims of their hats.
+
+Past them ran the iron rails of the narrow-gauged road which led out
+across the quaking tundra to the mountains and the mines. Upon this
+slender trail of steel there rolled one small, ungainly teapot of an
+engine which daily creaked and clanked back and forth at a snail's
+pace, screaming and wailing its complaint of the two high-loaded
+flat-cars behind. The ties beneath it were spiked to planks laid
+lengthwise over the semi-liquid road-bed, in places sagging beneath the
+surface till the humpbacked, short-waisted locomotive yawed and reeled
+and squealed like a drunken fish-wife. At night it panted wearily into
+the board station and there sighed and coughed and hissed away its
+fatigue as the coals died and the breath relaxed in its lungs.
+
+Early to bed and early to rise was perforce the motto of its grimy
+crew, who lived near by. To-night they were just retiring when stayed
+by a summons at their door. The engineer opened it to admit what
+appeared to his astonished eyes to be a Krupp cannon propelled by a man
+in yellow-oiled clothes and white cotton mask. This weapon assumed the
+proportions of a great, one-eyed monster, which stared with baleful
+fixity at his vitals, giving him a cold and empty feeling. Away back
+beyond this Cyclops of the Sightless Orb were two other strangers
+likewise equipped.
+
+The fireman arose from his chair, dropping an empty shoe with a thump,
+but, being of the West, without cavil or waste of wind, he stretched
+his hands above his head, balancing on one foot to keep his unshod
+member from the damp floor. He had unbuckled his belt, and now,
+loosened by the movement, his overalls seemed bent on sinking floorward
+in an ecstasy of abashment at the intrusion, whereupon with convulsive
+grip he hugged them to their duty, one hand and foot still elevated as
+though in the grand hailing-sign of some secret order. The other man
+was new to the ways of the North, so backed to the limit of his
+quarters, laid both hands protectingly upon his middle, and doubled up,
+remarking, fervidly:
+
+"Don't point that damn thing at my stomach."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed the fireman, with unnatural loudness. "Have your joke
+boys."
+
+"This ain't no joke," said the foremost figure, its breath bellying out
+the mask at its mouth.
+
+"Sure it is," insisted the shoeless one. "Must be--we ain't got
+anything worth stealing."
+
+"Get into your clothes and come along. We won't hurt you." The two
+obeyed and were taken to the sleeping engine and there instructed to
+produce a full head of steam in thirty minutes or suffer a premature
+taking off and a prompt elision from the realms of applied mechanics.
+As stimulus to their efforts two of the men stood over them till the
+engine began to sob and sigh reluctantly. Through the gloom that
+curtained the cab they saw other dim forms materializing and climbing
+silently on to the cars behind; then, as the steam-gauge touched the
+mark, the word was given and the train rumbled out from its shelter,
+its shrill plaint at curb and crossing whipped away and drowned in the
+storm.
+
+Slapjack remained in the cab, gun in lap, while Dextry climbed back to
+Glenister. He found the young man in good spirits, despite the
+discomfort of his exposed position, and striving to light his pipe
+behind the shelter of his coat.
+
+"Is the dynamite aboard?" the old man questioned.
+
+"Sure. Enough to ballast a battle-ship."
+
+As the train crept out of the camp and across the river bridge, its
+only light or glimmer the sparks that were snatched and harried by the
+blast, the partners seated themselves on the powder cases and conversed
+guardedly, while about them sounded the low murmur of the men who
+risked their all upon this cry to duty, who staked their lives and
+futures upon this hazard of the hills, because they thought it right.
+
+"We've made a good fight, whether we win or lose to-night," said Dextry.
+
+Roy replied, "MY fight is made and won."
+
+"What does that mean?"
+
+"My hardest battle had nothing to do with the Midas or the mines of
+Anvil. I fought and conquered myself."
+
+"Awful wet night for philosophy," the first remarked. "It's apt to sour
+on you like milk in a thunder-storm. S'pose you put overalls an' gum
+boots on some of them Boston ideas an' lead 'em out where I can look
+'em over an' find out what they're up to."
+
+"I mean that I was a savage till I met Helen Chester and she made a man
+of me. It took sixty days, but I think she did a good job. I love the
+wild things just as much as ever, but I've learned that there are
+duties a fellow owes to himself, and to other people, if he'll only
+stop and think them out. I've found out, too, that the right thing is
+usually the hardest to do. Oh, I've improved a lot."
+
+"Gee! but you're popular with yourself. I don't see as it helps your
+looks any. You're as homely as ever--an' what good does it do you after
+all? She'll marry that big guy."
+
+"I know. That's what rankles, for he's no more worthy of her than I am.
+She'll do what's right, however, you may depend upon that, and perhaps
+she'll change him the way she did me. Why, she worked a miracle in my
+attitude towards life--my manner--"
+
+"Oh, your manners are good enough as they lay," interrupted the other.
+"You never did eat with your knife."
+
+"I don't believe in hara-kiri," Glenister laughed.
+
+"No, when it comes to intimacies with decorum, you're right on the job
+along with any of them Easterners. I watched you close at them 'Frisco
+hotels last winter, and, say--you know as much as a horse. Why, you was
+wise to them tablewares and pickle-forks equal to a head-waiter, and it
+give me confidence just to be with you. I remember putting milk and
+sugar in my consomme the first time. It was pale and in a cup and
+looked like tea--but not you. No, sir! You savvied plenty and squeezed
+a lemon into yours--to clean your fingers, I reckon."
+
+Roy slapped his partner's wet back, for he was buoyant and elated. The
+sense of nearing danger pulsed through him like wine. "That wasn't just
+what I meant, but it goes. Say, if we win back our mine, we'll hit for
+New York next--eh?"
+
+"No, I don't aim to mingle with no higher civilization than I got in
+'Frisco. I use that word 'higher' like it was applied to meat. Not that
+I wouldn't seem apropos, I'm stylish enough for Fifth Avenue or
+anywheres, but I like the West. Speakin' of modes an' styles, when I
+get all lit up in that gray woosted suit of mine, I guess I make the
+jaded sight-seers set up an' take notice--eh? Somethin' doin' every
+minute in the cranin' of necks--what? Nothin' gaudy, but the acme of
+neatness an' form, as the feller said who sold it to me."
+
+Their common peril brought the friends together again, into that close
+bond which had been theirs without interruption until this recent
+change in the younger had led him to choose paths at variance with the
+old man's ideas; and now they spoke, heart to heart, in the
+half-serious, half-jesting ways of old, while beneath each whimsical
+irony was that mutual love and understanding which had consecrated
+their partnership.
+
+Arriving at the end of the road, the Vigilantes debouched and went into
+the darkness of the canon behind their leader, to whom the trails were
+familiar. He bade them pause finally, and gave his last instructions.
+
+"They are on the alert, so you want to be careful. Divide into two
+parties and close in from both sides, creeping as near to the pickets
+as possible without discovery. Remember to wait for the last blast.
+When it comes, cut loose and charge like Sioux. Don't shoot to kill at
+first, for they're only soldiers and under orders, but if they
+stand--well, every man must do his work."
+
+Dextry appealed to the dim figures forming the circle.
+
+"I leave it to you, gents, if it ain't better for me to go inside than
+for the boy. I've had more experience with giant powder, an' I'm so
+blamed used up an' near gone it wouldn't hurt if they did get me, while
+he's right in his prime--"
+
+Glenister stopped him. "I won't yield the privilege. Come now--to your
+places, men."
+
+They melted away to each side while the old prospector paused to wring
+his partner's hand.
+
+"I'd ruther it was me, lad, but if they get you--God help 'em!" He
+stumbled after the departing shadows, leaving Roy alone. With his naked
+fingers, Glenister ripped open the powder cases and secreted the
+contents upon his person. Each cartridge held dynamite enough to
+devastate a village, and he loaded them inside his pockets, inside his
+shirt, and everywhere that he had room, till he was burdened and cased
+in an armor one-hundredth part of which could have blown him from the
+face of the earth so utterly as to leave no trace except, perhaps, a
+pit ripped out of the mountain-side. He looked to his fuses and saw
+that they were wrapped in oiled paper, then placed them in his hat.
+Having finished, he set out, walking with difficulty under the weight
+he carried.
+
+That his choice of location had been well made was evidenced by the
+fact that the ground beneath his feet sloped away to a basin out of
+which bubbled a spring. It furnished the drinking supply of the Midas,
+and he knew every inch of the crevice it had worn down the mountain, so
+felt his way cautiously along. At the bottom of the hill where it ran
+out upon the level it had worn a considerable ditch through the soil,
+and into this he crawled on hands and knees. His bulging clothes
+handicapped him so that his gait was slow and awkward, while the rain
+had swelled the streamlet till it trickled over his calves and up to
+his wrists, chilling him so that his muscles cramped and his very bones
+cried out with it. The sharp schist cut into his palms till they were
+shredded and bleeding, while his knees found every jagged bit of
+bed-rock over which he dragged himself. He could not see an
+arm's-length ahead without rising, and, having removed his slicker for
+greater freedom of movement, the rain beat upon his back till he was
+soaked and sodden and felt streamlets cleaving downward between his
+ribs. Now and again he squatted upon his haunches, straining his eyes
+to either side. The banks were barely high enough to shield him. At
+last he came to a bridge of planks spanning the ditch and was about to
+rear himself for another look when he suddenly flattened into the
+stream bed, half damming the waters with his body. It was for this he
+had so carefully wrapped his fuses. A man passed over him so close
+above that he might have touched him. The sentry paused a few paces
+beyond and accosted another, then retraced his steps over the bridge.
+Evidently this was the picket-line, so Roy wormed his way forward till
+he saw the blacker blackness of the mine buildings, then drew himself
+dripping out from the bank. He had run the gauntlet safely.
+
+Since evicting the owners, the receiver had erected substantial houses
+in place of the tents he had found on the mine. They were of frame and
+corrugated-iron, sheathed within and suited to withstand a moderate
+exposure. The partners had witnessed the operation from a distance, but
+knew nothing about the buildings from close examination.
+
+A thrill of affection for this place wanned the young man. He loved
+this old mine. It had realized the dream of his boyhood, and had
+answered the hope he had clung to during his long fight against the
+Northland. It had come to him when he was disheartened, bringing cheer
+and happiness, and had yielded itself like a bride. Now it seemed a
+crime to ravage it.
+
+He crept towards the nearest wall and listened. Within was the sound of
+voices, though the windows were dark, showing that the inhabitants were
+on the alert. Beneath the foundations he made mysterious preparations,
+then sought out the office building and cook-house, doing likewise. He
+found that back of the seeming repose of the Midas there was a strained
+expectancy.
+
+Although suspense had lengthened the time out of all calculation, he
+judged he had been gone from his companions at least an hour and that
+they must be in place by now. If they were not--if anything failed at
+this eleventh hour--well, those were the fortunes of war. In every
+enterprise, however carefully planned, there comes a time when chance
+must take its turn.
+
+He made his way inside the blacksmith-shop and fumbled for a match.
+Just as he was about to strike it he heard the swish of oiled clothes
+passing, and waited for some time. Then, igniting his punk and hiding
+it under his coat, he opened the door to listen. The wind had died down
+now and the rain sang musically upon the metal roofs.
+
+He ran swiftly from house to house, and, when he had done, at the
+apices of the triangle he had traced three glowing coals were
+sputtering.
+
+The final bolt was launched at last. He stepped down into the ditch and
+drew his .45, while to his tautened senses it seemed that the very
+hills leaned forth in breathless pause, that the rain had ceased, and
+the whole night hushed its thousand voices. He found his lower jaw set
+so stiffly that the muscles ached. Levelling his weapon at the eaves of
+the bunk-house, he pulled trigger rapidly--the bang, bang, bang, six
+times repeated, sounding dull and dead beneath the blanket of mist that
+overhung. A shout sounded behind him, and then the shriek of a
+Winchester ball close over his head. He turned in time to see another
+shot stream out of the darkness, where a sentry was firing at the flash
+of his gun, then bent himself double and plunged down the ditch.
+
+With the first impact overhead the men poured forth from their quarters
+armed and bristling, to be greeted by a volley of gunshots, the thud of
+bullets, and the dwindling whine of spent lead. They leaped from
+shelter to find themselves girt with a fitful hoop of fire, for the
+"Stranglers" had spread in the arc of a circle and now emptied their
+rifles towards the centre. The defenders, however, maintained
+surprising order considering the suddenness of their attack, and ran to
+join the sentries, whose positions could be determined by the nearer
+flashes. The voice of a man in authority shouted loud commands. No
+demonstration came from the outer voids, nothing but the wicked streaks
+that stabbed the darkness. Then suddenly, behind McNamara's men, the
+night glared luridly as though a great furnace-door had opened and then
+clanged shut, while with it came a hoarse thudding roar that silenced
+the rifle play. They saw the cook-house disrupt itself and disintegrate
+into a thousand flying timbers and twisted sheets of tin which soared
+upward and outward over their heads and into the night. As the rocking
+hills ceased echoing, the sound of the Vigilantes' rifles recurred like
+the cracking of dry sticks, then everywhere about the defenders the
+earth was lashed by falling debris while the iron roofs rang at the
+fusillade.
+
+The blast had come at their very elbows, and they were too dazed and
+shaken by it to grasp its significance. Then, before they could realize
+what it boded, the depths lit up again till the raindrops were outlined
+distinct and glistening like a gossamer veil of silver, while the
+office building to their left was ripped and rended and the adjoining
+walls leaped out into sudden relief, their shattered windows looking
+like ghostly, sightless eyes. The curtain of darkness closed heavier
+than velvet, and the men cowered in their tracks, shielding themselves
+behind the nearest objects or behind one another's bodies, waiting for
+the sky to vomit over them its rain of missiles. Their backs were to
+the Vigilantes now, their faces to the centre. Many had dropped their
+rifles. The thunder of hoofs and the scream of terrified horses came
+from the stables. The cry of a maddened beast is weird and calculated
+to curdle the blood at best, but with it arose a human voice, shrieking
+from pain and fear of death. A wrenched and doubled mass of zinc had
+hurtled out of the heavens and struck some one down. The choking
+hoarseness of the man's appeal told the story, and those about him
+broke into flight to escape what might follow, to escape this danger
+they could not see but which swooped out of the blackness above and
+against which there was no defence. They fled only to witness another
+and greater light behind them by which they saw themselves running,
+falling, grovelling. This time they were hurled from their balance by a
+concussion which dwarfed the two preceding ones. Some few stood still,
+staring at the rolling smoke-bank as it was revealed by the explosion,
+their eyes gleaming white, while others buried their faces in their
+hollowed arms as if to shut out the hellish glare, or to shield
+themselves from a blow.
+
+Out in the heart of the chaos rang a voice loud and clear:
+
+"Beware the next blast!"
+
+At the same instant the girdle of sharp-shooters rose up smiting the
+air with their cries and charged in like madmen through the rain of
+detritus. They fired as they came, but it was unnecessary, for there
+was no longer a fight. It was a rout. The defenders, feeling they had
+escaped destruction only by a happy chance in leaving the bunk-house
+the instant they did, were not minded to tarry here where the heavens
+fell upon their heads. To augment their consternation, the horses had
+broken from their stalls and were plunging through the confusion. Fear
+swept over the men--blind, unreasoning, contagious--and they rushed out
+into the night, colliding with their enemies, overrunning them in the
+panic to quit this spot. Some dashed off the bluff and fell among the
+pits and sluices. Others ran up the mountain-side, and cowered in the
+brush like quail.
+
+As the "Stranglers" assembled their prisoners near the ruins, they
+heard wounded men moaning in the darkness, so lit torches and searched
+out the stricken ones. Glenister came running through the smoke pall,
+revolver in hand, crying: "Has any one seen McNamara?" No one had, and
+when they were later assembled to take stock of their injuries he was
+greeted by Dextry's gleeful announcement:
+
+"That's the deuce of a fight. We 'ain't got so much as a cold sore
+among us."
+
+"We have captured fourteen," another announced, "and there may be more
+out yonder in the brush."
+
+Glenister noted with growing surprise that not one of the prisoners
+lined up beneath the glaring torches wore the army blue. They were
+miners all, or thugs and ruffians gathered from the camp. Where, he
+wondered, were the soldiers.
+
+"Didn't you have troops from the barracks to help you?" he asked.
+
+"Not a troop. We haven't seen a soldier since we went to work."
+
+At this the young leader became alarmed. Had this whole attack
+miscarried? Had this been no clash with the United States forces, after
+all? If so, the news would never reach Washington, and instead of
+accomplishing his end, he and his friends had thrust themselves into
+the realms of outlawry, where the soldiers could be employed against
+them with impunity, where prices would rest upon their heads. Innocent
+blood had been shed, court property destroyed. McNamara had them where
+he wanted them at last. They were at bay.
+
+The unwounded prisoners were taken to the boundaries of the Midas and
+released with such warnings as the imagination of Dextry could conjure
+up; then Glenister assembled his men, speaking to them plainly.
+
+"Boys, this is no victory. In fact, we're worse off than we were
+before, and our biggest fight is coming. There's a chance to get away
+now before daylight and before we're recognized, but if we're seen here
+at sun-up we'll have to stay and fight. Soldiers will be sent against
+us, but if we hold out, and the struggle is fierce enough, it may reach
+to Washington. This will be a different kind of fighting now, though.
+It will be warfare pure and simple. How many of you will stick?"
+
+"All of us," said they, in unison, and, accordingly, preparations for a
+siege were begun. Barricades were built, ruins removed, buildings
+transformed into blockhouses, and all through the turbulent night the
+tired men labored till ready to drop, led always by the young giant,
+who seemed without fatigue.
+
+It was perhaps four hours after midnight when a man sought him out.
+
+"Somebody's callin' you on the Assay Office telephone--says it's life
+or death."
+
+Glenister hurried to the building, which had escaped the shock of the
+explosions, and, taking down the receiver, was answered by Cherry
+Malotte.
+
+"Thank God, you're safe," she began. "The men have just come in and the
+whole town is awake over the riot. They say you've killed ten people in
+the fight--is it true?"
+
+He explained to her briefly that all was well, but she broke in:
+
+"Wait, wait! McNamara has called for troops and you'll all be shot. Oh,
+what a terrible night it has been! I haven't been to bed. I'm going
+mad. Now, listen, carefully--yesterday Helen went with Struve to the
+Sign of the Sled and she hasn't come back."
+
+The man at the end of the wire cried out at this, then choked back his
+words to hear what followed. His free hand began making strange, futile
+motions as though he traced patterns in the air.
+
+"I can't raise the road-house on the wire and--something dreadful has
+happened, I know."
+
+"What made her go?" he shouted.
+
+"To save you," came Cherry's faint reply. "If you love her, ride fast
+to the Sign of the Sled or you'll be too late. The Bronco Kid has gone
+there--"
+
+At that name Roy crashed the instrument to its hook and burst out of
+the shanty, calling loudly to his men.
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"To the Sign of the Sled," he panted.
+
+"We've stood by you, Glenister, and you can't quit us like this," said
+one, angrily. "The trail to town is good, and we'll take it if you do."
+Roy saw they feared he was deserting, feared that he had heard some
+alarming rumor of which they did not know.
+
+"We'll let the mine go, boys, for I can't ask you to do what I refuse
+to do myself, and yet it's not fear that's sending me. There's a woman
+in danger and I MUST go. She courted ruin to save us all, risked her
+honor to try and right a wrong--and--I'm afraid of what has happened
+while we were fighting here. I don't ask you to stay till I come
+back--it wouldn't be square, and you'd better go while you have a
+chance. As for me--I gave up the old claim once--I can do it again." He
+swung himself to the horse's back, settled into the saddle, and rode
+out through the lane of belted men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+IN WHICH THREE GO TO THE SIGN OF THE SLED AND BUT TWO RETURN
+
+
+As Helen and her companion ascended the mountain, scarred and swept by
+the tempest of the previous night, they heard, far below, the swollen
+torrent brawling in its bowlder-ridden bed, while behind them the angry
+ocean spread southward to a blood-red horizon. Ahead, the bleak
+mountains brooded over forbidding valleys; to the west a suffused sun
+glared sullenly, painting the high-piled clouds with the gorgeous hues
+of a stormy sunset. To Helen the wild scene seemed dyed with the colors
+of flame and blood and steel.
+
+"That rain raised the deuce with the trails," said Struve, as they
+picked their way past an unsightly "slip" whence a part of the
+overhanging mountain, loosened by the deluge, had slid into the gulch.
+"Another storm like that would wash out these roads completely."
+
+Even in the daylight it was no easy task to avoid these danger spots,
+for the horses floundered on the muddy soil. Vaguely the girl wondered
+how she would find her way back in the darkness, as she had planned.
+She said little as they approached the road-house, for the thoughts
+within her brain had begun to clamor too wildly; but Struve, more
+arrogant than ever before, more terrifyingly sure of himself, was
+loudly garrulous. As they drew nearer and nearer, the dread that
+possessed the girl became of paralyzing intensity. If she should
+fail--but she vowed she would not, could not, fail.
+
+They rounded a bend and saw the Sign of the Sled cradled below them
+where the trail dipped to a stream which tumbled from the comb above
+into the river twisting like a silver thread through the distant
+valley. A peeled flag-pole topped by a spruce bough stood in front of
+the tavern, while over the door hung a sled suspended from a beam. The
+house itself was a quaint structure, rambling and amorphous, from whose
+sod roof sprang blooming flowers, and whose high-banked walls were
+pierced here and there with sleepy windows. It had been built by a
+homesick foreigner of unknown nationality whom the army of "mushers"
+who paid for his clean and orderly hospitality had dubbed duly and as a
+matter of course a "Swede." When travel had changed to the river trail,
+leaving the house lonesome and high as though left by a receding wave,
+Struve had taken it over on a debt, and now ran it for the convenience
+of a slender traffic, mainly stampeders, who chose the higher route
+towards the interior. His hireling spent the idle hours in prospecting
+a hungry quartz lead and in doing assessment work on near-by claims.
+
+Shortz took the horses and answered his employer's questions curtly,
+flashing a curious look at Helen. Under other conditions the girl would
+have been delighted with the place, for this was the quaintest spot she
+had found in the north country. The main room held bar and gold-scales,
+a rude table, and a huge iron heater, while its walls and ceiling were
+sheeted with white cloth so cunningly stitched and tacked that it
+seemed a cavern hollowed from chalk. It was filled with trophies of the
+hills, stuffed birds and animals, skins and antlers, from which
+depended, in careless confusion, dog harness, snow-shoes, guns, and
+articles of clothing. A door to the left led into the bunk-room where
+travellers had been wont to sleep in tiers three deep. To the rear was
+a kitchen and cache, to the right a compartment which Struve called the
+art gallery. Here, free reign had been allowed the original owner's
+artistic fancies, and he had covered the place with pictures clipped
+from gazettes of questionable repute till it was a bewildering
+arrangement of pink ladies in tights, pugilists in scanty trunks, prize
+bulldogs, and other less moral characters of the sporting world.
+
+"This is probably the worst company you were ever in," Struve observed
+to Helen, with a forced attempt at lightness.
+
+"Are there no guests here?" she asked him, her anxiety very near the
+surface.
+
+"Travel is light at this time of the year. They'll come in later,
+perhaps."
+
+A fire was burning in this pink room where the landlord had begun
+spreading the table for two, and its warmth was grateful to the girl.
+Her companion, thoroughly at his ease, stretched himself on a
+fur-covered couch and smoked.
+
+"Let me see the papers, now, Mr. Struve," she began, but he put her off.
+
+"No, not now. Business must wait on our dinner. Don't spoil our little
+party, for there's time enough and to spare."
+
+She arose and went to the window, unable to sit still. Looking down the
+narrow gulch she saw that the mountains beyond were indistinct for it
+was growing dark rapidly. Dense clouds had rolled up from the east. A
+rain-drop struck the glass before her eyes, then another and another,
+and the hills grew misty behind the coming shower. A traveller with a
+pack on his back hurried around the corner of the building and past her
+to the door. At his knock, Struve, who had been watching Helen through
+half-shut eyes, arose and went into the other room.
+
+"Thank Heaven, some one has come," she thought. The voices were
+deadened to a hum by the sod walls, till that of the stranger raised
+itself in such indignant protest that she distinguished his words.
+
+"Oh, I've got money to pay my way. I'm no dead-head."
+
+Shortz mumbled something back.
+
+"I don't care if you are closed. I'm tired and there's a storm coming."
+
+This time she heard the landlord's refusal and the miner's angry
+profanity. A moment later she saw the traveller plodding up the trail
+towards town.
+
+"What does that mean?" she inquired, as the lawyer re-entered.
+
+"Oh, that fellow is a tough, and Shortz wouldn't let him in. He's
+careful whom he entertains--there are so many bad men roaming the
+hills."
+
+The German came in shortly to light the lamp, and, although she asked
+no further questions, Helen's uneasiness increased. She half listened
+to the stories with which Struve tried to entertain her and ate little
+of the excellent meal that was shortly served to them. Struve,
+meanwhile, ate and drank almost greedily, and the shadowy, sinister
+evening crept along. A strange cowardice had suddenly overtaken the
+girl; and if, at this late hour, she could have withdrawn, she would
+have done so gladly and gone forth to meet the violence of the tempest.
+But she had gone too far for retreat; and realizing that, for the
+present, apparent compliance was her wisest resource, she sat quiet,
+answering the man with cool words while his eyes grew brighter, his
+skin more flushed, his speech more rapid. He talked incessantly and
+with feverish gayety, smoking numberless cigarettes and apparently
+unconscious of the flight of time. At last he broke off suddenly and
+consulted his watch, while Helen remembered that she had not heard
+Shortz in the kitchen for a long time. Suddenly Struve smiled on her
+peculiarly, with confident cunning. As he leered at her over the
+disorder between them he took from his pocket a flat bundle which he
+tossed to her.
+
+"Now for the bargain, eh?"
+
+"Ask the man to remove these dishes," she said, as she undid the parcel
+with clumsy fingers.
+
+"I sent him away two hours ago," said Struve, arising as if to come to
+her. She shrank back, but he only leaned across, gathered up the four
+corners of the tablecloth, and, twisting them together, carried the
+whole thing out, the dishes crashing and jangling as he threw his
+burden recklessly into the kitchen. Then he returned and stood with his
+back to the stove, staring at her while she perused the contents of the
+papers, which were more voluminous than she had supposed.
+
+For a long time the girl pored over the documents. The purport of the
+papers was only too obvious; and, as she read, the proof of her uncle's
+guilt stood out clear and damning. There was no possibility of mistake;
+the whole wretched plot stood out plain, its darkest infamies revealed.
+
+In spite of the cruelty of her disillusionment, Helen was nevertheless
+exalted with the fierce ecstasy of power, with the knowledge that
+justice would at last be rendered. It would be her triumph and her
+expiation that she, who had been the unwitting tool of this miserable
+clique, would be the one through whom restitution was made. She arose
+with her eyes gleaming and her lips set.
+
+"It is here."
+
+"Of course it is. Enough to convict us all. It means the penitentiary
+for your precious uncle and your lover." He stretched his chin upward
+at the mention as though to free his throat from an invisible clutch.
+"Yes, your lover particularly, for he's the real one. That's why I
+brought you here. He'll marry you, but I'll be the best man." The
+timbre of his voice was unpleasant.
+
+"Come, let us go," she said.
+
+"Go," he chuckled, mirthlessly. "That's a fine example of unconscious
+humor."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, first, no human being could find his way down to the coast in
+this tempest; second--but, by-the-way, let me explain something in
+those papers while I think of it." He spoke casually and stepped
+forward, reaching for the package, which she was about to give up, when
+something prompted her to snatch it behind her back; and it was well
+she did, for his hand was but a few inches away. He was no match for
+her quickness, however, and she glided around the table, thrusting the
+papers into the front of her dress. The sudden contact with Cherry's
+revolver gave her a certain comfort. She spoke now with determination.
+
+"I intend to leave here at once. Will you bring my horse? Very well, I
+shall do it myself."
+
+She turned, but his indolence vanished like a flash, and springing in
+front of the door he barred her way.
+
+"Hold on, my lady. You ought to understand without my saying any more.
+Why did I bring you here? Why did I plan this little party? Why did I
+send that man away? Just to give you the proof of my complicity in a
+crime, I suppose. Well, hardly. You won't leave here to-night. And when
+you do, you won't carry those papers--my own safety depends on that and
+I am selfish, so don't get me started. Listen!" They caught the wail of
+the night crying as though hungry for sacrifice. "No, you'll stay here
+and--"
+
+He broke off abruptly, for Helen had stepped to the telephone and taken
+down the receiver. He leaped, snatched it from her, and then, tearing
+the instrument loose from the wall, raised it above his head, dashed it
+upon the floor, and sprang towards her, but she wrenched herself free
+and fled across the room. The man's white hair was wildly tumbled, his
+face was purple, and his neck and throat showed swollen, throbbing
+veins. He stood still, however, and his lips cracked into his
+ever-present, cautious smile.
+
+"Now, don't let's fight about this. It's no use, for I've played to
+win. You have your proof--now I'll have my price--or else I'll take it.
+Think over which it will be, while I lock up."
+
+Far down the mountain-side a man was urging a broken pony recklessly
+along the trail. The beast was blown and spent, its knees weak and
+bending, yet the rider forced it as though behind him yelled a thousand
+devils, spurring headlong through gully and ford, up steep slopes and
+down invisible ravines. Sometimes the animal stumbled and fell with its
+master, sometimes they arose together, but the man was heedless of all
+except his haste, insensible to the rain which smote him blindingly,
+and to the wind which seized him savagely upon the ridges, or gasped at
+him in the gullies with exhausted malice. At last he gained the plateau
+and saw the road-house light beneath, so drove his heels into the
+flanks of the wind-broken creature, which lunged forward gamely. He
+felt the pony rear and drop away beneath him, pawing and scrambling,
+and instinctively kicked his feet free from the stirrups, striving to
+throw himself out of the saddle and clear of the thrashing hoofs. It
+seemed that he turned over in the air before something smote him and he
+lay still, his gaunt, dark face upturned to the rain, while about him
+the storm screamed exultantly.
+
+The moment Struve disappeared into the outer room Helen darted to the
+window. It was merely a single sash, nailed fast and immovable, but
+seizing one of the little stools beside the stove she thrust it through
+the glass, letting in a smother of wind and water. Before she could
+escape, Struve bounded into the room, his face livid with anger, his
+voice hoarse and furious.
+
+But as he began to denounce her he paused in amazement, for the girl
+had drawn Cherry's weapon and levelled it at him. She was very pale and
+her breast heaved as from a swift run, while her wondrous gray eyes
+were lit with a light no man had ever seen there before, glowing like
+two jewels whose hearts contained the pent-up passion of centuries. She
+had altered as though under the deft hand of a master-sculptor, her
+nostrils growing thin and arched, her lips tight pressed and pitiless,
+her head poised proudly. The rain drove in through the shattered
+window, over and past her, while the cheap red curtain lashed and
+whipped her as though in gleeful applause. Her bitter abhorrence of the
+man made her voice sound strangely unnatural as she commanded:
+
+"Don't dare to stop me." She moved towards the door, motioning him to
+retreat before her, and he obeyed, recognizing the danger of her
+coolness. She did not note the calculating treachery of his glance,
+however, nor fathom the purposes he had in mind.
+
+ Out on the rain-swept mountain the prostrate rider had regained
+his senses and now was crawling painfully towards the road-house. Seen
+through the dark he would have resembled some misshapen, creeping
+monster, for he dragged himself, reptile-like, close to the ground. But
+as he came closer the man heard a cry which the wind seemed guarding
+from his ear, and, hearing it, he rose and rushed blindly forward,
+staggering like a wounded beast.
+
+Helen watched her captive closely as he backed through the door before
+her, for she dared not lose sight of him until free. The middle room
+was lighted by a glass lamp on the bar and its rays showed that the
+front-door was secured by a large iron bolt. She thanked Heaven there
+was no lock and key.
+
+Struve had retreated until his back was to the counter, offering no
+word, making no move, but the darting brightness of his eyes showed
+that he was alert and planning. But when the door behind Helen, urged
+by the wind through the broken casement, banged to, the man made his
+first lightning-like sign. He dashed the lamp to the floor, where it
+burst like an eggshell, and darkness leaped into the room as an animal
+pounces. Had she been calmer or had time for an instant's thought Helen
+would have hastened back to the light, but she was midway to her
+liberty and actuated by the sole desire to break out into the open air,
+so plunged forward. Without warning, she was hurled from her feet by a
+body which came out of the darkness upon her. She fired the little gun,
+but Struve's arms closed about her, the weapon was wrenched from her
+hand, and she found herself fighting against him, breast to breast,
+with the fury of desperation. His wine-burdened breath beat into her
+face and she felt herself bound to him as though by hoops, while the
+touch of his cheek against hers turned her into a terrified, insensate
+animal, which fought with every ounce of its strength and every nerve
+of its body. She screamed once, but it was not like the cry of a woman.
+Then the struggle went on in silence and utter blackness, Strove
+holding her like a gorilla till she grew faint and her head began to
+whirl, while darting lights drove past her eyes and there was the roar
+of a cataract in her ears. She was a strong girl, and her ripe young
+body, untried until this moment, answered in every fibre, so that she
+wrestled with almost a man's strength and he had hard shift to hold
+her. But so violent an encounter could not last. Helen felt herself
+drifting free from the earth and losing grip of all things tangible,
+when at last they tripped and fell against the inner door. This gave
+way, and at the same moment the man's strength departed as though it
+were a thing of darkness and dared not face the light that streamed
+over them. She tore herself from his clutch and staggered into the
+supper-room, her loosened hair falling in a gleaming torrent about her
+shoulders, while he arose from his knees and came towards her again,
+gasping:
+
+"I'll show you who's master here--"
+
+Then he ceased abruptly, cringingly, and threw up an arm before his
+face as if to ward off a blow. Framed in the window was the pallid
+visage of a man. The air rocked, the lamp flared, and Struve whirled
+completely around, falling back against the wall. His eyes filled with
+horror and shifted down where his hand had clutched at his breast,
+plucking at one spot as if tearing a barb from his bosom. He jerked his
+head towards the door at his elbow in quest of a retreat a shudder ran
+over him, his knees buckled and he plunged forward upon his face, his
+arm still doubled under him.
+
+It had happened like a flash of light, and although Helen felt, rather
+than heard, the shot and saw her assailant fall, she did not realize
+the meaning of it till a drift of powder smoke assailed her nostrils.
+Even so, she experienced no shock nor horror of the sight. On the
+contrary, a savage joy at the spectacle seized her and she stood still,
+leaning slightly forward, staring at it almost gloatingly, stood so
+till she heard her name called, "Helen, little sister!" and, turning,
+saw her brother in the window.
+
+That which he witnessed in her face he had seen before in the faces of
+men locked close with a hateful death and from whom all but the most
+elemental passions had departed--but he had never seen a woman bear the
+marks till now. No artifice nor falsity was there, nothing but the
+crudest, intensest feeling, which many people live and die without
+knowing. There are few who come to know the great primitive, passionate
+longings. But in this black night, fighting in defence of her most
+sacred self, this girl's nature had been stripped to its purely savage
+elements. As Glenister had predicted, Helen at last had felt and
+yielded to irresistibly powerful impulse.
+
+Glancing backward at the creature sprawled by the door, Helen went to
+her brother, put her arms about his neck, and kissed him.
+
+"He's dead?" the Kid asked her.
+
+She nodded and tried to speak, but began to shiver and sob instead.
+
+"Unlock the door," he begged her. "I'm hurt, and I must get in."
+
+When the Kid had hobbled into the room, she pressed him to her and
+stroked his matted head, regardless of his muddy, soaking garments.
+
+"I must look at him. He may not be badly hurt," said the Kid.
+
+"Don't touch him!" She followed, nevertheless, and stood near by while
+her brother examined his victim. Struve was breathing, and, discovering
+this, the others lifted him with difficulty to the couch.
+
+"Something cracked in here--ribs, I guess," the Kid remarked, gasping
+and feeling his own side. He was weak and pale, and the girl led him
+into the bunk-room, where he could lie down. Only his wonderful
+determination had sustained him thus far, and now the knowledge of his
+helplessness served to prevent Helen's collapse.
+
+The Kid would not hear of her going for help till the storm abated or
+daylight came, insisting that the trails were too treacherous and that
+no time could be saved by doing so. Thus they waited for the dawn. At
+last they heard the wounded man faintly calling. He spoke to Helen
+hoarsely. There was no malice, only fear, in his tones:
+
+"I said this was my madness--and I got what I deserved, but I'm going
+to die. O God--I'm going to die and I'm afraid." He moaned till the
+Bronco Kid hobbled in, glaring with unquenched hatred.
+
+"Yes, you're going to die and I did it. Be game, can't you? I sha'n't
+let her go for help until daylight."
+
+Helen forced her brother back to his couch, and returned to help the
+wounded man, who grew incoherent and began to babble.
+
+A little later, when the Kid seemed stronger and his head clearer,
+Helen ventured to tell him of their uncle's villany and of the proof
+she held, with her hope of restoring justice. She told him of the
+attack planned that very night and of the danger which threatened the
+miners. He questioned her closely and, realizing the bearing of her
+story, crept to the door, casting the wind like a hound.
+
+"We'll have to risk it," said he. "The wind is almost gone and it's not
+long till daylight."
+
+She pleaded to go alone, but he was firm. "I'll never leave you again,
+and, moreover, I know the lower trail quite well. We'll go down the
+gulch to the valley and reach town that way. It's farther but it's not
+so dangerous."
+
+"You can't ride," she insisted.
+
+"I can if you'll tie me into the saddle. Come, get the horses."
+
+It was still pitchy dark and the rain was pouring, but the wind only
+sighed weakly as though tired by its violence when she helped the
+Bronco into his saddle. The effort wrenched a groan from him, but he
+insisted upon her tying his feet beneath the horse's belly, saying that
+the trail was rough and he could take no chance of falling again; so,
+having performed the last services she might for Struve, she mounted
+her own animal and allowed it to pick its way down the steep descent
+behind her brother, who swayed and lurched drunkenly in his seat,
+gripping the horn before him with both hands.
+
+ They had been gone perhaps a half-hour when another horse plunged
+furiously out of the darkness and halted before the road-house door.
+Its rider, mud-stained and dishevelled, flung himself in mad haste to
+the ground and bolted in through the door. He saw the signs of
+confusion in the outer room, chairs upset and broken, the table wedged
+against the stove, and before the counter a shattered lamp in a pool of
+oil. He called loudly, but, receiving no answer, snatched a light
+which, he found burning and ran to the door at his left. Nothing
+greeted him but the empty tiers of bunks. Turning, he crossed to the
+other side and burst through. Another lamp was lighted beside the couch
+where Struve lay, breathing heavily, his lids half closed over his
+staring eyes. Roy noted the pool of blood at his feet and the broken
+window; then, setting down his lamp, he leaned over the man and spoke
+to him.
+
+When he received no answer he spoke again loudly. Then, in a frenzy,
+Glenister shook the wounded man cruelly, so that he cried out in terror:
+
+"I'm dying--oh, I'm dying." Roy raised the sick man up and thrust his
+own face before his eyes.
+
+"This is Glenister. I've come for Helen--where is she?" A spark of
+recognition flickered into the dull stare.
+
+"You're too late--I'm dying--and I'm afraid."
+
+His questioner shook Struve again. "Where is she?" he repeated, time
+after time, till by very force of his own insistence he compelled
+realization in the sufferer.
+
+"The Kid took her away. The Kid shot me," and then his voice rose till
+it flooded the room with terror. "The Kid shot me and I'm dying." He
+coughed blood to his lips, at which Roy laid him back and stood up. So
+there was no mistake, after all, and he had arrived too late. This was
+the Kid's revenge. This was how he struck. Lacking courage to face a
+man's level eyes, he possessed the foulness to prey upon a woman. Roy
+felt a weakening physical sickness sweep over him till his eye fell
+upon a sodden garment which Helen had removed from her brother's
+shoulders and replaced with a dry one. He snatched it from the floor
+and in a sudden fury felt it come apart in his hands like wet
+tissue-paper.
+
+He found himself out in the rain, scanning the trampled soil by light
+of his lamp, and discerned tracks which the drizzle had not yet erased.
+He reasoned mechanically that the two riders could have no great start
+of him, so strode out beyond the house to see if they had gone farther
+into the hills. There were no tracks here, therefore they must have
+doubled back towards town. It did not occur to him that they might have
+left the beaten path and followed down the little creek to the river;
+but, replacing the light where he had found it, he remounted and lashed
+his horse into a stiff canter up towards the divide that lay between
+him and the city. The story was growing plainer to him, though as yet
+he could not piece it all together. Its possibilities stabbed him with
+such horror that he cried out aloud and beat his steed into faster time
+with both hands and feet. To think of those two ruffians fighting over
+this girl as though she were the spoils of pillage! He must overtake
+the Kid--he WOULD! The possibility that he might not threw him into
+such ungovernable mental chaos that he was forced to calm himself. Men
+went mad that way. He could not think of it. That gasping creature in
+the road-house spoke all too well of the Bronco's determination. And
+yet, who of those who had known the Kid in the past would dream that
+his vileness was so utter as this?
+
+Away to the right, hidden among the shadowed hills, his friends rested
+themselves for the coming battle, waiting impatiently his return, and
+timing it to the rising sun. Down in the valley to his left were the
+two he followed, while he, obsessed and unreasoning, now cursing like a
+madman, now grim and silent, spurred southward towards town and into
+the ranks of his enemies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE HAMMER-LOCK
+
+
+Day was breaking as Glenister came down the mountain. With the first
+light he halted to scan the trail, and having no means of knowing that
+the fresh tracks he found were not those of the two riders he followed,
+he urged his lathered horse ahead till he became suddenly conscious
+that he was very tired and had not slept for two days and nights. The
+recollection did not reassure the young man, for his body was a weapon
+which must not fail in the slightest measure now that there was work to
+do. Even the unwelcome speculation upon his physical handicap offered
+relief, however, from the agony which fed upon him whenever he thought
+of Helen in the gambler's hands. Meanwhile, the horse, groaning at his
+master's violence, plunged onward towards the roofs of Nome, now
+growing gray in the first dawn.
+
+It seemed years since Roy had seen the sunlight, for this night,
+burdened with suspense, had been endlessly long. His body was faint
+beneath the strain, and yet he rode on and on, tired, dogged, stony,
+his eyes set towards the sea, his mind a storm of formless, whirling
+thoughts, beneath which was an undeviating, implacable determination.
+
+He knew now that he had sacrificed all hope of the Midas, and likewise
+the hope of Helen was gone; in fact, he began to realize dimly that
+from the beginning he had never had the possibility of winning her,
+that she had never been destined for him, and that his love for her had
+been sent as a light by which he was to find himself. He had failed
+everywhere, he had become an outlaw, he had fought and gone down,
+certain only of his rectitude and the mastery of his unruly spirit. Now
+the hour had come when he would perform his last mission, deriving
+therefrom that satisfaction which the gods could not deny. He would
+have his vengeance.
+
+The scheme took form without conscious effort on his part and embraced
+two things--the death of the gambler and a meeting with McNamara. Of
+the former, he had no more doubt than that the sun rising there would
+sink in the west. So well confirmed was this belief that the details
+did not engage his thought; but on the result of the other encounter he
+speculated with some interest. From the first McNamara had been a
+riddle to him, and mystery breeds curiosity. His blind, instinctive
+hatred of the man had assumed the proportions of a mania; but as to
+what the outcome would be when they met face to face, fate alone could
+tell. Anyway, McNamara should never have Helen--Roy believed his
+mission covered that point as well as her deliverance from the Bronco
+Kid. When he had finished--he would pay the price. If he had the luck
+to escape, he would go back to his hills and his solitude; if he did
+not, his future would be in the hands of his enemies.
+
+He entered the silent streets unobserved, for the mists were heavy and
+low. Smoke columns arose vertically in the still air. The rain had
+ceased, having beaten down the waves which rumbled against the beach,
+filling the streets with their subdued thunder. A ship, anchored in the
+offing, had run in from the lee of Sledge Island with the first lull,
+while midway to the shore a tender was rising and falling, its oars
+flashing like the silvered feelers of a sea insect crawling upon the
+surface of the ocean.
+
+He rode down Front Street heedless of danger, heedless of the comment
+his appearance might create, and, unseen, entered his enemy's
+stronghold. He passed a gambling-hall, through the windows of which
+came a sickly yellow gleam. A man came out unsteadily and stared at the
+horseman, then passed on.
+
+Glenister's plan was to go straight to the Northern and from there to
+track down its owner relentlessly, but in order to reach the place his
+course led him past the office of Dunham & Struve. This brought back to
+his mind the man dying out there ten miles at his back. The scantiest
+humanity demanded that assistance be sent at once. Yet he dared not
+give word openly, thus betraying his presence, for it was necessary
+that he maintain his liberty during the next hour at all hazards. He
+suddenly thought of an expedient and reined in his horse, which stopped
+with wide-spread legs and dejected head while he dismounted and climbed
+the stairs to leave a note upon the door. Some one would see the
+message shortly and recognize its urgency.
+
+In dressing for the battle at the Midas on the previous night he had
+replaced his leather boots with "mukluks," which are waterproof, light,
+and pliable footgear made from the skin of seal and walrus. He was thus
+able to move as noiselessly as though in moccasins. Finding neither
+pencil nor paper in his pocket, he tried the outer door of the office,
+to find it unlocked. He stepped inside and listened, then moved towards
+a table on which were writing materials, but in doing so heard a rustle
+in Struve's private office. Evidently his soft soles had not disturbed
+the man inside. Roy was about to tiptoe out as he had come when the
+hidden man cleared his throat. It is in these involuntary sounds that
+the voice retains its natural quality more distinctly even than in
+speaking, A strange eagerness grew in Glenister's face and he
+approached the partition stealthily. It was of wood and glass, the
+panes clouded and opaque to a height of some six feet; but stepping
+upon a chair he peered into the room beyond. A man knelt in a litter of
+papers before the open safe, its drawers and compartments removed and
+their contents scattered. The watcher lowered himself, drew his gun,
+and laid soft hand upon the door-knob, turning the latch with firm
+fingers. His vengeance had come to meet him.
+
+ After lying in wait during the long night, certain that the
+Vigilantes would spring his trap, McNamara was astounded at news of the
+battle at the Midas and of Glenister's success. He stormed and cursed
+his men as cowards. The Judge became greatly exercised over this new
+development, which, coupled with his night of long anxiety, reduced him
+to a pitiful hysteria.
+
+"They'll blow us up next. Great Heavens! Dynamite! Oh, that is
+barbarous. For Heaven's sake, get the soldiers out, Alec."
+
+"Ay, we can use them now." Thereupon McNamara roused the commanding
+officer at the post and requested him to accoutre a troop and have them
+ready to march at daylight, then bestirred the Judge to start the
+wheels of his court and invoke this military aid in regular fashion.
+
+"Make it all a matter of record," he said. "We want to keep our skirts
+clear from now on."
+
+"But the towns-people are against us," quavered Stillman. "They'll tear
+us to pieces."
+
+"Let 'em try. Once I get my hand on the ringleader, the rest may riot
+and be damned."
+
+Although he had made less display than had the Judge, the receiver was
+no less deeply worried about Helen, of whom no news came. His jealousy,
+fanned to red heat by the discovery of her earlier defection, was
+enhanced fourfold by the thought of this last adventure. Something told
+him there was treachery afoot, and when she did not return at dawn he
+began to fear that she had cast in her lot with the rioters. This
+aroused a perfect delirium of doubt and anger till he reasoned further
+that Struve, having gone with her, must also be a traitor. He
+recognized the menace in this fact, knowing the man's venality, so
+began to reckon carefully its significance. What could Struve do? What
+proof had he? McNamara started, and, seizing his hat, hurried straight
+to the lawyer's office and let himself in with the key he carried. It
+was light enough for him to decipher the characters on the safe lock as
+he turned the combination, so he set to work scanning the endless
+bundles within, hoping that after all the man had taken with him no
+incriminating evidence. Once the searcher paused at some fancied sound,
+but when nothing came of it drew his revolver and laid it before him
+just inside the safe door and close beneath his hand, continuing to run
+through the documents while his uneasiness increased. He had been
+engaged so for some time when he heard the faintest creak at his back,
+too slight to alarm and just sufficient to break his tension and cause
+him to jerk his head about. Framed in the open door stood Roy Glenister
+watching him.
+
+McNamara's astonishment was so genuine that he leaped to his feet,
+faced about, and prompted by a secretive instinct swung to the safe
+door as though to guard its contents. He had acted upon the impulse
+before realizing that his weapon was inside and that now, although the
+door was not locked, it would require that one dangerous, yes, fatal,
+second to open it.
+
+The two men stared at each other for a time, silent and malignant,
+their glances meeting like blades; in the older man's face a look of
+defiance, in the younger's a dogged and grim-purposed enmity.
+McNamara's first perturbation left him calm, alert, dangerous; whereas
+the continued contemplation of his enemy worked in Glenister to destroy
+his composure, and his purpose blazed forth unhidden.
+
+He stood there unkempt and soiled, the clean sweep of jaw and throat
+overgrown with a three days' black stubble, his hair wet and matted,
+his whole left side foul with clay where he had fallen in the darkness.
+A muddy red streak spread downward from a cut above his temple, beneath
+his eyes were sagging folds, while the flicker at his mouth corners
+betrayed the high nervous pitch to which he was keyed.
+
+"I have come for the last act, McNamara; now we'll have it out, man to
+man."
+
+The politician shrugged his shoulders. "You have the drop on me. I am
+unarmed." At which the miner's face lighted fiercely and he chuckled.
+
+"Ah, that's almost too good to be true. I have dreamed about such a
+thing and I have been hungry to feel your throat since the first time I
+saw you. It's grown on me till shooting wouldn't satisfy me. Ever had
+the feeling? Well, I'm going to choke the life out of you with my bare
+hands."
+
+McNamara squared himself.
+
+"I wouldn't advise you to try it. I have lived longer than you and I
+was never beaten, but I know the feeling you speak about. I have it
+now."
+
+His eyes roved rapidly up and down the other's form, noting the lean
+thighs and close-drawn belt which lent the appearance of spareness,
+belied only by the neck and shoulders. He had beaten better men, and he
+reasoned that if it came to a physical test in these cramped quarters
+his own great weight would more than offset any superior agility the
+miner might possess. The longer he looked the more he yielded to his
+hatred of the man before him, and the more cruelly he longed to satisfy
+it.
+
+"Take off your coat," said Glenister. "Now turn around. All right! I
+just wanted to see if you were lying about your gun."
+
+"I'll kill you," cried McNamara.
+
+Glenister laid his six-shooter upon the safe and slipped off his own
+wet garment. The difference was more marked now and the advantage more
+strongly with the receiver. Though they had avoided allusion to it,
+each knew that this fight had nothing to do with the Midas and each
+realized whence sprang their fierce enmity. And it was meet that they
+should come together thus. It had been the one certain and logical
+event which they had felt inevitably approaching from long back. And it
+was fitting, moreover, that they should fight alone and unwitnessed,
+armed only with the weapons of the wilderness, for they were both of
+the far, free lands, were both of the fighter's type, and had both
+warred for the first, great prize.
+
+They met ferociously. McNamara aimed a fearful blow, but Glenister met
+him squarely, beating him off cleverly, stepping in and out, his arms
+swinging loosely from his shoulders like whalebone withes tipped with
+lead. He moved lightly, his footing made doubly secure by reason of his
+soft-soled mukluks. Recognizing his opponent's greater weight, he
+undertook merely to stop the headlong rushes and remain out of reach as
+long as possible. He struck the politician fairly in the mouth so that
+the man's head snapped back and his fists went wild, then, before the
+arms could grasp him, the miner had broken ground and whipped another
+blow across; but McNamara was a boxer himself, so covered and blocked
+it. The politician spat through his mashed lips and rushed again,
+sweeping his opponent from his feet. Again Glenister's fist shot
+forward like a lump of granite, but the other came on head down and the
+blow finished too high, landing on the big man's brow. A sudden darting
+agony paralyzed Roy's hand, and he realized that he had broken the
+metacarpal bones and that henceforth it would be useless. Before he
+could recover, McNamara had passed under his extended arm and seized
+him by the middle, then, thrusting his left leg back of Roy's, he
+whirled him from his balance, flinging him clear and with resistless
+force. It seemed that a fatal fall must follow, but the youth squirmed
+catlike in the air, landing with set muscles which rebounded like
+rubber. Even so, the receiver was upon him before he could rise,
+reaching for the young man's throat with his heavy hands. Roy
+recognized the fatal "strangle hold," and, seizing his enemy's wrists,
+endeavored to tear them apart, but his left hand was useless, so with a
+mighty wrench he freed himself, and, locked in each other's arms, the
+men strained and swayed about the office till their neck veins were
+bursting, their muscles paralyzed.
+
+Men may fight duels calmly, may shoot or parry or thrust with cold
+deliberation; but when there comes the jar of body to body, the sweaty
+contact of skin to skin, the play of iron muscles, the painful gasp of
+exhaustion--then the mind goes skittering back into its dark recesses
+while every venomous passion leaps forth from its hiding-place and
+joins in the horrid war.
+
+They tripped across the floor, crashing into the partition, which
+split, showering them with glass. They fell and rolled in it; then, by
+consent, wrenched themselves apart and rose, eye to eye, their jaws
+hanging, their lungs wheezing, their faces trickling blood and sweat.
+Roy's left hand pained him excruciatingly, while McNamara's macerated
+lips had turned outward in a hideous pout. They crouched so for an
+instant, cruel, bestial--then clinched again. The office-fittings were
+wrecked utterly and the room became a litter of ruins. The men's
+garments fell away till their breasts were bare and their arms swelled
+white and knotted through the rags. They knew no pain, their bodies
+were insensate mechanisms.
+
+Gradually the older man's face was beaten into a shapeless mass by the
+other's cunning blows, while Glenister's every bone was wrenched and
+twisted under his enemy's terrible onslaughts. The miner's chief
+effort, it is true, was to keep his feet and to break the man's
+embraces. Never had he encountered one whom he could not beat by sheer
+strength till he met this great, snarling creature who worried him
+hither and yon as though he were a child. Time and again Roy beat upon
+the man's face with the blows of a sledge. No rules governed this
+solitary combat; the men were deaf to all but the roaring in their
+ears, blinded to all but hate, insensible to everything but the blood
+mania. Their trampling feet caused the building to rumble and shake as
+though some monster were running amuck.
+
+Meanwhile a bareheaded man rushed out of the store beneath, bumping
+into a pedestrian who had paused on the sidewalk, and together they
+scurried up the stairs. The dory which Roy had seen at sea had shot the
+breakers, and now its three passengers were tracking through the wet
+sand towards Front Street, Bill Wheaton in the lead. He was followed by
+two rawboned men who travelled without baggage. The city was awakening
+with the sun which reared a copper rim out of the sea--Judge Stillman
+and Voorhees came down from the hotel and paused to gaze through the
+mists at a caravan of mule teams which trotted into the other end of
+the street with jingle and clank. The wagons were blue with soldiers,
+the early golden rays slanting from their Krags, and they were bound
+for the Midas.
+
+Out of the fogs which clung so thickly to the tundra there came two
+other horses, distorted and unreal, on one a girl, on the other a
+figure of pain and tragedy, a grotesque creature that swayed stiffly to
+the motion of its steed, its face writhed into lines of suffering, its
+hands clutching cantle and horn.
+
+It was as though Fate, with invisible touch, were setting her stage for
+the last act of this play, assembling the principals close to the
+Golden Sands where first they had made entrance.
+
+The man and the girl came face to face with the Judge and marshal, who
+cried out upon seeing them, but as they reined in, out from the stairs
+beside them a man shot amid clatter and uproar.
+
+"Give me a hand--quick!" he shouted to them.
+
+"What's up?" inquired the marshal.
+
+"It's murder! McNamara and Glenister!" He dashed back up the steps
+behind Voorhees, the Judge following, while muffled cries came from
+above.
+
+The gambler turned towards the three men who were hurrying from the
+beach, and, recognizing Wheaton, called to him: "Untie my feet! Cut the
+ropes! Quick!"
+
+"What's the trouble?" the lawyer asked, but on hearing Glenister's name
+bounded after the Judge, leaving one of his companions to free the
+rider. They could hear the fight now, and all crowded towards the door,
+Helen with her brother, in spite of his warning to stay behind.
+
+She never remembered how she climbed those stairs, for she was borne
+along by that hypnotic power which drags one to behold a catastrophe in
+spite of his will. Reaching the room, she stood appalled; for the group
+she had joined watched two raging things that rushed at each other with
+inhuman cries, ragged, bleeding, fighting on a carpet of debris. Every
+loose and breakable thing had been ground to splinters as though by
+iron slugs in a whirling cylinder.
+
+To this day, from Dawson to the Straits, from Unga to the Arctics, men
+tell of the combat wherever they foregather at flaring camp-fires or in
+dingy bunkhouses; and although some scout the tale, there are others
+who saw it and can swear to its truth. These say that the encounter was
+like the battle of bull moose in the rutting season, though more
+terrible, averring that two men like these had never been known in the
+land since the days of Vitus Bering and his crew; for their rancor had
+swollen till at feel of each other's flesh they ran mad and felt
+superhuman strength. It is true, at any rate, that neither was
+conscious of the filling room, nor the cries of the crowd, even when
+the marshal forced himself through the wedged door and fell upon the
+nearest, which was Glenister. He came at an instant when the two had
+paused at arm's-length, glaring with rage-drunken eyes, gasping the
+labored breath back into their lungs.
+
+With a fling of his long arms the young man hurled the intruder aside
+so violently that his head struck the iron safe and he collapsed
+insensible. Then, without apparent notice of the interruption, the
+fight went on. It was seen during this respite that McNamara's mouth
+was running water as though he were deathly sick, while every retch
+brought forth a groan. Helen heard herself crying: "Stop them! Stop
+them!" But no one seemed capable of interference. She heard her brother
+muttering and his breath coming heavily like that of the fighters, his
+body swaying in time to theirs. The Judge was ashy, imbecile, helpless.
+
+McNamara's distress was patent to his antagonist, who advanced upon him
+with the hunger of promised victory; but the young man's muscles obeyed
+his commands sluggishly, his ribs seemed broken, his back was weak, and
+on the inner side of his legs the flesh was quivering. As they came
+together the boss reached up his right hand and caught the miner by the
+face, burying thumb and fingers crab like into his cheeks, forcing his
+slack jaws apart, thrusting his head backward, while he centred every
+ounce of his strength in the effort to maim. Roy felt the flesh giving
+way and flung himself backward to break the hold, whereupon the other
+summoned his wasting energy and plunged towards the safe, where lay the
+revolver. Instinct warned Glenister of treachery, told him that the man
+had sought this last resource to save himself, and as he saw him turn
+his back and reach for the weapon, the youth leaped like a panther,
+seizing him about the waist, grasping McNamara's wrist with his right
+hand. For the first time during the combat they were not face to face,
+and on the instant Roy realized the advantage given him through the
+other's perfidy, realized the wrestler's hold that was his, and knew
+that the moment of victory was come.
+
+The telling takes much time, but so quickly had these things happened
+that the footsteps of the soldiers had not yet reached the door when
+the men were locked beside the safe.
+
+Of what happened next many garbled accounts have gone forth, for of all
+those present, none but the Bronco Kid knew its significance and ever
+recounted the truth concerning it. Some claim that the younger man was
+seized with a fear of death which multiplied his enormous strength,
+others that the power died in his adversary as reward for his treason;
+but it was not so.
+
+No sooner had Roy encompassed McNamara's waist from the rear than he
+slid his damaged hand up past the other's chest and around the back of
+his neck, thus bringing his own left arm close under his enemy's left
+armpit, wedging the receiver's head forward, while with his other hand
+he grasped the politician's right wrist close to the revolver, thus
+holding him in a grasp which could not be broken. Now came the test.
+The two bodies set themselves rocklike and rigid. There was no lunging
+about. Calling up the final atom of his strength, Glenister bore
+backward with his right arm and it became a contest for the weapon
+which, clutched in the two hands, swayed back and forth or darted up
+and down, the fury of resistance causing it to trace formless patterns
+in the air with its muzzle. McNamara shook himself, but he was close
+against the safe and could not escape, his head bowed forward by the
+lock of the miner's left arm, and so he strained till the breath
+clogged in his throat. Despite the grievous toil his right hand moved
+back slightly. His feet shifted a bit, while the blood seemed bursting
+from his eyes, but he found that the long fingers encircling his wrist
+were like gyves weighted with the strength of the hills and the
+irresistible vigor of youth which knew no defeat. Slowly, inch by inch,
+the great man's arm was dragged back, down past his side, while the
+strangling labor of his breath showed at what awful cost. The muzzle of
+the gun described a semicircle and the knotted hands began to travel
+towards the left, more rapidly now, across his broad back. Still he
+struggled and wrenched, but uselessly. He strove to fire the weapon,
+but his fingers were woven about it so that the hammer would not work.
+Then the miner began forcing upward.
+
+The white skin beneath the men's strips of clothing was stretched over
+great knots and ridges which sunk and swelled and quivered. Helen,
+watching in silent terror, felt her brother sinking his fingers into
+her shoulder and heard him panting, his face ablaze with excitement,
+while she became conscious that he had repeated time and again:
+
+"It's the hammer-lock--the hammer-lock."
+
+By now McNamara's arm was bent and cramped upon his back, and then they
+saw Glenister's shoulder dip, his elbow come closer to his side, and
+his body heave in one final terrific effort as though pushing a heavy
+weight. In the silence something snapped like a stick. There came a
+deafening report and the scream of a strong man overcome with agony.
+McNamara went to his knees and sagged forward on to his face as though
+every bone in his huge bulk had turned to water, while his master
+reeled back against the opposite wall, his heels dragging in the
+litter, bringing up with outflung arms as though fearful of falling,
+swaying, blind, exhausted, his face blackened by the explosion of the
+revolver, yet grim with the light of victory.
+
+Judge Stillman shouted, hysterically:
+
+"Arrest that man, quick! Don't let him go!"
+
+It was the miner's first realization that others were there. Raising
+his head he stared at the faces close against the partition, then
+groaned the words:
+
+"I beat the traitor and--and--I broke him with--my hands!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE PROMISE OF DREAMS
+
+
+Soldiers seized the young man, who made no offer at resistance, and the
+room became a noisy riot. Crowds surged up from below, clamoring,
+questioning, till some one at the head of the stairs shouted down:
+
+"They've got Roy Glenister. He's killed McNamara," at which a murmur
+arose that threatened to become a cheer.
+
+Then one of the receiver's faction called: "Let's hang him. He killed
+ten of our men last night." Helen winced, but Stillman, roused to a
+sort of malevolent courage, quieted the angry voices.
+
+"Officer, hold these people back. I'll attend to this man. The law's in
+my hands and I'll make him answer."
+
+McNamara reared himself groaning from the floor, his right arm swinging
+from the shoulder strangely loose and distorted, with palm twisted
+outward, while his battered face was hideous with pain and defeat. He
+growled broken maledictions at his enemy.
+
+Roy, meanwhile, said nothing, for as the savage lust died in him he
+realized that the whirling faces before him were the faces of his
+enemies, that the Bronco Kid was still at large, and that his vengeance
+was but half completed. His knees were bending, his limbs were like
+leaden bars, his chest a furnace of coals. As he reeled down the lane
+of human forms, supported by his guards, he came abreast of the girl
+and her companion and paused, clearing his vision slowly.
+
+"Ah, there you are!" he said, thickly, to the gambler, and began to
+wrestle with his captors, baring his teeth in a grimace of painful
+effort; but they held him as easily as though he were a child and drew
+him forward, his body sagging limply, his face turned back over his
+shoulder.
+
+They had him near the door when Wheaton barred their way, crying: "Hold
+up a minute--it's all right, Roy--"
+
+"Ay, Bill--it's all right. We did our--best, but we were done by a
+damned blackguard. Now he'll send me up--but I don't care. I broke
+him--with my naked hands. Didn't I, McNamara?" He mocked unsteadily at
+the boss, who cursed aloud in return, glowering like an evil mask,
+while Stillman ran up dishevelled and shrilly irascible.
+
+"Take him away, I tell you! Take him to jail."
+
+But Wheaton held his place while the room centred its eyes upon him,
+scenting some unexpected denouement. He saw it, and in concession to a
+natural vanity and dramatic instinct, he threw back his head and
+stuffed his hands into his coat-pockets while the crowd waited. He
+grinned insolently at the Judge and the receiver.
+
+"This will be a day of defeats and disappointments to you, my friends.
+That boy won't go to jail because you will wear the shackles
+yourselves. Oh, you played a shrewd game, you two, with your senators,
+your politics, and your pulls; but it's our turn now, and we'll make
+you dance for the mines you gutted and the robberies you've done and
+the men you've ruined. Thank Heaven there's ONE honest court and I
+happened to find it." He turned to the strangers who had accompanied
+him from the ship, crying, "Serve those warrants," and they stepped
+forward.
+
+The uproar of the past few minutes had brought men running from every
+direction till, finding no room on the stairs, they had massed in the
+street below while the word flew from lip to lip concerning this
+closing scene of their drama, the battle at the Midas, the great fight
+up-stairs, and the arrest by the 'Frisco deputies. Like Sindbad's
+genie, a wondrous tale took shape from the rumors. Men shouldered one
+another eagerly for a glimpse of the actors, and when the press
+streamed out, greeted it with volleys of questions. They saw the
+unconscious marshal borne forth, followed by the old Judge, now a
+palsied wretch, slinking beside his captor, a very shell of a man at
+whom they jeered. When McNamara lurched into view, an image of defeat
+and chagrin, their voices rose menacingly. The pack was turning and he
+knew it, but, though racked and crippled, he bent upon them a visage so
+full of defiance and contemptuous malignity that they hushed
+themselves, and their final picture of him was that of a big man
+downed, but unbeaten to the last. They began to cry for Glenister, so
+that when he loomed in the doorway, a ragged, heroic figure, his heavy
+shock low over his eyes, his unshaven face aggressive even in its
+weariness, his corded arms and chest bare beneath the fluttering
+streamers, the street broke into wild cheering. Here was a man of their
+own, a son of the Northland who labored and loved and fought in a way
+they understood, and he had come into his due.
+
+But Roy, dumb and listless, staggered up the street, refusing the help
+of every man except Wheaton. He heard his companion talking, but
+grasped only that the attorney gloated and gloried.
+
+"We have whipped them, boy. We have whipped them at their own game.
+Arrested in their very door-yards--cited for contempt of court--that's
+what they are. They disobeyed those other writs, and so I got them."
+
+"I broke his arm," muttered the miner.
+
+"Yes, I saw you do it! Ugh! it was an awful thing. I couldn't prove
+conspiracy, but they'll go to jail for a little while just the same,
+and we have broken the ring."
+
+"It snapped at the shoulder," the other continued, dully, "just like a
+shovel handle. I felt it--but he tried to kill me and I had to do it."
+
+The attorney took Roy to his cabin and dressed his wounds, talking
+incessantly the while, but the boy was like a sleep-walker, displaying
+no elation, no excitement, no joy of victory. At last Wheaton broke out:
+
+"Cheer up! Why, man, you act like a loser. Don't you realize that we've
+won? Don't you understand that the Midas is yours? And the whole world
+with it?"
+
+"Won?" echoed the miner. "What do you know about it, Bill? The
+Midas--the world--what good are they? You're wrong. I've
+lost--yes--I've lost everything she taught me, and by some damned trick
+of Fate she was there to see me do it. Now, go away; I want to sleep."
+
+He sank upon the bed with its tangle of blankets and was unconscious
+before the lawyer had covered him over.
+
+There he lay like a dead man till late in the afternoon, when Dextry
+and Slapjack came in from the hills, answering Wheaton's call, and fell
+upon him hungrily. They shook Roy into consciousness with joyous riot,
+pommelling him with affectionate roughness till he rose and joined with
+them stiffly. He bathed and rubbed the soreness from his muscles,
+emerging physically fit. They made him recount his adventures to the
+tiniest detail, following his description of the fight with absorbed
+interest till Dextry broke into mournful complaint:
+
+"I'd have give my half of the Midas to see you bust him. Lord, I'd have
+screeched with soopreme delight at that."
+
+"Why didn't you gouge his eyes out when you had him crippled?"
+questioned Slapjack, vindictively. "I'd 'a' done it."
+
+Dextry continued: "They tell me that when he was arrested he swore in
+eighteen different languages, each one more refreshin'ly repulsive an'
+vig'rous than the precedin'. Oh, I have sure missed a-plenty to-day,
+partic'lar because my own diction is gettin' run down an' skim-milky of
+late, showin' sad lack of new idees. Which I might have assim'lated
+somethin' robustly original an' expressive if I'd been here. No, sir; a
+nose-bag full of nuggets wouldn't have kept me away."
+
+"How did it sound when she busted?" insisted the morbid Simms, but
+Glenister refused to discuss his combat.
+
+"Come on, Slap," said the old prospector, "let's go down-town. I'm so
+het up I can't set still, an' besides, mebbe we can get the story the
+way it really happened, from somebody who ain't bound an' gagged an'
+chloroformed by such unbecomin' modesties. Roy, don't never go into
+vawdyville with them personal episodes, because they read about as
+thrillin' as a cook-book. Why, say, I've had the story of that fight
+from four different fellers already, none of which was within four
+blocks of the scrimmage, an' they're all diff'rent an' all better 'n
+your account."
+
+Now that Glenister's mind had recovered some of its poise he realized
+what he had done.
+
+"I was a beast, an animal," he groaned, "and that after all my
+striving. I wanted to leave that part behind, I wanted to be worthy of
+her love and trust even though I never won it, but at the first test I
+am found lacking. I have lost her confidence, yes--and what is worse,
+infinitely worse, I have lost my own. She's always seen me at my
+worst," he went on, "but I'm not that kind at bottom, not that kind. I
+want to do what's right, and if I have another chance I will, I know I
+will. I've been tried too hard, that's all."
+
+Some one knocked, and he opened the door to admit the Bronco Kid and
+Helen.
+
+"Wait a minute, old man," said the Kid. "I'm here as a friend." The
+gambler handled himself with difficulty, offering in explanation:
+
+"I'm all sewed up in bandages of one kind or another."
+
+"He ought to be in bed now, but he wouldn't let me come alone, and I
+could not wait," the girl supplemented, while her eyes avoided
+Glenister's in strange hesitation.
+
+"He wouldn't let you. I don't understand."
+
+"I'm her brother," announced the Bronco Kid. "I've known it for a long
+time, but I--I--well, you understand I couldn't let her know. All I can
+say is, I've gambled square till the night I played you, and I was as
+mad as a dervish then, blaming you for the talk I'd heard. Last night I
+learned by chance about Struve and Helen and got to the road-house in
+time to save her. I'm sorry I didn't kill him." His long white fingers
+writhed about the arm of his chair at the memory.
+
+"Isn't he dead?" Glenister inquired.
+
+"No. The doctors have brought him in and he'll get well. He's like half
+the men in Alaska--here because the sheriffs back home couldn't shoot
+straight. There's something else. I'm not a good talker, but give me
+time and I'll manage it so you'll understand. I tried to keep Helen
+from coming on this errand, but she said it was the square thing and
+she knows better than I. It's about those papers she brought in last
+spring. She was afraid you might consider her a party to the deal, but
+you don't, do you?" He glared belligerently, and Roy replied, with
+fervor:
+
+"Certainly not. Go on."
+
+"Well, she learned the other day that those documents told the whole
+story and contained enough proof to break up this conspiracy and
+convict the Judge and McNamara and all the rest, but Struve kept the
+bundle in his safe and wouldn't give it up without a price. That's why
+she went away with him--She thought it was right, and--that's all. But
+it seems Wheaton had succeeded in another way. Now, I'm coming to the
+point. The Judge and McNamara are arrested for contempt of court and
+they're as good as convicted; you have recovered your mine, and these
+men are disgraced. They will go to jail--"
+
+"Yes, for six months, perhaps," broke in the other, hotly, "but what
+does that amount to? There never was a bolder crime consummated nor one
+more cruelly unjust. They robbed a realm and pillaged its people, they
+defiled a court and made Justice a wanton, they jailed good men and
+sent others to ruin; and for this they are to suffer--how? By a paltry
+fine or a short imprisonment, perhaps, by an ephemeral disgrace and the
+loss of their stolen goods. Contempt of court is the accusation, but
+you might as well convict a murderer for breach of the peace. We've
+thrown them off, it's true, and they won't trouble us again, but
+they'll never have to answer for their real infamy. That will go
+unpunished while their lawyers quibble over technicalities and rules of
+court. I guess it's true that there isn't any law of God or man north
+of Fifty-three; but if there is justice south of that mark, those
+people will answer for conspiracy and go to the penitentiary."
+
+"You make it hard for me to say what I want to. I am almost sorry we
+came, for I am not cunning with words, and I don't know that you'll
+understand," said the Bronco Kid, gravely, "We looked at it this way:
+you have had your victory, you have beaten your enemies against odds,
+you have recovered your mine, and they are disgraced. To men like them
+that last will outlive and outweigh all the rest; but the Judge is our
+uncle and our blood runs in his veins. He took Helen when she was a
+baby and was a father to her in his selfish way, loving her as best he
+knew how. And she loves him."
+
+"I don't quite understand you," said Roy.
+
+And then Helen spoke for the first time eagerly, taking a packet from
+her bosom as she began:
+
+"This will tell the whole wretched story, Mr. Glenister, and show the
+plot in all its vileness. It's hard for me to betray my uncle, but this
+proof is yours by right to use as you see fit, and I can't keep it."
+
+"Do you mean that this evidence will show all that? And you're going to
+give it to me because you think it is your duty?"
+
+"It belongs to you. I have no choice. But what I came for was to plead
+and to ask a little mercy for my uncle, who is an old, old man, and
+very weak. This will kill him."
+
+He saw that her eyes were swimming while the little chin quivered ever
+so slightly and her pale cheeks were flushed. There rose in him the old
+wild desire to take her in his arms, a yearning to pillow her head on
+his shoulder and kiss away the tears, to smooth with tender caress the
+wavy hair, and bury his face deep in it till he grew drunk with the
+madness of her. But he knew at last for whom she really pleaded.
+
+So he was to forswear this vengeance, which was no vengeance after all,
+but in verity a just punishment. They asked him--a man--a man's man--a
+Northman--to do this, and for what? For no reward, but on the contrary
+to insure himself lasting bitterness. He strove to look at the
+proposition calmly, clearly, but it was difficult. If only by freeing
+this other villain as well as her uncle he would do a good to her, then
+he would not hesitate. Love was not the only thing. He marvelled at his
+own attitude; this could not be his old self debating thus. He had
+asked for another chance to show that he was not the old Roy Glenister;
+well, it had come, and he was ready.
+
+Roy dared not look at Helen any more, for this was the hardest moment
+he had ever lived.
+
+"You ask this for your uncle, but what of--of the other fellow? You
+must know that if one goes free so will they both; they can't be
+separated."
+
+"It's almost too much to ask," the Kid took up, uncertainly. "But don't
+you think the work is done? I can't help but admire McNamara, and
+neither can you--he's been too good an enemy to you for
+that--and--and--he loves Helen."
+
+"I know--I know," said Glenister, hastily, at the same time stopping an
+unintelligible protest from the girl. "You've said enough." He
+straightened his slightly stooping shoulders and looked at the unopened
+package wearily, then slipped the rubber band from it, and, separating
+the contents, tore them up--one by one--tore them into fine bits
+without hurry or ostentation, and tossed the fragments away, while the
+woman began to sob softly, the sound of her relief alone disturbing the
+silence. And so he gave her his enemy, making his offer gamely,
+according to his code.
+
+"You're right--the work is done. And now, I'm very tired."
+
+They left him standing there, the glory of the dying day illumining his
+lean, brown features, the vision of a great loneliness in his weary
+eyes.
+
+He did not rouse himself till the sky before him was only a curtain of
+steel, pencilled with streaks of soot that lay close down above the
+darker sea. Then he sighed and said, aloud:
+
+"So this is the end, and I gave him to her with these hands"--he held
+them out before him curiously, becoming conscious for the first time
+that the left one was swollen and discolored and fearfully painful. He
+noted it with impersonal interest, realizing its need of medical
+attention--so left the cabin and walked down into the city. He
+encountered Dextry and Simms on the way, and they went with him, both
+flowing with the gossip of the camp.
+
+"Lord, but you're the talk of the town," they began. "The curio hunters
+have commenced to pull Struve's office apart for souvenirs, and the
+Swedes want to run you for Congress as soon as ever we get admitted as
+a State. They say that at collar-an'-elbow holts you could lick any of
+them Eastern senators and thereby rastle out a lot of good legislation
+for us cripples up here."
+
+"Speakin' of laws goes to show me that this here country is gettin' too
+blamed civilized for a white man," said Simms, pessimistically, "and
+now that this fight is ended up it don't look like there would be
+anything doin' fit to claim the interest of a growed-up person for a
+long while. I'm goin' west."
+
+"West! Why, you can throw a stone into Bering Strait from here," said
+Roy, smiling.
+
+"Oh, well, the world's round. There's a schooner outfittin' for
+Sibeery--two years' cruise. Me an' Dex is figgerin' on gettin' out
+towards the frontier fer a spell."
+
+"Sure!" said Dextry. "I'm beginnin' to feel all cramped up hereabouts
+owin' to these fillymonarch orchestras an' French restarawnts and such
+discrepancies of scenery. They're puttin' a pavement on Front Street
+and there's a shoe-shinin' parlor opened up. Why, I'd like to get where
+I could stretch an' holler without disturbin' the pensiveness of some
+dude in a dress suit. Better come along, Roy; we can sell out the
+Midas."
+
+"I'll think it over," said the young man.
+
+The night was bright with a full moon when they left the doctor's
+office. Roy, in no mood for the exuberance of his companions, parted
+from them, but had not gone far before he met Cherry Malotte. His head
+was low and he did not see her till she spoke.
+
+"Well, boy, so it's over at last!"
+
+Her words chimed so perfectly with his thoughts that he replied: "Yes,
+it's all over, little girl."
+
+"You don't need my congratulations--you know me too well for that. How
+does it feel to be a winner?"
+
+"I don't know. I've lost."
+
+"Lost what?"
+
+"Everything--except the gold-mine."
+
+"Everything except--I see. You mean that she--that you have asked her
+and she won't?" He never knew the cost at which she held her voice so
+steady.
+
+"More than that. It's so new that it hurts yet, and it will continue to
+hurt for a long time, I suppose--but to-morrow I am going back to my
+hills and my valleys, back to the Midas and my work, and try to begin
+all over. For a time I've wandered in strange paths, seeking new gods,
+as it were, but the dazzle has died out of my eyes and I can see true
+again. She isn't for me, although I shall always love her. I'm sorry I
+can't forget easily, as some do. It's hard to look ahead and take an
+interest in things. But what about you? Where shall you go?"
+
+"I don't know. It doesn't really matter--now." The dusk hid her white,
+set face and she spoke monotonously. "I am going to see the Bronco Kid.
+He sent for me. He's ill."
+
+"He's not a bad sort," said Roy. "And I suppose he'll make a new start,
+too."
+
+"Perhaps," said she, gazing far out over the gloomy ocean. "It all
+depends." After a moment, she added, "What a pity that we can't all
+sponge off the slate and begin afresh and--forget."
+
+"It's part of the game," said he. "I don't know why it's so, but it is.
+I'll see you sometimes, won't I?"
+
+"No, boy--I think not."
+
+"I believe I understand," he murmured; "and perhaps it's better so." He
+took her two soft hands in his one good right and kissed them. "God
+bless you and keep you, dear, brave little Cherry."
+
+She stood straight and still as he melted into the shadows, and only
+the moonlight heard her pitiful sob and her hopeless whisper:
+
+"Good-bye, my boy, my boy."
+
+He wandered down beside the sea, for his battle was not yet won, and
+until he was surer of himself he could not endure the ribaldry and
+rejoicing of his fellows. A welcome lay waiting for him in every public
+place, but no one there could know the mockery of it, no one could
+gauge the desolation that was his.
+
+The sand, wet, packed, and hard as a pavement, gave no sound to his
+careless steps; and thus it was that he came silently upon the one
+woman as she stood beside the silver surf. Had he seen her first he
+would have slunk past in the landward shadows; but, recognizing his
+tall form, she called and he came, while it seemed that his lungs grew
+suddenly constricted, as though bound about with steel hoops. The very
+pleasure of her sight pained him. He advanced eagerly, and yet with
+hesitation, standing stiffly aloof while his heart fluttered and his
+tongue grew dumb. At last she saw his bandages and her manner changed
+abruptly. Coming closer she touched them with caressing fingers.
+
+"It's nothing--nothing at all," he said, while his voice jumped out of
+all control. "When are you--going away?"
+
+"I do not know--not for some time."
+
+He had supposed she would go to-morrow with her uncle and--the other,
+to be with them through their travail.
+
+With warm impetuosity she began: "It was a noble thing you did to-day.
+Oh, I am glad and proud."
+
+"I prefer you to think of me in that way, rather than as the wild beast
+you saw this morning, for I was mad, perfectly mad with hatred and
+revenge, and every wild impulse that comes to a defeated man. You see,
+I had played and lost, played and lost, again and again, till there was
+nothing left. What mischance brought you there? It was a terribly
+brutal thing, but you can't understand."
+
+"But I can understand. I do. I know all about it now. I know the wild
+rage of desperation; I know the exultation of victory; I know what hate
+and fear are now. You told me once that the wilderness had made you a
+savage, and I laughed at it just as I did when you said that my contact
+with big things would teach me the truth, that we're all alike, and
+that those motives are in us all. I see now that you were right and I
+was very simple. I learned a great deal last night."
+
+"I have learned much also," said he. "I wish you might teach me more."
+
+"I--I--don't think I could teach you any more," she hesitated.
+
+He moved as though to speak, but held back and tore his eyes away from
+her.
+
+"Well," she inquired, gazing at him covertly.
+
+"Once, a long time ago, I read a Lover's Petition, and ever since
+knowing you I have made the constant prayer that I might be given the
+purity to be worthy the good in you, and that you might be granted the
+patience to reach the good in me--but it's no use. But at least I'm
+glad we have met on common ground, as it were, and that you understand,
+in a measure. The prayer could not be answered; but through it I have
+found myself and--I have known you. That last is worth more than a
+king's ransom to me. It is a holy thing which I shall reverence always,
+and when you go you will leave me lonely except for its remembrance."
+
+"But I am not going," she said. "That is--unless--"
+
+Something in her voice swept his gaze back from the shimmering causeway
+that rippled seaward to the rising moon. It brought the breath into his
+throat, and he shook as though seized by a great fear.
+
+"Unless--what?"
+
+"Unless you want me to."
+
+"Oh, God! don't play with me!" He flung out his hand as though to stop
+her while his voice died out to a supplicating hoarseness. "I can't
+stand that."
+
+"Don't you see? Won't you see?" she asked. "I was waiting here for the
+courage to go to you since you have made it so very hard for me--my
+pagan." With which she came close to him, looking upward into his face,
+smiling a little, shrinking a little, yielding yet withholding, while
+the moonlight made of her eyes two bottomless, boundless pools, dark
+with love, and brimming with the promise of his dreams.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spoilers, by Rex Beach
+
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