s he could not have explained at all. His was a nature that
demanded more than a life of healing could give him. There was the
ceaseless call of the original man in him. It was a call so insistent
that it must be obeyed, even while his mental attitude spurned the
folly of it.

Abe Dodds was propped on an upturned bucket with his lean shoulders
squared against the log walls of the shanty. His jaw was moving
rhythmically as he chewed with nervous energy. The difference in him
from the others was the difference of a calculating mind always working
out the sum of life from a purely worldly side. He knew the values of
the Bell River strike to an ounce. It was his business to know. And
he was ready to pass through any furnace, human or hellish, to seize
the fortune which he knew was literally at his feet. There was neither
sentiment nor feeling in his regard of that which was yet to come.
This was the great opportunity. He had lived and struggled north of
"sixty" for this moment. He was ready to die if necessary for the
achievement of all it meant.

The men sat on, each wrapped in his own mood as the pall of night
unfolded itself. The last word had been given to those at the
defences, and it had been full and complete. Joe Saunders held the
pass down from above. It had been at his own definite request. But
the moment attack came he would be supported by one of these three. It
was for this reason that he was absent from the final vigil of his
fellow leaders.

It was Abe who finally broke the prolonged silence. He broke it upon
indifferent ears. But then he had not the same mood for silence.

"There's every sort of old chance lying around," he observed, as though
following out his own long train of thought. "But I don't guess many
of 'em's worth while. There's fellers 'ud hand over any sense they
ever collected fer the dame that's had savvee to buy a fi' cent
perfume. 'Tain't my way. There's jest one chance for me. It's the
big boodle. I'm all in for that. Right up to my ear-drums." He
laughed and spat. "There's a mighty big world to buy, an' when you got
your fencing set up around it, why, there ain't a deal left outside
that's worth corrallin'. I'd say it's only the folk who fancy the
foolish house need to try an' buy a big pot on a pair o' deuces. If
you stand on a 'royal' you can grab most anything. I got this thing
figgered to a cent. When we're through there's those among us going to
ma