he crack.

"Who is it?" he whispered.

"Breck," came the almost inaudible answer. "Be careful you don't make a
noise. I'm going to pass a knife in to you."

"No good," Smoke said. "I couldn't use it. My hands are tied behind me
and made fast to the leg of the bunk. Besides, you couldn't get a knife
through that crack. But something must be done. Those fellows are of a
temper to hang me, and, of course, you know I didn't kill that man."

"It wasn't necessary to mention it, Smoke. And if you did you had your
reasons. Which isn't the point at all. I want to get you out of this.
It's a tough bunch of men here. You've seen them. They're shut off from
the world, and they make and enforce their own law--by miner's meeting,
you know. They handled two men already--both grub-thieves. One they
hiked from camp without an ounce of grub and no matches. He made about
forty miles and lasted a couple of days before he froze stiff. Two weeks
ago they hiked the second man. They gave him his choice: no grub, or
ten lashes for each day's ration. He stood for forty lashes before he
fainted. And now they've got you, and every last one is convinced you
killed Kinade."

"The man who killed Kinade shot at me, too. His bullet broke the skin
on my shoulder. Get them to delay the trial till some one goes up and
searches the bank where the murderer hid."

"No use. They take the evidence of Harding and the five Frenchmen with
him. Besides, they haven't had a hanging yet, and they're keen for
it. You see, things have been pretty monotonous. They haven't located
anything big, and they got tired of hunting for Surprise Lake. They did
some stampeding the first part of the winter, but they've got over that
now. Scurvy is beginning to show up amongst them, too, and they're just
ripe for excitement."

"And it looks like I'll furnish it," was Smoke's comment. "Say, Breck,
how did you ever fall in with such a God-forsaken bunch?"

"After I got the claims at Squaw Creek opened up and some men to
working, I came up here by way of the Stewart, hunting for Two Cabins.
They'd beaten me to it, so I've been higher up the Stewart. Just got
back yesterday out of grub."

"Find anything?"

"Nothing much. But I think I've got a hydraulic proposition that'll work
big when the country's opened up. It's that, or a gold-dredger."

"Hold on," Smoke interrupted. "Wait a minute. Let me think."

He was very much aware of the snores of the sleepers as he pursued the