inst it hard. I can't shoot. What'll I do?"

"Look here, Shorty, listen to reason," Saltman begged.

"Come here to me an' we'll talk reason," was Shorty's retort.

And they were still talking reason when the head of the stampede emerged
from the zigzag trail and came upon them.

"You can't call a man a trespasser when he's on a town-site lookin' to
buy lots," Wild Water was arguing, and Shorty was objecting: "But
they's private property in town-sites, an' that there strip is private
property, that's all. I tell you again, it ain't for sale."

"Now we've got to swing this thing on the jump," Smoke muttered to
Shorty. "If they ever get out of hand--"

"You've sure got your nerve, if you think you can hold them," Shorty
muttered back. "They's two thousan' of 'em an' more a-comin'. They'll
break this line any minute."

The line ran along the near rim of the ravine, and Shorty had formed it
by halting the first arrivals when they got that far in their invasion.
In the crowd were half a dozen Northwest policemen and a lieutenant.
With the latter Smoke conferred in undertones.

"They're still piling out of Dawson," he said, "and before long there
will be five thousand here. The danger is if they start jumping claims.
When you figure there are only five claims, it means a thousand men to
a claim, and four thousand out of the five will try to jump the nearest
claim. It can't be done, and if it ever starts, there'll be more dead
men here than in the whole history of Alaska. Besides, those five claims
were recorded this morning and can't be jumped. In short, claim-jumping
mustn't start."

"Right-o," said the lieutenant. "I'll get my men together and station
them. We can't have any trouble here, and we won't have. But you'd
better get up and talk to them."

"There must be some mistake, fellows," Smoke began in a loud voice.
"We're not ready to sell lots. The streets are not surveyed yet. But
next week we shall have the grand opening sale."

He was interrupted by an outburst of impatience and indignation.

"We don't want lots," a young miner cried out. "We don't want what's on
top of the ground. We've come for what's under the ground."

"We don't know what we've got under the ground," Smoke answered. "But we
do know we've got a fine town-site on top of it."

"Sure," Shorty added. "Grand for scenery an' solitude. Folks lovin'
solitude come a-flockin' here by thousands. Most popular solitude on the
Yukon."

Again the