all his men stood
with uncovered heads. One did not. The man who had been the first to
discover the dead man, Pant, stood with his fur hood tied tightly over his
ears.

Johnny was about to rebuke him, but the word died on his lips. "Pshaw!" he
whispered to himself, "there's trouble enough without starting a quarrel
beside an open grave."

Jarvis, who was the oldest man of the group and had been brought up in the
Church of England, read a Psalm and a prayer, then with husky voice
repeated:

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust."

The hollow thump of frozen earth on the rude box coffin told that the
ceremony was over.

One by one the men moved away, leaving only two behind to fill the grave.

Johnny strode off up the hill alone. He felt a great need to think. There
was to be no more work that day. He would not be missed.

As he made his way slowly up the hill, his dark form stood out against the
white background. Short, but square-shouldered and muscular, he fairly
radiated his years of clean, vigorous living.

And Johnny Thompson was all that one might imagine him to be. A quiet,
unobtrusive fellow, he seldom spoke except when he had something worth
saying. Since childhood he had always been a leader among his fellows.
Johnny was a good example to others, but no prude. He had played a fast
quarter on the football team, and had won for himself early renown and
many medals as a light weight, champion boxer. He never sought a quarrel,
but, if occasion demanded it, Johnny went into action with a vim and rush
that few men of twice his weight could withstand.

Now, however, his thoughts were far from pugilistic. He was thinking of
the immediate past and the future. Every man in his crew was aware of the
fact that 35 per cent of the output of these mines went to the homeless
starving ones of the most hopelessly wrecked nation on the face of the
earth. And though for the most part they were rough men, they had all
worked with the cheerful persistence which only an unselfish motive can
inspire. Langlois had not been the least among these. Now he was gone. Who
would be next?

Every man in the crew knew the dangers they were facing. To the south were
the anti-Bolshevik Russians, who, not understanding Johnny's claims and
his motives, might, at any time, launch an expedition against them. To the
southwest were the radical Bolsheviki, who, obtaining knowledge of these
rich deposits of gold, might start a land force across co