ns, and he felt no
self-amazement that he should be planning a murderous and an inhuman
crime. He had learned certain lessons of cruelty from the wilderness;
the savage breeds with whom he had mingled had had their influence too.
Bill, born and living in a land of beasts, had kept the glory of
manhood; Harold, coming from a land of men, had fallen to the beasts'
own level. And even the savage wolf does not slay the pack-brother that
frees him from a trap! Besides, his father's wicked blood was prompting
his every step.

He threw the cigarette away and glanced critically at the rifles of his
two confederates. The breeds waited patiently for him to speak.
"Where's Sindy?" he asked at last.

They began to wonder if he had called them here just to ask about Sindy,
and for an instant they were sullenly unresponsive. But the heavy lines
on their master's face soon reassured them. "Over Buckshot Dan's--just
where you said," Joe replied.

"Of course Buckshot took her back?" The Indians nodded. "Well, I'm
going to let him keep her. I've got a white squaw now--and soon I'm
going out with her--to the Outside. But there's things to do first.
Bill has found the mine."

The others nodded gravely. They expected some such development.

"And Bill is as blind as a mole--got caught in a cabin full of
green-wood smoke. He'll be able to see again in a day or two. So I
sent for you right away."

The breeds nodded again, a trifle less phlegmatically. Perhaps Pete's
eyes had begun to gleam,--such a gleam as the ptarmigan sees in the
eyes of the little weasel, leaping through the snow.

"The mine's worth millions--more money than you can dream of. Each of
you get a sixth--one third divided between you. You'll never get more
money for one night's work. More than you can spend, if you live a
hundred winters. But you agree first to these terms--or you won't
know where the mine is."

"Me--I want a fourth," Joe answered sullenly.

"All right. Turn around and go home. I don't want you."

It was a bluff, but it worked. Joe came to terms at once. Treacherous
himself and expecting treachery, Harold wisely decided that he wouldn't
divulge the location of the mine, however, until all needed work was
done.

"As soon as we've finished what I've planned, we'll tear down his claim
notices and put up our own, then go down to the recorder and record the
claim," Harold went on. "Then it's ours. No one will ever guess. No
o