ll the time, and
now they were buying Ward Valley back for a song ere the market righted
itself. Most probably, out of his share of the swag, Nathaniel Letton
would erect a couple of new buildings for that university of his. Leon
Guggenhammer would buy new engines for that yacht, or a whole fleet of
yachts. But what the devil Dowsett would do with his whack, was beyond
him--most likely start another string of banks.

And Daylight sat and consumed cocktails and saw back in his life to
Alaska, and lived over the grim years in which he had battled for his
eleven millions. For a while murder ate at his heart, and wild ideas
and sketchy plans of killing his betrayers flashed through his mind.
That was what that young man should have done instead of killing
himself. He should have gone gunning. Daylight unlocked his grip and
took out his automatic pistol--a big Colt's .44. He released the
safety catch with his thumb, and operating the sliding outer barrel,
ran the contents of the clip through the mechanism. The eight
cartridges slid out in a stream. He refilled the clip, threw a
cartridge into the chamber, and, with the trigger at full cock, thrust
up the safety ratchet. He shoved the weapon into the side pocket of
his coat, ordered another Martini, and resumed his seat.

He thought steadily for an hour, but he grinned no more. Lines formed
in his face, and in those lines were the travail of the North, the bite
of the frost, all that he had achieved and suffered--the long, unending
weeks of trail, the bleak tundra shore of Point Barrow, the smashing
ice-jam of the Yukon, the battles with animals and men, the
lean-dragged days of famine, the long months of stinging hell among the
mosquitoes of the Koyokuk, the toil of pick and shovel, the scars and
mars of pack-strap and tump-line, the straight meat diet with the dogs,
and all the long procession of twenty full years of toil and sweat and
endeavor.

At ten o'clock he arose and pored over the city directory. Then he put
on his shoes, took a cab, and departed into the night. Twice he changed
cabs, and finally fetched up at the night office of a detective agency.
He superintended the thing himself, laid down money in advance in
profuse quantities, selected the six men he needed, and gave them their
instructions. Never, for so simple a task, had they been so well paid;
for, to each, in addition to office charges, he gave a
five-hundred-dollar bill, with the promise