think it would be
necessary to go into the thing again. I was with the men who found
Gordon at the bottom of his shaft on the Quatchigan."

Damer appeared irresolute, but he sat down. "Nobody knows how he got
there."

"No? Well, I have a notion, and I guess Tom Winstanley and one other
man could tell."

"Winstanley's dead."

Hallam laughed. "Still, the other man is on my pay-roll, but where you
can't get at him unless I want you to. Now, are you going to gain
anything by kicking against me?"

Damer was evidently astonished, and sat for almost a minute as though
lost in reflection. Then he made a little gesture as one who abandons
a struggle.

"I guess that takes me. What do you want?" he said.

"Nothing very much in the meanwhile. They'll start you rock-drilling
at the Tyee, but it's quite likely I'll send you up into the ranges
prospecting by and by. Still, I don't want any of the folks down here
to know you're with me, and you'll start out by the railroad trail
to-morrow, and wait at the lake until I come up with you. There's
somebody coming now!"

Damer moved abruptly, for there was a step on the stairway, and as he
reached the verandah a man brushed past him. He stopped, and for a
moment Damer and Alton stood face to face. The latter, however, passed
on, and swept his glance round the room, seeing only a man he did not
recognize sitting at the opposite end with his back to him. Then he
swung round again, and went down the stairway shouting, "Horton!" until
a man came out from a shed at the back of the store.

"Well," he said, "I'm here. You needn't raise the whole place, Harry."

Alton laughed. "I've been up to Grantly's, and he's going in to the
railroad to-morrow. You can send that order for the crockery along
with him. Dollars are no object so long as it's pretty. The tea is to
be the best they keep in Vancouver, too."

He swung himself into the saddle, and shook the bridle, while Damer
leaned on the verandah balustrade gazing up the dusky trail he had
taken until the last faint beat of horsehoofs sank into the silence of
the bush. It was now very black and solemn, but away beyond it the
snow still shone faintly cold and white against the sky, and once more
Damer shivered a little as he turned towards the lighted store. He had
meant to leave the country, but fate had been too strong for him, and
remembering what Hallam had told him about the prospecting he wondered
if he and Alt