ttle and San Francisco people were still asleep and darkness was
heavy over the land. Here it had been day for a long time, ever since
the summer sun, hidden for a while behind the low, distant hills, had
come blazing forth again in a saddle between two peaks.

Gordon had reduced his pack by discarding a blanket, the frying-pan,
and all the clothing he was not wearing. His rifle lay behind him in the
swamp. He had cut to a minimum of safety what he was carrying, according
to his judgment. But before long his last blanket was flung aside. He
could not afford to carry an extra pound, for he knew he was running a
race, the stakes of which were life and death.

A cloud of mosquitoes moved with him. He carried in his hand a spruce
bough for defense against them. His hands were gloved, his face was
covered with netting. But in spite of the best he could do they were an
added torture.

Afternoon found him still staggering forward. The swamps were now
behind him. He had won through at last by the narrowest margin possible.
The ground was rising sharply toward the mountains. Across the range
somewhere lay Kamatlah. But he was all in. With his food almost gone,
a water supply uncertain, reserve strength exhausted, the chances of
getting over the divide to safety were practically none.

He had come, so far as he could see, to the end of the passage.

CHAPTER IX

GID HOLT GOES PROSPECTING

As soon as Selfridge reached Kamatlah he began arranging the stage
against the arrival of the Government agent. His preparations were
elaborate and thorough. A young engineer named Howland had been in
charge of the development work, but Wally rearranged his forces so as
to let each dummy entryman handle the claim entered in his name. One or
two men about whom he was doubtful he discharged and hurried out of the
camp.

Selfridge had been given a free hand as to expenses and he oiled his
way by liberal treatment of the men and by a judicious expenditure.
He let them know pretty plainly that if the agent on his way to Kamatlah
suspected corporate ownership of the claims, the Government would close
down all work and there would be no jobs for them.

The company boarding-house became a restaurant, above which was
suspended a newly painted sign with the legend, "San Francisco Grill,
J. Glynn, Proprietor." The store also passed temporarily into the hands
of its manager. Miners moved from the barracks that had been built by
Macdonald i