W. J. Bryan smile this glad mo'nin'," mused
old Holt aloud.

It was three o'clock in the morning by the watch when they started.
About nine they threw off for breakfast. By this time they were just
across the divide and were ready to take the down trail.

"I think we'll let Dud go now," Elliot told his partner in the
adventure.

"Better hold him till afternoon. Then they can't possibly reach us till
we get to Kamatlah."

"What does it matter if they do? We have both rifles and have left them
only one revolver. Besides, I don't like to leave two bound men alone in
so wild a district for any great time. No, we'll start Dud on the back
trail. That grizzly you promised Big Bill might really turn up."

The two men struck the headwaters of Wild-Goose Creek about noon and
followed the stream down. They traveled steadily without haste. So long
as they kept a good lookout there was nothing to be feared from the men
they had left behind. They had both a long start and the advantage of
weapons.

If Elliot had advertised for a year he could not have found a man who
knew more of Colby Macdonald's past than Gideon Holt. The old man had
mushed on the trail with him in the Klondike days. He had worked a
claim on Frenchman Creek with him and had by sharp practice--so at
least he had come to believe--been lawed out of his rights by the shrewd
Scotchman. For seventeen years he had nursed a grudge against Macdonald,
and he was never tired of talking about him. He knew many doubtful
things charged to the account of the big man as he had blazed a way
to success over the failures of less fortunate people. One story in
particular interested Gordon. It came out the second day, as they were
getting down into the foothills.

"There was Farrell O'Neill. He was a good fellow, Farrell was, but he
had just one weakness. There was times when he liked the bottle too
well. He'd let it alone for months and then just lap the stuff up. It
was the time of the stampede to Bonanza Creek. Men are just like sheep.
They wear wool on their backs like them and have their habits. You can
start 'em any fool way for no cause a-tall. Don't you know it? Well, the
news of the strike on Bonanza reached Dawson and we all burnt up the
trail to get to the new ground first. O'Neill was one of the first.
He got in about twenty below discovery, if I remember. Mac wasn't in
Dawson, but he got there next mo'nin' and heard the news. He lit out
for Bonanza _pronto_."

T