as he sees it. If his superior officers decide on
those facts against Macdonald, I don't see that Elliot is to blame."

"That's how it looks to me," agreed Strong. "I'm for a wide-open Alaska,
but that don't make it right to put this young fellow through for a
crime he didn't do. Lots of folks think he did it. That's all right.
I know he didn't. Fact is, I like him. He's square. So I've come to tell
you something."

He smoked for a minute silently before he continued.

"I've got no evidence in his favor, but I bumped into something a little
while ago that didn't look good to me. You know I room next him at the
hotel. I heard a noise in his room, and I thought that was funny, seeing
as he was locked up in jail. So I kinder listened and heard whispers and
the sound of some one moving about. There's a door between his room and
mine that is kept locked. I looked through the keyhole, and in Elliot's
room there was Wally Selfridge and another man. They were looking
through papers at the desk. Wally put a stack of them in his pocket and
they went out locking the door behind them."

"They had no business doing that," burst out Diane. "Wally Selfridge
isn't an officer of the law."

Strong nodded dryly to her. "Just what I thought. So I followed them.
They went to Macdonald's offices. After awhile Wally came out and left
the other man there. Then presently the lights went out. The man is
camped there for the night. Will you tell me why?"

"Why?" repeated Diane with her sharp eyes on the miner.

"Because Wally has some papers there he don't want to get away from
him."

"Some of Gordon's papers, of course."

"You've said it."

"All his notes and evidence in the case of the coal claims probably,"
contributed Peter.

"Maybe. Wally has stole them, but he hasn't nerve enough to burn them
till he gets orders from Mac. So he's holding them safe at the office,"
guessed Strong.

"It's an outrage," Diane decided promptly.

"Surest thing you know. Wally has fixed it to frame him for prison and
to play safe about his evidence on the coal claims."

"What are you going to do about it?" Diane asked her husband sharply.

Peter rose. "First I'm going to see Gordon and hear what he has to say.
Come on, Strong. We may be gone quite a while, Diane. Don't wait up for
me if you get through your stint of nursing."

Roused from sleep, Gopher Jones grumbled a good deal about letting the
men see his prisoner. "You got all day, ain't you