ahuas give one
yell and skipped. It was surely a funny sight, after they got aboard
their war ponies, to see them trying to dig out on horses too tired to
trot.

"I didn't stop to get all the laughs, though. In fact, I give one jump
off that ledge, and I lit a-running. A quarter-hoss couldn't have beat
me to that shack. There I grabbed my good old gun, old Meat-in-the-pot,
and made a climb for the tall country."

Uncle Jim stopped with an air of finality, and began lazily to refill
his pipe. From the open mud fireplace he picked a coal. Outside, the
rain, faithful to the prophecy of the wide-ringed sun, beat fitfully
against the roof.

"That was the closest call I ever had," said he at last.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] From _Arizona Nights_. Reprinted by special permission of publisher
and author. Copyright, 1907, by Doubleday, Page and Company.

[Illustration]

V.--The Weight of Obligation[5]

_By Rex Beach_

THIS is the story of a burden, the tale of a load that irked a strong
man's shoulders. To those who do not know the North it may seem strange,
but to those who understand the humors of men in solitude, and the
extravagant vagaries that steal in upon their minds, as fog drifts with
the night, it will not appear unusual. There are spirits in the
wilderness, eerie forces which play pranks; some droll or whimsical,
others grim.

Johnny Cantwell and Mortimer Grant were partners, trail mates, brothers
in soul if not in blood. The ebb and flood of frontier life had brought
them together, its hardships had united them until they were as one.
They were something of a mystery to each other, neither having
surrendered all his confidence, and because of this they retained their
mutual attraction. They had met by accident, but they remained together
by desire.

The spirit of adventure bubbled merrily within them, and it led them
into curious byways. It was this which sent them northward from the
States in the dead of winter, on the heels of the Stony River strike; it
was this which induced them to land at Katmai instead of Illiamna,
whither their land journey should have commenced.

"There are two routes over the coast range," the captain of the _Dora_
told them, "and only two. Illiamna Pass is low and easy, but the
distance is longer than by way of Katmai. I can land you at either
place."

"Katmai is pretty tough, isn't it?" Grant inquired.

"We've understood it's the worst pass in Alaska." Cantwell's ey