rt, provided he has time to swing
himself. The ace in the hole is Sammy Sternberg; he's got the books. Now
what's the answer?"

"Steal the books!" chorused the Wags; and Dummy smiled.

"Why, sure."

"You can't stick up no saloon full of rough-necks and sleepers," said
Scrap Iron. "Sammy caches his books in the safe when he's off shift, and
we can't blow the safe, 'cause the joint never closes."

But the Dummy only grinned, for this was the sort of job he liked, and
then he proceeded to make known his plan.

Those were terrible hours for June. She prayed with all the earnestness
of her earnest being that her lover might be spared; repeatedly she
strained her tear-filled eyes to the southward. As for Hope, he had
tasted the consequences of his guilt, and his face grew lined and
haggard with the strain of waiting. He could have met the future with
some show of resignation had it not been for the knowledge of his
sweetheart's suffering; but as the hours passed and that thin black line
of soot still hung upon the horizon, he thought he would go mad.

On the second day a steamer showed, hull down, having wormed her way
through the floes, and Nome marched out upon the shore ice in a body.

June and Harry went with the others, hand in hand, and the man walked as
if he were marching to the gallows. It was not the P. C. steamer, after
all; it was the whaler _Jeanie_. The fleet was in the offing, however,
so she reported, and would be in within another twenty-four hours, if
the pack kept drifting.

Hope ground his teeth, and muttered: "Poor little June! I wish it were
over for your sake!" and she nodded wearily.

But as they neared the shore again they heard rumors of strange doings
in their absence. There had been a daring daylight hold-up at the
Miners' Rest. Six masked men had taken advantage of the exodus to enter
and clean out the place at the point of the gun, and now Sammy Sternberg
was poisoning the air with his complaints.

Details came flying faster as they trudged up into Front Street, and Doc
Whiting paused to say:

"That's the nerviest thing yet, eh, Harry?"

"Was anybody hurt?"

"No damage done except to Sammy's feelings."

"They surely didn't get much money?"

"Oh, no! Their total clean-up wasn't a hundred dollars; but they lugged
off Sammy's books."

June felt herself falling, and grasped weakly at her lover's arm, for
she saw it all. "Come!" she said, and dragged him up to her own cabin,
then