en design, so they crawled out of sight of the
camp, then, commencing at the upper stake of Discovery, he stepped off
the claims from post to post.

It is customary to blaze the boundaries of locations on tree trunks, but
from topographical irregularities it is difficult to properly gauge
these distances, hence, many rich fractions have been run over by the
heedless, to fall to him who chained the ground.

Upon pacing the third one, he showed excitement.

"You walk this one again--mebbe I made a mistake."

Buck returned, crashing through the brush.

"I make it seventeen hundred."

The claim above figured likewise, and they trembled with elation as they
blazed their lines.

Returning to camp, they found the recorder in the cabin with the scurvy
patients. Unfolding the location notices, his face went black as he
read, while he snarled, angrily:

"'Fraction between Three and Four' and 'Fraction between Four and Five,'
eh? You're crazy."

"I reckon not," said Crowley, lifting his lips at the corners
characteristically.

"There ain't any fraction there," the other averred, loudly. "We own
them claims. I told you we had everything covered."

"You record them fractions!"

"I won't do it! I'll see you in--"

Crowley reached forth suddenly and strangled him as he sat. He buried
his thumbs in his throat, forcing him roughly back against a bunk.
Farther and farther he crushed him till the man lay pinioned and
writhing on his back. Then he knelt on him, shaking and worrying like a
great terrier.

At the first commotion the cripples scrambled out of bed, shouting
lustily through their livid gums, their bloated features mottled and
sickly with fright. One lifted himself toward the Winchester, and it
fell from his hands full cocked when Buck hurled him into a corner,
where he lay screaming in agony.

Drawn by the uproar, the stampeders outside rushed toward the shack to
be met in the door by the young man.

"Keep back!"

"What's up!"

"Fight!"

"Let me in!"

A man bolted forward, but was met with such a driving blow in the face
that he went thrashing to the slush. Another was hurled back, and then
they heard Crowley's voice, rough and throaty, as he abused the
recorder. Strained to the snapping-point, his restraint had shattered to
bits and now passion ran through him, wild and unbridled.

From his words they grasped the situation, and their sympathies changed.
They crowded the door and gazed curiously th