will keep us going for
weeks. Besides, let me tell you something you don't know. The rest of
our Government survey party is due to join us here to-morrow morning,
and I'd advise the whole bunch of you to clear out by sunrise or you'll
regret it. You're breaking the law, firing at us the way you have."

"Yah! that bluff don't go, Mister."

"We have the law on our side," retorted Kendrick, "and we'll shoot to
kill in self defense if you don't leave us strictly alone. We've
got----"

He never finished that sentence; for rifle shots and hallooing off
towards the river apprized the two anxious defenders of "The Saucer"
that the worst had happened. Kendrick crossed to the opposite side in
two bounds and found McCorquodale already on top of the rocks, reaching
down for his leader's hand.

"We're in for it, old man," said Phil coolly. "Make straight for the
trail. We've got to beat them to it."

McCorquodale only swore as he tightened his belt and for the second
time they went down the hill in long jumps that sent loose stones
crashing through the brushwood. Once on the level they ran for the
sounds of trouble as fast as they could make headway through impeding
undergrowth. They broke through at last into the tote road and ran at
top speed down a straight stretch of it that was like a long aisle
between the flanking trunks of spruce and hemlock. There was a sharp
turn in the trail at the end of this aisle and judging by the glow of a
fire that someone had lighted and the shouts of men in combat, it was
just around the turn that the issue was being fought.

"Left, Cork--into the bush!" panted Phil as he heard a shout behind
them.

They cut straight through for the bonfire, against the glow of which
the tree-trunks began to stand out black. As they approached, Kendrick
threw out his arm to stop the detective, and they dropped to the ground
and crawled the remaining distance on hands and knees.

Against the firelight towered the black bulk of the giant Swede in the
centre of a wild hand-to-hand fight against five of McIvor's men. They
were attacking him from all sides at once, and if any of them had been
armed with rifles they had thrown these aside in favor of knives and
clubs. The fighting was too close for the use of firearms. A sixth
man had got it on "da hed" before they had succeeded in knocking the
club out of the Swede's hands; he lay, sprawled and still, near the
edge of the woods. The sheath in