. Then Barger murmured:

"Excuse me, Van Buren, fer--bein' so damn--long--dyin'."

"You're not dying, Matt--go to sleep," said. Van. "I'll be here
beside you, all night."

He sat down, got up and sat down again, stirred to the depths of his
being by the story the man had revealed. Beth's money, then, had gone
for this, to bribe a Government agent! A tumult of mad, revengeful
thoughts went roaring through his mind. A grim look came upon his
face, and fire was flashing from his eyes. He arose and sat down a
dozen times, all the while looking at the worn, broken figure that lay
on the earth at his feet. What an ill-used, gaunt, and exhausted frame
it was, loose and abandoned by the strength that once had filled it
with vigor and might. What a boyish look had come at last upon the
haggard, sunken face!

The night wind was chill. He had forgotten for himself, but he thought
of it now for Barger. He laid his blankets on the inert limbs and up
around the shoulders.

Perhaps another hour went by, with Van still sleepless by his charge.
The convict stirred.

"Van--Buren," he said in a hoarse, rattling whisper, "Van----"

Van was instantly alert.

"Hello."

Barger partially raised his hand.

"So long,"--and the hand dropped downward.

"Matt!" answered Van, quickly kneeling on the earth. He caught up the
fingers, felt their faint attempt to close upon his own--and the man on
the ground was dead.

CHAPTER XLIII

PREPARING THE NET FOR A DRAW

Beth Kent, as the sun was going from the sky, fell down three times in
utter exhaustion. She and the others had come to within a mile of the
"Laughing Water" claim. Pratt was far away in the rear, on the last of
his stations. Glen, in the lead, was forging ahead on a second supply
of strength. Hidden from the sight of either of the others, Beth was
ready for collapse.

But onward crept that merciless ribbon of steel that Glen was dragging.
Three times the girl rose and stumbled onward, up the last acclivity.
Her legs were like lead. She stubbed her toes on every rock. She
could almost have cried with the aches of weariness. It seemed as if
that terrible hill unfolded new and steeper slopes for every one she
climbed.

She went down repeatedly. To have lain there, hungry, but indifferent
to anything but sleep, would have been the most heavenly thing she
could conceive. She was literally falling up the hill, with all her
machinery slumping towards