igorous
conditions of weather. The second was "Bull's little gal," more
properly known as Jameine Evans, herself a graduate of the Pittsburgh
School of Mines.

With the money that had been sent her, when a baby, by the Road-Agent
of Circle, and with the additional sums forwarded from time to time by
Jim, Jameine (so christened as a namesake of the old prospector) had
been able to pay her way through school and college and had taken a
mining course besides.

This specialized education had been her plan of gratitude. Only by
making herself efficient in a kindred field, she felt, could she ever
be a real "pardner" to Jim; only thus could she repay, in some
measure, the generosity of the old prospector. She had long realized
the unselfishness of the man who had stayed winter after winter in the
frozen North, denying himself the rude pleasures of a mining camp in
order to help "Bull's little gal."

Ever since Jim had made his famous strike, as a result of the map
which had been sent to her by her father's murderer, Jameine had
regarded herself as the heiress of a dream mine, but a dream which
might, some day, come true. For her own sake, as well as Jim's, she
had read and studied as much as she could of Alaskan conditions.

It was she who finally disclosed to Jim that the Russian seal-poachers
were probably at fault in chasing him from his strike, and only wanted
to get rid of the inconvenient witness. Thus she had reawakened the
prospector's lagging interest in his find, but lacking the large store
of capital necessary to exploit the mine, she could do nothing. Jim
had used up all his savings in going from town to town trying to
interest a big investor and had finally entered Owens' coal mine in
order to get a little stake again.

Wizard Juneau was amazed at the extent of mining knowledge shown by
this girl shipmate, and he had spent the greater part of the voyage
from Sitka in imparting to her some of the secrets distilled from his
long experience in frozen mining. He had brought on board the
_Bunting_ many of the publications of the U. S. Geological Survey, and
of the Bureau of Mines, annotated by himself. He had brought, also, a
number of crude maps of half-explored territory, either drawn by his
own hand or by old prospectors, which maps and charts were among his
most prized possessions.

"Some of these," he explained, "were made by Alf Brooks,[8] one of the
nerviest explorers that the U. S. ever sent out. I've