s_. My paper is particular about
the Alaska news, and I came straight to headquarters to find out about the
Iditarod camp."

Banks kept on to the desk, and Jimmie turned to walk with him. The clerk
was ready with his key. "Mrs. Banks hasn't come in yet," he said, smiling.

"She's likely been kept up at Sedgewick-Wilson's. I introduced her to a
friend of mine there. I had to chase around to find a contractor that
could ship his own scrapers and shovels across the range, and I thought
the time would go quicker, for her, picking out clothes. But," he added,
turning to the reporter, "we may as well sit down and wait for her here in
the lobby."

"I understand," began Daniels, opening his notebook on the arm of his
chair, "that your placer in the Iditarod country has panned out a clear
one hundred thousand dollars."

"Ninety-five thousand, two hundred and twenty-six," corrected the mining
man, "with the last clean-up to hear from."

Jimmie set these figures down, then asked: "Is the rumor true that the
Morgansteins are considering an offer from you?"

"No, sir," piped the little man. "They made me an offer. I gave 'em an
option on my bunch of claims for a hundred and fifty thousand. Their
engineer has gone in to look the property over. If they buy, they'll
likely send a dredger through by spring and work a big bunch of men."

There was a silent moment while Jimmie recorded these facts, then: "And I
understand you are interested in fruit lands east of the mountains," he
said. "It often happens that way. Men make their pile up there in the
frozen north and come back here to Washington to invest it."

"Likely," replied Banks shortly. "Likely. But it's my wife that owns the
property in the fruit belt. And it's a mighty promising layout; it's up to
me to stay with it till she gets her improvements in. Afterwards--now I
want you to get this in correct. Last time things got mixed; the young
fellow wrote me down Bangs. And I've read things in the newspaper lately
about Hollis Tisdale that I know for a fact ain't so."

"Hollis Tisdale?" Jimmie suspended his pencil. "So you know the Sphynx of
the Yukon, do you?"

"That's it. That's the name that blame newspaper called him. Sphynx
nothing. Hollis Tisdale is the best known man in Alaska and the best
liked. If the Government had had the sense to put him at the head of the
Alaska business, there'd been something doing, my, yes."

The reporter finished his period. "Don't let thi