urvey; a man in high favor with the
administration and the sole owner of the fabulously rich Aurora mine in
Alaska. The widow of his partner who made the discovery and paid for it
with his life is penniless. Strange as it may seem--for the testimony of a
criminal is not allowable in a United States court--Hollis Tisdale has
been called as a witness for the Government in the pending Alaska coal
trials!"

The Society Editor met Jimmie's appalled gaze. "It sounds muckraky," she
commented, still tremulously. "But these new magazines have to do
something to get a hold. This is just to attract public attention."

"They'll get that, when Tisdale brings a suit for libel. Hope he will do
it, and that the judgment will swamp them. They must have got his name
from Mrs. Feversham."

"It looks political," said Geraldine conciliatingly, "as though they were
striking through him at the administration."

"Go on," said Jimmie recklessly. "Let's have it over with."

And Geraldine launched quickly into the story. It had been mercilessly and
skilfully abridged. All those undercurrents of feeling, which Jimmie had
faithfully noted, had been suppressed; and of David Weatherbee, whom
Tisdale had made the hero of the adventure, there was not a word.

"Great guns!" exclaimed the unfortunate author at the finish. "Great--
guns!"

But Geraldine said nothing. She only closed the magazine and pushed it
under the pillow out of sight. There was a long silence. A first star
appeared and threw a wavering trail on the lake. Jimmie, dipping his
paddle mechanically, turned the Peterboro into this pale pathway. The
pride and elation had gone out of his face. His mouth drooped
disconsolately.

"And you called this your proudest day," he broke out at last.

An unexpected gentleness crept over the Society Editor's countenance. "It
would be great to help create a city," she said then. "To start with it
ourselves, at the foundations and grow." And she added very softly, with a
little break in her voice: "I've decided to resign and go to Weatherbee."

CHAPTER XXIV

SNOWBOUND IN THE ROCKIES AND "FIT AS A MOOSE"

Tisdale, who was expected to furnish important testimony in the Alaska
coal cases, had been served official notice at the hospital during Banks'
visit. The trial was set for the twenty-fourth of March and in Seattle.

The prospector had found him braced up in bed, and going over the final
proof of his Matanuska report, with the aid