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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 F'1 ;♦« '■ { \. M] x\ '3*:-. V^'- SPEOTEE GOLD m bfi-i X A' %t 1.^ BY THE SAME AUTHOR. BY A HAIK'S-BBEADTH. " How refreshing is a real good story of organized crime and Us detection. . . . The book kept at least one reader ,out of bed an hour after his usual time for retiring. — A thettceum, " An extremely ingenious hooV."— Literature. " The idea of the book is excellent and delightfully daring. ' By a Hair's-Breadth ' will be read with breathless interest from start to finish by all who care for a thoroughly exciting novei."— British Weekly. CASSELL AND COMPANY, Limited, London, Paris, New York and Melbourne. 1 \j \ f I -^ 1 o i-i p |-t^v^ ") ^ fii •'Vy 'HORACE ASQUITH'S REJOINDER WAS PREVENTED BY THE OPENING OF THE LIBRARY DOOR" (p. 28). 9F 1 Kh V J vJ L, lJ i > > ■!< r 5il5» .v -* « wii < i iu' »i ' »- n;? f Ji-ana;^^^- ! i J L. L , JSTW^tfOS^t SY PR'^O f>'E0«A?^ ¥^\ w ■^IPANY, i.!>UTSvD Ml s w "•B^,'. tiQRAflY DOOR ■Jl- THE ""■IP SPECTRE GOLD ^ "^omanoQ of Jilond'tjliQ BY Headon Hill Author of '*By a Hah's- Brtadtk," &'c yx^A^-. <^gl.u..-^«y ^a-c-v-^x WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY FRED PEQRAM CASSELL AND COMPANY, Limited LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK vv-. A STRANGE MILLIONAIRE. he old are it's alone intelligible, grunted gravely, and again halted in his tracka The little Englishman, picking his way over the snow-covered moss, walked up to the shelter and looked in. Then he disappeared into the interior, only to put his head out again almost immediately. "Come here, Blue Lightning," he called; "the gentleman is at home, after all" A moment later these queer companions stood over the unconscious occupant of the hut — the red man silent and unemotional, the white man restless and excited. The last spark had died out of the embers, though there was just enough warmth left in the ashes to have prevented death from frost A faint movement of the shoulders showed that the prostrate figure still breathed. " It is the White Ghost, is it not ? " asked the Englishman, who had been using much pantomimic gesture to arouse a corresponding excitement in the Indiaa "Yes, he the White Ghost," was the in- different reply. "Come outside and pow-wow then," said the other. "This may pan out the best stroke «^ li 'v. 1 / I i^^< ^x II I' ' I 1 I 8 SPECTRE GOLD. of luck we've hit on for many a day— better than salmon and peltries. Stay, though, I'll give him a dose of the merry fire-water first. Circle City rum would make a corpse sit up." Producing a flask from the pocket of his hunting-shirt, he poured some liquid between the sick man's lips, and without waiting to note the result, followed the Indian, who had preceded him into the open. " Now, Blue Lightning," he said, when they had gone beyond earshot, "you know more about this chap than I do. The talk among the gold prospectors is that he has struck it rich — made a big pile, in fact!" It is probable that the Indian did not understand his white friend's colloquialisms word for word, but he had enough English to gather their general meaning. He had lighted a red-earth pipe, and was smoking stoically as he leaned against a pine-stem. He smoked on in silence for over a minute beforo he answered : "The gold-hunters make a heap of lies. When they no make lie about their own ^;^jm. i>^ ■»■*•■ A STRANGE MILLIONAIRE. 9 findings, they make lie about other men. They talk that the White Ghost has found plenty gold in secret place. The Great Mani- tou alone knows if it is true." "Your people call him the White Ghost because he is so thin and ill, eh ? " " He is very sick and very quiet ; he comes and goes like the wind among the forest trees — no one see how; he keep away from camps of other miners, all to himself Not bad man, but no friends with anyone — pale- face or Indian. So call him Ghost," replied Blue Lightning sententiously. " I see," said the Englishman, tracing figures on the frozen snow with his boot and speaking rather to himself than to his companion. " It all points to this spectral Johnny having struck gold rich, and the chances are that, not being able to carry it all down to the Settlements, he remained in the district after the other miners cleared out in order to hide it away. Doubtless he would return in the spring with means of transport. He must have injured his foot in trying to launch that canoe which we found broken in 10 SPECTRE GOLD. the rapids, and probably he lost his food sup- plies at the same time. Luck hasn't come my way since I was sent down from Oxford, but it seems to be going to smile at last. Blue Lightning, old cock, I really think that this is a case for a bargain." " Bargain always good," asserted the Indian, with his thoughts on trade rum and blankets. " Paleface got fire-water ? He swop him for our moose-meat and dried com?" " Bah ! not that sort of bargain," exclaimed the Englishman testily. He had hoped that Blue Lightning would understand without a detailed explanation, for it irked him to have to indicate what his conscience told him was not a very pretty conception. But the sacri- fice to his feelings had to be made. "This is what I mean," he went on after a brief hesitation. "The poor wretch has probably got gold piled up in some cctchet hereabouts. On the other hand, we have got food and the means of taking him down the river to the Settlements. He seems in poor health — apart from the injury to his foot — and the odds are that he will die on our Ni^ A STRANGE MILLIONAIRE. 11 hands, or, at any rate, before he can return in the spring to fetch and enjoy his pile. Where's the harm if we put it to him this way: — If he'll tell us where the gold is cache'd, we'll tote him along to Circle City; if he don't see his way to that, we've got no grub to spare, and no room on the raft ? " Blue Lightning's " Ugh ! " was non-committ«?l and e: asperating. " Confound you, why can't you say what you think of the plan? " cried the Englishman. "What would Star Eyes think?" returned the Indian. " I was under the impression, derived from a juvenile course of Fenimore Cooper, that you alleged warriors didn't worry much about what squaws thought," said the maker of the proposal. But for some reason Blue Light- ning's question had checked his exuberance. The comers of his nervous, facile mouth drooped, and the element of doubt seemed to have entered into his scheme. The Indian did nothing to help him out, but a close observer might have noticed that the red man's bloodshot eyeballs were drawn side- 12 SPECTRE GOLD. ways a little, towards a pine tree in the rtar. "If Star Eyes is a sensible young woman," proceeded the Englishman after a pause, " she ought to cotton to the idea quicker than either of us. It is chiefly on her account that I want to make money quick. I am very sweet upon your daughter, Blue Lightning, as you know ; and I like the vagabond life I have led since I cast in my lot with you. But it cannot go on for ever. Though you have your disadvantages as a father-in-law, I want to marry Star Eyes, paleface fashion, and take her to the Settlements— to England, perhaps, some day. I cannot do that as the penniless loafer I am now, and this miners gold would just make matters easy. But there ! you solemn old aboriginal, I'm talking over your head," the young man broke off with a whimsical laugh. "Let's put it plain. See here — get plenty gold, me marry Star Eyes, plenty heap of fire-water for Blue Lightning. That ought to fetch you. Besides, Star Eyes need not be told." " No, Star Eyes need not be told ! She has A STRANGE MILLIONAIRE. 13 in the e, "she than account ^m very htnmg, d life I h But u have I want d take erhaps, nailess would I you • your ith a See Eyes, tning. Eyes s has heard every bad, base word you have spoken," said a sweet, musical voice close at hand ; and, wheeling round, the Englishman found himself confronted by an Indian maiden proudly defiant. She was clad from head to foot in silver-fox fur, fittin;j^ her tightly and showing the exquisite proportions of her form. Her skin was of a rich ruddy brown, with a bloom on it — no darker than is found in many a city of Southern Europe. Her blue-black eyes, ablaze now with anger, looked capable of melting to tenderness. A lurking smile flitted over Blue Lightning's saturnine features as he smoked on, watching the young man's discomfiture. That he was discomfited by the beautiful apparition, there was no room for doubt The air of imper- tinent superiority which he affected towards the girl's father vanished as by magic in the presence of the girl herself. His perkiness subsided into a quaint mixture of the lover- like and the deferential, which to an onlooker would have seemed, at first sight, wildly incon- gruous when held towards an Indian squaw within a few degrees of the Arctic Circle. 14 SPECTRE GOLD. Nevertheless, Star Eyes, who had been educated by the good Fathers of the Red River Mission, was worthy of respect from better men than Fenton Gartside, wastrel and wanderer. " You got tired of waiting, and followed us ? I — I hope you haven't made your feet wet in the snow," was all he could stammer. Star Eyes laughed a clear ringing laugh of scorn. "An Indian maiden is not afraid of two inches of snow," she said. "Yes, I followed, thinking that you must have found the owners of the wrecked canoe, as you were so long gone from the raft. And glad I am that I cauie. Let us go and help this poor man whom you would have robbed." She led the way to the hut, Gartside following shamefacedly with Blue Lightning, who, holding his civilised daughter in deepest awe, was probably congratulating himself that he had seen her before consenting to the scheme. They found the sick man still un- conscious, though his pulse beat stronger and his breathing was more regular, from the effect of the stimulant that Gartside had administered. iteMN^' -.»-.,«,», :tir'm^-e^ A STBA.NGE MILLIONAIRE. 15 Star Eyes cast a rapid glance round. Except that which the man carried on his person and a tin cooking - pan, there was nothing belonging to him to make their task more arduous. Bidding her two com- panions raise him gently and carry him down to the river, she brought up the rear of the procession so that she might see that her commands were faithfully obeyed. Thus they came, without further word, through the pines to where a curious craft — a raft of logs with a thatched superstructure — was moored in a little backwater of the mighty stream. The wooden deck-house was divided into several compartments, and in one of these, where a brazier of fire burned, the invalid was placed upon a pile of skins. "Now you can go to your business," said Star Eyes. " I will tend the sick man and try to save his life." And she waved them imperiously away. The " business " of Blue Lightning and Gartside was to unmoor the raft and pole it out from its quiet harbour on to the broad bosom of the Yukon. The old Indian was a i' r »! i 16 SPECTRE GOLD. past master in the art of river pilotage, and Gartside, who had begun to recover the nerve lost in frontier saloons, was proving an apt pupil. Once out in the current the queer craft went swirling on its crazy course down stream, seemingly tossed like a cork at the pleasure of the rushing torrent, but in reality guided with unfaltering skill by the poles which its two navigators plied from its unguarded sides. Down the boiling rapids and over mud banks, between fangs of threatening rock and under drooping pine- boughs, often narrowly escaping the drift ice which told of coming winter, sometimes in mid-stream and now hugging the bank, the raft sped on till the few hours of daylight were spent and Blue Lightning steered into an inlet for the night. When they had made fast, the Indian drew his blanket round him, and, squatting on his hams, began to smoke; but Gartside went to the entry of the thatched erection and looked in. The place was in darkness, save for a ray that came from the fish-oil lamp in the partition where the sick man lay. A STRANGE MILLIONAIRE. 17 . "Is he better, Star Eyes?" Gartside called softly. The girl came from behind the screen, her finger to her lips. "He will live for the present, but not for long, I think," she said. "He regained his senses, and after I had fed him he fell asleep." "Did he say anything about himself?" At the question Star Eyes justified her name with a scintiUating flash. "I can't trust you Mr. Gartside, after what I over- heard this morning," she said; "and I have warned him not to trust you either. If you will mind him for a little while, I will get supper for you and for my father." The Englishman sulkily assented, and passed behind the partition, while the girl began to busy herself with strips of smoked salmon and dried deer-meat in the outer half of the rudo log-cabin. The patient was lying on the pile of skins in a sound sleep, and therrj was a tinge of colour on his haggard face, which was an eloquent tribute to the care of his nursa Gartside leaned against the side of the 18 SPECTRE GOLD. cabin in a careless attitude, looking down at ' his proposed victim of the morning. He was listening intently to the culinary preparations beyond the screen, for throughout the toil- some labours of poling the raft an idea had been working in his mind, and the chance to test it had come — if Star Eyes attended properly to her cooking. Presently with a sudden motion he stooped down and ran his hand over the sleeping man's clothes. The outline of a revolver re- vealed itself to his fumbling fingers; then came a sheath-knife and some loose cartridges None of these were withdrawn; but the next obstruction, which was of greater bulk, bulging one of the side pockets of the rusty velveteen coat, met with different treatment. Deftly and gingerly Gartside extracted it from the pocket without disturbing the sleeper, and untied the string of the coarse canvas bag that rewarded his efforts. The contents proved to be gold dust and small nuggets to the value of about £500. "I thought so, as we carried him; it was too heavy to be anything but gold. Well, I A STRANGE MILLIONAIRK 19 down at Ho was eparations the toil- idea had he chance attended he stooped le sleeping evolver re- gers ; then ) cartridges, ut the next jater bulk, ►f the rusty t treatment, jxtracted it iurbing the f the coarse jfforts. The \, and small 00. him; it was old. Well, I have not quite sunk to larceny from the person — as yet," Gartside muttered, as he re-tied the string, and with equal deftness restored the bag to the pocket But his object was not yet accomplished ; rather did the sight of the gold add zest to his search, as though confirming some theory that led to a larger issue than the miner's provision for current expenses. The busy fingers got to work again, diving now into the breast-pocket of the sick man's coat, and emerging almost immediately with an oblong slip of leather, which it appeared was only a wrap, covering an enclosure. The fingers trembled nervously now, for according to Gartside's theory he was " getting warm," as children say. But when his shaking hand had removed the leather envelope his ex- pressive face showed keenest disappointment. " Bah ! It is only a photograph," he ex- claimed under his breath, as he withdrew a " cabinet "-sized picture mounted on card. " All my trouble for nothing, after all ! " He was dejectedly replacing the photo- graph in its well-worn case, when a flicker of c 2 20 SPECTRE GOLD. i i 5 f I he feeble lamplight fell athwart it, and, his eyes being arrested, he stooped to examine what he had thought, in the failure of his object, could have no interest for him. "Well, I'll be shot if this isn't funny!" he muttered, scanning the face in the picture in blank amazement. "Blessed if it isn't Dick Osborne— good old Dick, my Balliol chum, who saved my life in Sandford Lasher! How in the name of mystery can his jolly old phiz have got into the keeping of an American miner at the back of nowhere? Come to think of it, though, the chap doesn't look like a Yank. That velveteen coat is distinctly British. The nuisance is that I can't ask him what he knows of Dick without giving myself away." But "Dick" was soon to be driven from that erratic brain by a larger discovery. Once more Gartside had begun to replace the picture, when the thought struck him to see where it had been taken, and he turned it over to look at the back. The effect upon him of what he saw there was infinitely more convulsing than the photograph had been. A STRANGE MILLIONAIRE. 21 Only by strenuous effort did he keep himself from shouting aloud in triumph as his eyes fell upon the tracery of lines, with figures and words interspersed, that was drawn on the back of the card-mount. " I knew it ! " wore the words shaped on his quivering lips after a close study of the card. " I knew that if the beggar had made a cachet he would have a plan of the place, and here it is — as simple as A B C. I must shove this back in his pocket ; but I have got it fixed on a fairly retentive brain, and I will draw a copy of it within the hour that should make the excellent Fenton Gartside master of the situatioa" Swiftly he stooped to restore the packet to the breast of the sleeper; and, having done so, rose — none too soon. At that moment Star Eyes came round the screen, and stood regarding him with intently searching gaze. Gartside's heart beat like a drum, but the girl's words, informing him that the evening meal was ready, reassured him, and he went to join the old Indian in the smoky obscurity of the outer cabia 22 SPECTRE GOLD. i I I ' :• So on the morrow, and for many days during the fast shortening hours of light, the queer craft swept onwards towards the white man's outpost in the desolate north land. And not one of her strangely-assorted pas- sengers guessed that her stout logs carried the first spark of a train more deadly than ever fired a mine of gunpowder. ^^ 23 CHAPTER II. VENDETTA BY GOLD. "If you only knew how I was situated. Dick, you wouldn't think it quite fair to me- even to Beryl herself-to press this matter now." The speaker. Horace Asquith of Glaston- ford Hall, Hampshire, passed a thin hand over his pale, high-bred brow, and avoided the anxious eyes of the stalwart young fellow in Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers who sat confronting him. To make the avoidance seem more natural, the elder man rose from his chair and stood looking out of the open French wmdow across the Ul-cared-for lawn towards the lush-green comEelds. Mr. Asquith sighed wearily at the thought that, promismg as were the crops, they could k i I 24 SPECTRE GOLD. bring but scant relief to a gentleman whose library table groaned under such a weight of unsettled accounts and solicitors' reminders as did the handsome piece of furniture behind him. And then the sight of those mort- gaged acres gave him fresh inspiration for emphasising his objection ; and, turning, ho made a painful effort to look the vicar's son in the face. That face, though troubled, was still so frankly sympathetic that Mr. Asquith went on with greater confidence. "Believe me," he said, "I am grieved to have to raise an obstacle. Since you were children I have always looked upon you and Beryl as meant for one another. I would trust the dear girl to no one more cliCorfuUy, but — ^yes, there is an obstacle. I do not well see how I can sanction an engagement now." "Would you mind telling me what the obstacle is, Mr. Asquith?" rejoined Dick Osborne quietly. "I believe that I can guess it, but I would prefer to have it from your own lips. Even if you cannot treat me as a future son-in-law you may safely treat mo as: i VENDETTA BY GOLD. 3S a friond. You think that I am not rich enough, eh, sir?" "Well— ^r — ^yes," said Mr. Asquith, hope- lessly breaking down in an attempt to meet Dick's eya " It is galling to have to take money into consideration where the affections are concerned, but — er — I am afraid that that Ls the reason, my dear boy." Dick's honest face showed that he was hurt rather than angry. Indeed, despite the blow to his fondest hopes, he could not find it in his heart to be wroth with the kindly but weak old man who had been his father's friend for thirty years, and who had treated him almost as a son from boyhood. "I have no right to complain, sir," he replied. "I have often wondered that you allowed a penniless parson's son to run wild with the daughter of the Hall; but I wish that you could have given me a hint of this sooner. We have grown fond of each other, so far as I am concerned, almost with the certainty that we should have yoiu: sanction. And, after all, I am not doing so badly. I inherited a hundred a year from my poor mmmm i I 26 SPECTRE GOLD. mother, and I earned two hundred myself last year at the Bar. This year, if briefs come in as at present, I ought to double that amount" Mr. Asquith fidgeted uneasily, and feebly cleared his throat. " I am sure I am very glad you are doing so well," he said, "but— but, perhaps I had better be quite frank. I am under the unfor- tunate, I may say the terrible, necessity of needing a son-in-law of real wealth, who will have — er — resources beyond a mere income sufficient to keep himself and a wife. The fact is, my dear boy, I am in Queer Street — right up at the far end of Queer Street My farms are nearly all unlet, and every one of them is mortgaged. If I cannot pay off the principal mortgage by next March — -just ten months from now — the mortgagee will fore- close, and the name of Asquith will be known no more at Glastonford Hall. It horribly mercenary thing to say, were in seems you positioi pay the mortgagee you might have Beryl to- morrow. VENDETTA BY GOLD. 27 Dick paled beneath his healthy sun-tan, and his voice shook a little. "I can read between the lines of what you tell me," he replied bitterly. "Rumours that you were not so well off as formerly have reached me; but I never dreamed, Mr. Asquith, that you would endeavour to reinstate your fortunes by hawking your daughter about for the highest bidder." "Really this is — but there, I must make allowances for disappointment," Mr. Asquith protested. "To my mind, any sacrifice is justifiable to save the break-up of an old family associated with the soil for centuries. Besides, you wrong me when you charge me with hawking my daughter for bidders. A suitor has appeared on the scene — without any engineering en my part, I assure you. I have to give hira my answer to-night — not a final answer, you know, for Beryl alone can give him that; but a provisional consent, and — er — the promise of my good offices." Dick Osborne swung his long limbs out of the low chair in which he had been sitting, and took his hat 28 SPECTRE GOLD. '■.U ., ! I ! i iin n ■ "Then I will bid you good-day and good- bye," he said in a strained, unnatural voice. "I have an invitation to the Abbey myself for to-night, and I know that you and Beryl are going. If that is where this bargain is to be ratified; if Rupert Malahide is the pur- chaser to whom you would sell my Beryl — well" — his tone softened and his manner changed — " I was going to say that I wouldn't know a man who would do such a thing, and to bounce out of the room in a rage. But I won't do that, Mr. Asquith, because I've known you such a long time, and from my heart I pity you. Your plan wU never come off; your dr '.ghcei is quite capsole of sacrificing herself to save you — not the family acres — but hardly by marry- ing such a brute as Malahide." Whatever Horace Asquith's rejoinder might have been, it was prevented by the opening of the library door and the entrance of as fair a specimen of English girlhood as the eye could wish to dwell upon. A sweet, winning face, an exquisite figure, and a complexion that was eloquent of sound health and plenty of beauty •: VENDETTA BY GOLD. 29 sleep had won for Beryl Asquith an unvalued reputation as " The Belle of the County." Had she lived in less degenerate tiroes, when men were not ashamed to voice their admiration for feminine loveliness, she would have been the " reigning toast " of the countryside ; as it was, though she had admirers by the score, she had never yet had an acknowledged lover — chiefly because of the well-founded impression that a very good " understanding " existed between her and her old playfellow Dick Osborne. The honest young Hampshire squires, with an hereditary distaste for poaching in any fo?in, chivalrously abstained from pursuing a. g}rl who was deemed "as good as en- ga}.T I" to the popular son of the popular old vi. w " What has the Ogre been doing to annoy you now, Dick ? " she asked, so carelessly that it was evident that she had heard only the last three words. "You might at least cease to abuse him on a day when you are to be his guest Come out into the garden, if papa can spare you ; I have got a piece of news." Stooping to kiss her father, she passed out I 80 SPECTRE GOLD. of the French wmdow on to the lawn; and Dick followed, nothing loth to terminate an interview which he f \saw could have no satisfactory results. Bi. i the threshold he paused, And rc-enterea the room for a moment. "She has not been told your — your high aims for her, Mr. Asquith?" he whispered, with a bitterness which he strove vainly to suppress. "No; and I beg that you will not en- lighten her; something may happen — Heaven grant it may! — to prevent the necessity even yet," repHed the elder man, into whose weak blue eyes his unwitting daughter's caress had brought the ready tears. "I should not dream of sullying her ears with such a proposition. I am glad she does not know," said Dick. " It is curious that you should have been talking of Mr. Malahide when I came in/' Beryl said, as he rejoined her, and they fell to pacing side by side. "I have just met an old friend of yours in the village, the news of whose return will give the magnate at the VENDETTA BY GOLD. 81 Abbey a bad quarter of an hour, I should imagine." "You don't mean Ned Shrimpton, who was gamekeeper at the Abbey before Malahide bought it?" cried Dick eagerly. "Ned Shrimpton — no more, no less," said Beryl. " Tell me, Dick, was there any truth in that rumour that he gave the Ogre a thrash- ing before he disappeared so suddenly tl^ree years ago?" Dick laughed grimly. Coming on the top of what he had just heard, the reminiscence was one of infinite gusto. Well he remembered how the fine young fellow, who taught him all he knew of field-craft, had come to him fresh from the beating which he had administered to the rich parvenu ; how he had described the merited sufferings of the new master of the Abbey, and had expressed his inten- tion of going to seek his fortune in "foreign parts." " There was every truth in it," replied Dick. "Ned's father and mother had a little farm, you know, and Malahide, who wanted the place for a shooting lodge, sold them up, and II SPECTRE GOLD. turned them out after they had had a bad year, and had got behind with their rent Ned, having been himself discharged, could not help them, and they died on the same day, of broken hearts, probably, in the workhouse. The next day Ned waylaid Malahide and gave him a sound drubbing, though our great man, in his brand-new dignity, thought fit to say very little about it. But tell me of Ned. How has he been doing ? " "He didn't tell me, and he looked so thin and woe-begone that I hardly liked to in- quire," Beryl replied. "It is rather singular, though, that he asked exactly the same ques- tion about you — whether you were making much money at your * trade,' as he calls the Bar. When I said that you wore still plodding towards the fortune which was your just due, but that it was not yet in sight, he startled me by breaking into a strange laugh. I was surprised that he should seem pleased at your lack of success, because otherwise he was so nice and warm-hearted about you. But his whole manner was strange, and I fear that he is very, very ill He asked to be ' respectfully I VENDETTA BY GOLD. 33 remembered' to you — whatever that may mean — and said that he intended to see you to- night or to-morrow morning." " Poor chap ! his hardships and wanderings must have been too much for him ; with all his giant frame he was always weak on the chest," said Dick. "Did he tell you what part of the world he had been in ? " " Yes : he said ho had been in America, near some river called the Yukon, I think it was, in the North West Territories — wher- ever that may be," replied Beryl vaguely. "I understood, though, that he had been lying ill at Montreal for six months before he was well enough to undertake the voyage home." " I have only the haziest notion myself where the Yukon is," said Dick, laughing at her assumption of ignorance. " The North West Territories I think I could find on the map as well as you could if you really tried, dear. But here comes Aunt Rebecca. She is sure to be able to enlighten us ; the chances are that she has navigated the Yukon from its source to the sea, and all its tributaries as well." D 34 SPECTRE GOLD. m It was a queer little figure, not at all suggesting the exploration of distant rivers, that suddenly appeared from a by-path to give rise to his remark. Mr. Asquith's only sister, known not only in the family, but to a wide circle of friends as "Aunt Rebecca," was a tiny old lady of such shrivelled and shrunken form that strangers generally thought her on the point of death from some wasting disease. It was only when her quick nervous walk, her vigorous speech, and above all her weather- beaten, parchment-like complexion, were noted, that the illusion was dispelled, and Aunt Re- becca was seen to be a very "good life" indeed, despite her sixty years. Her hobby, amounting almost to a mania, Avas for foreign travel. Having an independent income, she was able to indulge it to the full bent of her intrepid old soul, and there were few accessible places on the face of the globe that she had not visited in the course of forty years of perpetual wandering. Just back from a mere insignificant trip to Damascus, she was "cooling off," as she called it, before starting on a long-projected excursion to Samoa. She i I I VENDETTA BY GOLD. 85 wore a funny little black cape and a mush- room-shaped hat, tied under her chin with ribbon, but with all her eccentricity and quaint attire she had a self-reliant dignity that had commanded for her respect in many an un- couth comer of the earth. For the rest, while professing to hate the male sex generally and to scorn all love-making, she adored Dick Osborne, and cherished the secret hope that he and her favourite niece would be made happy. " When were you last on the Yukon river, Aunt Rebecca, and what particular form of sport prevails in that region ? " asked Dick, as the old lady approached, stabbing the turf with her ebony cane. She shot a keen glance at him from under her iron-grey brows. "Is this impertinence, young man, or have you a reason for asking ? " she said brusquely. "A very good reason," Dick replied. "I have just heard that a humble friend of mine has returned from there, and I want to know what he is likely to have been up to in those parts." D 2 \ 86 SPECTRE GOLD. ■ t ; I "I have never been nearer to the Yukon than Vancouver," said Aunt Rebecca, frowning terribly. " I know less than nothing of what a white man could do there unless he peddled poisonous spirits to the Indians. Some idiots have been looking for gold there recently, I believe, but I never heard that they found any worth mentioning." And Aunt Rebecca turned and stumped back into the shrubh'^ry, for it irritated her to have to own that there was a country under the sun with which she was not familiar. The young people smiled, knowing her weakness, and soon afterwards separated to go and dress for the dinner-party to which they had both been invited. As Dick walked across the fields to the Vicarage he debated with himself whether he would not send an excuse and go into the village to hunt up Ned Shrimpton. He had only accepted the invitation in the first instance to please his father, who was unable to go himself, and had a clergyman's dread of offending a wealthy parishioner. And now he felt that it would tax his powers of dissembling to the utmost VENDETTA BY GOLD. 87 I to be civil to the host whom he had so recently heard was also to be a rival for his sweetheart's hand. But on reflection he concluded that he could aftbrd to treat Malahide's pretensions with contempt — no matter what pressure poor harassed Mr. Asquith might put upon his daughter— and he decided to fulfil the engage- ment, distasteful as it would be to him. So secure did he feel in Beryl's love that he was confident that, not even to save her father from ruin, would she consent to give herself to anyone but himself— least of all to the man whom in her intense dislike she had dubbed "the Ogre." At the same time, though she would draw the line at so great a sacrifice, he knew that her sense of duty would pre- vent her from mari'ying him without her father's sanction, and he was downhearted in consequence. "Poor old Asquith!" he thought, as he turned into the Vicarage gates. "If reports are true, Malahide has other relations with him than those of a suitor for Beryl's hand. Doubtless he would be glad enough to get 88 SPECTRE GOLD. her for her own sake, but I shrewdly suspect that he is the mortgagee, and that he is holding out this threat of foreclosure for a double purpose. He has got his grip on the estate anyhow, unless Asquith can pay him oft*; but if he married Beryl, the only child and heiress, they would come to him auto- matically on the old man's death without his incurring the odium of selling up an ancient county family." Whether or no Dick's surmise was correct, there was certainly nothing in the outward appearance of Mr. Rupert Malahide to justify the nickname bestowed upon him by Miss Asquith. An hour later, sitting at the head of his table in the splendid oak dining-room at the Abbey, and playing the host with polished ease to the small party assembled, he would have been taken by any but a very keen observer as quite to the manner born. Perhaps there was a shade too much self- assertion in his demeanour — not more, some would have thought, than was admissible in a man of culture who had evidently seen much of the world. In age about forty, well-built ! i VENDETTA BY GOLD. 89 and physically handsome, with a sallow, dark complexion that suggested a touch of Southern or Jewish blood, he had one peculiarity that would have singled him out anywhere— a long livid scar, running at an acute angle from his left temple across his forehead. This scar had been Rupert Malahid< s social undoing since he had bought the fine old place that owned him as master. Other things had added to his unpopularity— such as his changing the historic name of Glastonford to Malahide Abbey, and sundry sharp deahngs in the matter of land-grabbing and oppression of tenants— but, as the Lord-Lieutenant of the County had said, that scar made him "impossible." Rumour had it that a great West-End usurer, who had retired and gone no one knew whither, possessed just such a mark as a souvenir from a mined victim who had shot himself after inflicting it. The identity of Rupert Malahide with the money-lender of St. James's Street had never been established, but the whisper got abroad, and sufficed. None but his imme- diate neighbours, and not all of them, would I 40 SPECTRE GOLD. have anything to do with the purchaser of the Abbey. To-night, for instance, the splendour of the entertainment accentuated and brought into relief the paucity of the guests. Mr. Asquith and Beryl, with Dick Osborne and a Captain and Mrs. Armstrong — the latter a skittish couple, who would go anywhere for a good dinner — made the sum total of a party which it took four footmen and a butler to wait upon, and a hundred pounds to feed. The function was not altogether a social success, as was to be expected when mos: of the guests were there because they could find no good reason fo^ oeing anywhere else. Mr. Asquith was nervous and ill at ease ; Bei^l looked charming, but was unnaturally cold and stately; and Dick was so silent and reserved, that Malahide shot a furtive glance at him now and again, a glance which was followed by a dilatation of the ever-smiling eyes. Not- withstanding the host's gaiety, and the chatter of empty-headed Mrs. Armstrong, conversation dragged towards the close of the meal, and ft i< I I I VENDETTA EY GOLD. 41 I everyone was glad when the two ladies made a move. After their departure, when the wine had circulated once or twice, Rupert Malahide pushed his chair back and rose from the table. " I have a little business to settle with Mr. Asquith," he said. "You two fellows will excuse us for a few minutes, I know. Don't forget to pass the decanter, Armstrong; Osborne seems a trifle hipped to-night, and that '47 port is the very thing for him. Now, Mr. Asquith, if you will come into my private den we will soon get our talk over." Mr. Asquith rose dejectedly, and, casting a piteous look at Dick, was following Malahide from the room, when there came the sound of a heavy scrunching fall from outside one of the long windows, succeeded by a deep groan of anguish. The dining-room was on the ground floor, and it was evident that some- one was in trouble on the broad gravel-walk that skirted the mansion. Dick and Captain Armstrong sprang to their feet, and Mala- hide, hurrying with an exclamation of I L n w. amnwu ti iTTi »^aqw»w ! *F i r 42 SPECTRE GOLD. angry surprise to the window, threw it open, disclosing in the flood of electric light that streamed forth the prostrate figure of a man. As they reached him he struggled to his feet. "Why, it's Ned Shrimpton," cried Dick, springing forward to lend him a helping hand, "I heard you were back, Ned. You are very ill, I fear ? " " There's not so much as a kick left in me. Master Dick," said the ex-gamekeeper, panting for breath. " I'm not many days for this world. But I have something to say to you, sir — and to you, too," glaring with fierce eyes at Mala- hide. " So, hearing as you were heire, I made bold to come up to-night, for I reckon I haven't got much time to spare. I thought I might as well kill two birds — a white and a black 'un, ha, ha ! — with right and left barrels, d'ye see?" " The man must be mad I He used mo like a brute, but I bear no malice," whispered Malahide rather nervously. " We had better have him in. The servants will come, and there will be a scene if we stay out here." And motioning the others hnvk into the vr t n- "WHY, ITS NEC) SHRIMPTOM,' CRIED DICK- (p. 42), lllSffi^fWUhi •'»''"'»'««MI«»«»'it I! VENDETTA BY GOLD. 43 room, he waited till Dick had assisted Shrimp- ton through the window, quickly closed it, and pulled down the blind. Then he went to the table and poured out a glass of wine. " Here, my man, drink this ; it will do you good," he said. " I am willing to let bygones be bygones if you are." But as he approached the chair in which Dick had placed Ned Shrimpton, the latter waved him back, his wild eyes burning with sullen anger. "I would not take bite or sup under your accursed roof for fifty thousand sovereigns!" he hissed. " Fifty thousand sovereigns ! What am I talking of ? " he went on with a rasping laugh. " Who am I to let on that I am in need of such a trifle as that ! That reminds me of what I came here to tell you, Rupert Malahide. Look at me first-tho man whose parents you drove to die tis paupers. That is well! Now listen to this. For every million you own, I can plank down three, and I know where to lay my hand on more, if I want it." "You had better drink some wine, and 44 SPECTKE GOLD. . » calm yourself," said Malahide, whose natural instincts had braced him to sudden caution at the sound of so much wealth, though he was incHned to think the tale only a frenzied dream. " You believe 1 am mad, but I will prove it by facts and figures," returned Shrimpton hoarsely. "You, Rupert Malahide, shall hear the facts ; a better ^nan shall have the figures. I was in British Columbia, and from there made my way into the wild North- West, where there was talk of gold near the river Yukon. The Yukon is more than two thousand miles long, so I shan't give away my secret by telling you that much. I worked alone, avoiding all white men; and it was an easy job, there not being a score in the district. " Well, I found gold — found it in such quantity that, single-handed and in bad health, I could not carry it away. That was last summer, and I waited till there were no prying eyts about, and then I hid my treasure where no one could find it, till I came back or sent someone whom I could trust — I , w- VENDETTA BY GOLD. 45 ^ i not you, Rupert Malahide ; don't go for to think that." The rasping laugh checked him for a minute, and then he went on. All his hearers, including poor worried Mr. Asquith, were listening now. The ring of truth had asserted itself in the detail of his story. " I waited a bit too long to make my cachet, and met with an accident that left me without food or means of escape. I was on the point of death, all alone in the freezing desert, when I was found by a white man and two Indians, who behaved lile Christians and brought me safe to the Settlements. But I knew I was a doomed man, and should never stand a trip to the Yukon country to fetch my gold, so I made for the old country to let the only man I cared a cent for reap the benefit of my find I should have been home six months ago, but that I lay sick at Montreal." He paused and gasped for breath, grinning maliciously all the time at Malahide. " I've heard a thing or two in the village," he continued, " and I am glad to be able to make matters right for you and the young 46 SPECTRE GOLD. lady, Master Dick. I was a gamekeeper once, and it's a real pleasure to stall off a poacher. Bend your head a moment." Dick stooped down and Shrimpton whis- pered rapidly for over a minute in his ear. "That's where the gold is — three millions of it," he concluded, aloud. "If so be as I havn't made it plain, this will help you to find the place — on the back of your own photo, as I've carried with me this three year." And plunging his hand into his pocket, he gave Dick a thin package of well-worn leather. When he had done so his hand fell feebly to his side; but the next moment, to the astonishment of everyone, he rose slowly to his feet and spoke in a clear voice: — " I have neither chick nor child, nor any living relative. The gold is yours, Mr. Osborne, for the trouble of fetching it. This is April; if you start at once you will be able to get in and out again before winter settles down. That is all my business, gentle- men; if you will kindly open the window I will be going. I — I cannot " He broke off suddenly, a great gush of \ VENDETTA BY GOLD. 47 blood surging from the overwrought lungs. Then he took a step forward, clutching at his chest like a wounded animal, staggered, and fell dead, while Malahide, pale, but self- controlled, was still fingermg the hasp of the window. The death of a returned gamekeeper from undoubted natural causes could not be ex- pected to disturb more than momentarily the smooth machinery of a milHonaire's house- hold. Half an hour later, Rupert Malahide stood m his magnificent entrance hall to speed the parting guests, the ladies bemg ignorant that anytLmg unusual had occurred. The Armstrongs drove away, and Malahide handed Beryl to the carriage, holding the door courteously for Mr. Asquith to follow. He had to wait a Uttle, for the old squire was exchanging an animated but subdued con- versation with Dick, who was gomg to walk home. « We were interrupted to-night, but I hope to have that chat with you at the first oppor- tunity," said the master of the Abbey as the master of the HaU at length took his seat 48 SPECTRE GOLD. I Mr. Asquith looked flushed and excited, but with the instinct of a gentleman he tried not to be rude to his host. "I do not — er — exactly think that it will lead to anything — now," he stammered. "I quite understand," said Malahide, in- fusing a tinge of sadness into his voice. " Good-night to you ; good-night, Miss As- quith." And the shabby Hall brougham drove oflf, leaving him face to face with Dick Osborne. For over half a minute the two men eyed each other steadily, as though curbing an impulse to say something that might be injudicious. Dick was the first to break silence with the homely commonplace: " Thanks for your hospitality. Good- night!" " So glad you have enjoyed yourself," Malahide replied, with the suspicion of a sneer. "Good-night to you, and take care of the barbed-wire fences on your way." With which significant advice he went slowly back into the house, and sought the seclusion of his study. " Barbed fences ! " he kept muttering to VENDETTA BY GOLD. 49 himself. " Barbed fences are very useful things ! I think that Jake Mursell is as good a specimen of the human barbed fence as I know." And, sitting down to his writing-table, he drafted the following telegram for despatch as soon as the office should open in the morning : "Mursell, Clifford's Inn, Fleet Street. "Be prepared to start for America forthwith on urgent private business. Instructions at interview. Expect me at noon." 50 CHAPTER III. U ^ A DANGEROUS EMISSARY. Up one of the dmgy staircases in dingy Clif- ford's Inn the legend, "Mursell and Boggs, Law-writers and Copyists," painted in black letters on the dirty wall, was followed by the caricature of a podgy hand with the dexter finger pointing to an adjacent door. Mount- ing the stairs at noon on the day after the events last related, Mr. Rupert Malahide made straight for that door with a disregard of the directing digit that suggested a certain famili- arity with the premises of Messrs. Mursell and Boggs. Having tried the door and found it locked, Malahide applied his knuckles to the centre panel in a peculiar rataplan that must have required learning. No voice responded, and A DANGEROUS EMISSARY. 51 for over a minute his summons had no eti'ect. Nor, for the matter of that, did the visitor seem to expect any. He just cooled his heels and waited without the least sign of impatience till— " Click ! " went some primi- tive piece of mechanism on the inside, and the door swung open, closing again with a sharp metallic snap directly he had entered. The room in which he found himself was an outer one, very small, and with a counter running its whole length. No one was visible, and the door at the back of the counter leading into an inner room was closed. In no way disconcerted, Malahide knocked on the counter, making a different tune this time, and with more immediate result. A man opened the inner door, and recognising his visitor came out and raised the flap ol the counter. Then without a word the two passed together into the room beyond, and not till the door was carefully closed did either of them speak. "Your precautions are rather a nuisance, Jake; but I suppose that they are as E 2 177497 ] 52 SPECTRE GOLD. necessary as ever," Malahide said, seating himself on a rickety cane chair, which, with the exception of a table and another chair, formed the sole furniture of the apart- ment. " As necessary a« ever," repeated the repre- sentative of Mursell and Boggs. "I have been domg some very fine work lately. Would you care to look at it ? " " No, thanks ; I have no time to admire forged bank-notei ^o-day," replied Malahide. " You got my wire ? You are ready to start for America at once ? " "Needs must — you know the proverb, I reckon, Mr. — ah ! — Malahide, isn't it now ? " returned the oNvner of the shabby room with a vagueness as to the name which would have interested some of his visitor's neighbours in Hampshire. He was a curious-looking man — this "law-writer," who had to be so careful about chance callers, and who allowed brusque insinuations about forged bank- notes to pass without demur. Of any age between five-and-twenty and forty; short and stout ; bull -necked and clean-shaven ; with I A DANGEROUS EMISSARY. 53 I ■i an insinuating, confidential manner, and jovial eyes that either laughed at or with his hearers — no one could ever be quite sure which — he might have been anything from a successftil counsel to a lion-comique of the music-halls. It was all a matter of dress, and for the present his costume favoured the music-haUs rather than the bar. He wore a soiled white waistcoat, and was in his shirt- sleeves. "I am glad you see it in that light," replied Malahide. " And you know by pre- vious experience, Mursell, that, though I don't brook mutiny, I am not a bad pay- master. I shall give you pretty nearly carte- hlanche in the business, and a margin for yourself that will pay you better than turning out bogus bank-notes in this rat-hole at the imminent risk of detection." "The game isn't what it used to be, cer- tainly. It ain't the making 'em; it's the planting 'em that's the trouble," confessed Mursell with rueful frankness. "It was only as 1 was putting the tools and things away just now, when you knocked, that I noticed 54 SPECTRE GOLD. my hole in the floor was chock up with stuff as I couldn't safely dispose of. And now tip us the office, Mr. Malahide. What is the little game to be, across the herring- pond ? " "I will tell you, but first a question. I remember your once saying that you had relatives at Victoria, in British Columbia. Are they still there ? " "You refer to my ever-respected mother, sir — also a sister," replied Mursell briskly. "No, they have left Victoria for a much farther outpost of civilisation. They are at Skagway in Alaska, which is a sort of jumping-off place for miners and others going north into the wilds about the head- waters of the Yukon and Pelly riverr Alaska is United States territory. The old, lady finds Uncle Sam a deal more con- genial to live under than the Govern- ment of a British Crown Colony. She keeps what she calls a hotel there, though I should call it a raloon — and a gambling saloon at that." Malahide made no secret of his satisfac- •asM A DANGEROUS EMISSARY. 55 tion. " It could not be better," said he. " That is the very place where you may have to operate, and as saloon-keepers your people will be sure to have friends — friends of the right sort, ready with pistol and bowie- knife. Now listen to me, Jake Mursell." And without hinting at his reasons or motives, he briefly related the story of Ned Shrimp- ton's return on the previous night, of his alleged cachet of gold, and of his confiding the secret of the locality to Dick Osborne. At which point Mursell interrupted with a whistle. " You ain't ever going to start me on such a wild-goose chase as that!" he exclaimed. " Why, it's a hundred to one that the man was dv3lirious, and that there's no gold at all And if there was, it's fifty times that odds against my finding the place — even if I could manage to get that plan. You want me to forestall that barrister chap, eh?" " Not at all ; you jump to conclusions too quickly," said Malahide. " I wouldn't throw away the ten thousand pounds that I am o 56 SPECTRE GOLD. V \i '■I prepared to spend, if necessary, on such an off-chance of profit. No! it's this fellow Osborne that I am interested in, Jake. I must have him fixed up somehow out there — you understand? There is no need for me to tell you how. He stands in my way, and your mission is to remove the obstruction, once for all. It ought to be an easy matter in the lawless places he will have to pass through — Skftgway, for instance. Mursell eyed his prospective employer quite coolly. The proposition did not seem to stagger him in the least; he was only weighing the pros and cons. " He may not go by Skagway. There is another route by St. Michael's and thence up the whole length of the Yukon by river steamer to Circle City," he said at last. " The chances are that he will take the quickest way, which is by Skagway and over one of the passes," replied Malahide. "You will have to shadow him right from the start, and if he goes the other route, stick to him till you get your chance. I take it -.1 \ A DANGEROUS EMISSARY. 57 that St. Michael's and Circle City are as rough as Skagway ; you would only have to do without the advantage of having friends at court." " When does he leave England ? " "That you must find out, but I think he is going at once," said Malahide, with a cruel little laugh. "He travelled up to town in the same train with me this morning, and I witnessed his parting with his friends at the station. From its nature I should imagine that it was the final one. His chambers are at 47, King's Bench Walk, Temple; so you had better pick up the trail there without delav. You will Itnow how to discover when he starts, and than you can come on to me at my flat in Victoria Street and draw money for expenses." "Right you are," said Mursell Avith the promptness of a commercial traveller booking an order. "As a barrister he will have a clerk or a share of one, and I ought to be able to get the tip that way. Failing him there's the laundress to fall back upon. Temple laundresses can mostly be squared \ M,A l\ 58 SPECTRE GOLD. with two of gin cold. But I'll try the clerk first, and, as barristers' clerks feed about this time, I had better be off and cntch him at lunch." Mulahide rose and watched Mursell curiously as the latter got into a well-worn black coat, and put away the few sheets of partly copied draft-paper that constituted the " dummy " signs of his ostensible business. Then when the inner and outer doors had been carefully fastened, the two men left the shabby retreat to silence and solitude. "What about this place while you are abroad?" said Malahide thoughtfully, as they descended the stairs together. " It would not be advisable for your absence to excite remark." "The shop must remain closed; there's no time to remove my little stock-in-trade," replied Mursell. "If you will stand the needful to pay the rent in advance, there will be no trouble. I am not Ukely to have any callers, and 'Boggs,* as you know, is a myth." S ^ A DANGEROUS EMISSARY. 59 Outside Clifford's Inn the pair separated; Malahide hailing a cab to take him westward, and Mursell deftly threading his way through the busy throng to the seclusion of the Temple. Thence, after a few simple manoeuvres in the neighbourhood of King's Bench Walk, he shortly emerged in the wake of an ink-stained youth whom he followed to tlie Cock Tavern in Fleet Street. Having marked down his game, he waited a little and then entered the bar, where the joint clerk of Dick Osborne and of a brother junior was munching a sandwich at the counter. To a man of Mursell's attainments the rest was easy. A stumble against the unconscious victim, and a profuse apology formed the prelude to a conversation which it was only natural should lead to an inter- change of " drinks." "In the legal line, I see," said Mursell presently, tapping a couple of tape-tied docu- ments that protruded from the clerk's pocket "On the way to Court?" "No, worse luck!" was the despondent reply. "It's about the rummiest go I ever 60 SPECTRE GOLD. 1 I I i h ! I i ilM f heard of. One of my governors is returning his briefe to the solicitors, and two years ago he'd have given his head for so much as a smell of one! I'm taking 'em round now, and when I get back I expect I'll get the chuck — that is, his share of me will." " Why, how's that ? " said the sympathetic MurselL "He sails from Liverpool to-morrow for Montreal in the Sarmatian — subsequent movements kept strictly private," replied the clerk viciously. "In the middle of term, too, and been getting on so nicely. There's a screw loose somewhere, I should say." " I really think there must be ; been betting, perhaps," said Mursell. " Or maybe he doesn't know when he's well oflf." And having no further use for his new friend, this busy law-writer and copyist looked at his watch and remembered that he had an appointment. " This is going to be a big thing," he mused as he walked along the Strand to report to A DANGEROUS EMISSARY. 61 his employer. *' I Avonder how Malahide— queer name to choose— is going to fix it up so that I can't round on him afterwards. Usual game, I reckon — relies on my being too comproriiised to split." I- i' 1 , In. \ ^ 62 CHAPTER IV. MOTHER MURSELL's HOTEL. In the month of May, 1896, before the world had gone crazy with the gold news from the North, Skagway, on the narrow strip of Alaska that lies between the Pacific Ocean and the British territories, was not the busy place it has since become. A rude wharf fronting the inlet of the sea; something under a score of log cabins and frame shanties, and a good sprinkling of tents on the outskirts, met all the requirements of a population to a great extent transitory. The prevailing odour of the unpaved, unlighted "City" was a blend of seal-oil and salmon- offal. Half-a-dozen of the larger log-cabins and frame shanties proclaimed themselves " hotels " I "J MOTHER MURSELL'S HOTEL. 63 or "saloons," tho most pretentious of these places of entertainment being a six-rooiued frame dwelling-honse, with an annex of a large log-built apartment for use as a bar- room. A board on the roof informed all comers that this was "Mother Mursell's Hotel," and the stranger, while feeling at once the attraction of feminine proprietor- ship, was also impressed with Mother Mursell's business acumen. The location for her hostelry had been judiciously selected close to the wharf, with an eye to catching travellers newly arrived by sea. It chanced one evening, as the twilight was swooping down on the dull grey waters of the creek, and covering up the squalor of the dreary township, that the bar-room at Mursell's Hotel was nearly unoccupied. The public approach was by a door in the centre, having a couple of glazed windows — by no means a common luxury in Skagway — on either side. Down the middle ran a table, composed of planks raised on empty casks, and covered with a dirty green cloth denoting that this was the shrine of the gambler. i 64 SPECTRE GOLD. i. * Across the end of the room ran the bar, a similar structure, but of higher eleva- tion ; and at the back was the door that led into the more private portion of the house. Against the rude counter a man was leaning, talking in subdued whispers to a girl — a great strapping, raw-boned wench, coarse of feature and uncouth in gesture, yet just at this moment listening with all a gentle maiden's coyness to her admirer's gallantries. Hank Devine had lingered, after the departure of a batch of customers, to have a few words with Vick Mursell before "the boys" arrived for their nightly pandemonium round the green table. Devine, a good-looking American miner about thirty years old, was recently back from a fairly prosperous spell of work on the Stikeen river, and had promptly succumbed to the charms of Miss Mursell as those of the first woman he had set eyes on for eight months. Though there were signs that the liking was mutual, it was evident that the course of true love was not running smoothly. The isSmmm'SMimm Jl MOTHER MURSELL'S HOTEL. 65 sibilant hiss of the young lady's frequent allusions to a certain "she," and her nervous glances to the door at the back of the bar, sug- gested opposition and anticipated ^interruption. "'Tain't no use," said the girl, after an impassioned appeal. "You know what she is, after cavortin' around here a month. She wants me to thump the pianner and draw the boys — says it out straight, she does, and no error. I should cry if harm was to come to you through me, and you'd best watch your- self. Hank. She swore she'd lay out the last feller that came sparking after me, and she'd a' done it, too, if he hadn't made tracks. It's a pretty hard crowd in Skagway, but I guess mother's as hard as any old tough of the lot." "Waal, I dunno' as I ain't kinder favour- able to imitating that last fellow o' yourn," said Hank playfiill}', but hastening to add, as Vick withdrew her hand, " provided as you'd make tracks ter one and the same time. We might board the next boat for Victoria or Seattle, and get hitched there." F 66 SPECTRE GOLD. I i V, ■ I ■i The girl's hand stole along the counter till it touched his again. " I like you for saying that," she whispered. " But it wouldn't never do — nohow. Wherever we'd git to mother d trail us, and — don't you mistake — she'd act ugly." " Mebbe you wrong her," said the miner chivalrously. "It's her manner that's agin her, I reckon." So intent was he on watching the play of Vick's expressive features that he did not notice that the door behind the bar had suddenly opened in time to allow the opener to catch his concluding sentence. Vick her- self became aware of it first, and, turning quickly, carried Devine's gaze to the door, where a woman had paused on the threshold — a woman who held them both fascinated in awestruck silence as she entered, followed by a Chinaman bearing a huge petroleum lamp. Without a word she came round a gap at the end of the counter, and, apparently paying no b'^/od to the frightened Vick or her cavalier, looked on critically, but still in silence, as the Chinaman suspended MOTHER MURSELL'S HOTEL. 67 the lamp in an iron ring over the centre table. It was only by her skiro of homespun woollen stuff that the sex of Mother Mursell could be distinguished. About sixty years of age, tall, gaunt, and angular, with close- cropped iron-grey hair, and fierce masculine features, she must have come as a shock to those of her guests who were attracted by the maternal-looking sign-board. Her upper garment being nothing more or less than a miner's red shirt, she was often mistaken for a man when " bar- tending " behind the counter, and was addressed as " old hoss " or " captain " by strange cu&(tomers. Wishing with all his heart, but too proud, to slink away. Hank Devinc continued to loll at the bar, and Vick to watch her mother's every movement with wide-open apprehensive eyes. When the Chinaman had retired, Mrs. Mursell proceeded to turn the lamp up to its fullest capacity, and taking two packs of dirty cards from her pocket tossed them on to the table. Then with a swift movement she produced a Colt's six-shooter from a leather F 2 T 51" ! f -If. I) II ^r t^ 68 SPECTRE GOLD. holster strapped across her hip, and aimed it straight, as it seemed, at Devine's head. Before he could realise what was happening, the report rang out, and a bullet crashed into the log wall an inch from his ear. Instinctively his hand flew to his own weapon, but a cry from Vick stayed him just as he recognised the difficulty of shooting his sweetheart's mother before her eyes. " Keep still — for Heaven's sake, keep still ! " shrieked the girl. It was unpleasant advice to have to follow, especially as it had hardly been given when Mother MursoH'a pistol banged again, and the ball splintof "rj^ i? / s Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 145B0 (716) 872-4503 ^^■NJ 4^ \ (v N> % V^ 6^ rv 78 CHAPTER V. TREACHERY. The washing facilities at Mother Mursell's Hotfl were not extensive, but having removed such as he could of the stains of travel with the aid of a tin basin and a broken crock of stale water, Dick Avent across and looked up " Mr. William Baxter." He found that worthy engaged in unpacking a modest valise, though in the short interval Jake had found time for a stroke of diplomacy. Slipping along to his mother's den, he had spoken a few urgent words, which resulted in Dick being spared the shock of meeting his landlady on that first night under her roof. Jake had travelled from Liverpool and across the continent to British Columbia in the same steamer and in the same train as TREACHERY. 79 Dick, but by booking steerage and avoiding him on "the cars" he had contrived to remain unnoticed till he intentionally put himsel en Evidence at the hotel at Victoria. An interchange of courtesies in the smoking- room had led to the discovery that both were going on by the coasting-steamer to Skagway, and Diek, without disclosing his business, had readily availed himself of "Mr. Baxter's '^ superior knowledge of the country. Jake, though quite truthfully disclaiming previous acquaintance with Alaska, represented himself as a native-born American engaged in the salmon-canning industry — a statement from which truth was largely eliminated. Native-born American he certainly was, having first seen the light during the wild times of the Denver gold rush, on the very night when his late father, a renegade English- man, had narrowly escaped being lynched for horse-stealing. And his mother was even more American, being the reputed daughter of a notorious "road-agent," who had died with his boots on while sticking-up the Black Hills mail-coach. But since his earliest ^ h ' 80 SPECTRE GOLD. ^^i I It years, save for two visits at long intervals, Jake had spent his life in Europe ; and his operations in Clifford's Inn, fishy though they were, had no connection with salmon. "Here you are, Mr. Osborne!" said Jake, as Dick put his head int;o the cubicle. " I reckon we'd better see about supper. I've already bespoke some, and located the parlour. Here it is you see," as he piloted the way into the bare, evil-smelling room; "it isn't exactly Delmonico's, but it will have to serve for want of a better." One of Mother Mursell's Chinamen brought in the corned-beef hash — the staple dish of Western hostelries — and the two traveller fell to with what zest they could on its fibrous particles. All things considered, they had a merry meal. Dick was far too eager to reach his goal to care what he ate and drank, and Jake laid himself out to be instructive and amusing. Not once did he risk exciting $us- picion by evincing the slightest curiosity as to the Englishman's plans, while he was always ready to proffer information when asked. 9 TREACHERY. 81 These tactics were so far successful that be- fore the end of supper he had elicited all he wanted to know without putting a single question. Dick asked him whether he thought it possible for a white man to cross the passes and explore towards the Yukon without em- ploying an expert guide, taking only Indian carriers. And Jake, while advising him not to dream of going to those wild regions without securing the services of a hunter or miner who had been there before, knew well what his excellent advice portended. Dick would have to hang about pt Skagway indefinitely, for he would hardly be able to select a man whom he could trust as a companion on such an errand off-hand. Long before they had finished eating, heavy footsteps and gruff voices sounded outside, and presently the noise of uncouth revelry and the tinkle of a badly played piano came from the saloon. Dick began to evince a traveller's inclination to study the habits of the natives by gaining his first experience of an out- West bar-room, but Jake, for very good reasons, Q '1 i il ■1 i li 82 SPECTRE GOLD. m i V:! discouraged the idea. He waoted to scrape acquaintance with his mother's customers and have a chat with his mother herself before Dick was allowed to make friends — or enemies. So he sat, smoking and making himself agree- able, till Dick grew sleepy and went oflf to bed. Half an hour later "Mr. Baxter," after a judicious retirement to his own room, opened his door softly and strolled into the saloon, where he worked hard to be- come popular with the company. By the time the last customer had left, and the flaring lamp over the green table had been turned low, he had expended a good many dollars on Mr. Rupert Malahide's account, and by sheer alcohoUc generosity had asserted his influence. Throughout the conviviaUties of the even- ing, Vick, in the intervals of thumping the rattletrap piano, had kept a distrustful eye on her brother, and now, when he lingered in the deserted saloon, she seemed loth to leave him alone with her mother. A curt command to "git," however, was not to be disobeyed, and 1 TREACHERY. 83 H ' she vanished, yawning, through the door behind the counter. Mother Mursell poured herself out a nobbier of rye whisky, and dropped into the rocking- chair in front of the bar, whence she habitually presided over the nightly orgies. In the sub- dued light, amid the reeking fumes of vile spirits and plug tobacco, she looked Uke a witch holding court. For once her sex was distinguishable by means of the shawl with which, at her son's suggestion, she had covered her short iron-grey locks. " Now, see here, Jake," she croaked. " I ain't set on allowin' any goin's on in my house as I ain't got a grip on. What's this game o' yourn — bringing a tenderfoot Britisher along, and treating the crowd till they're ready to shout for ye?" Without any beating about the bush, and in plain terms, Jake told her his own errand and the object that had brought Dick to Skag- way. Not only did he want her assistance, but he knew by previous experience that if his mother did not have his whole confidence she would never rest till she had unearthed his G 2 II m T / 11 84 SPECTRE GOLD. plans, thwarting him at every turn all the while. She listened with cold-blooded ap- proval to his determination to finish the job out of hand, and expressed surprise that he had not made a chance to earn his rcvrard on the journey out. Jake grinned at his parent's cruder method. " I don't do that sort of work with my own hand unless I am driven into a corner," he replied. " Besides, I wanted to hear what you thought of that dead miner's yam first, old lady. If there was any chance of its being true, it would be better to let Osborne go up to the Yukon, and carry out my commission on his way back. Provided he found that gold and brought it out, he'd be a deal more worth attending to than he is to-night. V/hat's the odds about that cachet being a true bill?" " No odds at all ; it's a dead cert agin it," snapped Mother Mursell positively. "There's a sight of miners get the swell-head and talk that way when they've got the fever on 'em. There's gold up to the Yukon, but not big gold. Circle City is fuller of dead-beats than TREACHERY. 35 niiners, and that's a sure sign pay^irt ain't been struck rich. And there's other trails for h.m to strike for home by without comin' nigh this place." ^ "So be it, then," said Jake; "I'll act on the bird-in-the-hand principle, and run the biz through at once. I had a kind of notion while I was mixing with your flock of lambs to-night. That big man with the carroty hair-Red Rube, I think they called him-he is a pretty hard case, eh ? " "Shoots on sight," replied Mother Mursell approvingly. "He drew on me once, but I was too quick and had the drop on him before he got his gun up." " He's the man for my money, then," said Jake. "I'll have a talk to him to-morrow, and post you up in the programme after. By the way, what sort of a girl has Vick grown into ? She seemed to have the blue devils to-night, and showed up vicious when Red Rube tried to squeeze her hand." " Vick's growed into a tarnation fool," was the maternal comment. " The gal's a darned m 86 SPECTRE GOLD. ( ¥ . I w sight too particler to be the darter of a lone widder that's got to live by eellin' rum to miners. She's all soft sawder to some and pizon to others; but don't you worry about her. She's sulky to-night because I fired out her lovyer jest as you come in. She can't abide Red Rube at any time, though I opine he's a better man, and handier with his shootin'-iron, than the feller she's took with." "Would she round on Red Rube if he made as though to kiss her ? " asked Jake with brotherly interest, and so eagerly did he awaic his mother's reply that he failed to hear a slight, tremulous creak in the hinge of the door behind the counter. "Not what you might call roundin' — she don't carry a gun," replied Mrs. Mursell con- temptuously. "She'd squeak and holler, and, maybe, slap his face." "That's good enough for me," said Jake cheerily. "Miss Vicky will have to play an innocent part in refreshing the family coffers. This Englishman's what you call a high-toned chap — Lord ! how I hate the breed ! — and if f TREACHERY. 87 1 he sees anything of that kind, he'll be sure to champion the female in distress. Then Red Rube will bite — see what I mean, old lady?" And mother and son chujkled so heartily that again the creak of the hinges escaped them, and the gentle closing of the door behind the bar. In the meanwhile Dick slept soundly, for owing to Jake's generosity harmony had pre- vailed in the saloon that night. There had been no "circus," no "painting the town red" or burning of gunpowder to disturb his slumbers; and he awoke refreshed, and eager to complete his arrangements for an early start northwards. The first step in that direction was to secure the services of a competent guide, who in turn would select the two Indian carriers necessary to transport his outfit over one of the passes to the head of the river. After making a solitary breakfast, "Mr. Baxter" having left word that he had risen early and gone to attend to his business, Dick strolled on to the waste ground in front of the house to look about him. Excepting a score of half-breeds I w ^ } 5 88 SPECTRE GOLD. unloading a Bchooner at the wharf, there was no one in sight, and he was at a loss how to prosecute his inquiries. Seen now in the grey, sunless morning, the bare desolation of Skag- way came upon him rather as a cold douche, but, nothing daunted, he turned awaj' to explore farther afield. "In England, if ono wanted a trustworthy man, one would apply to the paiBon, but the clerical element seems to be at a discoimt here," he thought, as he began to pick his way between the rows of stores and saloons that constituted the main street The popu- lation certainly seemed to be in need of spiritual guidance, to judge by the lurid oaths in which the passers-by indulged, and by the drink- sodden features of every two men in three whom he met. Skagway had not then awoke to a sense of its responsibilities; there was very little of the "hustling," go-ahead Western township about it; and it was chiefly peopled by failures who called themselves miners, but who did most of their mining in the pockets of the real workers, for whose return from distant gold-fields they lay in wait. '■f i I 4 TBEAOHERY. 89 \l M I Dick entered one or two of the stores and made casual purchases, but the keepers of none of these places so impressed him that he cared to ask them to recommend a guide; and having traversed the town \(0m end to end, he decided to wait till he saw " Mr. Baxter," and to ask him now he Vad best proceed. In the meanwhile he would return to the hotel and write a long letter to Beryl for despatch by the steamer that had brought him up. He was getting down towards the wharf on his way back when, in passing the open door of a saloon, he caught a glimpse of the very man whose advice he was anxious for. "Mr. Baxter" was standing at the bar in close con- verse with a huge, red-bearded individual, who was picking his teeth with a bowie-knife and laughing boisterously at the respectable salmon- packer's remarks. Dick's first impulse was to go in and join them, but the drink-den looked such a fe*\rsome place, and his late fellow - traveller's companion such an awful ruffian, that he checked it and passed on. 90 SPECTRE GOLD. a« ! 'M " Baxter seems to have picked up a typical desperado," he thought, " but I imagine that business here is hardly conducted as in Mincing Lane and Throgmorton Street. He is probably engaging the worthy with the knife to spear salmon, and the fellow certainly looks capable of spearing anything." But Dick Osborne, though a stranger in a very strange land, was no fooL He had not scraped together the germ of a common-law practice without learning to look below the surface, and he walked on wondering whether it would be wise to seek counsel from a man who transacted affairs in such a place in such company. He remembered that the stake he was playing for was tremendous, and that the man he took with him into the wilderness should be above suspicion. And then, suddenly, his dilemma was tem- porarily banished from his mind by the wonder of hearing his name spoken in a woman's voice. He had forgotten for the moment that ho had any female acquaintance, even the most distant, on the American Continent, but on looking rQund he recognised the big young ^ >i' I, y& TREACHERY. 91 >*■ i» ^ A woman who had shown him his room and taxed him with being a lord the night before. She was out of breath, and had apparently been trying to catch him before he reached "Mother Mursell's Hotel," which was visible a little way ahead. "Morning, mister; I've been out for an airin', and I wanted to ketch yer," she panted inconsequently, when she had secured his attention. "Le'ss step round here a minnit; there's suthin' I've got to ask." And taking his consent for granted, she turned aside from the main street into a blank space between two stores. Dick followed, trying to divine the reason of this manoeuvre ; but the next moment, as she halted and faced him, she explained it herself. "'Twouldn't never do for me to be seen from the hotel a-talkin' to you," she said; " mother's such a holy terror. How was it you didn't come into the saloon last night to hear me play the planner? Your friend Baxter was there, enjoyin' hisself like thunder." 92 SPECTRE GOLD. 'V . f\ "I was tired, and went to bed," said Dick, smiling at the naivete of the question. In his amused surprise at this unexpected inter- view he forgot that " Mr. Baxter " had dissuaded him from going into the saloon, or he would have thought it strange that the salmon-packer should have gone himself. " But you'll come in to-night, I reckon ? " pursued Vick insinuatingly. " The boys mostly allows that I play the planner lovely. That was me playin' last night. Mebbe you heard it over to your bedroom ? " Dick was very conscious that he had heard it, and thanked his stars that he had been too sleepy to be annoyed by the horrible discord. Politeness, however, required that he should put it dififerently. "I am sure your customers are in luck to be provided with such an entertainment," he said. " I shall certainly make a point of looking in this evening." " That's the ticket," said Vick, evidently much gratified. " I'll tap out somethin' touchin' — 'Home Sweet Home,' for ch'ice— jest to make TREACHERY. 93 yer think of yer moated grange or castle keep acrost the seas." "Very kind," murmured Dick, puzzled for the moment by the allusion; but recollecting her " dime novel " inspiration, he added : " That tune will be very appropriate, though it won't revive memories of granges and castles. I assure you, Miss Mursell, that they are not at all in my line." Vick shook her great red forefinger at him in playful increduUty. " G'long with yer — telling sech stories ! " she insisted. "You oughter be ashamed, an' you all the time a-wearin' a lord's coat as ain't to be mistook. So yer comin' to hear me play to-night — honest Injun ? " she con- cluded, with a quick reversion to the subject at heart "Yes, it's a promise," repUed Dick, begin- ning to be bored, and making an involuntary movement to return to the street. "Then I guess I'll scoot ter home this-a- way," said the girl, turning in the opposite direction, but facing about again to fire off the afterthought : " Got a gun ? " 94 SPECTRE GOLD. " You mean a revolver, I suppose ? " repKed Dick. "Yes, there's one in my baggage at the hotel." " Shootin'-irons in valises ain't no use in Skagway," retorted Vick with much scorn. "You jest tote yer gun along with you, and draw first whenever there's a muss." With which parting advice she disappeared round the corner of the store, and made her way home at the bpck of the street. When, a few minutes later, Dick sauntered up to the hotel she met him on the threshold and bade him a civil "Morning, Mister," with a fine assumption of ignorance of their recent en- counter. Dick's concern about the invitation to the saloon did not last him much longer than the time it took to fetch his writing materials from his room and carry them into the parlour. He attributed the girl's eagerness for his presence to her pride in her "pianner playing," and to a desire to enlarge her audience. The mysterious secrecy with which she invested their meeting struck him as a little strange, but he accounted for it by I t TREACHERY. 95 her openly expressed dread of her mother, whom he began to picture to himself as a starched and prim puritanical sort of old body who would have thought her daughter's conduct forward. And then he sat down and wrote a long letter to Beryl, dismissing the events of the morning from his mind except during the few scratches of his pen in which, for the amusement of his sweet- heart, he described the uncouth product of the West who wanted to fascinate him with her music. " You need not be jealous, dear," he wrote, " I don't think it's me she's in love with, but my trusty ulster, which, once the admiration of Glastonford, is believed by this angular young idealist to be the hereditary robe of a British peer." When he had finished his letter he went out and posted it, and spent the remainder of the day in rambling about the place and watching the unloading of the coaster at the wharf All the while he kept open eyes and ears for anything that might aid his purpose, but he saw no one whom he would care to i' ; 'ill I: ; ! 1 >:i| "f '->. I IjI l4 ■' I m SPECTRE GOLD. fi.'f i> '■ associate with him in the enterprise. The only people in Skagway with an ounce of work in them were the half-breed labourers; the white element was represented by slouch- ing loafers, who, as the day wore on, swarmed in and out of the boozing dens. At sundown he returned to Mursell's, more than half decided, if " Mr. Baxter " c^nld not help him, to hire a couple of Indian carriers and start without a guide. But with the appearance of his late fellow-traveller at the evening meal in the parlour, the notion was at once airily waved into the background. "Don't you worry about that I'll find you a man — to-morrow," said Jake heartily. "I'd have oflfered to before if you had asked me, but I didn't want to meddle uninvited. I vote we chuck business for to-night, though, and drop into the saloon for a Western experience. If ever you think of writing up this trip, it might come in handy" Dick disavowed any such intention; but mindful of his promise to Vick, and not : TREACHERY. 97 averse from a chance to kill time, he agreed to the proposal readily. "By the way, you looked into the saloon yourself last night, after all," he said, recalling the discrepancy between " Mr. Baxter's " advice and practice. Jake showed no curiosity as to who had been the informant. " Oh, yes," he replied with great frankness. "After you went to bed the thought struck me that I might find a man there who would be useful — handy at canning fish, you know — so I changed my mind." Before they had finished supper the hum of voices and the chink of glass told that the saloon was filling up, and at the close of the meal Jake sug- gested that they should go round immedi- ately. "Later on the boys are apt to grow noisy, and you might be scared," he said with a half-glance to see if the shot had gone home. No Englishman, sound in wind and limb an'^ a fair amateur boxer, cares to have the : " 98 SPECTRE GOLD. possibility of fear hinted to him, and Dick rose with alacrity. "Let us go by all means," he said rather stiffly. "But I shall not be in a hurry to come away early. I don't think I am likely to be frightened by a Httle horseplay." Leaving the dwelling-house by the private entrance, they went round to the door of the saloon and entered, Jake leading the way to the counter, where two Chinamen were busy serving. The room was nearly as full as it could be, and the babel was deafening, though " the boys " were as yet fairly good-humoured. Every belt was an armoury of pistols and bowie-knives, and there was scarcely a face there on which crime or dissipation was not written in large letters. "You'll have to treat the crowd; it's the custom of the country," whispered Jake. " After that you'll be free of the show." Amused at the novelty of the scene, and making mental notes for Beryl's enlighten- ment on his return, Dick invited all present to refresh themselves at his expense, and when the ceremony, which was accepted as a i. T TREACHERY. 99 matter of course, was over, he leaned against the wall and watched the humours of the place. A game of faro was in full swing on the green table; weird blasphemies floated on the reeking air, and just as Dick was wonder- ing who the terrible old woman in the rocking-chair could be, the tinkle-tinkle of the wretched piano drew his eyes to Vick, who, unseen before in the smoke, was seated at the instrument on the same side of the room as himself He caught her glance fixed on him, but, contrary to his expectation, she did not appear to wish for his notice, for she instantly averted her eyes. Like the drink and the atmosphere and the language, Vick and her music seemed to be taken as a matter of course by the fre- quenters of the saloon. Most of them were too busy playing or watching the play to pay her any attention; and, though they would have resented the absence of the "planner" as detracting from the "high-toned style" of their haunt, it is doubtful if any of them even heard it Unattractive as she was to him, Dick in his good nature H 2 I 100 SPECTRE GOLD. could not but pity the girl for the force of circumstances that had put her in such a position. Suddenly there came about an exception to the lack of notice accorded to her— an exception in a very unpleasant form. A big, truculent-looking ruffian shouldered his way through the throng and stood by the piano, leering down at the player and worrying her with remarks which she first answered angrily, and then received in sullen silence. Dick recognised him as the red-bearded man whom he had seen in the rival saloon in the company of "Mr. Baxter" in the morning. The fellow's behaviour was so clearly annoying the girl that Dick looked round for his mentor, thinking that if he knew the interrupter he might interfere in the girl's behalf But though "Mr. Baxter" had been at his side a minute before, he had moved away, and was nowhere to be seen. At the moment when Dick made the discovery that he was alone and unsupported, the red- bearded man threw his arms round Yick's m m "" ^ TREACHERY. 101 ample waist, and tried to kiss her. She stopped playing, and struggled; a few of those at the table looked up and laughed; no one offered protectioa Dick braced himself, and in half a dozen strides was close to the piano. He had the true British notion that nothing but fists would be wanted over such a trifle, and those he was quite ready to use. "Let go of her, you blackguard, unless you want your head punched," he said quietly, and an ominous silence fell upon the room. The gamblers looked round and craned their necks. In genuine surprise Vick's assailant did as he was bid, not real- ising that anyone could have dared to oppose him. Then, as he read grim earnest in the Englishman's steady gaze, he bellowed like an angry beast, and the nickelled barrel of a revolver gleamed in his hand. In another half-second it would have been levelled at Dick's head, but there came at that instant a great crash of glass, and all eyes were turned to one of the windows. '•1 til ' M m ■MMHW 102 SPECTRE GOLD. Through the broken pane another pistol-barrel protruded. "Steady there, Red Rube!" cried a strong, clear voice from outside. " I've got the drop, I guesd. Lower that gun ef yer don't want to die." ) « ' 'STEADY THERE. RED RUBE I' CRIED A STRONG, CLEAR VOICE FROM OUTSIDE. 'I'VE GOT THE DROP, I GUESS'" (p. 102). I - I SJ55SBR5! 103 CHAPTER VI. A NEW ALLY. Desperado as was Red Rube to his finger- tips, he knew that if he did not obey that stern mandate from the window, his life would not be worth a moment's purchasa Forcing a boisterous laugh, he replaced his pistol in his belt and made a mock bow to Pick. " Some other time, young feller," he snarled. "See here, Mister Britisher," came the voice of the unseen through the broken pane. ^'That shop'll be too hot to hold you after this, I guess. Best jine me out here. I'll keep the crowd covered whilst you shove through." After a moment's reflection, Dick decided T 104 SPECTRE GOLD. to take the advice. The scowls and rumbling curses of the majority told him that the weight of sympathy was with the red-bearded ruffian, and that, alone among so many, he could not hope to hold his own. Protected by the shining barrel of the invisible one, he made his way to the door, and was soon shaking the hand of his preserver outside in the darkness. " I don't know whom I have to thank," he said, "but I'm none the less grateful." " There's no occasion for that sort of talk ; my name is Hank Devine," was the reply. "Yer traps are in the hotel, I guess?" " OnN^ a valise," said Dick. " I was in- tending to purchase an outfit here." "Well, I reckon you'd best go in by the private door and fetch it, and then come along to my tent. You can stay there for the night anyhow," said the young miner. " We will talk later, but Mursell's is no place for you." Though it was too dark to see his face, Hank's voice sounded pleasantly straight- forward, and he had rendered such signal A NEW ALLY. 105 But as If. service that Dick assented readily, an afterthought he added: " Ought we to leave the girl at the mercy of that ruffian and hio friends ? " The suggestion tickled Hank Devine vastly. " Never fear but what she'll be all right," he repUed. "Vick can take care of herself in any crowd, and the old woman would drop anyone as meant her real harm. That sky- larking was all a put-up job— jest to give Red Rube a chance to plug you, Mister. Better hurry; some of the boys are looking ugly towards the door." So while Hank Devine kept watch at the broken window of the saloon, Dick went round and brought out his portmanteau, and the new acquaintances set out for the miner's tent on the outskirt of the town. When they reached it, Hank went in and lit the lamp on the pole and bade his guest enter. "There's a spare buffalo-robe and a wolf- skin as will have to serve you for a bed, but you will be a sight safer there than between the sheets and blankets at Mursell's," said Hank^ 106 SPECTRE GOLD. Again Dick thanked him, and, while ex- pressing curiosity as to what he had to fear at the so-called hotel, said ho could hardly understand why a stranger should -so befriend him. Hank smiled as he filled his pipe, and Dick rejoiced that in this sink of iniquity he had at last met a man whose face would not hang him. Resolute and steadfast in their rugged setting, the eyes of the young miner were those of an honest man. "Well, you're not exactly a stranger, and you put me under an obligation before I raised ever a finger," said Hank. " I'm jest as much obleeged as if what you did h«,dn't been ingincered by some rascal as is layin' for you." And noting Dick's surprise, Devine went on to explaia Vick Mursell, he said, alluding to her as "the gal he was courtin'," had sought him that morning, he not being free of her mother's house, and had informed him that an English lord, staying at the hotel in disguise, was to be the victim of a deep-laid plot She had overheard two persons whose names she would not mention, arrange ^ 'I r^ 1! M t ;^. rM A NEW ALLY. 107 that Red Rube should be induced by a wager to attempt to kiss her in the saloon, their purpose being to provoke the Englishman to interfere, when Rube would be sure to shoot him. Though not at all alarmed on her own account, Vick was eager to prevent the crime, and she had devised the programme which had been duly carried out. "But wouldn't it have been a good deal simpler if she had come to me and warned me not to go into the saloon ? " said Dick. "It might have been, but it 'pears to mo she was afraid if she didn't get you out of the hotel they'd drop you some other way," said Hank thoughtfully. " She thinks a heap of me, that gal does, and she opined that if she made us friends I'd see you through. And so I will, by thunder ! Another reason was, she's that set on English lords that she was keen on my having a hand in saving you." "Well, I am not a lord, and I told her I wasn't," said Dick, laughing at the explanation thus furnished of the girl's eagerness for his presence in the saloon. The explanation was ii 1 I 108 SPECTRE GOLD. a relief to him, for he had taken a liking to the uncouth wench of the pioneer town, and when Devine had called the event of the evening a "put-up job" he had half feared that she had had a very different motive in pressing for his attendance. He was glad to be still able to number Vick among his friends. The night passed without further incident, Dick sleeping soundly enough, though his host, with a wider experience of Western ways, kept the proverbial one eye open. Before giving himself over to slumber Dick racked his brains for further light upon the alleged plot against him, but could find none. In doing so, it never occurred to him to hark back so far as England and Kupert Malahide's hostility; and, within his knowledge, no one on the American side of the ocean was aware of the vast stake he was playing for. " Mr. Baxter" was the only man with whom he had had any conversation, and he certainly had not mentioned the dead gamekeeper's millions to him. He could only conclude that Vick Mursell had overheard among her I V-.- A NEW ALLY. 109 mother's customers, whom she did not care to expose, some scheme of which a mere vulgar robbery from the person of a well- dressed stranger was the object. In the morning, as he lay on the buffalo- robe watching his host brew the breakfast coffee, he was smitten with a sudden impulse. "Have you ever been over the passes into the Yukon country?" he asked. Hank gave him a glance of shrewd interest, but allowed the coffee to simmer up before replying. "Yes, I made the trip three years back," he said. "But I did no good there." "Would you be willing to go again if I showed you that you could do yourself a lot of good by it ? " asked Dick. " I want a true man to guide me over one of the passes and help me build a boat on the other side." "You must open up a bit more freely before I can give you yes or no, Mister," said Hank. "I'd* not in the market for a pig in a sack. Is it gold?" "Yes, it's gold— and lots of it," said Dick. And, having decided to trust his new friend, he told how Ned Shrimpton had returned to I IM v< I 110 SPECTRE GOLD. England to die, after imparting to him tlie secret of his discovery. He left it to be inferred that the secret was that of the locaUty of a new goldfield. He saw no necessity at present to disclose the fact that the gold was already won from the soil and hidden in a cachet whence he had only to fetch it Hank listened gravely to the end, stirring his cofifee with his finger as he leaned against the tent-pole. Dick was prepared for a burst of incredulity; on the contrary, the miner emptied his mug at a gulp and slapped his thigh. "Then it was a true bill," he exclaimed, " what that drunken little rat of a Britisher was whooping about!" And he went on to inform Dick that some few weeks before, he had been in one of the Skagway saloons — not MurseU's — when an Englishman far gone in his cups had been in a fair way to get himself shot for abusing the company gener- ally. With characteristic good-nature Hank had persuaded him to leave, and had guided his stumbling steps to where his protdgd was camped with a couple of full-blooded Indians II A NEW ALLY. Ill — an old man and a young squaw, who spoke good English. " A real slap-up little beauty she was," said Hank enthusiastically, "and right-down put about to see that white man's plight. They were hunting and fishing Indians — ^regular good-class traders, not like these skulking coyotes of carriers that are no better than beasts of burden. Mebbe, the chap was married to the gal, or would Hke to be. But that ain't the p'int. All the time I was yanking him along to their camp he was hollerin' that he was worth millions — had only to stretch out his hand to pick *em up, away to the Yukon country. And he gassed a heap about a chap he called the White Ghost, who had found the gold. I put it all down to the jim-jams — drink frenzy — at the time." This was bad n-^ws to Dick. He remem- bered Ned Shrimpton's allusion to his rescuers — two Indians and a white man, who had " treated him like Christians and brought him safely out of the wilderness." The description given by Hank suggested that these might be i I i 112 SPECTRE GOLD. I' the same people, and that Shrimpton had been mistaken as to the character of at least one of thera, though how the drunken white associate of the Indians could have gained a knowledge of the gold was a mystery. The possibility of being forestalled at the cachet made Dick the more eager to start, and again he pressed Hank for an answer. This time it was given readily, and was in the affirmative. The two men shook hands on the bargain, and fell to discussing the outfit which it would be necessary to buy. Devine was well provided, but a rifle and a few tools were needed for Dick's equipment, as well as blankets, boots, and portable cook- ing-utensils. And, most important of all, a stock of flour, bacon, and canned stores had to be laid in for their subsistence in a country destitute of all supplies save deer-meat and fish. Hank said that all these things could be procured in an hour, and that then there remained only the engagement of a couple of carriers. With luck they should be clear of the town by noon — ^without any of the Red Rube crowd being the wiser. A NEW ALLY. 113 " Which route do you propose to take ? " asked Dick. "Over the Taiya," was the reply. "There ain't much to choose between them, but I know that road better than the White Pass." The words were hardly out of his mouth when a shadow darkened the entry, and both occupants of the tent faced round, Devine's hand going like lightning to his belt But it was a typical picture of peace and amity that met their gaze. There stood "Mr. William Baxter," his broad, smooth-shaven face blandly smiling at them, and his hand extended in friendly greeting to Dick. "My dear Mr. Osborne, this is indeed a relief," he began. «I felt in some sense responsible for havmg taken you into that horrid den last night And then to think that I should just have run back into the hotel for a cigar at the critical moment when that ruffian threatened you! I could not reproach myself sufficiently when I returned and heard what had happened— more especially as no one seemed to know what had become of you. Mrs. Mursell, our excellem I i-i 114 SPECTRE GOLD. ■ y i hostess, is real cut up about it She begged mo to say, if I found you and could induce you to go back, that she will stake her reputation against anything of the kind occurring again." Dick could not forget that he had seen this man, of whom he really knew nothing, in Red Rube's company. "Thanks, but I don't blame you," he said curtly. "I have no intention of going back." " If the old lady's bent on wagerin*, it's a pity she ain't got anything more valuable than her reputation to ante up with," inter- jected Hank. Jake glanced at the miner, and for the fraction of a second failed to keep the malice out of his eyes. "It's a ^ree country," he said; "every man is rntltled to his own opinions. Well, Mr. Osborne, if you won't come back to the hotel you won't, and per- haps you are the best judge. But there's a trifling formality you omitted last night — the paying of your bilL The old woman knew it was an oversight, of course, and that you'd rectity it as soon as you found it out ; so she :Ar A NEW ALLY. 115 gave me a receipt for the amount to hand you in exchange for the cash if I found you. She was terribly anxious, you see, that you shouldn't be driven to return to the hotel for the purpose if you had decided to give it a wide berth. Sort of proud feeling about the ol^. lady, I reckon." Dick flushed with an honest man's annoy- ance at being reminded of his unintentional omission, which, under the circumstances of his departure, had been natural enough. And his late landlady's forethought in sending the bill receipted looked like an act of delicacy that made his regret more acute. He pulled out the money and handed it to Jake with many expressions of thanks and apology." And now," said Mr. Baxter, " is there any- thing else I can do for you before I go about my business ? The guide you spoke of, for instance ? I think I could bring you a good man." "Thank you, that will not be necessary now; I am leaving the town almost imme- diately," replied Dick; and then, not liking I 2 116 SPECTRE GOLD. to be ungraciously reticent after the slight service rendered by "Mr. Baxter," he added: " Mr. Devine here is going with me." "I concluded as much," said Jake, with a benevolent smile at Hank. "Well, if I can't be of any use, I'll clear out. So long, and good luck to you." When he had gone Hank went to the door of the tent and watched his broad figure till it disappeared among the log cabins of the town. Not till he was very sure that he would not be overheard did he turn to Dick and say: "Did ye ever hear sech a barney as that before?" "It's a great nuisance," said Dick, whose mind was still running on the unpaid bill. " I cannot think why I didn't stay to settle the account, but you drove it out of my head with your haste." " Bah ! that's nothing," Hank blurted with contempt. " I was alludin' to the manner of collecting the cash. Whoever heard of old gal Mursell studyin' folks' feelings before? That's rich, that is. Ever see her ? " i> «' ! ON THE WHITE PASS. 125 w M. H' of a boulder close to the tree to which the danglmg rope was made fast, so that they could command the approach from the settle- ment He was for making matters doubly secure by dra^ving up the rope, but Dick over- ruled him, pointing out that it would not be fair to any honest wayfarers who might come along to block the route entirely. It was arranged instead that they should sleep in turn, one remaining always on guard at the rope-head. As they had plenty of cooked provisions at this early stage, and it was too dark to search for fuel, they agreed not to trouble about a fire, but to eat their supper and then commence their alternative watch so as to be up and away betimes in the morning. Long before they had finished their frugal meal the last ray of daylight had disappeared, and the gloom was so intense that they could hardly see the weird outline of the tree that overtopped the precipice. Dick did not know what nerves were, but none the less he was glad of the stalwart young miner's company, and persuaded him to sit awhile and chat u I 126 SPECTRE GOLD. before one of them went to sleep. The subject of their talk was naturally the enterprise they had undertaken, and it was while Hank was repeating with fuller detail the assertions of the drunken Englishman that a slight alarm occurred. With sunset the sea breeze had died away and there was a deadly silence. In a pause of Hank's voice a pebble rattled not ten paces away. He sat up and handled his Winchester, but no other sound followed. " It must have been one of those blamed Injuns," he said, after a long wait, alluding to the carriers who were already jound asleep. " I could have bet, though, that the noise came from further to the left than them." The sound was not repeated, but the con- versation thus interrupted was not resumed. Hank took up his position close to the brink, and Dick curled himself up in his blanket for a spell of sleep. Before he dozed oflf, a thought struck him, and he tore a leaf from his pocket book and scribbled, as best he could in the dark, the name and address of his father in England. Calling Hank, he gave him the paper, and made him promise to write ^1 ON THE WHITE PASS. 127 ^if' " ' to Glastonford "if anything happened" during the expedition. " If you go under, I guess you mean," said the miner bluntly. " I ain't no great shucks at pen-work, but I'll make 'em see the run of the biz somehow." Hank's watch passed without incident, and Dick took his place in the small hours, on the understanding that he should arouse the whole party as soon as it was light enough to see. He felt a pleasurable sense of novelty and excitement that made the time pass quickly. Though he had never shared to the full Hank's apprehensions of a sequel to what he regarded as a common bar-room quarrel, the mere fact of standing, rifle in hand, on guard against a possible foe, on an American mountain-side in inky darkness, thrilled him with fresh enthusiasm for his task. He had been conscious of a six^age helplessness amid the unfamiliar black- guardism of that weird settlement below, but up here in the fresh air he was himself again. The instinct of the sportsman was upon him, and he realised that he had at last made a 128 SPECTRE GOLD. practical start towards his goal — the goal which was to give him BeryL As the first faint greyness stole into the eastern sky, he was recalled from dreams of the future to present happenings by some- thing that for one brief moment made him think he was a boy again, fishing for carp m the pond at Glastonford Vicarage. He had gathered the slack of the rope, where it was hitched to the trunk, and held it under his arm, as he leaned with his back to the tree. Suddenly he got a bite. The rope was jerked free of him, and then tautened. Some- one was coming up the ascent Dick called softly to Hank, who awoke at once, and together they waited, not knowing what to expect The hght grew gradually, but not enough to show them what manner of traveller was swaying and struggling for foothold below on the jerking rope. Not even as they stood aside with rifles ready to receive the indistinct figure that at last struggled over the brink did they recognise it till a woman's voice spoke — "That you. Hank, boy?" ■I ON THE WHITE PASS. 129 It was Vick Mursell, bare-headed, nearly unshod, with her gown torn to tatters, who stood before them. "Lem'me get ray breath," she panted, as her lover drew her from the perilous edge. "Thank God I'm in time. Red Rube and five of the worst kind are up here somewhere layin* for you; I overheard 'em plannin' it, and mother ketched me. She locked me in the kitchen lest I should give 'em away, but I broke loose and foUered. Seems as ef I'd been walkin', walldn', over rocks all night." "They've headed us, then?" said Hank shortly. " I guess so ; they started two hours afore noon," said Vick. " They was a-gwine to wait till yer got well on the Pass; then there wouldn't be no bother with the Sheriff about yer bodies. I've come 's quick as I could," she finished, sobbing. They soothed her and made much of her, and while they did so and tried to draw her story from her, the sun rose behind the range, brmging mto dim relief the grey rubble of shingle and boulders that flanked one side of the J I II to/-. SPECTRE GOLD. plateau. The little group at the edge of the pre- cipice was sharply silhouetted against the sky. Suddenly from one of the higher levels beyond the narrow chasm a pufF of smoke darted between two rocks, and a bullet whizzed through the brain of one of the Indian carriers. Another and another fol- lowed in quick succession. One went singing wide over the ravine, but the next moment there was a cry of horror as the third ball from the ambush hit Vick Mursell in the shoulder and brought her to the ground writhing in agony. Hank sprang forward and, stooping down, tried to shield her with his body as two more bullets flew by. For a moment all was confusion, but seeing that Hank was unmanned by his brave sweetheart's pain, Dick pulled himself together and took command. The girl must be saved at all cost. "Get her down the rope, manl" he cried. "She'll be out of their aim directly you're over the edge. I'll try and stand them off from behind this boulder." In desperation Hank raised Vick, and with her in his arm swung himself over the brink, 'HANK SPRANG FORWARD AND TRIED TO SHIELD HER WITH HIS BODY' (p. )30). WWIWWIIHNM BAD NEWS. 139 .1 •S^' to give us the office that Rube and five old ^kagway toughs was laying for us somewheres up the Pass. Whiles she was talking shooting began. One of our Injun carriers was stretched out, and my gal was hit. Lead was coming over thick, and Osborne told me to get the gal down the cliff, and he'd do the best he could. I hated to quit, but Vick being mortal bad and in danger of another bullet, I toted her down the rope out of fire. I'd laid her at the foot, and was just starting to go up again when the rope was cut at the top. Seeing as it would have took three hours to climb, and the gal being like to bleed to death, I started to carry her back to the township, reckoning as it would be all over with Osborne before I could get to him if I stayed to climb. And I am nigh sure he was laid out already, seeing as about the time the rope was cut the firing stopped. After I had got the gal to home I went out with three men I could trust, and we climbed the cliff. But, what with me carrying Vick to Skagway and having to climb, it was twenty-four hours before we struck the top, and there was nary a trace of Osborne nor yet of the skunks as laid for us. 'Taint likely as he could have fixed up the whole caboodle, so I reckon Rod Rube's crowd put him and the carriers, after kill- ing 'em, down a hole, which there's a good few without a bottom thereabouts, and then scooted for Juneau or some place further down the coast Anyway, they ain't showed in Skagway since, and the fight was day before yesterday. I feel real mean about it, for he was a nice young feller, but if his friends go for to blame me, they must remember I had the gal to think of. There was a commercial — name of Baxter come up here same boat as Osborne, and he ain't been seen ■li 140 SPECTRE GOLD. since the fight I can't find he was in the biz and Yick says no, but I can't say as I cottoned to him somehow. If any news comes in will keep you posted. Yours with renpect. Hank Dbvink. In his agitation the Yicar paced the room with his head downcast, while Malahide was reading ; and the latter, believing himself unobserved, relaxed something of his facial control His feelings were those of mingled triumph and perplexity, and they appeared on his countenance in quick succession. The news sent by this man Devine seemed to point to the attainment of his object ; but why had not Jake written ? He was clearly not suspected at Skagway of having had a hand in the attack on Dick; so why, if he was alive, had he not returned to the township ? And if he had been openly present at the murder, which was very improbable, and Dick had killed him, where w&s the body ? The hired desper- adoes would have had no reason for concealing it. On the contrary, they might have used it as an excuse for their attack, alleging that Dick had fired the first shot. There was a I t BAD NEWS. 141 4 -t- mystery somewhere which Makhide did not like. "This is very terrible, Mr. Osborne; your suspense must be unbearable/' he said handing the letter back. And then, affecting a sudden burst of generous enthusiasm, he added : " I will tell you what I'll do; I will go out to Skagway, and leave no stone unturned to get at the truth of this wild story." Clutching at any straw, the Vicar turned to him with gratitude and acceptance on his lips, but before the words came a deep bass cough drew the attention of both men to the open French window. There stood Aunt Eebecca, her wizened little face puckered up into a portentous frown. She was in mourn- ing for her brother, but the shape and style of her garments was unchanged. The mush- room hat was devoid of ornament, and the ribbon that fastened it under her chin was black instead of blue — that was the only difference. Treating Malahide to a stony stare, she stumped into the room, ignoring his presence, except that her first words had reference to his proposal 142 SPECTRE GOLD. "Don't listen to anything of the kind, Vicar," she snapped. "If anyone goes out to look after our poor boy it had better be a friend — not an enemy." " Really, Miss Asquith, I am not conscious of having done anything to deserve such a description," Malahide said, trying with fair success to invest his tone with good-humoured tolerance. Mr. Osborne looked from one to the other in pained surprise, but he was too unstrung to more than stammer feebly that he was sure the offer was kindly made. " Thank you, sir, for seeing it in that light," said Malahide with a great show of respect. "I am certain that Miss Asquith will do me the justice of withdrawing that imputation when she is in a calmer mood. This news has been so grievous and so sudden that I can well make allowance for very natural excitement." Courteously as Malahide spoke, he was inwardly furious that this eccentric old lady should have fathomed his secret, and he chose his words with a view to goading her to exasperatioa He wanted to laam how 1 ! T BAD NEWS. 143 she had discovered a sentiment that he had believed to be locked saHy in his own breast. He gained his purpose, but though Aunt Rebecca was blazing with indignation at his suggestion that she was not quite herseli; she refused to address him directly. , ' T know what I am talking about, Vicar," she said. "I have not had access to my poor brother Horace's private diary for nothing, and glad I am that it fell into my hands before Beryl got hold of it. It would have been a thousand pities if she had found cause to despise her father's memory because a scoundrel kept him like a toad under a harrow, and he did not know which way to turn." Malahide had not bargained for this. The last thing ho had suspected was that Horace Asquith would have recorded in black and white the conditions he had so nearly entered into for the renewal of the mortgages. He had hoped that, with Dick out of the way once for all, he could have posed as Beryl's friend by tearing up the securities, and that then, having won her favour, he could have 144 SPECTRE GOLD. induced her to marry him. For a moment he was staggered by the discovery that this old gentlewoman, who had always despised and ignored him, had probed his designs upon the girl and regarded him as a rival of the missing man; but he grasped the necessity of keeping up appearances. It would be a false move to make any admissions, especially as Aunt Rebecca, out of regard for her dead brother's good name, evidently did not intend to enlighten Beryl. If he played his cards skilfully, ho might still gain his end in the way he had settled on after Mr. Asquith's death — always provided that that scene half- way up the White Pass had terminated " satisfoctorily." " Oh ! diaries are dreadful things," he laughed. "I should never have suspected my old friend Asquith of such a weakness, and I cannot take the responsibility for anything he has put in his. People write down all sorts of nonsense late at night and forget to scratch it out in the morning. However, after this I am afraid, ""Ir. Osborne, that there must be an end of my project. One hardly cares to I BAD NEWS. 145 d i undertake a trip to Alaska vrith one's motives under suspicion, and I had been on the point of starting for a course of the waters at Hom- burg. I trust on my return thence I shall find your suspense happily ended." With a low bow to Aunt Rebecca, and much sympathetic handshaking with the Vicar, who accompanied him to the door not knowing what to say, Malahide took his departure. The moment he was clear of the grounds he consulted his watch and began to walk hurriedly back to the Abbey, an already half- formed intention rapidly assuming shape in his mind. Hank Devme's letter to Mr. Osborne had largely discounted the pleasure which Jake Mursell's forecast had brought him, and he would have given a large sum to he &wre. The chances were in favour of Dick having been killed, but that wall of cliff mentioned by the Vicar's correspondent seemed to stand between him and infinite possibilitiea The unseen tragedy might have ended in so many ways. "If there was a telegraph to Skagway I could wire to Mursell's mother and learn if T 146 SPECTRE GOLD. he has turned up," he said to himself. " But there Isn't, and that leaves nothing hut for me to go out. It will be quickest and best, as I saw when, on the spur of the moment, I made that quixotic offer just now. It was a happy thought, too, to tip them Homburg as a raison d'Hre for my possible absence. Yes, I will go out, and master the exact position. It is not a matter that can be left in the air." With Rupert Malahide to decide was to act, and having cHnched his determination he rapidly, as he walked along, made mental arrangements for immediate departure. The Allan boat, which would put him in touch with the Canadian Pacific Railway, was due to sail from Liverpool on the morrow, and he settled to make a strenuous effort to catch it " If so I shall be in Skagway in something under a month," he reflected. " Stay, though ; let me calculate it exactly." And pulling a paper from his pocket, which happened to be the envelope of Jake Mursell's letter, he pro- ceeded to jot down the number of days that •MALAHIDE, HURRIEDLY DISPOSING OF THE ENVELOPE, ASSISTED BERYL OVER THE STILE " {p. 147). BAD NEWS. 147 would be required for the several stages of his journey. For the purpose of making his reckoning he had halted at a stile that led across the Vicarage meadows, not only to his own park, but also to the Hall; and so intent was he on his task that he did not hear approaching footsteps till Beryl Asquith was close upon him. She was in deep mourning, and her sweet face showed traces of the fresh shock she had received when Mr. Osborne had rushed over to the Hall with his news — a shock all the more terrible because the same post had brought her Dick's cheery letter describing his arrival at Skagway. Malahide, who had just completed his itinerary, looked up at last, and, hurriedly disposing of the envelope, assisted Beryl over the stile. He was far too clever to attempt to condole with her. To do so would have been impertinent, her engagement to Dick never having been made public; and it was, moreover, to his interest to ignore it He merely remarked that it was a sad affair, that he hoped she would be able to comfort k2 148 SPECTRE GOLD. the Vicar, whom he had just left; and then, raising his hat, he passed on. "How her beauty grows on me!" he muttered, as he entered the Abbey park. "When I began the chase it was the estate, and a nice gentlemanly way of collaring it, that principally weighed. Now, I wouldn't lose the girl herself for ten Glastonford Halls." On reaching the mansion he sent for his valet, and within ten minutes it was known from the butler's pantry to the stable-yard that the master of the Abbey was going to town by the afternoon train — on his way to Homburg. Bailiffs and gardeners and grooms were successively interviewed, and every pre- paration was made for a prolonged absence. There was so much to do in so short a time that MaiteMde did not even change the clothes he had worn in the morning before he drove to the station, and it was only when he was half-way to London that he made an important discovery. In the seclusion of his first-class carriage he was moved to consult the programme of his journey that he had T BAD NEWS. 149 pencilled down. It was nowhere to be found« He turned his pockets inside out, but the envelope of Jake Mursell's letter with its tell- tale memoranda was missing. " This is not like me ; I hope it is not an omen of disaster!" he thought "I must have dropped it when she came upon me so suddenly. Bah! what matters it? The office at Skagway didn't appear to possess a stamp, for the postmark was Victoria and that would not prove anything. As for my scribbled programme, I might well be expected to take an interest in the facilities for communicating with the spot where the local excitement centres, without being suspected of going there." None the less was he annoyed with him- self for his carelessness, and, though the chances were that if the envelope were ever picked up at all it would be by some yokel who could not read it, he got out at the next station and telegraphed to his house-steward to institute a search. But up to the time of his leaving London for Liverpool by the night mail no reply reached him, though he deferred his departure to the last moment. 160 SPECTRE GOLD. Twenty-four hours later the good ship Parisian was steaming down St. George's Channel in the teeth of a south-westerly gale, and Rupert Malahide lay in his berth in the private state-room which he had secured. He was "a bad sailor/' and was very sick. The crash of distant crockery, the banging of doors, the thumping of the engines, and the whirr of the screw made him curse Jake Mursell with every hard-fetched breath. In the midst of his trouble the cabin-door, which he had left unbolted for the easier admission of the steward, was pushed open, and he sat up to resent the intrusioa But the words he was about to hurl died away on his lips at the sight of the wizened little woman's face that was peering at him from under a ribbon-tied mushroom hat — for, despite the weather. Aunt Rebecca had been on deck for a breather before retiring. "This is the wrong cabin, Beryl," she said to someone behind, as she backed out; *'and apparently it is the wrong ship, too. It seems to be bound for Homburgl" 161 CHAPTER IX. A CHANGE OF FRONT. When Jake Mursell had cut the rope, he worked round, still keeping out oi sight, to the rear of Dick's shelter, and, having come within ten paces, whistled softly. Dick instantly faced round and covered him with his rifle. Jake, who carried no visible fire- arms, smiled pleasantly. "I am a friend, Mr. Osborne; though seeing me here at such a time you might well think otherwise," he said, lowering his voice so that it should not carry to the ambush beyond the chasm. "I am about to prove it to you by making an end of your enemies. AU I ask is that you will watch me — with free liberty to shoot if I play you false." . , -j,t**»*K-"C;aiJSk--»«mi"- ^i^'^m^r:-jz 152 SPECTRE GOLD. Dick's astonishment at the "salmon- packer's" appearance in the midst of the treacherous attack was intense, and keeping his Winchester levelled, he eyed him with growing distrust " Do what you like," he said ; " but if you come a step nearer I shall fire." Jake waved his hand airily, and, taking care to observe the injunction, moved out into the broad, level space in the centre of the plateau. Dick, keen to follow his every movement, and determined to shoot him at the first proof that he was a traitor, peered round the boulder, offering a fair mark for the ambushed sharpshootens. But the firing which had ceased on Jake's first appearance on the scene, did not recommence. Jake advanced to the edge of the narrow chasm that bounded one side of the plateau and called out "Rube!" A fierce face, framed in a shock of red hair rose above one of the rocks beyond the fissure. "Don't waste any more powder, boys," called Jake. "I am bossing this ihow, and I can make terms that'll suit all parties. Come over here, the whole crowd^^ and talk.*' 'i "JAKE STOOPED DOWN AND CALMLY DISLODGED THE END OF THE SLENDER BRIDGE" (p. 753). A CHANGE OF FRONT. 153 Red Rube emerged from the pile of boulders, and, followed by five slouching ruffians, advanced towards the chasm. Dick now perceivod — what had escaped his notice in the gloom of the previous evening — that it was bridged by a trunk of spruce-fir, and he was in two minds whether he ought ix> allow the gang to cross to his side of it. But, reflecting that he had Jake at his mercy, he held his rifle in readiness and waited. What followed passed so quickly that he did not grasp its full significance till it was too late to interfere, had he been so minded. On. reaching the trunk, Red Rube motioned to his companions to cross, and when they were all on the narrow support, joining hands and sidling along it for greater security, he himself brought up the rear. As soon as the whole six were on the trunk, and the first of the desperadoes was within a yard of him, Jake stooped down and calmly dislodged the end of the slender bridge. Carrying the first five men with it to certain death, the trunk fell into the abyss; but Red Rube, though 154 SPECTRE GOLD. I he dropped his rifle, managed to clutch the opposite brink, where he sprawled and strug- gled for vantage ground against the side of the chasm. Drawing a revolver, Jake fired two shots at him, but missed; and before he could get ia a third Rube had regained the further ledge and was among the rocks. "There, Mr. Osborne! I reckon that ought to serve as a testimonial of good faith," said Jake, coolly, when he had assured himself by a glance into the black depths that his work Avas well done. " I am sorry not to have raked in the biggest tough of the lot, but he won't give us any more trouble without his rifle. I'm real glad to have been of use." For the moment Dick could not answer him. The horrible swiftness with which those five had gone down into the pit turned him faint and sick. And, though the service ren- dered by "Mr. Baxter" was of undoubted value, there was so much of cold-blooded trea/jhery in the method of it that Dick had to cast about for words to express himself. There was a good deal to be explained, too, 1 »l^ 1 A CHANGE OF FRONT. 155 before ho could feel unreservedly grateful to this man who spoke and smiled so blandly within a minute of wiping five fellow-creatures out of the scheme of creation. "You certainly seemed to have turned up in the nick of time," said Dick, after vainly peering into the black gulf for a trace of his late assailants. "I am curious to know how you chanced to be on hand." The distrust in his voice was unmistakable, but Jake only laughed good-humouredly : — "There was very little chance about it, except that I happened to learn that the boys were going to lay for you on the White Pass. I had half engaged Red Rube — for the salmon fishery, you know — and the brute trusted me. As I knew it was no sort of use arguing with that crowd, I gammoned them that I had a grudge to pay off too, and so got them to take me along. You see, I'd taken a kind of fancy to you on the voyage up, and I wasn't going to let you be straightened out without having a shot at saving you.*' " Well, you've done it effectually," said Dick, beginning to wonder if this was genuine. 156 SPECTRE GOLD. Somehow Jake had contrivAd to invest it with the ring of truth. * Yes, I'm a whale at having my own way," proceeded this good Samaritan genially. "They started a couple of hours ahead of you, and we hid up in the boulders across the chasm, but last night I persuaded them that it was too dark to shoot Towards dawn I stole away, and over the log bridge, intending to warn you, but before I'd reached you the girl came up the rope, and shooting began. Then I got to cover, and lay cogi- tating how to act till one of the gang came over and cut the rope. That let the light of day into my thinking-machine. I knew that having stalled oiF your white friend from coming back they would run in on you in a minute or two, so I decided to try a bluf£ You will allow that it met with considerable success." This sounded plausible, and had the merit of fitting in with all that Dick had seen and heard. Ten steps brought him to the edge of the precipice, and there, sure enough, he beheld apparent confirmation of at least part A CHANGE OF FRONT. 167 of the story. The rope was cut short oflf, and far down the canyon Hank Devlne's broad back ^"is visible for an instant before he disappeared with the burden of the wounded girl on his way back to Skagway. Dick felt that to doubt, or at any rate to show doubt, longer, would be churlish, and he frankly offered " Mr. Baxter " his thanks. " I wish it could have been done with less wholesale slaughter," said Jake, divining his thoughts, " but we were in a tight place, and there was no time for shilly-shally. I am glad I hadn't longer to think about it, because self-interest is strong, and this Uttle turn-up has about queered my business in these parts, I reckon. Red Rube will make this region too warm for me to hope for a quiet life at fish-packing. What are your plans, may I ask, before I oflfer a suggestion?" Dick looked round rather ruefully. There lay one of his Indian carriers stone-dead in a pool of blood, with his load, which he had been in the act of lifting when shot, scattered around. It was true that one was left, smoking imperturbably in his blanket now 158 SPECTRE GOLD. ii that the danger was past; but Hank Devine, whom he had regarded as his mainstay, had deserted him, and away in front stretched the lonely track to the summit of the Pass as an earnest of the difficulties to be faced unaided if he elected to go on. Hank's absence, he readily admitted, was pardonable under the circumstances, and was probably only temporary ; but it would be galling either to have to wait or go back for him, when every hour of the short summer might be wanted for his work in the vast solitudes that lay behind the mountain. "I am for pushing forward if it is prac- ticable," replied Dick, with a wistful look at his surviving carrier. "See here, you chap, you speak English enough to understand," he went on, going up to the quaintly huddled figure. " Good ! Then can you help build a canoe and paddle it afterwards?" " Me Siwash feller — do anyting for dollars — build um boat and paddl' um. Know ribber a heap ! " was the reply that gladdened Dick's heart. " I shall go straight on," he said ; and then, perceiving his selfishness, he added, "but I m A CHANGE OF FRONT. 159 can't leave you here to find your way down these precipice'j back to Skagway alone. I must " "There is no 'must' about it," interrupted Jaka "Your fix brings me to my suggestion. If you'll have me, I'll go on with you. Salmon-canning is at a discount for me here- abouts now, and I have often wanted to nose round the Yukoa You and me can make shift to carry the dead Indian's load down to the lake, and then we can prove this joker's title to be considered a skilled navigator." Probably if Dick had h0d a free choice, this oily-mannered individual, who could kill ruthlessly with a smile on his lips, would have been the last whom he would have selected for a companion. But in the opposite balance there weighed the chivabous feeling that " Mr. Baxter" had marred his business prospects through coming to his aid, and that he owed him some reparation. His answer, therefore, was an unhesitating assent "Come by all means, if you don't mind roughing it," he said. "When Devine catches us up there won't be such a great lot to carry. 160 SPECTRE GOLD. divided among three. He is sure to follow, if I am not mistaken in him, and I propose to nail a paper on t^at tree, sajing that we have gone on, and asking him to hmrry up." Jake nodded aprovaL "A good notion," he replied; "and while you are writing your message I will bury the dead carrier. Might jar on people's nerves if we left corpses about" And before Dick had grasped his intention, he had dragged the body to the brink of the crevasse and hurled it into the abyss which had swallowed the five victims of his ruse. Again Dick could not repress a shudder at the man's callousness ; though when he came to analyse the sentiment, he had to admit that his new companion had only taken a common-sense way out of the difficulty. The note to Devine was soon written, and when it had been fixed to the ^ree, from which a few feet of cut rope still dangled, preparations were made for an immediate start. A hasty meal was eaten, the loads were appor- tioned and the Siwash Indian was ordered to lead them over the summit by the shortest trail to Lake Taku. A CHANGE OF FRONT. 161 The procession of three, murching in single file, had reached the upper end of the plateau, and were debouching on to the rocky cause- way that led to the higher levels, when Jake uttered a sudden exclamation — " I have left my knife," he said, in answer to Dick's inquiry. " You keep right on, and I will overtake you in the whisk of a mare's tail That knife was a present from my dear old mother in Bostv)n lor attending Sunday- school, and I wouldn't lose it for a lot ! " Depositing his load he hurried back to the plateau, and, not without uneasy glances towards the boulders where Red Rube had disappeared, he found his knife where he had placed it — close to the trunk that overhung the canyon. For half a minute more he lingered on the spot, and then hastened after the others. But when, five minutes later, he rejoined them, a traveller ascending the precipice from the canyon would have seen no signs of the spot of white on the tree trunk, which, before Jake's return, would have caught his eye. 162 CHAPTER X. OLD ACQUAINTANCE. The busy ring of iron against wood echoed along the shore of the Taku Laka The rain came down in torrents, and reeked back from the sodden earth in a ground fog that was almost thick enough to break the fall of the rain that bred it A coil of blue smoke from a camp fire in a belt of larches struggled upwards, and then, having topped the trees beat down again, unable to rise higher in the damp air, to fill the grove with pungent fragrance. Mosquitoes, nearly as big as humming-birds, buzzed about in search of prey and found it — in the broad cheeks of Jake Mursell. Jake was engaged in the none too easy task of keeping alight the spluttering fire, ( OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 168 and in stirring the savoury contents of the iron pot that swung over it. Some twenty yards away Dick was felling a tree, while on the other side of the glade the Indian carrier, Joey, was plying his adze on a half-finished canoe. The party had surmounted the remainder of the White Pass without further adventure, but, though they had now been camped three days on the shore of the lake, Hank Devine had failed to put in an appearance. Dick, while regretting his absence, tried to solace himself with the reflection that, if he had really loft him to his fate, the young miner was not the man he had taken him for, and would not be missed in the end. Joey, too, was proving such an eflicient boat-builder that Dick's hopes of the success of his enterprise were hourly rising higher. The one point that troubled him, since Hank's desertion seemed to be an accom- plished fact, was that his late companion might, either in good faith or to excuse him- self, have sent home disquieting news to his father. Once or twice he even thought of L 2 T IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 us 1.4 M 1.6 6" 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 (716) 872-4S03 ▼ £.* !>. O^ ■^ iG4 SPECTRE GOLD. going back to Skagway to correct such a contingency, but he refrained, in the firm con- viction that, if not Hank Devine, someone would have gone up to the plateau to in- vestigate the report of the fight, and that his note saying that he had gone on would have been found. Still, the possibility of a miscarriage caused him a good many uneasy qualms. In first-rate training though he was, the wielding of the axe in that moist, steamy air made him hot, and presently he unloosed the band of his rough Norfolk jacket Trivial as was the action, it did not escape the twinkling eyes of Jake, who from that moment paid a diminished attention to his stoking and cook- ing. The absent tenant of the Clifford's Inn cock-loft seemed to take quite an affectionate interest in the stalwart young Englishman's labours, and soon he got a chance to show his sympathy in a practical way. *• Phew ! " exclaimed Dick, after a dozen more strokes with the axe, " I antM have to t/ake my coat off to it after all. It doesn't much matter; I am wet to the skin as it is." ■^ OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 165 And divesting himself of his jacket, he tossed it aside. Jake rose instantly and went and picked the dripping garment up. "You'd better let me dry it at the fire for you," he said. " I dare say I shan't make much of a job of it, but at any rate it won't get any wetter." "Thanks, Baxter; that is thoughtful of you," said Dick, and he watched his com- panion fight his way back to the fire, through the mosquitoes, with a friendly smile. He was beginning, almost against his will, to like Hank Devine's substitute. While contriving to do all the lighter share of the work, Jake had been so uniformly good-humoured and obliging in small matters such as this, that that treacherous push of his to the trunk bridge over the chasm was in a fair way to be condoned. Jake propped the coat in front of the fitful fire, and Dick resumed his work. The unceasing rain plashed down, and the indus- trious Joey, scarcely visible in the mist, plied his adze. Lazily stirred by the dying f 166 SPECTRE GOLD. remnant of some Pacific storm that had managed to top the Chilkat range, the waters of the lake lapped the shore at the lower end of the clearing. Jake fed the fire with a few of Joey's shavings, stirred the pot a little, and then interested himself in Dick's work agaia The axe, wielded by arms which had pulled stroke in an Oxford eight, made good play, and the wielder was far too absorbed in the widening gap in the trunk to have eyes for what was going on at the tire. Having assured himself of this Jake began to be very solicitous that the coat should have the full benefit of the meagre fire. He stooped over it and rearranged it, and in so doing it was but natural that his fingers should busy themselves in the region of the pockets. Per- haps the sodden garment was not drying quickly enough to please him, for a shade of disappointment flitted over his broad features as he gave a final touch to its folds. While enf^aged on this act of benevolence his eyes wandered incessantly from the coat to Dick and back again, so that he failed to observe the approach of a stranger — a \ ; I OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 167 stranger who, perceiving his occupation, had halted involuntarily some twenty paces off on his wav up from the lake shore. A student of character would have been puzzled to account for the expression on the new-comer's face as he stood and watched the manoeuvres at the fire. It was as though Jake Mursell's manipulation of the old Norfolk jacket re- called to the mind of the watcher an unpleasant memory, which affected him more than the scene he was actuall/ regarding. Not till Jake had betaken himself to the cooking-pot oner more did the silent observer move forward, and then it was not to the tender of the fire that he made his way. Catching sight of Dick among the trees, he crossed the glade in ten seconds, and, coming up from behind, grasped the handle of the axe as it was poising for a stroke. Dick faced round, stared, and then seized the prac- tical joker by the hand. "What! Fenton, old man!" he gasped, wondering if this roughly-clad, unkempt apparition could really be the once spick-and- span chum of his undergraduate days. 168 SPECTRE GOLD. " Fenton Gartside— ooyagewr, Indian trader, and concentrated essence of Mayne Reid and Fenimore Cooper's heroes — very much at your service," was the reply. "Seriously, though, Dick, you have been a deuce of a while on the way. I have been keeping an open eye for you on the Yukon, Pelly, and Lewis rivers any time this six months." For a moment Dick's mystification was complete, and then the truth broke in upon him. "You are the Englishman who helped to bring Ned Shrimpton out of the country? Ned told you that he knew me ? " he said. "Shrimpton — the White Ghost he was called up yonder — told someone who told me that he was interested in you," replied Gart- side. "The poor chap is dead, eh?" "He is dead, and he left me the legacy of the secret which brings me here. Perhaps you know it?" said Dick, looking at Gartside with a mistrust which he could not wholly hide as he remembered Hank Devine's story of the Englishman who had bragged in his cups of the millions at his disposal. t OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 169 Gartside flushed slightly as he noted his old friend's look, and shifted his eyes uneasily to the squatting figure by the fire. Jake was stirring the pot-au-fev, sedulously, but nothing had escaped him since he had seen the unknown stranger cross the glade and arrest Dick's axe. Jake was watching and waiting with straining ears, but Gartside lowered his voice as he replied — " I know that he cache'd a pile of gold ; I don't know the place, though. Is that chap a pal?" he added, with a jerk of his finger towards the fire. " I hope so," said Dick. " He is going up to the Yukon with me, anyway, for want of a better. I didn't take to him at first, but he stood by me in some trouble I had with the toughs of Skagv^ay, and last night I told him what I had come out for." " You didn't give him the particulars of Shrimpton's cachet, surely?" said Gartside rather anxiously. " No, indeed ; I wouldn't tempt my best friend with that knowledge," replied Dick, scanning Gartside's mobile face closely. " And 7 170 SPECTRE GOLD. I ? now, Fenton, old chap, as you know as much of my project as I do myself, say how it goes with you. You are the last man in the world whom I should have expected to find in these wilds, and alone." '* I am not alone," said Gartside. " See, here come my good friends. Blue Light- ning and Star Eyes." And pointing down the glade towards the lake shore he drew Dick's attention to the advancing forms of the old chief and his daughter. It being summer. Star Eyes had discarded her furs for a tunic of beautifully- dressed doe-skin, and her glossy black hair was crowned with a chaplet of eagle plumes ; her only tribute to civilisation being the short skirt of rough blue serge which covered her lower limbs. " Your wife ? " asked Dick. "She would be, but I am n:^t good enough," returned Gartside with a tinge of bitterness ; and as the Indians were still some way oft', he proceeded briefly to say how he had left England a broken man, and, after many wanderings in the frontier towns of the OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 171 North-West, had allied himself to Blue Lightning, who, formerly a warrior, had lived as a hunter and fisherman since the dispersal of his tribe in one of the American border wars. "The life of the wilderness has a fascination for me ; it is safer for one of my temperament," he added with a sharp little laugh. "I didn't know Blue Lightning had a daughter when I chummed in with him first, or I might have jibbed at the prospect of a lady m the show. Then this girl turned up from the Red River Mission— quixotic idea of converting the old man, you see— and I tumbled head over ears after a week. But she won't have anything of that sort to say to a precious bad lot like me. Star Eyes, Blue Lightning," he added, as the pair drew near, " this is Mr. Osborne, going down river after the White Ghost's cachet" Blue Lightning merely grunted, casting unabashed glances at the pot which the watchful Jake was stirring, but Star Eyes extended her hand frankly. Yet there was a troubled look in her eyes, and she seemed i 172 SPECTRE GOLD. i: to Dick to be searching Gartside's face for some emotion which she did not find. "There is hard work before you — if you do not know our rivers. Are you not afraid of the Rapids, the Miles Canyon, and the White Horse ? " she said with a faint smile that increased Dick's impression of her uneasiness. What could be the mystery that kept his once familiar friend from looking him squarely in the face, and that made this beautiful anomaly regard her white lover with questioning anxiety ? Dick disclaimed any dread of the Rapids, and pointed out the industrious Joey — who had stoically ignored the presence of the new arrivals — as his pilot. For the first time Blue Lightning put himself in evidence with a low guttural laugh. " What are you chuckling at, old un ? " said Gartside, recovering something of his old manner now that attention was withdrawn from himself. "Him Si wash Injun — coast feller, no use for Rapids. Swamp um boat — all go drown," OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 178 was Blue Lightning's contemptuous summary of Dick's most useful aide-de-camp. "We must take our chance of that. I am not exactb- a fool in a boat myself," said Dick, wondering what the quick telegraph which he intercepted between Gart- side and Star Eyes meant It was only a gLnce which, after catching her lover's eye, the girl shot from herself to her father, and thence vaguely to the lake— anywhere in the far north— but it was answered by an almost imperceptible motion of Gartside's head. Still Jake watched unceasingly from the fire, and he chose this point to send his cheery tones ringing across the glade. "Grub's ready, Mr. Osborne," he sang out. " Plenty for all, if those are friends of yours." As a matter of course, the invitation was given and accepted; and, as the downpour had now ceased, the party was able to do justice to the meal ux some degree of comfort. Jake was all facetious eagerness that the strangers should praise his cooking, and showed neither by word nor sign that he had already II i -3! :'\ \\ ( ; i 174 SPECTRE GOLD. " placed " Gartside as the drunken English- man, of whose confirmation of the genuineness of their quest to Hank Devine Dick had informed him when more fully confiding the nature of their enterprise. For some time the talk ran on the reason for the presence of the strangely assorted trio on the Taku Lake. It seemed that having lost a box of ammunition overboard, they had run shore of cartridges, and were on their way back to Skagway to replenish their stock. They had made the passage of the lakes in a light canoe, portaging past the Rapids, and had left their heavy scow at the junction of the Lewis and Pelly rivers. " It is a pity you were not a week earlier," said Dick, thinking of the scorn in which poor Joey was held by these river folk. "We might have all gone down stream together, and I could have availed myself of your ex- perience. As it is, I have half a mind to wait till you have been to Skagway and returned." "That would make us rather late. You must remember that we must be clear of the _^V^» ■■-^■ ':* T^ — OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 176 country before winter sets in," said Jake, so hastily that Gartside fell to studying him closely. There was somet^-ief incongruous in this fat, pre-eminently " hoft " man, who was evidently the dro o of the party, wanting to dispense with skillel assistance when the chance occurred Slir Eyes also turned her large black orbs on "Mr. Baxter" inquiringly. So far she had been shyly observant, but now she spoke in a low, earnest voice that made Jake in turn eye her askance. "You had better let us guide you, Mr. Osborne," she said. "Those rapids are ter- rible, but my father will take you through safely. There is no more clever boatman on the rivers. You have plenty of Winchester cartridges in your outfit? Good! Then you could lend us some instead of our going to Skagway, only " and she paused and looked irresolutely at Gartside. "Only there wouldn't be room in your canoe for all of us," said Dick, noticing her look and possibly misunderstanding the cause of her hesitation. "Well, that is easily got \ i J J i! I'm ■V u ■■■ 176 SPECTRE GOLD. over. Let one of us go back — ^you, Baxter, I dare say, are tired already, and will jump at the chance. I shall be only too glad for someone to go back, so that my people in England can be advised of my safety after that scrimmage." But Jake failed to see it in that light at all. For the first time in Dick's short acquaintance with him he showed visible agitation by breaking out into perspiration and mopping his broad face. " I don't think that's quite fair," he said, with a tremble in his usually unctuous tones. "I stood by you on the Pass, Mr. Osborne, and I'm here more for my own safety from Red Rube than gain, but having come so far I am keen to do a bit of prospecting up yonder — quite apart from your venture." "That settles it, of course," said Dick. "We will go on, then, and do the best we can with Joey." But it appeared that Star Eyes was again ready with a proposal. This resourceful maiden, with the mLers of a genU„.oman and in the garb of a savage, was beginning OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 177 to impress Dick with the notion that, quietly and firmly, she ruled her companions. "I see a better plan than that," she said. " Mr. Gartside can go over the Pass into Skagway and write a letter to your friends. Then there won't be any waiting. The rest of us can start at once down stream in our canoe." Gartside regarded the speaker with such a comical expression of dismay that Dick remembered it some time afterwards when striving for a solution to his old friend's conduct. For the present he took it as a more or less humorous exaggeration — especially as the next moment Gartside willingly, almost eagerly, fell in with the suggestion. " Two months in Skagway — it will mean that at least, if I am to wait your return — is no great catch," he said. "But never mind ! I'll do that little lot on my head, as they say in the police-courts, and glad to do it, old Dick, if it will simplify matters for you. I'll start in an hour, and as I have no load I should be in the settlement in two M M, ! '! 178 SPECTRE GOLD. .; I ! f days — tossing the boys for drinks in Mother Mursell's," he added with a strangely defiant look at Star Eyes, who winced at the allusion, but made no comment. That there was a mystery here, to which he held no clue, Dick felt a growing con- viction, but as his journey would be hurried on by the new arrangement, Joey's boat being only half finished, he accepted Gart- side's offer, and thanked him for it in a little speech, which, he could not disguise from himself, sounded formal The motion, however, was not to be carried without dis- sentients. Blue Lightning, who had eaten to repletion without a word, and was now smok- ing with his back to a tree, said suddenly ; "You no play 'possum, you Gar'side? You no go 'cross big water to England and no come back ? " " Never fear, old gentleman," was the re- assuring reply. "You'll find me in Skagway safe enough when you've made the trip. I'm too fond ol you to give you the slip like that." And presently Jake showed himself not I' OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 179 altogether pleased with the new arrangement. Taking advantage of a conference that Star Eyes was holding with her would-be lover he drew Dick aside. "Is this quite wise, Mr. Osborne?" he said with a deprecating glance at the pair. " Your friend is all right, no doubt — he seems to be acting quite the gentleman — but we don't know much about these Indians, do we?" " Well, for the matter of that, I know pretty nearly as much of them as I do of you, or of Joey," replied Dick decisivelj'. " Anyway, they are going to guide us, so there is no need to debate the question." Jake retired with the virtuous air of a man who has met with a rebuff in trying to do his duty, and the revised programme encountered no further opposition. Time being of paramount value, with winter getting ready to swoop from its northern fastnesses, it was decided to take advantage of the remaining hours of daylight. Dick's outfit was carried down to the shore to be packed in Blue Lightning's canoe; Joey regretfully M 2 m ■' I 'it '}it m 180 SPECTRE GOLD. \ abandoned his half-built boat; and Gartside, after shaking hands all round, struck out of the glade on his solitary tramp towards the Pass. Dick was more and more puzzled by his old friend's manner. He seemed to have dropped the nervous shyness that had marked their first meeting, and his farewells were flippant. "He can't care much for the girl, or he would not be in such a hurry to leave her," Dick thought, as he glanced sympathetically at Star Eyes, who, statuesque and silent, watched Gartside's slight form receding amidst the trees. But Jake Mursell was not satisfied with the handshake and the advice " not to work too hard" which Gartside had accorded him. While the rest were busy stowing the outfit in the canoe, he muttered something about his "dear old mother's knife" and sped back to the camping ground — thence through the belt of spruces, and overtook the solitary traveller. " Say ! " he panted, affecting unnatural Americanisms; "I jest come after to warn s I t «: OLD ACQUAINTANCE. 181 I I you. He's the softest kind of tender- foot, your friend Osborne, and I'll bet he forgot it. Don't you go for to let on to « living man in Skagway that you've met him above ground or there'll be trouble. There's a sight of Red Rube's pals left there, and mebbe Rube himself has crawled home. They're the sort to follow us and get square —see?" "Yes," said Gartside, measuring him with a critical eye ; " I've been out here a year or two, and I don't think I'm likely to make the mistake of blabbing. It was wise of you to post me, though. Anything else?" " N-no, I guess not," returned Jake, making as though to hurry back to the canoe, and then checking himself, and adding when he had retreated a few steps: "He wouldn't ever ask you — for old acquaintance, mebbe; but, say, Mister — ^you've been up yonder; it would save a heap of trouble. We're on a blind trail, ain't we? That cachet has been cleaned out already?" Gartside's usually quizzical eyes blazed into quick anger. "Not by me, if that's what ""pw^wp!!""" /I I '■f; } r p 1^ 182 SPECTRE GOLD. you mean to hint/' he flung back. " I've more than a mind to drop you, you fat beast, for suggesting such a thing." And then with a jeering laugh he put up the revolver which he had half drawn, for Jake had turned tail and was speeding for the lake shore. ■* I 183 CHAPTER XI. THE WHITE ghost's CACHET. Throughout the voyage over the confluent lakes and streams which, finally unitmg at the fork of the Lewis and Felly rivers, constitute the headwaters of the Yukon, the cause of the greatest wonder to Dick was Blue Light- ning's dignity. It prevailed, no matter what attitude of body or perplexity of mind the immediate situation demanded. In the mad whirl between the rocky walls of the Miles River Canyon, and amid the seething tur- moil of White Horse Rapids, the chief's stoical calm never failed him; and Dick valued the quality the more because every mile of the journey proved that he could not have done without it. At the most critical junctures his own poor Si wash — Joey the T :;i 'H il 184 SPECTRE GOLD. indefatigable — vas quaking with fear at the bottom of the canoe. And now, three weeks after leaving the shores of the Taku Lake, when the light canoe had five days previously been discarded for the roofed scow. Blue Lightning was more dignified than ever. In the larger vessel and on the broader bosom of the main stream, there was greater scope for Joey's labour, properly supervised. The ex-warrior contrived to get the best part of the work out of "the Siwash feller," contenting himself with keeping a watchful eye and an ever-ready pole for the more dangerous rocks and currents. So it was that on a certain morning when the scow was floating down stream at a steady twelve miles an hour. Blue Lightning waved the humbler red man aside and took sole charge of the navigation. Recently their course had lain between terraced banks of conifers, but now on the right the shore flattened out and vegetation ceased, the con- figuration of the ground suggesting the dwindling apex of a watershed. And so it f ii rHE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET. 185 f I) proved, for with a few skilful twirls with his pole Blue Lightning brought the scow under the bank fifty yards above the con- fluence of the Yukon with a smaller river which he had indicated with one of his stately gestures to Dick. "That Kla.idyke" he said gravely, little guessing with all his air of impenetrable wisdom that those two words in less than a twelvemonth would sum up the earthly goal of a mighty multitude. Dick, who had been leaning against the thatched superstructure smoking with Jake Mursell, sprang forward eagerly. Jake's geniidity and good humour had tarnished somehow under the stress of the voyage, and he had not been such good company of late, but he appeared to wake up at the sight of his companion's enthusiasm and stuck closely to him. "The Klondyke!" he said. "So this is the locality you have been keeping so dark! What is it — a mountain, or a river, or a blessed mirage? Not that it matters much to me. I can find that I wasn't built for ( ' I /3 186 SPECTRE GOLD, /'H [ I i \' W- I y^^ I, , M ir > < wear-and-tear, and all the gold in creation wouldn't tempt me to use this desert a day after you've done with it" Star Eyes, either attracted by their voices or by the stopping of the boat, had come out of the deck-house, and stood watching the two white men as they joined her father. Daily winning Dick's admiration by her courage during the perilous passage of the Rapids and the rock-studded stream, the girl had, nevertheless, been taciturn and uncom- municative, especially on all matters relating to Gartside. She had shown, indeed, more inclination towards the " Mr. Baxter " of the party, favouring that worthy with the best -blankets and studying his tastes in the simple cuisine that was alone possible on the scow. This preference was the more marked because Jake treated her and her father with undis- guised dislike, and privately to Dick professed to regard them both with suspicion. " We shall have to watch those copper- coloured beggars, Mr. Osborne, when we come to the neighbourhood of the cachet," he had said more than once during the voyage. "They ' ■ THE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET. 187 look to me to be capable of lifting the plunder and leaving us in the lurch." Though Dick did not share this view, Gart- side's manner had imbued him with a certain vague uneasiness which could only be allayed by finding Shrimptou's hoard intact. Hence Blue Lightning's announcement that the region of the ccwhet had been reached kindled him into unguarded enthusiasm. "Yes, the Klondyke is the river my in- structions told me to make for," he cried in answer to Jake's question. "We shall know the best, or the worst, now in a few hours. I have a plan, with compass bearings, that ought to lead me straight to the place, and I shall have to consult it before we decide on the next step." Now this was the first allusion that Dick had made in Jake's presence, so far as ho knew, to the possession of a plaa To Blue Lightning, as navigator, he had necessarily named the Klondyke broadly as their des- tination, with an injunction to that silent Indian, rigidly observed, to keep his own counsel. Without actually mistrusting Jake, 188 SPECTRE GOLD. 'm im i >i li I) ' m he had thought it wiser to preserve him from temptation by concealing the existence of the plan, and therefore he regretted his present revelation the moment it was beyond his lips. "That's good hearing — that you've got a pocket guide-book of the locality/' said Jake carelessly. "It ought to shorten the trip and get us back to civilisation sooner All this time Blue Lightnu.^^ had been keeping the scow with her broad bow butted into the bank, but the Yukon runs like a mill- race, and the stream was tugging and tearing at her stern with a violence that threatened to send her whirling off shore. Though the old man waited impassively for instructions, the sinews straining in his bronzed arms as he threw all his weight on the pole were eloquent for the necessity for instant decision. Star Eyes flashed a keen understanding of Dick's dilemma from her place in the doorway, but spoke no word. In the meantime Dick was thinking rapidly. After all, the main object of his secrecy had, he reflected, been attained. From his previous study of the plan he knew that he was THE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET. 189 ■m within a dozen miles of Shrimpton's cachet, and that all he desired was to come to it without risk of any of the party breaking away and forestalling him. There was now, he argued, in the short interval of time and space that lay between him and his promised land, no further danger of such bad faith being successful, even if attempted, and he decided to produce and consul, the plan. He had kept it for greater security in its original casing of deer-skin, fastened round his neck tmder his clothes, so that it never left his person, waking or sleeping. Even in that society — of three Indians and a casual white acquaintance — he felt what Vick Mursell would have called "real mean" in having to own thus publicly to the distrust which his concealment implied, but there was no help for it. Plunging his hand beneath his vest he brought out the package which ho had last examined at "Mother Mursell's" at Skagway, and unfolded the covering. The contents proved to be nothing but a piece of blank cardboard of the exact size and shape of the cabinet photograph on the 190 SPECTRE GOLD. I? ^' <• a ■■ \ I hack of which Ned Shrimpton's rough but effective plan had been drawn. Men express themselves in different ways when placed in a tight comer. It is a matter of health and temperament. Some swear ; some weep; and some sulk. Dick Osborne simply burst into laughter, in which there was no tinge of hysteria, at the thought that he had endured so much and won so close to his goal only to lose the prize at last. But his merriment was short-lived, as there followed the quick inrush of appreciation of what his loss meant to him. Had it been merely material he might have laughed on, but the gold which was now beyond his power meant Beryl Asquith, and the thought sobered him. Without disclosing his discovery he postponed speculation and flung himself into present requirements, the chief of which was to relic'e the tension on Blue Lightning's brawny arms. " We must land hereabouts," he said curtly, for he did not know whether the thief was among his hearers. "Which m best. Blue Lightning — to pull her round and punt up ■B THE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET. 191 the Klondyke, or moor her here to the bank of the big river?" "No place stay here — water too strong," was the reply. "Up Klondyke plenty creek. Me go ? " Dick nodded assent, and for the next three hours had little chance to review the situation. Yielded once more to the mastering current, the clumsy vesael plunged onward to the con- fluence with the smaller river, to stem the torrent of which up stream it took the united efforts of the chief, of Joey, and of Dick himself. At length, some five miles below the creek known as " Bonanza," they came to an indent in the bank which offered a safe haven for the scow ; the outfit was carried ashore ; and Dick was again confronted with the problem of whether to confess at once the failure of the expedition. One thing he was very certain of — he would take good care that none of his companions left his sight so long as they were in that district. If he had to return empty-handed, every man and woman of the party should return as empty-handed as he. \ 192 SPECTRE GOLD. ■ ■•' It was Jake Mursell who, wijtingly or otherwise, brought matters to a crisis and spoke the word which forced Dick to state his position. Since that wild burst of laughter an atmosphere of electrical tension seemed to have gripped the whole party ; hardly a word had been spoken; and mutual distrust was on every face but that of Jake, who had assumed a demeanour of benevolent surprise at the moodiness of his companions. As usual, he had shirked the hard work of the punt poles coming up stream, but now he busied himself in the milder labour of collecting drift-wood for a fire. "What's the good of doing that?" blurted out Dick, irritably suspicious now of every motive. " Who said we were going to camp here ? " " Well, I surmised as much — after all that toil," returned Jake pleasantly. " You see, I am not in your confidence as to the location of the Eldorado. Mayhap it is near enough for us to be pushing on to it to-day?" Dick hurled out a mighty oath in which all the pent-up wrath of the last few hours THE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET, 193 M- found vent. "I have been robbed," he added in explanation, "robbed of the plan by which alone I can find the place. I had it at Skag- way; I don't accuse anyone here; but this I know — that none of us will part company for five minutes so long as we are on the Klon- dyke. It is a forlorn hope, but I propose to stay and grub about these parts on the ofF- chance of hitting the spot." After the manner of their race, the Indians had taken the first opportunity of squatting on the ground, the father and daughter a little apart from Joey the carrier. The latter, with the less phlegmatic temperament of the coast-wise aboriginal, grinned at the raised voices of tho palefaces, anticipating the pleasure of seeing a fight. Blue Lightning smoked on with un- ruffled dignity, but under his blanket his right hand gave a loosening twitch to the knife in his belt, and his grim visage was frozen into an alertness that was more for Jake Mursell than for Dick. Star Eyes rose slowly to her feet and came forward. " I am sorry that you have been robbed, Mr. Osborne," she said. " It must make you N 194 SPECTRE GOLD. think that we who have come with you are bad people — or some of us. But I can restore to you the map of the gold cachet — not indeed the one made by the White Ghost, which has been stolen, but a copy of it which was drawn by Mr. Gartside while that poor man lay sick in our scow." And thrusting her hand into her bosom she brought forth a folded paper and gave it to T^ick. For a moment the reaction was so great that he had no thought for anything but the material object which bade fair to end his trouble, and he clutched the paper eagerly, opening it and pjrceiving from his recollection of the original that it was likely to be of service. The key of the situation was a bluff, visible at a point five miles up the E^ondyke, three miles due north from the left bank. So much he remembered, but the information was useless without the compass bearings of certain trees on the summit, and two imaginary lines drawn at indicated angles for giving dis- tances from the last of the trees to a stone beneath which the gold was hidden. A glance THE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET. 195 showed Dick that the bearings, angles, and distances were pencilled on Gartside's copy with a precision that spoke for their correctness. Honestly glad that the beautiful Indian girl standing modestly before him had acquitted herself of the theft by producing a substitute of the stolen plan, Dick was beginning to overwhelm her with thanks when his attention was drawn by Jake Mursell's heavy breathing. Turning quickly, he saw that the man's face had gone purple, and that he had every symptom of apoplexy. "What's the matter, Baxter — are you ill?" said Dick. With an eflfort Jake controlled himself, and, Hcking his dried lips, forced himself to speech. " I might weU be," he said viciously. " Don't you see that this lays me open to the sus- picion of having stolen your precious plan — that if this virtuous pair are innocent, it must be either me or Joey the carrier? It's hard, I reckon, for a man to have a charge like that brought against him." "No one has brought any charge against you," repUed Dick rather coldly, for he quite N 2 U ' tH'.M^. B' Mi qBTSW I 196 SPECTRE GOLD. felt the force of the argument. " I'm a lawyer, you must remember, and I shouldn't dream of making an accusation as unbacked by proof as that would be." "That's a grudging answer," said Jake, turning away and affecting sulkiness, though not dissatisfied with the ready reason that his quick wit had furnished for the sudden access of rage. It was now late in the evening, and though in those northern latitudes the short summer is marked by almost continuous daylight, Dick decided to curb his impetuosity and let tho party rest after the hard work up stream. So far as he could roughly estimate from the plan, Shrimpton's hiding-place would be found some five miles or so from where they were; and allowing for the rugged aspect of the country and time for the necessary calcula- tions, they should be able to reach it in as many hours after making a start. Naturally, Dick wondered how Gartside had come to make a copy of the plan, but Star Eyes offered no explanation, and a feeling of delicacy prevented Dick from questioning her. With THE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET. 197 the air of having discharged a perfunctory task she relapsed into an unsympathetic silence, and went about preparing the evening meal as though the occupation were a relief to her. On the contrary, Jake had apparently recovered his equanimity, for before sitting down he apologised for his outburst, and made a jest at his own squeamishness. He did not, however, remain long at the camp fire, but retired to the scow to sleep, saying that he was tired, Joey, too, soon curled up under the lee of a rock and slept. All Dick's latent antipathy to Jake having returned tenfold, he felt disinclined to spend the hours of rest in his vicinity, so he lay down on the bank, covering himself with his blanket, and first taking the precaution to put the copy of the plan in one of his boots. Blue Lightning and Star Eyes also showed a prefarence for the shore, the former deftly building a shelter for his daughter with skins which he brought from the scow. Throughout the recent excitement the chief had evinced no emotion or curiosity, but when he came to select the site for the little lodge he cast a crafty eye 1 :r 1 198 SPECTRE GOLD. over the situation. The scow was moo^ oft a miniature gully, in which they had camped, and Blue Lightning pitched his daughter's tent towards the narrowing upper end of it, furthest from the shore, so that in a strategic sense the shelter commanded the exit into the open country. When Star Eyes had retired to tho interior he stretched himself across the entrance and, save for the hum of the mosquitos and the snoring of Joey, all was still Thus an hour passed, and then a hlack shadow sped up the gully from the river in the twilight — a shadow which Blue Lightning, sitting up alert and watchful the moment it had flitted by, recognised as t)te " Baxter " of ine expedition, heavily laden. The Indian stretched out his hand and touched his daughter's foot. "Bad man gone after White Ghost's gold," he whispered. " Take all um things — ^make big skedaddle. Me follow and kill, or wake up White Chief Osborne?" "Do nothing, my father," floated back the soft reply. " And say nothing in the morning. Baxter will return on his own tracks." And while the camp still slumbered the THE WHITE GHOST'S CACHET. 199 prediction was verified, for Jake stole back to the scow, still heavily laden, and, as the ever- wakeful Blue Lightning perceived, drawn and haggard of countenance. Jake's broad face still showed traces of a great fatigue, or of a great shock, when the camp was roused by Dick, who, after the physical labour and mental agitation of the previous day, had slept a good deal longer than he had intended. Having drawn the scow further into the inlet, the party started, and struck into a country of dreary moss-covered hummocks, alternated with clumps of spruce firs, till they sighted the bluff. It was not a steep climb to the summit, nor was the hill a lofty one, but the usually light springy step of Star Eyes lagged somewhat as she followed the men on to the level top. Then Dick busied himself with his com- pass and the copied plan, Jake proffering superfluous assistance, till the last of the indicated pine trees was located and they set themselves to measure distances. True to the forecast of the paper which Dick clutched in 'Wt»<.^^.*i>»- -*<>**'■'' fcW* L. M(,^-.'. 200 SPECTRE GOLD. his trembling fingers, the measuring tape led him to a flat slag of rock. " Here you are I " cried Dick, losing control of himself in the mad abandon of victory; "here is the place! Blessed if I don't give you a ten thousand pound wedding-present, Miss Star Eyes, when you marry good old Fenton Gartside!" And stooping down he wrenched up the slag of rock, disclosing a hollow basin in the earth that had been plainly scooped by human hands. It was empty! There was room in the vacuum for untold gold, but the gold was not there! 4 201 CHAPTER XII. CROSS CURRENTS. "Tide's agin her, I reckon." " Her ingines want ile, mebbe." The speakers were Vick Mursell and Hank Devine, who from the rickety tunber staging of the wharf were watchmg the approach of an incoming steamer. The vessel had rounded into the Skagway river from the Lynn Channel half an hour before, and was laboriously churning the brown flood- water that had come down from the mountains. She had abeady been recognised as the obsolete old paddle-boat, clumsy as a Dutch gaUeon, which was thought good enough to carry mails and passengers from Seattle and Victoria along the coast to Juneau and the ports further north. [)', iM i v ■ h I' ' ! 5 U 202 SPECTRE GOLD. , i Vick Mursell wore her arm in a sling, though over seven weeks had passed since her gallant attempt to warn her lover and his English patron of the ambush awaiting them in the White Pass. Fever had followed as a result of the wound, and, in the absence of proper medical attention, Yick had had a bad illness, from which she was even now barely convalescent. The "pianner" was still silent at Mother Mursell's saloon, though the fair performer hoped soon to "oblige" again. Unable to tear himself away while his sweetheart was ill, Hank had lingered at Skagway, and watched vainly for survivors of that unseen tragedy on the plateaa But neither of Dick liC • Joey nor of Red Rube and his " tough -i " had any news come down to the township, and the affair had long since ceased to be a nine days' wonder. "Mr. Baxter's" implication in it was not known to Hank or to the public, and his disappear- ance from a community among whom he had only spent three days had hardly occasioned comment. It was the general belief that he had gone to his salmon-fishery. Only B ^r CROSS CURRENTS. 203 in the silence of the night, after the cus- tomers had cleared out, did his absence excite speculation at Mursell's Hotel, and then the grim proprietress always reassured her daughter's sisterly anxieties. "Don't you forgit it! Jake ain't the boy to git left," Mother Mursell would say. "He's come out on top somewheres, I'll bet." For the moment, however, Vick's sympathies and surmises were not for her absent brother, as she sat on a capstan at the edge of the wharf, nursing her wounded arm and a certain pet theory that had entered into her souL "There ain't no manner of doubt, as I'm allowin', that this yere boat might be bringing an answer to your letter?" she said to the young miner lounging at her side. " That's how I figger it out," Hank assented. "Three weeks to England, three weeks on the back track, and a week throwed in for writing and mailing the letter. There's time for it to reach, if so be as anyone's writ." "And if there's time for a letter to reaoh, there's time for people," said Vick decisively. "In my jedgment. Hank, when that wheezy ■'~-i."t:5&T5^33a[^i;(.^ *>'.;S3Uo::^V 'ii-v'^'-i.-i »??KJK -PUiSri^^a 'f II 204 SPECTRE GOLD. old tea-kettle bumps the wharf, we shall see some real high-toned lords scoot out of her. That pore young feller's friends is sure to come after him. They'll be wanting him for the family morseleeyum. There was a family morseleeyum — all shiny marble — in the novel I was reading when I lay sick." "But there ain't nothin' to bury," said Hank reflectively; "and if there was, I guess they'd write for the remains to be expressed over. Besides, don't you make any mistake, Vick, my girl. That Osborne was a feller to be relied on, and he took his solemn oath he was no lord. The name he give me to write to was same as his own, and it was a P*».verend Minister." To which Vick replied by poking her tongue into her cheek and favouring her lover with a kno^ving wink. " You're a simple man, Hank," she said. And then she broke off abruptly and touched her companion's brown wrist, and added — " Here's that Gartside feller ; we'd best bide mum," J CROSS CURRENTS. 206 The news that the steamer was coming in had spread, and the usual desolation of the wharf was broken by the collection of a score of people — some being mere idle loungers, and others longshore harpies hoping to prey- on the passengers, if there were any. Among the former was to be numbered Fenton Gartside, looking on the whole not much the Avorse for his six-weeks' residence amid the Skagway saloons, though Vick's contemptr :s ■ reference to him was partly due to the fact that on the previous night he had broken down in his good behaviour and had helped to " paint the town red " in the company of some of the worst characters in the ^lace. A. Since his arrival from no one knew where, the relations between the English wanderer and Hank Devine had been marked by a coolness almost amounting to open enmity. On their first meeting after Gartside's return to Skagway they had eyed each other with mutual distrust, and had turned away without exchanging a word. The reason was very simple. Gartside, ignorant that Jake Mursell 206 SPECTRE GOLD. M U h I i •J IT ■ had removed the paper affixed by Dick to the tree announcing his safet*, despised Hank for abandoning the expedition; and, his tongue being tied by the necessity of not letting Dick's survival be known, he was prevented f? ^''a asking the explanation. On the other hat;.i, Hank Devine, who had always regarded Gartside as a disreputable loafer, viewed him now with positive suspicion. Dick's story of the hoard bequeathed to him convinced the honest miner that there might be more than drunken babble in Gartside's boasted millions — millions to which the boaster certainly had no title. Gartside nodded to Vick, who knew him as a customer, and went and leaned against a pile of lumber. He was not particularly interested in the arrival of the steamer, because he expected neither friends nor letters. From his own people he had long been cut adrift, and sufficient time had not elapsed for him to receive a reply to the letter which he had duly seut to old Mr. Osborne announcing Dick's safety. He was angry with himself this morning for his lapse the night before ; for he had been, for good reasons, trying to keep himself straight. CROSS CURRENTS. 207 Presently, as the old vessel was steered warily into the shallows a cry went up that she had passengers. "And women, too, by thunder !" yelled Vick in high excitement. "See, there's an old gal and a young 'un standing by the smoke-stack, and a feller like a N' York dude a little way from 'em." Mother Mursell, red-shirted, and with her drab-grey locks floating in the wind, had come up behind, eager to annex possible " boarders." Since the young miner had brought her daughter back wounded from the White Pass some spark of maternal gratitude had prompted her to tolerate him — so far at least as to abstain from shooting " on sight." Hearing Vick's words, she gave a wrathful wheeze which caused them both to turn. "Women aboard, d'ye say?" she growled, shading her eyes to scrutinise the deck of the steamer. " By Gosh ! and so it is ! I'm wunnerin' what's brought the likes of they to Skagway." Gartside's ready wits divined the cause of her uneasiness, and the chance of venting his mm 20a SPECTRE GOLD. spleen in a little ill-humoured chaff recom- mended itself to his mood. •They've come to start a saloon, mother," he ^ "It's more than likely they have brought a piano for the young lady to play while the elderly party in the funny hat bosses the show and does the shooting." The gibe struck a sore point. Vick's inability to pound her battered instrument during the last few weeks had thinned out several musically-inclined customers, and Mrs. Mursell lived in perpetual fear of fresh rivals. Hitherto, not only had her saloon been the only one "fixed with a planner," but she and her daughter had shared with an Irish miner's wife the privilege of being the only women in the settlement. She snorted, and cast an evil look at Gartside, but waited in silence for the disembarkation of the passengers. The Emily Jackson came alongside the wharf at last, and the onlookers gathered close to inspect the new arrivals with an in- terest that had grown rapidly since feminine garments had been descried. The day was 1 CROSS CURRENTS. 209 yet young, and, as the average Western adventurer is not a bad fellow when his veins are not inflamed with drink, the majority were prepared to give Mother Mursell's possible rivals a cordial welcome. So it was that, when the gang-plank was run out, and Aunt Rebecca, closely followed by Beryl Asquith, came ashore, half a dozen pairs of rough hands were stretched out to relieve them of the lighter articles of bag- gage which they were carrying. Among the would-be helpers was Hank Devine, whom Vick pushed forward with "Didn't I say? It's his friends right enough," on noting Beryl's deep mourning. Beryl shrank a little before the wild faces and strange costumes, but Aunt Rebecca, though she looked about her curious^ , lost none of her visible self-possession. She con- fessed afterwards that she had been well- nigh staggered by the general aspect of the squalid township, and by the obvious lack of all decent accommodatioa Case-hardened traveller as she was, the hospitality proffered by the board on " Mother Mursell's Hotel," with o 210 SPECTRE GOLD. W' hi id ^ its bullet-starred windows and air of disrepute, filled lier with foreboding. The question which was wrinkling her brow into deeper furrows was — Where on earth could she and Beryl find a decent roof to cover them? Two persons, it seemed, were ready with a solution of the difficulty. The first was Mother Mursell herself, who pushed her way to the front and stood facing the two ladies, an incarnation of threatening malignity. "Ye're come to Skagway in the rum bizness, eh, missus?" blustered the virago, addressing the elder of her two suspected rivals. The unconscious humour of the suggestion came as a relief to Aimt Rebecca in the midst of her perplexities, and, without vouch< safing a direct reply, she smiled grimly. " I really think it is a woman," she said reflectively to herself, but with a puzzled glance round that elicited a chorus of rudely-expressed assent from the bystanders. "Oh, yes, ma'am, she's a woman — a sweet pretty blossom, ain't she?" said ona "Nice motherly old party," added another. And ; CROSS CURRENTS. 211 so on, till the object of the banter was foaming at the mouth with rage. " If you're come here to run a saloon," she was beginning to screech, when Hank Devine, perceiving that the furious creature's hand was lurking ominously near her pistol, thought fit to interfere. "I'll bet they're not in the rum line, mother," he said. " You're only wasting your breath. Best let her have it straight, ma'am," he added in an undertone to Aunt Rebecca. "Mother Mursell can be really nasty on occasion ; she's terribly handy with her gun." " Oh, I'm not afraid of bemg shot," replied Aunt Rebecca, calmly. "We have no inten- tion of opening a public-house— if that is what this person means." "Then ye'll be for wanting lodgings," promptly returned Mother MurselL "When yer baggage is checked out come right over to the hotel thera I'll go and make ready." And, appeased by the prospect of taking the strangers in, the weird creature stalked away, never dreaming that she had effectively spoilt o 2 ..''I I 'A il k •: ( 212 SPECTRE GOLD. any chance she might have had of securing them as guests. At this point, Rupert Malahide, who had been watching the scene from the deck of the steamer, ran down the gaug-plank and joined the group. An ugly triumph had shone in his eyes ever since they had rounded inio the river's mouth and he had seen what manner of place Skagway was, but he con- trolled his features into a semblance of gentlemanly deprecation as he addressed Aimt Rebecca. "One word, Miss Asquith," he said, in- dicating by a gesture that the word had better be spoken privately. Aunt Rebecca hesitated, said something in a whisper to Beryl, and stepped a few paces aside with Malahide. " Well I " she said, sharply. "I only wanted to oflfer my services," he began* "You are an old traveller, and have met with no trouble on this preposterous jour- ney so far, but surely as an old traveller you must recognise that you have brought your niece to a place where a man's escort " ' 1. ^^ CROSS CURRENTS. 213 "Not another word," interrupted Aunt Rebecca viciously. "We have refused to have anything to do with you hitherto on the voyage, and we want none of you now. I only consented to speak to you to ascertain what you wanted. Why, man, I will make no secret of it! We are here on purpose to thwart you and counteract your influence. Set as my niece was on coming to search for traces of her lover — I don't mince words, you see — I should have thought twice before bringing her to this outlandish place if we hadn't learnt that you were creeping off here yourself. Homburg, indeed! It is a lucky thing Beryl picked up that envelope with the notes of your route." "Let me make a clean breast of it," persisted Malahide. "I admit that I love Beryl Asquith. I came out because I guessed this mad project was on foot, and I wanted to be on hand to watch over her. You do me a grievous wrong if you think that I undertook this journey with more sinister design than that. I will pledge myself to retire if young Osborne turns up safe, but i ft 214 SPECTRE GOLD. If: in the meanwhile let me assist you both. Look at these rough fellows — at this wretched collection of hovels. Apart from other con- siderations, I must press my service on you as a fellow-countryman in a strange land." " Fine words don't butter parsnips," snapped Aunt Rebecca, firmly. "I would rather tnist one of these slouched-hatted ragamuffins than you, Mr. Malahide — after reading my brother's diary. I'll bid you good-day." Gartside, lazily watching from a little distance along the sloppy wharf, was under the impression that he had grasped the whole situation. These English folk, he told him- self must be Dick's people, come out as a result of news which must have been sent home by Hank Devine; and he began to debate in his mind how best to inform them of their relative's safety after the assault on the Pass. He must do it, he argued, in such a time and at such a place so that Dick's survival should not become public, for fear of danger from Red Rube's partisans. Seeing Malahide in conference with Aunt Rebecca, he naturally concluded that they were all ^! T^ CROSS CURRENTS. 215 ^! of one party; and now, when Malahide returned discomfited to the steamer, he supposed that the ladies had only been temporarily deserted by their male escort while he went to look after the landing of their baggage. Aunt Rebecca rejoined Beryl, whose alarm was yielding to amusement at the open-mouthed inspection to which she was being subjected by Vick Mursell. It was a long time since that uncouth daughter of the West had seen what she called "a real toney toilet," and it was all she could do to keep her fingers from feeling and appraising the fabric of Beryl's dress. " Now," asked Aunt Rebecca, rather defiantly to hide her anxiety, " can anyone tell me where to find a gentleman named Hank Devine ? " The miner stepped forward pheepishly. He was irritated because politene&i j revented him from resenting in the presence of the ladies the rude guffaw that broke from the " boys," and he was very nervous lest Dick's friends should blame him for his conduct at the Pass. "We don't grow gentlemen hereabouts, ma'am ; but my name is Hank Devine," he said. /■ 4 1,1: t w Li. 216 SPECTRE GOLD. Aunt Rebecca looked the clean-built young fellow over from crown to sole, diagnosed the source of his obvious discomfort, and promptly took a liking to him. "We are friends of the Mr. Osborne about whom you ivrote to England," she said. " Is there any later news of him ? " An ugly sneer showed on the faces of a few of the roughs present, as 'Hank shook his hea^ sadly and made the only answer in his power. " Well, we have come out to see if we can alter that," said Aunt Rebecca cheerfully, but with a wary eye for Beryl, who was struggling bravely to bear up under the renewed blow. "In the meanwhile, Mr. Devine," the little old lady proceeded, " what about a roof to cover us ? My niece and I can't possibly go to that pre- posterous woman's hotel, and it appears to be tho only house of the kind in the place." Vick, who had been listening with all her e&rs and breathing hard, cast a furtive glance round, and then whispered hoarsely so that none but the two strangers and her lover could hear — " Mother 'd skin me for spoiling trade if she knew I'd spoke, but there's Parsons' frame house empty — ^him as went down to Juneau in the > CROSS CURRENTS. 217 ^ schooner yestidday. There ain't no fixins in it, or nothing, but it's a roof, anyways." Aunt Rebecca regarded the great raw-boned lass with a kindly twinkle in her shrewd old eyes. "This must be the young woman who tried to save Mr. Osborne, I think," she said. "Let me shake hands with you, my dear, and thank you also for trying to fit us with a place to lay our heads." And when she had grasped the girl's red fist. Beryl, too, shook hands and spoke a few grateful words; at which Vick swelled with pride to think that she had been thus greeted by those whom she had already dubbed " the lord's ladies." Under these amenities the cloud on Hank's face lightened, and he at once volunteered to guide Aunt Rebecca and Beryl to the empty house and see if Vick's suggestion was feasible. Leaving a half-breed whom he could trust to look after their baggage tis soon as it should be put ashore, he started at the head of his convoy, from which Vick Mursell judiciously detached herself before it passed the " hotel" The open door of the saloon tempted the rest of the waterside loungers, and Hank was thus left *«■« i vt I Brr V^ III S 218 SPECTRE GOLD. alone to pilot the two ladies along the muddy track between the shanties. In their eagerness to learn the smallest details of Dick's doings at Skagway they missed a good many sights and sounds that might well have appalled them ; though, as it was, Aunt Rebecca paused once or twice and looked back, irresolute, towards the steamer. But the distant view of Rupert Malahide watching them from the bulwarks decided her; and she stumped on, distressed on Beryl's account, and not too happy on her own. The house of the departed Parsons proved to bo little better than a rough frame-built shed, but it seemed water-tight, and, the door yielding to a kick from Hank's boot, its resources were soon explored. There was no furniture in it, but there was a fire-place, and, superior to many of the Skagway dwellings, it boasted the luxury of a floor. " 'Tain't much of a place," said Hank apolo- getically, " but a fifty dollar bill would about fix it up to rights. If you care to trust me, I dessay I can scrape together a few chairs and a table, and I can bring down a heap of skins for 1 CROSS CURRENTS. 219 I bedding. And I was thinkin'—mebbe you'll feel kind of lonesome — I could strike my tent under the pine bluff and pitch it right here, so's you'd have friendly company." Aunt Rebecca pulled out some money with alacrity, and accepted all his offers there and then. At least they would have privacy and protection by this arrangement, and she urged Hank to go and make the necessary purchases at once. On the threshold he paused and looked back. "Fra'aps there's a p'int overlooked," he said, hesitatingly. "Mebbe you don't want me, after all There was a fellow as came with you on the boat — ^you was speaking with him at the wharf " "My dear Mr. Devine," interrupted Aunt Rebecca, "get him out of your head as a friend of ours onca for all. He's a bad man and an enemy of Mr. Osborne's, come out here to injure him, if he is still alive. If you would serve us, tell Mr. Malahide nothing, and watch all he does." "That's good enoii<];h," said Hank, briefly; and he strode away, soon to return with the 3SSB3 r 220 SPECTRE GOLD. ( first batch of "assorted notions" for the comfort of his protegees. In the meanwhile Fenton Gartside, lounging on the wharf and watching the steamer dis- gorge her load of canned goods and whisky, was divided in opinion as to how he should act. Whatever the burden that lay on his soul, making him moody and boisterous by turns, he was honestly anxious to end the suspense of Dick's friends by informing them of the meeting on Lake Taku. But he was moved to hesitation by a reluctance to present his disreputable person to English ladies, the sight of whom had awakened in him a long-discarded sense of shame. And though he had every reason to believe that Malahide was of the party, he was loth to confide in him without positive proof "If that sleek -looking chap joins them, I shall be silre it is all right," he muttered to himself. "If not, I suppose I had better face that queer old figure in the hat, and the pretty girl I wonder how long it is since I have spoken to gentlewomen of my own country!" •r CROSS CURRENTS. 221 He had to wait some time before Malahide came ashore, for that astute individual was cracking a bottle of champagne with the captain, with an eye to future contingencies. When at length he came down the gang- plank and gave his valise to a half-breed to carry, Gartside followed him at a distance, and in two minutes was aware of his destin- ation. Malahide walked briskly and with evident intention to "Mother Mursell's Hotel," which he entered, followed by the porter. "That settle^ it," said Gartside; "I dare say he belongs to the ladies, but I'll tackle them first." So it was that while Hank Devine was helping the ladies to arrange the few rude chattels which he had collected, Aunt Rebecca espied Gartside approaching. He had been to his hut to wash aid tidy himself, but the operation had failed to iEcipart an aspect of respectability. His over- night dissipation, combined with the nervous- ness with which his self-imposed task fiUed him, gave him a furtive air as he picked his way haltingly towards the shanty. !'/ 222 SPECTRE GOLD. V : "Here, who can this be? I don't like his looks," said Aunt Rebecca, pointing him out to Hank. "A most tremenjious bad lot," replied the miner decisively. "Little better than a comer loafer, and up to no good, I reckoa He was on a thundering tear last night, to my knowledge." "What can he want here?" cried Beryl, in alarm. ''I shouldn't wait to find out," said Hank, who had never been able to rid himself of the idea that the drunken bab'le in which Gartside had indulged about " The White Ghost's" millions boded ill for Dick's venture. " I should fire him before he pitches his tale," he added. "Shall I take him on? There ain't no t^ood in the feller." fiu'^ Aunt Rebecca herself was equal to the occasion, and, standing in the doorway, bade the intending visitor begone so forcibly that he turned and obeyed "I mustn't Mghten them, and I suppose I cmi rather a terrible object," muttered Gart- side with a queer laugh an he looked back at CROSS CURRENTS. 223 the fierce little figure in the mushroom hat vociferating in the doorway. " Well, in a way it's a relief. I'll tell my story to the sleek man at Mursell's, and he can pass it on to them. He doesn't seem like a chap to be scared by blear eyes and a stubbly chin." He would not have admitted to himself — this strange character — that he was hurt by the rebuff he had met with. He tried to soothe himself with the cynical reflection that they would have to wait for his good news, but nevertheless the wound rankled, and it had the effect of plunging him into an im- pudent, reckless mood. He swaggered into the saloon door at Mursell's with a demeanour defiantly different from that with which he had approached the ladies. A Chinaman was busy "putting up drinks" for a group of customers. "You have got a new guest, John— come by the steamer," he said. "Tell him an English gentleman wants to speak to him outsida" The loungers at the bar laughed at Gart- side's description of himself, and invited him 224 SPECTRE GOLD. to drink, but he waved an airy refusal and went outside and waited. In less than a minute Malahide appeared, the surprise with which he had received the message changing to a half-resentfii^ curiosity as he saw the perky, disreputable-looking figure that came to meet him. He had hoped it was Jake. " You are a friend of Mr. Richard Obsome, I believe — come to search for traces of him in consequence of a report of his death sent home by a thick-skulled miner?" said Gart- side. "You are with the two ladies who landed from the steamer ? " "Yes to both questions," replied Malahide eagerly. "Have you anything to tell us ox poor Dick ? " "I met Mr. Osborne alive and well a week after the attack on him on the White Pass," said Gartside. "He has gone north to the Yukon on the business that brought him out There are with him a stout, Fhifty-looking beggar called Baxter, one of hin carriers who survived the fight, and a brace of Indians who are thoroughly reliable. He ought to come through all right." CROSS CURRENTS. 225 A quick spasm of rage crossed Malahide's face as he recognised Jake Mursell in the description of Baxter, and scented treachery to his own design. He saw what had hap- pened. His hireling assassin had thrown him over in face of the temptation to secure the gold hoard — probably after some proof that it really existed. It Avas only with an eflfort that Malahide controlled his face. "Tell me everything, my dear sir," he said. "You have already placed Osborne's friends under a heavy debt of ;^atitude." And at greater length Gart^ide described the meeting on Lake Taku, recounted what he had heard of the attack and of Hank Devine's part in it, and vouched for Blue Lightning's capacity to guide Dick safely to a successful issue. But he was silent as to his own previous knowledge of Shrimpton and of Dick. Malahide heard him without a break to the end, striving the while to fathom the motives and capacity for evil of this strangely, met waif. It was his way to be ever looking for new tools, conscious or innocent; and he p r •iSmi B : t. i 226 SPECTRE GOLD. concluded that this one had better be placed for the present in the latter category. " You have acted with excellent judgment in keeping all this dark," he said. " It would never do for the bad characters in this wild place to know how their boon companions had been handled by Osborne and his friend Baxter. And there is another precaution which we had better take. The ladies of my party are rather excitable — one of them especially. They would not guard this secret an hour, and hard as it may appear I should be inclined, in Osborne's interest, not to take them into confidence just yet. Do you see what I mean ? " Gartside nodded, greatly relieved. " Now that I have told you, I have shunted the responsibility," said he. "Put an end to their suspense in your own way, at your own time. I'm no lady's man, and shan't go near them." "Good!" said Malahide. "Now come in and refresh ; I should like to know more of you." Hank Devine, trudging by, laden with a packing-case which was to be the table of [ \ CROSS CURRENTS. 227 Aunt Rebecca's establishment, saw them go into the saloon together. But any emotions that were forming in his mind at seeing Gartside and Malahide in company were dispelled by the apparition of a red-headed, bull-necked man, who suddenly came round the comer of the building and followed them in. " By Gosh !" murmured the astonished miner, as he resumed his way, " if that ain't Rube, come back at last ! There's going to be trouble ! " p 2 228 I CHAPTER XIII. Jake's "consolation stakes." Dick let the slab of rock fall back over the empty hole, and gazed from one to the other of his companions. Blue Lightning grunted and said something in an imdertone to Star- Eyes, who gravely shook her head. Joey the carrier looked frankly unconcerned, and Jake began to talk volubly — so volubly and so close on the heels of the discovery that had Dick beUeved it possible for him to have removed the gold, he would have suspected the words of having been prepared for the occasion. As it was, whether " Mr. Baxter " had stolen the plan or not, there were two arguments against his having stolen the gold. In the few hours that they had been on the Klondyke no one man could have shifted the hoard accumu- i i JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 229 lated by Shrimpton ; and, had that been possible, he would certainly not have returned to camp. The wild mining-town known as Circle City, then in its infancy, was only some forty miles further on. The culprit would have fled thither, with as much as he could carry of his plunder, and thence down the Yukon to St Michael's and the sea. Yet Jake's sympathetic ravings were a little overdone, and nearly brought him to grief. " I'm sorry for this, Mr. Osborne, and all the same I'm glad— downright glad ! " he shouted. " I regret your disappointment; I rejoice at my own acquittal; but above all, knowing your good heart, I grieve for your shattered faith in a friend. That man, Gartside, who sneaked off to Skagway, has done this. You saw how he jumped at the chance to avoid coming — ^you saw " The interruption was due to the click of the magazine of Blue Lightning's Winchester, as the chief shot a cartridge into the barrel. Jake, turning quickly, was confronted with the dead'y tube levelled at him from not six feet away. "You make more bad talk about Gar'side '< 230 SPECTRE GOLD. I blow roof of head off," said Blue Lightning gravely. "Gar'side heap better man than you." Any honest emotion came as a refreshing breeze to Dick at that crisis of doubt and suspicion ; and, though far from being assured of Gartside's innocence, he felt grateful to the old warrior for championing an absent friend. "Come," he exclaimed, with a thrill of satisfaction at the beads of terror that stood on Jake's brow, " we shan't find the hoard by wrangling. Lower your rifle, chief; and you, Baxter, had better not bring accusations that you can't back with proof We shall be more profitably occupied in looking for the fresh gold which Shrimpton said was to be won hereabouts. Perhaps the White Ghost repented of his gift to me, and his spectre came back for it. Let us go down to those creeks; they seem the sort of place for a find." Star Eyes sighed gently at the passing of the trouble, for her grim parent threw his rifle into the hollow of his arm and altered his scowl for Jake into a smile for Dick. "Young pale-face chief speaks wise words," he said. "Blue }, 1 f JAKE'S "CUNSOUHON STAKES." 231 Lightning's blood runs too hot sometimes. This place bad medicine. Let us go." From the summit of the bluff they had a wide " bird's-eye " view of the rushing Klondyke and its tributary creeks, some of them — mere rivulets — hemmed in and boiling between shelv- ing banks, others broad watercourses, lazily guiding their shallow flood to the parent stream. Hank Devine, had he been with them, would have pronounced that silver tracery of rock- stemmed water to be a prospector's paradise, replete with infinite possibilities. Too dazed by the sudden overthrow of his hopes to try to form any definite plans, Dick felt the necessity of impetuous action, and with feverish eagerness led the way down the slope. He regarded the episode of Shrimpton's hoard as closed — someone had forestalled him ; it did not much matter who — and all he cared for now was to wrest from Nature a substitute for what he had lost by man's guile. If he could only hit on the creek from which Shrimpton had mined his wealth, he might, after all, only have to write off as a bad debt the time and labour to be expended in washing out a new fortune. I ■■■ I I f4 232 SPECTRE GOLD. Crossing the flats below the bluff he found a certain amount of relief in consulting Blue Lightning and Star Eyes on the nature of the country round, whether they would be able to supplement their supplies with enough fish and game to enable them to stay some weeks, and what was the very latest they would be able to remain before winter closed in and drove them away. At first Jake followed meekly behind with Joey the carrier, as though either sulky or chastened in spirit at the rebukes administered to him. But when those in front began to discuss ways and means for getting out of the country — whether down the Yukon vid Circle City and St. Michael's to the sea, or upstream back to Skagway — he pricked his ears, and presently ranged alongside. "Circle City is on the American side of the boundary, is it not ? " he asked, with only a show of casual interest. Star Eyes shot a keen glancc) at him, and took it upon herself to answer. Her reply was complete even to diSuseness, and gave a good deal more than the information I JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 233 required. It embraced clear directions that would have enabled anyone to go to Circle City across the intervening forty miles of wilderness with very little difficulty. Jake put a few more questions, more or less relevant to the discussion of their future plans, but all on the basis of an exodus vi4 Circle City. He was particularly inquisitive about the stem-wheel steamers pl3ring thence to St Michael's, and the ocean-going boats that connect the latter port with the Pacific coast. Dick, beginning to feel a strange elation as they neared the river, found it in his heart to chaff this man whom he disliked. "You have evidently made up your mind that we are to go back by sea, Baxter," he said. "Confess that you funk those rapids." This man was a man of moods to-day, for he turned sulky again. " One doesn't shoot rapids upwards" he said resentfully. " No, but one has to portage the boat past the rapids, and that would hardly suit a chap of your figure," persisted Dick. " That is, if you weren't too busy cooking the dinner, or doing fancy needlework, to lend a hand." Mmmmt mmmmmmmmimm wmmm mmmm 234 SPECTKE GOLD. It ." I ■ %■ Again Jake's mood seemed to change, and he broke into a hearty laugh. "You are rough on me, Mr. Osborne," he chuckled. "You must remember that, though I may have shirked the hard work of the trip, you wouldn't have been here to-day if I hadn't had a soft heart at the White Pass." Jake's oily smile even more than his words conjured up the picture of the five ruffians sinking into the chasm. Just so had he smiled after detaching the pine-stem ; and, shuddering at the reminiscence, Dick strode on without reply. He would have given much to have convicted his smooth-tongued companion of the treachery of which he knew he was the victim, and it irritated him to be perpetually reminded of a service which he was beginning to think might not have been disinterested. Having satisfied his geographical curiosity, Jake fell back without any protest against Dick's coldness. The country through which thty were passing was carpeted with a dull brown moss, which as they neared the river level took a greener tint. Here, too, the ! mt^mm JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 235 giant mosquitoes reasserted themselves — as usual, singling out the two white men for their prey, and evoking loud and frequent curses from the afflicted Jake. For some reason best known to herself, Star Eyes was moved to quiet smiles hy his noisy wailings, and once as she glided gracefully at her father's side she touched the silent warrior and spoke a few words in their own tongue. Suddenly they came upon a rocky gulch, along the bottom of which a brook splashed over a sandy bed towards the river. A few solitary firs had found root - hold on the rugged slope of the little ravine, and close down by the streamlet the soil changed to a clayey gravel on which there were no traces of vegetation. The Indian Joey had brought a couple of spades in case it should be necessary to dig for the cachet, and taking one of them, Dick descended to the brook. "From what I read of placer-mining on the voyage out, this looks a likely spot," he snid. " Come, Baxter ! now's the time to retrieve your character for laziness. Take the other spade and set to." ^\Ml»«»* ^■BW^'y »■*.' 236 SPECTRE GOLD. 11 Making a wry face Jake submitted, and for half an hour the two men scooped holes in the gravel, pausing now and again to wash a little in their drinking-cup, but finding no trace of gold. At the end of that time Jake threw down his spade and said that he was ilL " I have got a touch of fever," he groaned. "With your permission, Mr. Osborne, I should prefer to return to our camp a:id get some quinine. There is some among the stores, I think." it the moment Dick was keenly scruti- nising the deposit at the bottom of his tiii cup, where something glittering had caught his eye. It was only a tiny particle, vanished among the sand as soon as seen, and in his efforts to re-discover it he answered absently : — "Oh yes; cut along, by all means, and dose yourself" Jake took him at his word, and instantly began to clamber out of the gulch, but before he had gained the top it davmed on Dick that he had made a mistake. Though JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 237 Shrimpton's hoard was missing, this man was still open to the suspicion of having stolen the original plan, and there was the possi- bility that he had some sinister design in separating from the party. He was about to call him back when again the glittering particle came to the surface of the sand in the cup, and this time it stayed there. With a thrill of rapture, he knew that the alluvial soil, in greater or smaller quantities, contained gold. There was no knowing what a further search might reveal. Absorbed in his discovery he let some minutes pass in examining the yellow speck, and when next he looked up Jake was lost to view. Instinctively he turned towards the Indians, who, with the apathy of their race for precious metals, had watched the operations from a little distance with but slender interest. Blue Lightning was gazing in the direction of Jake's disappearance, Joey was squatting on his haunches half asleep, while Star Eyes seemed to be watching Dick with an intelligent appreciation of his difficulty. As he caught her eye she rose >,'^^M«iw>t«wi r /', 238 SPECTRE GOLT. j ^1 from the rock on which she had been sitting and came forward. " You are afraid that he has gone away for no good," she said. "Try and trust us Indian folk, Mr. Osborne — ^you will not be sorry. Let my father follow him unseen, and watch that he does no harm. Blue Lightning is first-rate on the trail" The warm blood was mantling under the girl's brown skin, and her eyes met his, straight and true. Since the disappointment of the morning his mmd had been full of suspicion for everyone, but the pleading wist- fulness of this Indian maiden, who had made her quiet influence felt through the toils and dangers of the long river journey, took him by storm and drove his doubts away. It might not be wise to let two members of the expedition out of his sight at this juncture, but he would risk it rather than wound the girl. And had he not found gold ! "Thank you. Miss Star Eyes," he said; "your notion is a good one. Will you explain to your father what is wanted?" JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 239 She turned and spoke a few rapid words in the guttural Sioux dialect to Blue Light- ning, who nodded a solemn comprehension and picked up his lifle. In another minute he, too, had vanished from the gulch, and Dick Osborne was free to prospect the Klon- dyke "dirt" again. But, though he enlisted the services of Joey to unaccustomed spade-labour, and spent the next six hours in digging in- numerable holes, he met with no great success. Yet every now and then the cup yielded a grain or two of gold at long intervals, and he was able to hope that he might stumble on the spot whence Shrimpton had wrested his treasure. Star Eyes showed no interest in his proceedmgs, though when he stopped work to snatch a mouthful of the day's rations which Joey had brought out, she joined him and chatted freely about her life at the Red River Mission. Having thoroughly prospected the gully, Dick tried several of the nearest creeks with varying results, but still without n!>ding ground worth working s^dtematically. Enough 240 SPECTRE GOLD. J I traces of gold were brought to light, how- ever, to confirm the auriferous nature of the country, and to warrant the opinion that somewhere among those solitudes lay hid a fair share of the gold of the world. Dick determined that on the morrow he would have the scow moved higher up the river, so that, with his camp close to the scene of labour, he could extend his researches. This being settled in his mind, his suggestion that they should return to their present headquarters for the night was received with satisfactioa Joey had long since begun to tire of his work, and Star Eyes had sho>vn an increasing restlessness as the day wore on, which Dick had attributed to her father's absence, and which gave place at once to an air of silent composure when they set out for the camp. Guided by the bluff whereon Dick had suffered such a blow in the morning, they had no difficulty in striking their own trail, and after a toilsome but uneventful march over the ankle-deep moss they neared at JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 241 length the inlet where the scow was moored. On topping the head of the miniature ravine that led down to their improvised landing-place, the first sight that caught Dick's eye was Blue Lightning. He was sitting outside the shelter which he had built for his daughter, his long-stemmed pipe between his knees in full blast; but of Jake Mursell there was no sign. At the approach of the trio the chief rose and spoke a few words in his own language to Star Eyes, who, to Dick's astonishment, broke into ringing peals of laughter in which there was more of joyous relief than merriment "What is it?" he asked, bewildered. " Where is Baxter — down there in the scow?" Blue Lightning cast an affectionate glance at the queer craft with its thatched deck- house, which was his floating home. "Bad man no sleep in scow again," he replied. "Trail him back here; then he take all his things — much as he could carry — and make tracks for Circle City. I follow on trail to make sure — five mile — then I mmmmmm 242 SPECTRE GOLD. come back to camp. Thief pale-face gone for good; we never see him any more." Dick flushed with sudden anger. What guarantee had he that the erstwhile salmon- packer had not gone off on some sneaking errand connected with the stolen hoai'd? It might very well be that Circle City was his ultimate destination, but might he not first visit some secret spot to which he had contrived on the previous night, when they were all asleep, to remove the gold? It was to prevent such a contingency that he had been loth to let the man out of his sight, and he opened his mouth to upbraid Blue Lightning for his breach of trust But Star Eyes touched him on the arm in time to check the outburst. "Do not blame my father," said the girl, proudly. "He has served you well, and will still serve you. In this business of the gold cachet all that he has done has been my doing, and now that that man has gone, Mr. Osborne, let me end your trouble. It was I who moved that gold from under the stone." DO NOT BLAME MY FATHER,' SAID THE GIRL PROUDLY- (p. 242). JAKE'S " CONSOLATION STAKES." 243 "You I" was all that Dick could utter in his amazement "Yes, and it is safely hidden for you not ten miles from here at a place to which I will take you," proceeded Star Eyes; "you need not fear that Baxter has gone after it; it is not on the trail to Circle City. Why did I do this ? your face asks. To save Mr. Gartside from a temptation that he himself feared might be too jtrong for him, and at his request. Come, while Joey builds a fire, I will tell you the story, so that you shall think better of your friend and of us Indian folk." Too dazed to grasp more than the bare fact that Shrimpton's legacy was intact, Dick could only murmur vague thanks and follow Star Eyes to the dibria of last night's fire, which the carrier quickly lighted. For once Blue Lightning abandoned his imperturb- ability, and, while Joey tossed driftwood on the blazing pile, sat drinkmg m his daughter's words. She told in crisp short sentences how she had overheard Gartside's scheme for bargaining with Shrimpton, and how, from Q 2 I I 244 SPECTTRE GOLD. If 1(1 the suspicion thus engendered, she had warned the sick man not to confide in the Englishman fully. " And then," she went on, " after the White Ghost had left us at the settlement to return to England, when I could see that Mr. Gartside was still worr3dng ahout the gold, I told him what the sick man had told me as I tended him on the scow. I said that it was true th%t Shrimpton had made a cachet of the gold that he had found ; and that, as he had no hope to live to enjoy it, he had made a plan of the place on the back of a picture so that he could give it to a man in England who had been kind to him. The picture was that of the man who was to have the gold, if he took the trouble to come out for it. " When Mr. Gartside heard this, I could see that for some reason he was very sorry, and he said in his strange way : — * Star Eyes, will you save me from i-obbing an old friend?* And then he told me that he had searched the White Ghost for a plan of the cachet, and had found it. The picture was one of a young man who had saved his life at college in England, ?i I: JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 245 and now that he knew that the gold was meant for his preserver he did not wish to take it. He had marie a copy of the plan — it is the one I gave you yesterday — and to end his temptation he put it into my charge. I was to keep it for three years, and then if you did not come out to claim the cachet, he thought he would be Mtly entitled to it. " In the spring, after the melting of the ice, when we were again upon the Yukon not far from here, he came to me and said : ' Star Eyes, that gold of the White Ghost's draws me like a magnet, and I believe I could find it without the plan, for all the figures are burned into my brain. I dream every night that the spectre ot the sick miner is beckoning me to go and take it. Will you once more save me from rayself, and move the gold to a new cachet whero I cannot find it ? ' " Again I agreed to help him, and while my father hunted the moose in this district I hid the gold in a fresh place, going out to the work many nights, for there is a great weight of it, and I earned it to a distance. So not even Blue Lightning knew of the new cachet till now, and '( i :. ^ B k I' 246 SPECTRE GOLD. Mr. Gartside, lest he should be tempted to watch me, went away to Circle City for a while. It is certain, Mr. Osborne, that the gold is still safe where I put it." The many revulsions of feeling to which he had been subjected in the last few hours had shaken Dick more than he knew, and this last one, Avith the touching addition of his old chum's hardly-tried constancy, well-nigh un- manned him. He felt that he could never forgive himself for the suspicions he had harboured on the strength of Gartside's manner at their meeting on Lake Taku. That strange- ness was now fully accounted for by the fear of having to explain why the gold had been moved, and Dick well remembered how it had vanished when it was settled that he should go to Skagway instead of accompanying the expedition. "How came you to suspect Baxter?" said Dick, when he had found words to thank his dusky guardian-angel. " At least, I suppose it was suspicion of him that made you keep back this good news so long ? " " Yes, that was why I dared not spare you wK JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 247 this morning's trouble," said Star Eyes, gravely. " It was Mr. Gartside who warned ma When he came up through the trees from the lake to your camp he saw Baicter feeling the pockets of your coat, and, knowing of the plan that you would have with you, he guessed Baxter might be after it." "He didn't get it on that occasion," said Dick. " If he stole it, it must have been after- wards — on our journey down the river. I have racked my brains to think how the plan could have been taken from me, and the only chance I can remember to have given was when I was dog-tired after that last portage on the L<»wes. I slept like a log for ten hours right off." " Bad man, very fat, but he step like panther," commented Blue Lightning, sententiously. " Well," Star Eyes proceeded, " I tried to act wisely, and I said in my mind — If Baxter is after the gold, he will leave us and make for Circle City when he finds the cachet empty. Then only will it be safe to tell of my cachet. Last night he went to the place ; and knowing he could do no harm I did not have him stopped when he stole out of the camp. To-day 248 SPECTRE GOLD. ,; ; ft« t I ki , when he asked so much about Circle City I knew that I was right, and that, being a lazy man, he would not wait to dig for gold he might never find. I told my father to follow and make sure that he was really gone, and, that being so, I spoke out" But the gentle Star Eyes with all her kindly shrewdness could not be aware that the " fat bad man with the step of a panther " had another string to his bow besides the hoard which his cunning had missed. There was still Malahide's blood money to fall back upon, and, dreading his ruthless employer as he did, he simply dared not go back with his mission unfulfilled. It would have been otherwise had he been masUT of the fabulous sum which he had been led to expect when Hank Devine's talk with Dick, overheard whilst lurking round their camp on the Pass, caused him to change his plans and treacherously rid himself of his former allies. He had intended to use Dick as a guide to the cachet, get possession of the gold by stratagem to be devised later, and then fiy to some new land where he could enjoy his wealth h&i JAKE'S "CONSOLATION STAKES." 249 under a changed name. As it was, he had not the me^ns to escape from the long arm of the man who could send him co twenty-years' penal servitude; there was nothing for it but for him to return and be content with Malahide's reward — a reward which certainly would never be paid if it were not properly earned. It was just how to properly earn it that was occupying his serious attrition, as he sat munching some of the parched com he had brought from the scow, at a point about three miles from the riverside camp. He had known quite well that Blue Lightning was shadowing him, and as soon as tho chief had abandoned the trail he had come warily back on his tracks to within easy distance of his prey. Jake Mursell was a soft-living man who val led a whole skin, and he found himself face to face with a problem; but he arrived at a solution at last, and lay down to mature it in the moas. So it happened that, about the darkest hour of the long twilight that constituted the summer night, a black shadow flitted again among the willows fringing the camp, and dodging to the i-ear of the rough tepe in which Star Eyes was 260 SPECTRE GOLD. '/! H sleeping, worked down towards the moored scow. In ignorance of any need for watchful- ness, and fatigued with the labours of the previous day, the whole party slumbered soundly, intend- ing to be up betimes for an early visit to the new cachet in the morning. Blue Lightning was stretched across the entrance of the tepe, if.nd Joey was huddled close to the dying embers of the fire. Twenty minutes passed in silence, save for the lapping of the stream as it eddied into the inlet ; and then a great cry arose from the scow — a cry of mingled anguish and despair, so weirdly horrible that Blue Lightning's fingers trembled as ho sat up and grasped his rifle. The cry sounded unearthly to the old chief — " bad medicine." Possibly that was why the two shots which he discharged in quick succession flew \dde, and the black shadow, seen only for a moment, vanished among the trees. 261 CHAPTER XIV. ON THE WAR-PATH. Till far into the small hours of their first night at Skagway, sleep was impossible to Aunt Rebecca and Beryl Aaquith. The sounds of revelry from the saloons and low gambling haunts were sufficiently disquieting ; and when, shortly after midnight, some roysterer on his homeward way playfully emptied his revolver in the air, the elder lady fairly broke down and wept " I am a wicked old woman to have allowed you to come," she cried. " I have been in some wild places about the world, but this beats everything. My child, I ought to have been firm — to have insisted on coming alone." But Beryl, pale and frightened as she was, soothed her, showing how cruel would have 252 SPECTRE GOLD. been the waiting at home while Dick's fate was in doubt And then Hank Devine came to the door of the shanty and reassured them — ^for, true to his word, he had moved his tent to a vacant space opposite— and at last the two tired women slept In the morning Aunt Rebecca rose very grim and stem, and determined that her over- night's exhibition of weakness should be her last What troubled her most was that there see-ned to be no immediate scope for the energy she was burning to expend. Her object in undertaking the arduous journey had been, primarily, to put an end to Beryl's suspense, and secondly, when it was discovered that Mala- hide was proceeding to Skagway, to protect Dick, by warning or otherwise, if he had sur- vived the fight, from his rival's schemes. The importance of someone performing this duty was amplified by the post-mark on the envelope picked up by Beryl The mark being the same as that on the letter received by Mr. Osborne from Devine, the deduction was that Malahide had a correspondent in the district where Dick had so unaccountably met with deadly enemies. I ON THE WAR-PATR 253 Could it be that the unkempt stranger whom she had driven away the day before was 'a tool of Malahide's ? she wondered, as she made her toilet before the cracked bit of looking- glass that had been one of Hank Devine's first purchases. The man was English, the miner had said, and was a bad character. That was at least a partial confirmation of the theory, and she began to regret her hastiness in not according him an interview. It would have been wiser, she recognised, to learn his professed object, and in so doing, perhaps, to gain an inkling to his secret one. Having finished dressing, Aunt Rebecca left Beryl still asleep on her pile of skins and went outside, shutting the door of the shanty behind her. In the course of all her travels, a more dreary prospect than Skagway in the early morning had never disgusted her critical eye. Except a couple of lank-haired half-breeds loping to their work at the wharf, there was no human being in sight. A few hungry dogs nosed amid the offal that had been thrown into the street. A clinging mist had driven in from the Lynn Channel, covering the slushy fiats 254 SPECTRE GOLD. i»'« J . ,t: If,' li •A I'.. '* (;• with a pall from which only the nearer cabins and hovels stood out with any distinctness. The broken bottles strewn everywhere, and the silence, were in curious contrast with the rowdy noises that had kept her from sleep. They invested the place with an atmosphere of stale sinfulness, suggesting that all Skagway had to do in the daytime was to recover from last night's orgy in order to prepare for the next The one redeeming feature in the squalid landscape was. to Aunt Rebecca's eyes, the tent which Hank Devine had pitched oppo- site. Its weather-stained canvas and ragged flaps afforded a sense of security, which was increased as the yoimg miner himself, his vigilance aroused by the shutting of the door, appeared in the entrance. His good-humoured face cleared somewhat as he saw the old lady, but it still bore traces of anxiety while he bade her a cheery "Momin", ma'am." "I'm feared you and Miss Berr'l ain't slep' partic'lar sound," he added. "The boys was a bit on the bust last night. They didn't offer to come a-nigh your place, though. I was ready for them if so be as they had." ON THE WAR-PATH. 255 It was fortunate that Aunt Rebecca had "seen the world." If this had been her first trip to the Western Continent, she would probably have pulled out her purse and alienated this good friend by bestowing a largess upon him. As it was, she know enough to reply — "You are a good sort, Mr. Devine. Your being at hand was a great relief, though it wasn't very pleasant for my niece. Is Skagway always so lively at night? Or was it a special occasion?" Trivial as the question sounded, it seemed to exert some strange influence on the work- ings of Hank Devine's brain, which, though shrewd enough, was not a fast piece of mechanism. He knitted his brows, and, before answering, appeared to bo bringing all his mental weight to bear on the knotty point "The boys are always middlin' rampage- ous," he said slowly, and then added decisively : " I didn't see it that-a-ways afore ; but now you mention, I can tumble that there might have been a kind of j jaMagti'ji" ' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 "lis m *^ !■■ HIP 2 I ii& 12.0 1.8 U IIIIII.6 6" <^ /; c j; JS ^'^^ '-^J Hiotographic Sciences Corporation € NJ Si. ^ MOTHER MURSELL IS MATERNAL. 297 ™v*- they met Shake his hand he could not, so hampered was Dick with heavy moose-skin packages. Nor, for the same cumbrance of wealth, could he find a square inch on his back to slap ; but his welcome was none the less frank and hearty, and won evident approval from Star Eyes, who stood smiling shyly in the rear. Hank Devine, Joey, and Blue Lightning also were too heavily laden for more than verbal greeting, but the twitch- ing muscles in the old chiefs face at the sight of his young fellow voyageur were elo- quent of grim joy. "Good old Dick! So you have pulled it off?" cried Gartside. "Here, let me carry some of your parcels. How d'ye do, Star- Eyes? How do, Blue Lightning? Well done, Devine ! Your servant, sir, though you have the advantage " — the latter to the grinning Joey. "But where is the fat, oily man — Baxter?" he chattered on, hardly waiting for replies. "You found him a wrong 'un, I expect, and shunted him out of the select circle?" "He was certainly a scoundrel," said Dick 298 SPECTRE GOLD. 4 gravely. "He tried to murder me up yonder, and came south by St. Michael's, we think, under the impression that he had succeeded. He stole . ; ^ in the dark; and after I had made him sc . oh with a woimd in the fleshy part of his arm, he ran his knife into what he thought was my heart. But I had rolled over, and the only sufferer was the pile of skins on which I had been sleeping." For the safety of the ladies, it had been decided to keep secret as long as possible the fate that had befallen Red Rube. So Dick said nothing of the ghastly sequel to "Baxter's" crimes, which they had nearly interrupted that morning when they were preparing to lure Rube into just such an ambush as he had himself laid. So it was that the stars in their courses fought against Rupert Malahide, cursing with a broken leg among the boulders of the Pass till help could be sent to him. For, after the revelation of Jake's attempt at murder, Vick felt that never, even to her lover, could she own the relationship; and through her silence, it was weird help indeed that reached the wounded villain during the coming night i ] MOTHER MURSELL IS MATERNAL. 299 To describe the meeting on board the steamer, with all its babel of explanation and congratulation, would call for much vain repeti- tion, the reader having been alternately with Dick Osborne and the two brave women who came to seek him throughout their most salient adventures. The boat was to sail in an hour; and as there were plenty of vacant berths and a good-natured skipper, there was no trouble about engaging passages and storage in the vessel's strong room for Dick's " pile." And a pile it was upon which the whole party, not forgetting the faithful Joey, feasted their eyes before the door was locked ! Shrimp- ton had packed his specie in assorted sizes. Some of the packages contained nothing but nuggets, ranging from the dimensions of a pigeon's egg to those of a cricket ball. Others were stuffed with golden grains like shelled com, while many were filled with yellow dust of finest particles. " I think it must fall a little short of poor Ned's computation, but it has taken four strong men to carry it over the Pass, and anyway there's more than enough to free the Hall thrice I* 300 SPECTRE GOLD. f over," said Dick, as hand in hand with Beryl he turned to follow the others on deck, for it was time for farewells to be spoken. And then, somehow, the question arose, Why should farewells be spoken at all — at least, just yet ? Gartside is to be suspected of having started the suggestion — slyly, and with malice aforethought — though it was nevei clearly traceable to him, and Beryl, who had taken a great fancy to Star Eyes, was the first to give it words. "Why shouldn't all you people who have been so good to us come down to Victoria and say good-bye there ? " she said. " It seems dreadfully mean of us to be sneaking away like this, the moment we have got the plunder." " I am old enough to play propriety to you young folks," said Aunt Rebecca, after her blunt fashion, "and if I have my way, you won't need anything of the sort comuig back. There are clergymen at Victoria, Mr. Devine, and you'll have to wait a long time before you catch one here" she added, with a pretended frown at the blushing Vick. " Mebbe we cud give mother the slip," said 1 MOTHER MURSELL IS MATERNAL. 301 S-V' m m Is. that maiden coyly, but with a nervous glance over the wharf to the saloon. "We kin have a darned good tiy," replied her lover resolutely. "There is gold on the Klondyke? I mean you haven't cleaned it all out, Dick?" said Gartside, who had been having a whispered conference wj'h Star Eyes and her father. "Tons of it," was the reply; "we tried the wrong side of the river first, but after we found the second cachet all right, we looked round a bit, and on the creeks to the south of the river struck what our friend Hank would call 'pay-dirt* at every step. I have given him the reversion of the place, and he's going up after winter." " Well, then, if he'll have me, I'll go with him," said Gartside ; " but first Star Eyes and I will come down to Victoria with you, and hunt that parson. One can hardly wander about the wilds with a lady who has pro- mised to be one's wife. And, of course," with a grimace at the unmoved Blue Lightning, "my prospective father-in-law will have to come and give his daughter away." i 302 SPECTRE GOLD. t m Mi So it was all settled, Joey needing no persuasion, and as it was settled it befell Mr. and Mrs. Devine, with Gartside and his beautiful Indian bride, were the first to peg out claims on the new gold-field in the fol- lowing spring, and so well had they selected their localities that they were back again in civilisation and "passing rich" before the news of their discoveries caused the subsequent rush. But this is looking ahead; we are not clear of squalid Skagway yet The steamer's bell had rung, and the hawser was being cast off, when Mother Mursell, wildly gesticulating, was seen running from her saloon to the wharf. Vick cowered behind the funnel, while Hank prayed for the swifter uncoiling of the stiff rope from the shaky bollard. The gang-plank had been withdrawn, and the furious woman did not arrive till there was a yard of clear water between the vessel and the shore. She could only mouth and spit Dick dived his hand into liis pocket and produced a fat nugget which he had reserved as a specimen, and flung it to her. She '.it : m MOTHER MURSELL IS MATERNAL. 303 clutched it and grinned feebly, beginning to move off. " By Jove ! it's our last chance ; we've forgotten about Malahide," cried Dick, sud- denly remembering his stricken enemy. "You know her lingo better than I do, Devine. For God's sake tell her to send people to see after that wretched man on the Pass." Hank was equal to the occasion, and un- fortunately for the owner of Glastonford Abbey, sought to improve it. "Mother," he shouted, "comin' through the Pass we lit on your guest Mallyhide and Red Rube — in cump'ny. They'd jest hanged that Baxter feller as was here in the spring of the year. Rube and Baxter needs burjdn', but Mallyhide's got a broke leg. Someone oughter to go out and 'tend him. Top of the box canyon he'll be." Mother Mursell's furrowed face was con- torted into a series of emotions which most on board thought meant pity. " Mallyhide's killed Jake ? " she cried back. "Then I guess PU go and 'tend him myself." And, as the steamer sheered off, the last 'WMH* '■ •-— ■ i i 304 SPECTRE GOLD. sight which the group on deck had of Skagway was that of the red-shirted woman striking into the riverside road towards the distant mountains. All but one of them wondered at her knowledge of the dead man's Christian name. It was only Vick who knew why her mother, trudging along the flat, kept taking her revolver from its holster, petting it and patting it affectionately. Bf Wi ? The End. .a* ■'« Pkikted by Cabskll & CoMPANv', Limited, La Bellb Sautaob, E.G IMPORTANT WORKS OF FICTION BY '•-««-. ©.yd ^«^€^— J^uir^ei^^^ I lata » /" X'WVju«w*» (3j»„^aA^ f Fdbushko by 1. 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