in. Then, with great care he twisted up the
handkerchief and bestowed it in an inner pocket of his pea-jacket.

After that he sat himself upon the edge of the sluice-box for some
thoughtful minutes, and his mind traveled back over many scenes and
incidents. But it dwelt chiefly upon Jessie Mowbray and her dead
father. And it struggled in a great effort to solve the riddle of the
man's death.

But, in view of his discoveries, just now it was a riddle that
suggested far too many answers. Furthermore, to his mind, none of them
quite seemed to fit. There were two facts that stood out plainly in
his mind. Here, here was the source of Allan's wealth, and this was
the enterprise which in some way had contrived to leave Jessie Mowbray
fatherless.

He sighed. A wave of intense pity swept over him. Nor was his pity
for the man who had kept his secret so profoundly all these years. It
was for the child, and the widow he had left behind. But more than all
it was for the child.

It was with something like reluctance that he tore himself away from
the magic of the sluice-box. Once on the solid ground, however, he
again turned his eyes to gaze up at the structure. Then he laughed.
It was an audible expression of the joy of discovery.

"What a 'strike'!" he said aloud.

"An' one you ain't gettin' away with!"

John Kars started. He half turned at the sound of the familiar voice.
But his intention remained incompleted. It may have been instinct. It
may have been that out of the corner of his eye he saw the white ring
of the muzzle of a revolver shining in the moonlight close against his
head.

On the instant of the last sound of the man's voice he dropped. He
dropped like a stone. His movement came only the barest fraction of a
second before the crack of the revolver prefixed the whistle of the
bullet which spat itself deeply into the woodwork of the trestle.

Thought and action ran a neck and neck race in Kars at all times. Now
it was never better exampled. His arms flung out as he dropped. And,
before a second pressure of the trigger could be accomplished, the man
behind the gun was caught, and thrown, and sprawled on the ground with
his intended victim uppermost.

For Kars it was chiefly a struggle for possession of the gun. On his
assailant's part it was for the use of it upon his intended victim.

Kars had felled the man by the weight and suddenness of his attack. He
had him by the body, and his o