said at once. "I felt I'd like to hand him a
turn--that's all."

Kars shrugged.

"It doesn't matter a thing," he said, with calculated purpose. "It's
just my notion." Then he laughed. "But I didn't get around to worry
with Murray McTavish. It's better than that."

He rose abruptly from the bed and moved across to the window. Alec was
in the act of lighting a cigarette. The match burned itself out in his
fingers, and the cigarette remained unlighted. His eyes were on his
visitor with sudden expectation. Finally he broke into an uneasy laugh.

"Murray isn't the only ice on the river," he said weakly.

Kars turned about.

"Nor is he the only gold you'll maybe locate around. Do you feel like
handling--other? Are you looking to make a big bunch of dollars? Do
you need a stake that's going to hand you all the things you've dreamed
about? You guess I'm a rich man. Folks figger I'm the richest man
north of 'sixty.' Maybe I am. Well, if you guess you'd like to be the
same way, it's up to you."

Alec was sitting up. The effects of his overnight debauch had been
completely flung aside. His eyes, so like his father's, were wide, and
his handsome face was alive with a sudden excitement. He flung his
cigarette aside.

"Say, you're--fooling," he breathed incredulously.

Kars shook his head.

"I quit that years," he said.

"I--I don't get you," Alec went on at last, in a sort of desperate
helplessness.

Kars dropped on to the bed again and laughed in his pleasant fashion.

"Sure you don't. But do you feel like it? Are you ready to take a
chance--with me?"

"By Gee--yes! If there's a stake at the end of it."

"The stake's there, sure. But--but it means quitting Leaping Horse
right away. It means hitting the old trail you curse. It means
staking your life for all it's worth. It means using all that that big
man, your father, handed you in life. It means getting out on God's
earth, and telling the world right here you're a man, and a mighty big
man, too. It means all that, and," he added with a smile that was
unreadable, "a whole heap more."

Something of the excitement had died out of Alec's face. A shade of
disappointment clouded his eyes. He reached out for another cigarette.
Kars watched the signs.

"Well?" he questioned sharply. "There's millions of dollars in this
for you. I'll stake my word on it it's a cinch--or death. I've
handled the strike, and I know it's all I figger. I