s my money that's going to talk. I'm going to wipe
out the score those lone women can never hope to. I'm going to pay it.
By God, I'm going to pay it!"

CHAPTER XXII

IN THE SPRINGTIME

So the day came when the outfit of John Kars "pulled out." There had
been no change in his plans as the result of Alec Mowbray's murder.
There could be no change in them, so long as hundreds of miles divided
this man from the girl who had come to mean for him all that life
contained. The old passion for the trail still stirred him. The
Ishmaelite in him refused to change his nature. But since his manhood
had responded to natural claims, since the twin gray stars had risen
upon his horizon, a magnetic power held him to a definite course which
he had neither power nor inclination to deny.

The days before the departure had been busy indeed. They had been
rendered doubly busy by the affairs surrounding Alec Mowbray's death.
But all these things had been dealt with, with an energy that left a
course of perfect smoothness behind as well as ahead.

Everything, humanly possible, would be done to hunt down the instigator
and perpetrator of the crime, and a small fortune was placed at the
disposal of Kars' trusted attorneys for that purpose. For the rest he
would be personally responsible. In Bill Brudenell he had a willing
and sagacious lieutenant. In Abe Dodds, and in the hard-living expert
prospector, Joe Saunders, he had a staff for his enterprise on Bell
River beyond words in capacity and loyalty.

But the "outfit." It was called "outfit," as were all such
expeditions. It resembled an army in miniature, white and colored.
But more than all else it resembled a caravan, and an extensive one.
The preparations had occupied the whole of the long winter, and had
been wrapped in profound secrecy. The two men who had carried them
out, under Bill Brudenell's watchful eye, had labored under no
delusions. They were preparing for a great adventure in the hunt for
gold, but they were also preparing for war on no mean scale. Their
enthusiasm rejoiced in both of these prospects, and they worked with an
efficiency that left nothing to be desired.

The dispositions at departure were Kars' secret. Nor were they known
until the last moment. The warlike side of the expedition was
dispatched in secret by an alternative and more difficult trail than
the main communication with Fort Mowbray. It carried the bulk of
equipment. But i