ition were gazing down upon the
savage splendor of the Promised Land.

But the milk and honey were lacking. The dream of peace, of delight
was not in these men. Their Promised Land must hold something more
substantial than the mere comforts of the body. That substance they
knew lay there, there ahead of them, but only to be won by supreme
effort against contending forces, human and natural.

They had halted at the highest point of a great saddle lying between
two snow-crowned hills. Peaks towered mightily above the woodlands
clothing their wide slopes, and shining with alabaster splendor in the
sunlight.

It was the first glimpse of the torn land of the ominous Bell River
gorge.

The sight of the gorge made them dizzy. The width, the depth, left an
impression of infinite immensity upon the mind, an overwhelming
hopelessness. Men used to mountain vastness all the days of their
lives were left speechless for moments, while their searching eyes
sought to measure the limits of this long hidden land.

The mountains beyond, about them. The broken, tumbled earth, yawning
and gaping in every direction. The forests of primordial origin. The
snows which never yield their grip upon their sterile bed. And then
the depths. Those infinite depths, which the human mind can never
regard unmoved.

The long, toilsome journey lay behind them. The goal lay awaiting the
final desperate assault, with all its traps and hidden dangers. What a
goal to have sought. It was like the dragon-guarded storehouse of the
crudest folk-lore.

The white men stood apart from their Indian supporters. Kars knew the
scene. He was observing the faces of the men who were gazing upon the
gorge for the first time. They were full of interest. But it was left
to Bill to interpret the general feeling in concrete form.

"They're reckoning up the chances they've taken 'blind,'" he said.

Kars laughed.

"Sure." Then he added: "And none of them are 'squealers.' Chances
'blind,' or any others, need to be taken, or it's a long time living.
It's the thing the northland rubs into the bones."

"Folks are certainly liable to pass it quicker that way."

Bill's shrewd eyes twinkled as he read the reckless spirit stirring
behind the lighting eyes of his friend.

Kars laughed again. It was the buoyant laugh of a man full of the
great spirit of adventure, and whose lust is unshadowed by a single
care.

"Chances _are_ Life, Bill. All of it. T