ke home with a million dollars--cold."

"Ye-es."

Dr. Bill removed his pipe. His gaze was turned on the engineer, whose
vigorous mind was searching only one side of the task before them. The
side which appealed to him most.

"That million don't worry me a cent," he went on. "If life's just a
matter of buying and selling you're li'ble to get sick of it quick."

Abe's eyes shot a swift glance in the doctor's direction.

"Then what brings you up to Bell River?" he exclaimed. "It ain't a
circumstance as a health resort."

Bill smiled down at his pipe.

"Much the same as you, I guess," he said. "Say, you're talking
dollars. You're figgering dollars. You've got a nightmare of all you
can buy with those dollars." He shook his head. "Turn over. Maybe
that way you'd see things the way they are with you. Those dollars are
just a symbol. You fix your eye on them. It isn't winning the 'pot'
with a 'royal.' It isn't winning anyway. It's the play that gets you.
If you could walk right into the office of the president of a state
bank, and come out of it with a roll of a million, with no more effort
than it needed pushing one foot in front of another, guess you'd as
soon light your two dollar cigar with a hundred dollar bill as a
'Frisco stinker. I've seen a heap of boys like you, Abe. I've seen
them sweat, and cuss, and work like a beaver for a wage, and they've
been as happy as a doped Chinaman. I've seen them later, when the
dollars come plenty, and they're so sick there isn't dope enough in
Leaping Horse can make them feel good. Guess I'm right here because
it's good to live, and fight, and work, same as man was meant to. The
other don't cut much ice, unless it is the work's made things
better--someways."

Abe spat out his chew and sat up. His combative spirit, which was
perhaps his chief characteristic, was easily stirred.

"It ain't stuff of that sort made John Kars the richest guy in Leaping
Horse. It ain't that play set him doping around 'inside' where there
ain't much else but cold, and skitters, and gold. It ain't that play
set him crazy to make Bell River with an outfit to lick a bunch of
scallawag neches. No, sir. He's wise to the value of dollars in a
world where there's nothing much else counts. There ain't no joy to
life without 'em. An' you just can't live life without joy. If you're
fixed that way, why, you'll hit the trail of the long haired crank, or
join the folk who make a pas