ght which now hid the last outlines of the stern old
gorge, as he went on.

"As for me the dollars in this gorge couldn't raise a shadow of joy."
He shook his head. "And if I told you the wage I'm asking, maybe you'd
laff till your sides split up. I'm not telling you the wage old
Prov'll have to hand out my way. But to me it's big. So big your
million dollars couldn't buy a hundredth part of it. No, sir. Nor a
thousandth. And maybe when Prov has checked my time sheet, and handed
out, He won't be through by a sight. I'll still be yepping at His
heels for more, only the--symbol'll kind of be changed. Meanwhile----"

He broke off listening. Abe started to his feet. Bill deliberately
knocked out his pipe on the log, while his eyes were turned along the
foreshore in the direction of the Indian workings. Kars heaved himself
to his feet and stood with his keen eyes striving to penetrate the
darkness in the same direction.

"--We're going to start right in earning that wage--now!"

A hot rifle fire swept over the camp with reckless disregard of all
aim. It came with a sharp rattle. The bullets swept on with a biting
hiss, and some of them terminated their careers with a vicious "splat"
against the great overhang of rock or the woodwork of the trestle-built
sluices.

In an instant the deadly calm of the night was gone, swept away by the
sound of many voices, and the rush of feet, and the answering fire of
the defenders.

The battle of Bell River had begun. The white men had staked their all
in the great play, confident they held the winning hand. The
alternative from complete victory for them had one hard, definite
meaning. There was no help but that which lay in their own hands,
their own wits. Death, only, was on the reverse of the victory they
were claiming from Providence.

A fierce pandemonium stirred the bowels of the night. The rattle of
musketry with its hundreds of needle-points of flame joined the chorus
of fiercely straining human voices. The black calm of night was rent
to shreds, leaving in its place only the riot of cruel, warring
passions.

The white men leaders and their men received the onslaught of the
savage horde with the steadfastness of a full understanding of the
meaning of defeat. They were braced for the shock with the nerve of
men who have bitterly learned the secret of survival in a land haunted
with terror. No heart-quail showed in the wall of resistance. The
secret e