woman, transcendently above him. And
from this love, this worship of his, she had gone that very night to
Thorpe, the gang-man. He shivered. Going to the stove he thrust in a
handful of paper, dropped the handkerchief in with it, and set the
whole on fire.

A few moments later the door opened and MacDougall came in. He was
followed by the two swarthy-faced St. Pierres, the camp huntsmen.
Philip shook hands with them, and they passed after the engineer
through a narrow door leading into a room which was known as the camp
office, Cassidy, Henshaw, and the others followed within the next ten
minutes. There was not a man among them whose eyes faltered when Philip
put up his proposition to them. As briefly as possible he told them a
part of what he had previously revealed to MacDougall, and frankly
conceded that the preservation of property and life in the camp
depended almost entirely upon them.

"You're not the sort of men to demand pay in a pinch like this," he
finished, "and that's just the reason I've confidence enough in you to
ask for your support. There are fifty men in camp whom we could hire to
fight, but I don't want hired fighters. I don't want men who will run
at the crack of a few rifles, but men who are willing to die with their
boots on. I won't offer you money for this, because I know you too
well. But from this hour on you're going to be a part of the Great
Northern Fish and Development Company, and as soon as the certificates
can be signed I'm going to turn over a hundred shares of stock to each
of you. Remember that this isn't pay. It's simply a selfish scheme of
mine to make you a part of the company. There are eight of us. Give us
each an automatic and I'll wager that there isn't a combination in this
neck of the woods strong enough to do us up."

In the pale light of the two oil-lamps the men's faces glowed with
enthusiasm. Cassidy was the first to grip Philip's hand in a pledge of
fealty.

"When hell freezes over, we're licked," he said. "Where's me automatic?"

MacDougall brought in the guns and ammunition.

"In the morning we will begin the erection of a new building close to
this one," said Philip. "There is no reason for the building, but that
will give me an excuse for keeping you men together on one job, within
fifty feet of your guns, which we can keep in this room. Only four men
need work at a shift, and I'll put Cassidy in charge of the operations,
if that is satisfactory to the other