ing, being more rational, he untied the
leather string that fastened the squat moose-hide sack. From its open
mouth poured a yellow stream of coarse gold-dust and nuggets. He roughly
divided the gold in halves, caching one half on a prominent ledge,
wrapped in a piece of blanket, and returning the other half to the sack.
He also began to use strips of the one remaining blanket for his feet. He
still clung to his gun, for there were cartridges in that cache by the
river Dease.

This was a day of fog, and this day hunger awoke in him again. He was
very weak and was afflicted with a giddiness which at times blinded him.
It was no uncommon thing now for him to stumble and fall; and stumbling
once, he fell squarely into a ptarmigan nest. There were four newly
hatched chicks, a day old--little specks of pulsating life no more than a
mouthful; and he ate them ravenously, thrusting them alive into his mouth
and crunching them like egg-shells between his teeth. The mother
ptarmigan beat about him with great outcry. He used his gun as a club
with which to knock her over, but she dodged out of reach. He threw
stones at her and with one chance shot broke a wing. Then she fluttered
away, running, trailing the broken wing, with him in pursuit.

The little chicks had no more than whetted his appetite. He hopped and
bobbed clumsily along on his injured ankle, throwing stones and screaming
hoarsely at times; at other times hopping and bobbing silently along,
picking himself up grimly and patiently when he fell, or rubbing his eyes
with his hand when the giddiness threatened to overpower him.

The chase led him across swampy ground in the bottom of the valley, and
he came upon footprints in the soggy moss. They were not his own--he
could see that. They must be Bill's. But he could not stop, for the
mother ptarmigan was running on. He would catch her first, then he would
return and investigate.

He exhausted the mother ptarmigan; but he exhausted himself. She lay
panting on her side. He lay panting on his side, a dozen feet away,
unable to crawl to her. And as he recovered she recovered, fluttering
out of reach as his hungry hand went out to her. The chase was resumed.
Night settled down and she escaped. He stumbled from weakness and
pitched head foremost on his face, cutting his cheek, his pack upon his
back. He did not move for a long while; then he rolled over on his side,
wound his watch, and lay there until mor