ain't never had faith in this Upper Country. Head-reaches of the
Tanana is good enough for me from now on, and mark my words, when the
big strike comes, she'll come down river. Johnny, here, staked a
couple of miles below Discovery, but he don't know no better." Johnny
looked shamefaced.

"I just did it for fun," he explained. "I'd give my chance in the
creek for a pound of Star plug."

"I'll go you," Daylight said promptly. "But don't you-all come
squealing if I take twenty or thirty thousand out of it."

Johnny grinned cheerfully.

"Gimme the tobacco," he said.

"Wish I'd staked alongside," Long Jim murmured plaintively.

"It ain't too late," Daylight replied.

"But it's a twenty-mile walk there and back."

"I'll stake it for you to-morrow when I go up," Daylight offered.

"Then you do the same as Johnny. Get the fees from Tim Logan. He's
tending bar in the Sourdough, and he'll lend it to me. Then fill in
your own name, transfer to me, and turn the papers over to Tim."

"Me, too," chimed in the third old-timer.

And for three pounds of Star plug chewing tobacco, Daylight bought
outright three five-hundred-foot claims on Bonanza. He could still
stake another claim in his own name, the others being merely transfers.

"Must say you're almighty brash with your chewin' tobacco," Long Jim
grinned. "Got a factory somewheres?"

"Nope, but I got a hunch," was the retort, "and I tell you-all it's
cheaper than dirt to ride her at the rate of three plugs for three
claims."

But an hour later, at his own camp, Joe Ladue strode in, fresh from
Bonanza Creek. At first, non-committal over Carmack's strike, then,
later, dubious, he finally offered Daylight a hundred dollars for his
share in the town site.

"Cash?" Daylight queried.

"Sure. There she is."

So saying, Ladue pulled out his gold-sack. Daylight hefted it
absent-mindedly, and, still absent-mindedly, untied the strings and ran
some of the gold-dust out on his palm. It showed darker than any dust
he had ever seen, with the exception of Carmack's. He ran the gold back
tied the mouth of the sack, and returned it to Ladue.

"I guess you-all need it more'n I do," was Daylight's comment.

"Nope; got plenty more," the other assured him.

"Where that come from?"

Daylight was all innocence as he asked the question, and Ladue received
the question as stolidly as an Indian. Yet for a swift instant they
looked into each other's eyes, and in that