tening. "Guess
Beasley's 'death's head' has gone--to its grave. Ther' ain't no sort
o' trouble can hurt any, if--you only come down on it hard enough. The
trouble ain't in that gold now, only in the back of Beasley's head.
An' when it gets loose, wal--I allow there's folks around here won't
see it come your way. You can sure take it now."

Joan reached out a timid hand, while her troubled violet eyes looked
into Buck's face as though fascinated. The man moved a step nearer,
and the small hand closed over the battered nugget.

"Take it," he said encouragingly. "It's an expression of the good
feelings of the boys. An' I don't guess you need be scared of _them_."

Joan took the gold, but there was no smile in her eyes, no thanks on
her lips. She stepped back to her doorway and passed within.

"I'm tired," she said, and her words were solely addressed to Buck. He
nodded, while she closed the door. Then he turned about.

"Wal!" he said.

And his manner was a decided dismissal.

CHAPTER XIII

THE CALL OF YOUTH

The fur fort was a relic of ancient days, when the old-time traders of
the North sent their legions of pelt hunters from the far limits of
the northern ice-world to the sunny western slopes of the great
American continent. It was at such a place as this, hemmed in amidst
the foot-hills, that they established their factor and his handful of
armed men; lonely sentries at the gates of the mountain world, to levy
an exorbitant tax upon the harvest of furs within.

Here, within the ponderous stockade, now fallen into sore decay,
behind iron-bound doors secured by mighty wooden locks, and barred
with balks of timber, sheltered beneath the frowning muzzles of half a
dozen futile carronades, they reveled in obscene orgies and committed
their barbaric atrocities under the name of Justice and Commerce. Here
they amassed wealth for the parent companies in distant lands, and
ruthlessly despoiled the wild of its furry denizens.

These were the pioneers, sturdy savages little better than the red man
himself, little better in their lives than the creatures upon which
they preyed. But they were for the most part men, vigorous, dauntless
men who not only made history, but prepared the way for those who were
to come after, leaving them a heritage of unsurpassable magnificence.

Now, this old-time relic afforded a shelter for two lonely men, whose
only emulation of their predecessors was in the craft that was theirs