se fellows I've talked to are
dead anxious to get in."

"But"--her knowledge of business methods suggested a difficulty--"you
can't sell stock in a business that has no real foundation--yet. Don't
you have to locate those claims first?"

"Wise old head; you have the idea, all right." He smiled. "But this
is not a stock-jobbing proposition. I wouldn't be in on it if it were,
believe me. It's to be a corporation, where not to exceed six men will
own all the stock that's issued. And so far as the claims are
concerned, I've got Whitey Lewis located in Fort George, and I've been
burning the wires and spending a bundle of real money getting him
grub-staked. He has got four men besides himself all ready to hit the
trail as soon as I give the word."

"You won't have to go?" she put in quickly.

"No," he murmured. "It isn't necessary, at this particular stage of
the game. But I wouldn't mind popping a whip over a good string of
dogs, just the same."

"B-r-r-r!" she shivered involuntarily. "Four hundred miles across that
deep snow, through that steady, flesh-searing cold. I don't envy them
the journey."

Bill relapsed into unsmiling silence, sprawling listless in his chair,
staring absently at the rug, as if he had lost all interest in the
matter.

"If you stay here and manage this end of it," she pursued lightly, "I
suppose you'll have an office downtown."

"I suppose so," he returned laconically.

She came over and stood by him, playfully rumpling his brown hair with
her fingers.

"I'm glad you've found something to loose that pent-up energy of yours
on, Billy-boy," she said. "You'll make a success of it, I know. I
don't see why you shouldn't make a success of any kind of business.
But I didn't think you'd ever tackle business. You have such peculiar
views about business and business practice."

"I despise the ordinary business ethic," he returned sharply. "It's a
get-something-for-nothing proposition all the way through; it is based
on exploiting the other fellow in one form or another. I refuse to
exploit my fellows along the accepted lines--or any lines. I don't
have to; there are too many other ways of making a living open to me.
I don't care to live fat and make some one else foot the bill. But I
can exploit the resources of nature. And that is my plan. If we make
money it won't be filched by a complex process from the other fellow's
pockets; it won't be wealth created by shearing lambs i