y mad longings, he had not thought of gold. But here was
King's camp; straight here had King come after Gloria had brought him
her father's message and old Honeycutt's secret. Then the gold was here!
The cupidity which in the man never slept long was awake on the instant.
He began looking about him eagerly. King was gone? Then not for men to
bring help to Gloria but to aid him in carrying off the gold. Having
brought Gloria here so that she could not tell others what she knew, he
left her here with the same purpose; so Gratton would have done! King
would have hidden it here; at least some of it. He began questing
feverishly, shuffling about in the shadows while Gloria, busy with her
plans for moving, wondered at him. He was striking matches, running back
and forth; she could hear his mutterings. And presently, when Gloria had
called and he had not heard, he came upon the bag which King had meant
to take out with him that day the horse was lost. He hovered over it; he
struck other matches, he came hastening back dragging it after him.

He went down on his knees by the sack, got a heavy lump in his hands,
rubbed at it, held it closer to the firelight, rubbed again more
excitedly, and finally sat back, staring up at her with new flames of
another sort leaping in his eyes.

"It's next thing to solid gold!" he gasped. "There are
thousands--thousands----Millions!"

She looked at him and marvelled. In his shallow soul no emotion lived
long; greed of gold now obliterated the little ripples that another
greed had fleetingly made. How had she thought well of him down in the
city? How had she so much as tolerated him? On the instant it struck her
that there was small justice in Gratton reaping any reward, having done
nothing to earn it. "We have the things to move. Come; hurry."

"Why should we move, after all?" he demanded sharply. "Now that I have
got up here, why not stay? There's wood here; everything is fixed up
after a fashion. King would know where to send for us, and--and those
cursed dogs of Brodie's would never think of looking up here, even if
chance did lead them along the gorge."

Gloria, recalling King's warning, remembering Brodie's brute face, said
hastily:

"Do you think there is any real danger that they will come this way?"

"I hope not," he groaned. "They couldn't follow my trail if they tried
to. You see, I left them last night, as early as I dared; I struck out
in a straight line down the slope; then I