g upon him cold, hostile eyes. "Get in if you're going to."

Elliot met him eye to eye. "I've changed my mind. I'm going to walk."

"That's up to you."

Gordon shook hands with Diane and Sheba, went into the house for his
coat, and walked to the stable. He brought out his horse and turned it
loose, then took the road himself for Kusiak.

A couple of miles out the car passed him trudging townward. As they
flashed down the road he waved a cheerful and nonchalant greeting.

Sheba had been full of gayety and life, but her mood was changed. All
the way home she was strangely silent.

CHAPTER XXII

GID HOLT COMES TO KUSIAK

The days grew short. In sporting circles the talk was no longer of the
midnight Fourth of July baseball game, but of preparation for the Alaska
Sweepstakes, since the shadow of the cold Arctic winter had crept down
to the Yukon and touched its waters to stillness. Men, gathered around
warm stoves, spoke of the merits of huskies and Siberian wolf-hounds, of
the heavy fall of snow in the hills, of the overhauling of outfits and
the transportation of supplies to distant camps.

The last river boat before the freeze-up had long since gone. A month
earlier the same steamer had taken down in a mail sack the preliminary
report of Elliot to his department chief. One of the passengers on that
trip had been Selfridge, sent out to counteract the influence of the
evidence against the claimants submitted by the field agent. An
information had been filed against Gordon for highway robbery and
attempted murder. Wally was to see that the damning facts against him
were brought to the attention of officials in high places where the
charges would do most good. The details of the story were to be held in
reserve for publicity in case the muckrake magazines should try to make
capital of the report of Elliot.

Kusiak found much time for gossip during the long nights. It knew
that Macdonald had gone on the bond of Elliot in spite of the scornful
protest of the younger man. The two gave each other chilly nods of
greeting when they met, but friends were careful not to invite them to
the same social affairs. The case against the field agent was pending.
Pursuit of the miners who had robbed the big mine-owner had long ago
been dropped. Somewhere in the North the outlaws lay hidden, swallowed
up by the great white waste of snow.

The general opinion was that Mac was playing politics about the trial
of his rival.