p
his nose above a ridge where gold had just been found, and sniff
scornfully down on the feller. Some o' them camels may be still livin'
an' doin' it at this very minute."

Beorn opened his jaws wide and laughed. Granger had never heard him
laugh before, and the sound was not pleasant. There was nothing of
mirth about the man or in anything that he said--there was only
disappointment and scorn. His bitterness became horrible when he
pretended to be merry. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh;
the Lord shall have them in derision." It was like the thunderous
scoffing of the Lord God of the Hebrews.

The candle had gone out, and the eerie light of the northland dawn,
drifting into the room through the little space of window that was
uncovered, made him and his companion look old and comfortless. But he
was anxious to hear the last of the story before the soul departed, so
he said, "And how was it that you left the Comstock Mines and came
into Keewatin?"

"I told you that I'd done what you intended, that I killed a man. I
did more 'an that, I killed many. You see, at that time there was no
proper minin' law in America; so when men got t'quarrellin', they
soon took t' fightin'. So long as the Comstock was only
placer-minin', we knew what we were about, an' there was no
trespassin', but when we took t' tunnelling', it wasn't long before we
was borin' under one another's ledges. The Comstock veins, startin'
near the surface, dipped toward the west, an' therefore the first
great conflict came with the nearest line o' claims t' the westward.
The ledges here were very rich an' almost perpendicular, an' so the
slopin' shafts o' the Ophir, Mexican, etc., soon ran int' the vertical
shafts on the 'middle lead.'

"The earliest case t' be tried, which I remember, was that o' the
Ophir against McCall. The court met in a stable, an' each side come
armed. One witness was shot at several times as he was ridin'
homeward, down a ravine at nightfall. Party spirit ran too high, an'
the danger o' bringin' in a unanimous verdict was too great for any
jury t' risk their lives by comin' to an agreement. There was no
justice; so there was nothin' left but to fight it out, the same as
when nations go to war. An' what were they goin' to fight about? A
metal which was only val'able because o' its rarity--which had no
value in itself, an' couldn't help men t' godliness; one which you
couldn't make an engine out o', nor a plough, nor even