. I have a wife, and I don't forget
it. Marianna--that's Mrs. Harding--is living in a two-room tenement,
making her own dresses and cooking on a gasoline stove, so's to give me
my chance for finding the gum. And I'm here in an expensive hotel,
where I've made about two dollars' commission in three days. We have
got to pull out as soon as possible. Did you get any information from
the Hudson Bay man?"

"I learned something about our route through the timber belt, and the
kind of camp outfit we'll want; the temperature's often fifty below in
winter. Then I was in Revillons', looking at their cheaper furs, and
in a store where they supply especially light hand-sleds, snowshoes,
and patent cooking cans. We must have these things good, and I
estimate they'll cost about six hundred dollars."

"Six hundred dollars will make a big hole in our capital."

"I'm afraid so, but we can't run the risk of freezing to death; and we
may have to spend all winter in the wilds."

"That's true; I don't go back until I find the gum."

Harding's tone was resolute, and when he leaned forward, musing, with
knitted brows, Blake gave him a sympathetic glance. Harding had
entered the paint factory when a very young man, and had studied
chemistry in his scanty spare time, with the object of understanding
his business better. He found the composition of varnishes an
interesting subject, and as the best gums employed came from the
tropics and were expensive he began to experiment with the exudations
from American trees. His employers hinted that he was wasting his
time, but Harding continued, trying to test a theory that the texture
and hardness of the gums might depend upon climatic temperature. By
chance, a resinous substance which had come from the far North fell
into his hands, and he found that, when combined with an African gum,
it gave astonishing results. Before this happened, however, his
employers had sent him out on the road; and as they were sceptical
about his discovery and he would not take them fully into his
confidence, they merely promised to keep his place open for a time.
Now he was going to search for the gum at his own expense.

"We'll order the outfit in the morning," he said presently, glancing
toward a man who sat across the room. "Do you think that fellow Clarke
can hear? I've a notion that he's been watching us."

"Does it matter?"

"You must bear in mind that we have a valuable secret; and I understand