the way. Hurry up!"

"No," said he, in as firm a tone as he could command. "In the first
place, these men don't like me, and they don't want me to share in
this."

"What do you care?"

"In the second place, I'm not a miner. I don't know how to proceed."

"Nevermind; I do. I've heard nothing but mining all my life."

"In the third place, I don't think I have the right, for I'm a soldier.
I'm working for Uncle Sam, and I don't believe I ought to take up
mining claims. I'm not sure there is anything to prevent it, but
neither am I sure it would be quite the square thing--are you?"

"Why, of course it's all right," said Necia, her eager face clouding
with the look of a hurt child. "If you don't do it, somebody else will."

But the Lieutenant shook his head. "Maybe I'm foolish, but I can't see
my way clear, much as I would like to."

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" she exclaimed, brokenly. "I do so want to go. I
want you to be rich, and I want to be rich myself. I want to be a fine
lady, and go outside and live like other girls. It's--the only
chance--I ever had--and I'll never have another. Oh, it means so much
to me; it means life, future, everything! Why, it means heaven to a
girl like me!" Her eyes were wet with the sudden dashing of her hopes,
and her chin quivered in a sweet, girlish way that made the youth
almost surrender on the instant. But she turned to the window and gazed
out over the river, continuing, after a moment's pause: "Please
don't--mind me--but you can't understand what a difference this would
make to me."

"We couldn't possibly overtake them if we tried," he said, as if
willing to treat with his conscience.

"No, but we could beat them in. I know where Lee is working, for I went
up last winter with Constantine and his dog-team, over a short cut by
way of Black Bear Creek. We took it coming back, and I could find it
again, but Lee doesn't know that route, so he will follow the summer
trail, which is fifteen miles farther. You see, his creek makes a great
bend to the southward, and heads back towards the river, so by crossing
the divide at the source of Black Bear you drop into it a few miles
above his cabin."

While she made this appeal Burrell fought with himself. There were
reasons why he longed to take this trip, more than he had longed for
anything since boyhood. These men of Flambeau had disregarded him, and
insisted on treating him with contemptuous distrust, despite his
repeated friendly over