gold. The purchase of Alaska in 1867 was
largely due to the discovery of gold in British Columbia in 1857, 1859
and 1860, and to the discoveries on the Stikine River, Alaska, in
1863.

The 146 years of life of the United States may be sharply divided into
two equal periods, that before the discovery of gold in California in
1848 and the period following. The amazing strides forward which the
United States has made during this last period are not to be ascribed
only to her virgin soil, to her geographic isolation, or to her form
of government, but more, a thousand times more, to her mining
development. Coal, iron, silver, copper, and above all--gold, opened
up the continent with passionate swiftness and hurled the United
States into the position of one of the great powers of the modern
world.

So Owens sat a-thinking in his library and racking his brain about
Jim. There, not a stone's throw away, lay a sick man, possibly
possessed of a secret that might change the face of history anew.

How many times it had happened that a lonely prospector, weary, ragged
and hungry, had, with a stroke of a pick or the flick of a pan,
revealed such sources of wealth as to change a burning desert, a fetid
swamp or a bleak mountain range into a hive of industry! What
statesman has ever wrought as many wonders for his country as has that
questing nomad with his shovel and his shallow pan?

The spirit of rugged honesty and of fair play which so sharply
distinguishes the real miner from the mere mining speculator lay deep
in Owens. He had worked in the gold diggings, himself, and his
standards of principle were those of the great outdoors. He scorned to
take advantage of the opportunity given him by his position as owner
of the mine to overhear the delirious ravings of the sick man. That he
might not be tempted, he kept away from the hospital ward, except for
a short daily visit of inquiry.

When Jim grew better, however, and evinced a marked liking for Owens'
company, the mine-owner yielded to his interest in the prospector.
Even then he restrained himself from making so much as an indirect
reference to the secret of his employe, though the matter was seldom
out of his mind.

He had no thought of filching Jim's secret from him. Honest to the
core, Owens' thoughts were on a larger scale. As a mining man, he
thought naturally what personal profit he could turn, should the
secret prove to be worth while; but he thought far more of Jim