," said the girl, slowly, "if there are four hundred thousand
tons in sight, which would yield a net profit of three dollars a ton,
you figure on over a million dollars, clear?"

"If modern machinery is put in and the mine is run on a business
basis, I should say at least that. Possibly more!"

There was a burst of excited exclamations from all sides.

Every one turned to Jim, who was looking out across the sea toward
Alaska.

"Bull, old pardner," he said softly, "I reckon I've made good for your
little gal!"

CHAPTER XII

A SIBERIAN FILIBUSTER

By July, Chukalook Bank was humming with noise. The clank of
machinery, the pounding of stamp mills, and the grinding smash of
giant jets of water driven from hydraulic nozzles, set vibrating the
tiny islands on the borders of the Arctic Ocean.

The terns and gulls, driven from their century-old refuge, circled
over the little spot of land with shrill cries and fled to nest on
Ingalook; polar bears, who, in other seasons, had found a dinner of
fat seal on Chukalook, swam toward the island from floating cakes of
ice, and then retreated hurriedly; the sea otter, shyest of all the
fur-bearing creatures of the world, sped to more isolated haunts.

The island itself was melting like a snowbank beneath a summer sun. A
three-inch jet of water, immeasurably more powerful than the forceful
spout that hisses from a fire-engine hose, roared vengefully night
and day against the gravel bank, and ate away the hill.

The never-ceasing torrent of gravel and boulders, mingled with the
water, rattled and rumbled downwards with the force of the current
into a massive sluice. The bottom of this sluice was constructed of
paving blocks, crossed with copper-plated riffles of tremendous
strength, on which not less than two tons of mercury had been placed.

Thus considered, the installation of the Bull Mine--as Jim insisted
that it should be called--was but a simple miners' sluice on an
enormous scale. It was the same device as that which Jim's father and
his partners were working on the Carson River when the Comstock Lode
was discovered, save that the hydraulic jet performed all the work of
digging and shoveling the pay dirt into the sluice.

Shortly before reaching the sea, however, the works became more
complicated. The "Wizard" and Owens--one with Arctic and the other
with Australian and South African experience--had arranged a system of
separating the gold bearing gravel from