old. He had dreamed, too, of finding money strewn upon the street. But now, here he was, with one of these choice Russian knives, picking away at clumps o

e by his pocket flashlight. After a few strokes he would throw down the pick and begin breaking up the lumps. Ev

e suited him. That it had another occupant he also knew, but this did not trouble him. He was too much interested in the yellow glitter of real gold to think of danger. And he was half dazed by the realization that there could be a gold mine like this in Siberia. Alaska had gold, plenty of it, of course,

ooned again in that village. They had covered three hundred miles on their last journey, then had come another pause. This t

ne. Thinking it merely a sort of crude cold storage plant for keeping meat fresh, he had let himself down to explore it. Increasin

of peril by a cold pressure on his temple and a

sir. Now I shal

f for his final earthly sensation. He

ainst his forehead struck the frozen roof of the mine. The weapon had missed fire

e midnight darkness of that icy

pay-dirt, like twin rollers. They struggled for mastery. Each man realized that, unless some unforeseen power intervened, defeat meant death. The Russian fought with the stubbor

d his right arm about his antagonist's neck and, flopping his bod

he snapped it on. The face of the Russian revealed the fact that he was not unconscious. Johnny slid to a p

with a little exclamation, he reached out and

I have you, sir. Now

hurled itself upon him, knocking the revolv

come," roared Johnny, striking

ce of Iyok-ok. What he had said, in Eskimo, was, "It would

), replied Johnny, throwing the lig

es), the o

ng back on English. "He tried to kill me. Kill

aid the Eski

the army he had learned one rule: "If someone knows more about a matter than you do, follow his guidance, though, at the time, i

uninteresting papers, a pencil, a cigaret case and a purse he

e Russian had the envelope full of diamonds on his person, what should he do, take

pan, as the Russian went shuffling out of the

was Iyok-ok's

hy

metime, mayb

hat man has tried to kill me or have

did no

reindeer Chukches to try to kill me and f

ay

into my igloo and tries to

ay

and pulls the trigger. Still you say

t know), said the Eskimo

ng further. The two sat there for some time in silence. At

on and put out his hand. What it grasped was the envelope he had seen in the Russian's pocket at Wo Cheng's sho

e of gold, Johnny placed it with the envelope of di

the quiet of his little old town, Chicago. Wouldn't it be great to put his feet under his old job and say, "Well, Boss, what's the dope to-day

ere he began to wonder if Iyok-ok, as he called himself, was really an Eskimo after all. What if he should turn out to be a Jap playing the part of an Eskimo? Only that day Johnny had once more come upon him suddenly

n begged not to kill the Russian. This last time he most decidedly would have been justified in

can't tell such things to a woman, and I want to tell her all about things over here. It's been a hard old life, but so far I haven't done a single thing that

. After all, what was the use of living if one was to live on

e the lamp in silent reflection, then h

bet that's it

nd the advisability of opening it for operation in the spring. In these days, when the money market of the world was gold hungry, that glittering, yellow metal was of vast importance, especia

ad found in the mine. "But then, there's the diamonds. Would a man coming on such a journey bring such

perfect stones and perfectly cut. A glance at the envelope showed him that it was divided into four narrow compar

he outside of the compartm

"A king's ransom. Forty or fifty th

e corner of the envelope. He knew that secret mark all too well; had learned it from W

n anything-but-society-as-it-is guy. You want the world to cough up its dough and own nothing, and yet he

se stones would make Mazie happy for a lifetime. But it wasn't his. He had no right

t belong to the Russian either. At any rate, the latter's dis

him up and say: "Here, mister. You tried to kill me yesterday. Here are your dia

ere seemed to be nothing to do but keep

scovered something. I'll bet he's one of the big ones, perhaps the biggest of them