Rounding a shoulder of Gale's Ridge, he came in sight of Steele's shack. Steele sat in the doorway. Beside him, leaning against the logs of the shack's side, was a man in shirt-sleeves and cap, beneath which a rim of woolly gray hair projected. Facing Steele were two well dressed men, one in a tall silk hat, which appeared incongruous against its background of log shack and pine tree. Ross, with narrowed eyes and compressed lips, plodded on. "I've done my best," he muttered defensively. "It's all a fellow can do; but, when that best is failure, why, it's not much consolation." Then he raised his head, squared his shoulders, and doggedly faced the four in front of Steele's cabin. Ross Grant, Senior, had not come West to look after his claims, but after his son, with whom he felt he had but just begun an acquaintance. He had no difficulty in getting Dr. Grant to accompany him, reenforced as he was by an anxious Aunt Anne. It was true that both Ross and Steele had written that all communications with the former would be shut off for months. But, when the hot days of June came and brought no letter from the boy, as Aunt Anne said, "something must be done." That something was represented in the persons of the Grant brothers in Miners' Camp. After the first greetings, tinged with amazement on the part of the four, Ross backed up against a spruce, and, facing the others, proceeded to answer the questions with which they bombarded him. In half an hour they were in possession of the main facts in his life during the last six months. "The McKenzies all through," commented Steele finally; "but--prove it!" "I've got to prove it!" declared Ross violently; "I shall!" "Ross,"--Dr. Grant's comment carried with it the pride and honor of his profession,--"if you're called upon to attend the sick, you must go. That's the duty of a physician, even before he receives his diploma. You did right." "I felt that way myself, uncle," returned Ross quietly. "As soon as Weimer opened the way, I never thought of not going, so long as there was no regular doctor within reach." Ross Grant, Senior, looked his son over. There was no expression of disapproval on his face as he took the measure of this full-blooded, broad-shouldered, erect young man whose muscles had been hardened by wind and sun and work in the open. Having completed his survey, Ross, Senior, smiled. "Well, my boy," he remarked characteristically, "it took three good sized men to down you two boys, didn't it? And it must have cost them a heap of thinking into the bargain. Shake, Ross; I'm proud of you!" And Ross, bewildered, shook hands with his father, his cheeks reddening with pleasure. "I--I never thought of it in that way before," he stammered. "But--that doesn't save the claims, and the fifth year is up next week, and Uncle Jake----" "Don't you worry about Uncle Jake," interrupted his father meaningly. "We may lose the claims, but Uncle Jake will be provided for."