"If I gave up three square meals a day and a comfortable bed to come out here and die in this infernal hole, it was only for her sake. We were to get married soon. I promised to go back with a fortune, and she said she'd wait for me----" The figure crouching on the other side of the fire chuckled grimly: "Wait for you, eh?" he echoed dubiously. "Yes, wait for me--why not?" snapped John. The other shook his head. "She may and she may not. It depends on the gal. Where is she?" "New York." "Working?" "Yes--in a fashion. She's an actress." "Oh!" Bill gave another derisive chuckle. Irritated, John demanded hotly: "What's the matter?" "Queer lot--actresses!" grinned Bill. "Never knew no good of 'em." John's eyes flashed dangerously, and weak though he was, he sprang up and put his hand to his hip. Before he drew his gun, his mate apologized. "No offense, pard. I didn't mean no harm. I guess if she's your gal, she's all right. No offense." Madison, mollified, sat down again. Warmly he said: "Ah, Bill--you don't know--you don't know. She means everything to me. I'd sooner cut my throat than think her false for one instant. Why--she'd wait for me if it took years. I know her; you don't. She's the best girl in the world." Bill nodded. Sententiously he said: "That's the right line o' talk, I guess, for a feller wot's in love, but it's not goin' to help us find the trail. We've got to get on and find something to eat. Jist at present, wittles is more to the point than spooning." Bill Branigan was an original. An Irish-American, he was earning good wages in one of the Chicago stockyards when the gold rush to Alaska began. Attacked like many others with the get-rich-quick fever, he went to the Yukon, and later found his way to Goldfield, Nevada, where he met Madison. The two men were instantly attracted to each other. Superb specimens of hardy manhood, both were ambitious, fearless, thirsty for adventure. Bill proposed a partnership--a risk-all, divide-all agreement. His other scheme having failed, Madison was glad enough to accept the offer. So with renewed hope and determination, both men turned their faces to the setting sun, and wandered across the mountain ranges, looking for gold. A loquacious Indian, after being generously dosed with "firewater," had told them of a lonely unknown place in the wilderness, where the ground was literally strewn with gold. Nuggets as big as a man's fist, he said, could be found by merely scratching the surface of the soil. They swallowed the yarn with the necessary grain of salt; but in the gold region, where so many miracles have happened, nothing is deemed impossible. The wildest romance receives credence. Vast fortunes had been made over night on clues no less preposterous. Anyhow, it was worth investigating. So, quietly, almost stealthily, taking no one into their confidence, they started North.