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Updated: June 13, 2025
Ben himself was neither aware of this nor of the fact that his heart was hammering wildly in his breast and his blood racing, like wild rivers, through his veins: he was only thrilled and held by a sense of vast, impending developments. Every nerve tingled and thrilled, and why he did not know. Ezram began to unload; but now, his blue eyes shining, he began a covert watch of his young companion.
Ezram climbed out and made fast, and so busy was he with his work that he did not glance at Ben, otherwise he might have beheld a phenomenon that would have been of keen interest to the alienist, Forest. His young charge had suddenly grown quite pale.
"I'm going to make this proposition good," Ezram went on as if he had not heard, "probably a fourth maybe even a third to you. And I ain't such a fool as I look, neither. I know the chances of comin' out right on it are twice as good if somebody young and strong, and who can fight, is in on it with me. Listen to this." Opening the letter, he read laboriously: Snowy Gulch, B.C.
And the two men talked over, quietly and happily, old days at Thunder Lake. He remembered now that Ezram had always been the most intimate friend of his own family: a spry old godfather to himself and young sister, a boon companion to his once successful rival, Ben's father. Ben did not wonder, now, at his own perplexity when Forest had spoken of "Wolf" Darby.
And now, in the gray of twilight, Ezram saw the place to land. It was a small lagoon into which a creek emptied, and beyond was an open meadow, found so often and so unexpectedly in the North woods. Swiftly Ben turned the canoe into shore.
The cold sweat sprang out on Ben's forehead, and he broke into a headlong run. There was no later remembrance of traversing that last hundred yards. The hillside seemed to whip under his feet. He paused at last, just at the dark margin of an impenetrable thicket. The wolf whined disconsolately just beyond the range of his vision. "Ezram!" he called, a curious throbbing quality in his voice.
Not one glimpse of the truth as to Ezram's real reason for desiring to push on alone as much as occurred to him. Ezram was wholly deliberate. He knew what waited him on arrival at his brother's claim. Jeffery Neilson and his gang had assembled there, had already jumped the claim just as his brother had warned him that they would do; and coolly and quietly he had resolved to face them alone.
"We was countin' on goin' back in it soon." "I'd just as leave buy it, if you want to sell it. In this jerked-off town there ain't a fit canoe to be had. Our boat is the worst tub you ever seen. How much you want for it?" Ezram stated his figure, and Ben was prone to believe that he had adopted a highwayman for a buddy. The amount named was nearly twice that which they had paid.
And before they were fully unpacked they made out the figure of a middle-aged frontiersman, his back loaded, advancing up the road toward them. Both men knew something of the ways of the frontier and turned in greeting. "Howdy," Ezram began pleasantly. "Howdy," the stranger replied. "How was goin'?" "Oh, good enough." "Come all the way from Saltsville?" "Yes. Goin' to Snowy Gulch."
He knew perfectly that it would only put Neilson on his guard if he stated his true position; and besides, he wanted word of Ezram. "I may have a wrong steer, Mr. Neilson," he said, "but a man I met down on the river-trail, out of Snowy Gulch, advised me to come here.
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