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[Frontispiece: The Muzzle of a Revolver was Covering Him]




THE WAY OF THE STRONG


By RIDGWELL CULLUM


Author of "The Twins of Suffering Creek," "The Night Riders," "The One
Way Trail," Etc.



With Four Illustrations by

DOUGLAS DUER



A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS

114-120 East Twenty-third Street -- New York


Published by Arrangement with George W. Jacobs & Company




Copyright, 1914, By

George W. Jacobs & Company




ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PRINTED IN U. S. A.




CONTENTS

PART I


CHAP.

     I  ON SIXTY-MILE CREEK
    II  THE ROOF OF THE NORTHERN WORLD
   III  THE DRIVING FORCE
    IV  LEO
     V  THE SHADOW OF DEATH
    VI  ALL-MASTERING PASSION
   VII  DEAD FIRES
  VIII  SI-WASH CHUCKLES
    IX  IN SAN SABATANO
     X  A PROMISE
    XI  TWO STRANGERS IN SAN SABATANO


PART II

     I  AFTER EIGHTEEN YEARS
    II  ALEXANDER HENDRIE
   III  THE PENALTY
    IV  THE BLINDING FIRES
     V  IN THE SPRINGTIME
    VI  LIFE THROUGH OTHER EYES
   VII  HAPPY DAYS
  VIII  ANGUS HEARS SOME TALK
    IX  THE WHEAT TRUST
     X  MONICA'S FALSE STEP
    XI  WHICH DEALS WITH A CHANCE MEETING
   XII  THE CLEAN SLATE
  XIII  HENDRIE'S RETURN
   XIV  A MAN'S HELL
    XV  PROGRESS OF AFFAIRS
   XVI  IN THE MOONLIGHT
  XVII  PAYING THE PRICE
 XVIII  A MAN'S HONOR
   XIX  THE RETURN OF ALEXANDER HENDRIE
    XX  THE VERDICT


PART III

     I  THE MARCH OF TIME
    II  WHEN VOWS MUST YIELD
   III  TWO LETTERS
    IV  ON THE RAILROAD
     V  A YOUNG GIRL'S PURPOSE
    VI  IN TORONTO
   VII  THE DECISION
  VIII  THE SHADOW OF WAR
    IX  CAPITAL AND LABOR
     X  STRIKE TROUBLES SPREADING
    XI  LEYBURN'S INSPIRATION
   XII  HENDRIE SELLS
  XIII  FRANK LEARNS HIS DUTY
   XIV  THE STRIKE
    XV  PHYLLIS GOES IN SEARCH OF FRANK
   XVI  THE DAWN OF HOPE
  XVII  A RAID
 XVIII  HIS BACK TO THE WALL
   XIX  TWO MEN
    XX  THE STORY OF LEO
   XXI  HENDRIE'S WAY




ILLUSTRATIONS


THE MUZZLE OF A REVOLVER WAS COVERING HIM...... _Frontispiece_

THEN CAME HER ARRIVAL AT DEEP WILLOWS

THE MAN LEAPED FROM HIS SEAT AND FACED ABOUT

PHYLLIS CAUGHT HIS HANDS AND HELD THEM TIGHTLY




THE WAY OF THE STRONG




PART I




CHAPTER I

ON SIXTY-MILE CREEK


It was a grim, gray day; a day which plainly told of the passing of
late fall across the border line of the fierce northern winter. Six
inches of snow had fallen during the night, and the leaden overcast of
the sky threatened many more inches yet to fall.

Five great sled dogs crouched in their harness, with quarters tucked
under them and forelegs outspread. They were waiting the long familiar
command to "mush"; an order they had not heard since the previous
winter.

Their brief summer leisure had passed, lost beneath the white pall
which told of weary toil awaiting them in the immediate future. Unlike
the humans with whom they were associated, however, the coming winter
held no terrors for them. It was the normal condition under which the
sled dog performed its life's work.

The load on the sled was nearing completion. The tough-looking,
keen-eyed man bestowed his chattels with a care and skill which told of
long experience, and a profound knowledge of the country through which
he had to travel. Silently he passed back and forth between the sled
and the weather-battered shelter which had been his home for more than
three years. His moccasined feet gave out no sound; his voice was
silent under the purpose which occupied all his thought. He was leaving
the desert heart of the Yukon to face the perils of the winter trail.
He was about to embark for the storm-riven shores of the Alaskan coast.

A young woman stood silently by, watching his labors with the voiceless
interest of those who live the drear life of silent places. Her
interest was consuming, as her handsome brown eyes told. Her strong,
young heart was full of a profound envy; and a sort of despairing
longing came near to filling her eyes with unaccustomed tears. The
terrors of this man's journey would have been small enough for her if
only she could get out of this wilderness of desolation to which she
had willingly condemned herself.

Her heart ached, and her despair grew as she watched. But she knew only
too well that her limitless prison was of her own seeking, as was her
sharing of the sordid lot of the man she had elected to follow. More
than that she knew that the sentence she had passed upon herself
carried with it the terror of coming motherhood in the midst of this
desolate world, far from the reach of help, far from the companionship
of her sex.

At last the man paused, surveying his work. He tested the raw-hide
bonds which held his load; he glanced at the space still left clear in
the sled, with measuring eye, and stood raking at his beard with
powerful, unclean fingers. It was this pause that drove the woman's
crowding feelings to sudden speech.

"Heavens, how I wish I were going with you, Tug!" she cried.

The man lifted his sharp eyes questioningly.

"Do you, Audie?" he said, in a metallic voice, in which there was no
softening. Then he shook his head. "It'll be a hell of a trip. Guess
I'd change places with you readily enough."

"You would?" the girl laughed mirthlessly. "You're going down with a
big 'wad' of gold to--to a land of--plenty. Oh, God, how I hate this
wilderness!"

The man called Tug surveyed her for a moment with eyes long since
hardened by the merciless struggle of the cruel Yukon world. Then he
shook his head.

"It sounds good when you put it that way. But there's miles to go
before I reach the 'land of plenty.'" He laughed shortly. "I've got to
face the winter trail, and we all know what that means. And more than
that. I'm packing a sick man with me, and I've got to keep him _warm_
the whole way. It's a guess, and a poor one, if he don't die