The daily Alaskan., 1922-03-25
Copyright, 1920, Little, Brown CauPssyl

AS uan was no longer SUalNug,
 Cranston immediately heard his step.
 He whlrled. recognized Dan, and for
 one long instant In which the world
 seemed 10 have time In plenty 10 make complete revolution, he stood per
 feCtIv mOtlonlesS. The match tlarrd In
 his dark fingers, his eyeS-full Of sin
 gular conjeCturlng-reSted on Dams face. No Instant of the latter's life
 had ever been frsught with greater
 peril. He understood perfectly what
 was going on in Cranston's mind. The
 fire-fend was calmly deciding whether
 to shoot or whether to bluff it out.
 One required no more moral courage
 than the other It really didn't make
 great deal of difference to CrnnStOn. , But he decided that the killing was
 nof worth the cartridge. The other
 course was loo easy. He did not even
 dream that Dan had been Shadowing
 him and had seen his intention. He
 would have laughed at the Idea that a "renderfoot" could thus walk behind him. unhpard. Without concern, he scattered with his foot the little hean of kindling, and slipping his pipe into nls mouth. he touched rhe haring match 10 it. It was a wholly admir- able little piece of acting. and would
 have deceived any one who had moi seen his previous preparations. Then , he walked on down the trail toward , Dan.
 Dan stopped and lighted his own
 nlpe. It was a curious Nttle truce And then be leaned hack against the great gray trunk of a fallen free, 1 Well. CranStou." he said civiliy [ The men niG met on previous oc casions. and always there had been trp same invisible war between rhrm
 How do you do. Failing" CranSror
 replied. No perceptions rould be Su blunt as 10 miss the prcmpditated in suit in the tone. He didn't speak In
 his own tonCue at all. the short gw turaI "Uuwdy" that Is the greeting ! of the mountain meu He pronounced all the words with an exaggerated pre- cisfun. an unmlstaEabIp moch"ry Of Dan's own tone In his accent h"
 threw tone of sickly sweetness and his inference was all too plain Hr
 was simply calling Failing a miIksop and a whlte-ltver: just as plainly as 1 if he had used the words.
 The eyes uf the two men mel. , Crausron's lips were slightly curlcd in an unmlsrakahle lrer Dams were
 very straight And In one thing at ! least. their eyes Iooked just the sane. ! The pupils of both pairs had contracted
 10 steel points, bright In the dark gray i Of The iriseS. CrunSrou'S looked some. what red and Dams were only hard and bright
 | Dan fell himself StraIEhreu; and the i color mounted somewhat higher .n his | brown cheeks. But he did nOt try 70 gvpnge thp iusult--yet. CruuSton was srn fifteen feet distant. and rhai wa ! foo far. A man may swing a rifle { within fifteen feet The facr fhs' they
 v.are iu no way physical equals did not even occur to him. When The h. ; suit Is great enough. such ruuStdrra- i lions cannot possibly matter, Crn>
 ton was hard as steel one hundred and seventy pounds in weight. Dan did bot touch one hundred and fifty. and
 g deadly disease had moi yet entirely \ reliuQuiShed its hold upon him. 1 "I do very well, CranStOn," Dan an- swered ln the same tone. "Wou.dn't you like another match1 l believe your pipe has gone out"
 Very little can be said for the wis dom of this remark. It was simply , human-thut age-old creed 10 answer { blow for blow and insult for Insult 1 Of course the inference was obvious that Dan was accusing him, by iuuu- endo, of his late attempt at arson 1 CranstOn glanced up quickly, and It might be true that his fingers Itched I and tlngled about the barrel Of his rife. He knew what Dan meant. Re understood perfectly that Dan had guessed his purpose on the mountain ! side. And the curl at his lips became
 more pronounced.
 ] What a smart little boy" he [ scorued. "Coing to be a Sherlock | Holmes when he grows up" Then he ! half turned and the light in his eyes | bIazed up. He was not leering now. 1 The mountain men are too Intense
 tO play at insult very long. Their ln- : herent Savagery comes 10 the surface,
 and they want the warmth Of blood
 upon their fingers, His voice became | guttural. Maybe you're a Spy?' he
 asked. Maybe you're one Of those rirv rats-to come and watch us. and then
 run and fell the forest service. There's
 two things. Failing, that want you l to know"
 Dan ruffed at his pipe, and his eyes 1 looked curiously bright through the
 film of smoke. "Tm moi interested in
 hearing them" he said.
 | "It might pay you" Cranston went [ on. "Oue of 'em Is that one mans
 word is good as another's ln a court
 and it wouldn't do you any good ro