But, at last, his mind wandered back to the many mysteries which had been straightened out not one bit by these events of the day.  Here he was traveling with two companions, a Jap girl and an Eskimo.  Eskimo?  Right there he began to wonder if Iyok-ok, as he called himself, was really an Eskimo after all.  What if he should turn out to be a Jap playing the part of an Eskimo?  Only that day Johnny had once more come upon him suddenly to find him in earnest conversation with the Jap girl.  And the language they had been using had sounded distinctly oriental.  And yet, if he was a Jap, how did it come about that he spoke the Eskimo language so well?

Dismissing this question, his mind dwelt upon the events of the past few days.  Twice he had been begged not to kill the Russian.  This last time he most decidedly would have been justified in putting a bullet into the rascal’s brain.  He had been prevented from doing so by Iyok-ok.  Why?

“Anyway,” he said to himself, yawning, “I’m glad I didn’t do it.  It’s nasty business, this killing people.  I couldn’t very well tell such a thing to Mazie; you can’t tell such things to a woman, and I want to tell her all about things over here.  It’s been a hard old life, but so far I haven’t done a single thing that I wouldn’t be proud to tell her about.  No, sir, not one!  I can say:  ‘Mazie, I did this and I did that,’ and Mazie’ll say, ‘Oh, Johnny!  Wasn’t that gr-ran-nd?’”

Johnny grinned as the thought of it and felt decidedly better.  After all, what was the use of living if one was to live on and on and on and never have any adventures worth the telling?

For some time he lay sprawled out before the lamp in silent reflection, then he sat up suddenly and pounded his knee.

“By Jove!  I’ll bet that’s it!” he exclaimed.

He had happened upon a new theory regarding the Russian.  It seemed probable to him that this man, knowing of this gold mine, perhaps being owner of it, had come north to determine its value and the advisability of opening it for operation in the spring.  In these days, when the money market of the world was gold hungry, that glittering, yellow metal was of vast importance, especially to the warring factions of Russia.  Surely, this seemed a plausible explanation.  And if it was true then he could hurry on up the coast, with or without his companions and make his way home.

“But then,” he said, perplexed again.  He reached his hand into his pocket to draw out the envelope he had found in the mine.  “But then, there’s the diamonds.  Would a man coming on such a journey bring such treasure with him?  He couldn’t trade them to the natives.  They know money well enough, but not diamonds.”

Johnny opened the envelope and shook it gently.  Three stones fell into his hand.  They were of purest blue white, perfect stones and perfectly cut.  A glance at the envelope showed him that it was divided into four narrow compartments and that each compartment was filled with diamonds wrapped in tissue paper.  Only these three were unwrapped.