CHAPTER

       I. Prince or bandit
      II.  Into the mountains
     III.  A rescue
      IV.  Congenial company
       V. Van’s partners
      VI.  The battle
     VII.  An exchange of questions
    VIII.  A night’s expenses
      IX.  Progress and Salt
       X. The laughing water claim
      XI.  Algy stirs up trouble
     XII.  Bostwick loses ground
    XIII.  A combination of forces
     XIV.  Moving A shack
      XV.  Hatching A plot
     XVI.  Involving Beth
    XVII.  Unexpected complications
   XVIII.  Wherein matters thicken
     XIX.  Van and Beth and Bostwick
      XX.  Queenie
     XXI.  In the shadow of the rope
    XXII.  Two meetings after dark
   XXIII.  Beth’s desperation
    XXIV.  A blizzard of dust
     XXV.  A timely deliverance
    XXVI.  The night in the desert
   XXVII.  Tall stories
  XXVIII.  Work and song
    XXIX.  Suspicious answers
     XXX.  Beth’s one expedient
    XXXI.  McCOPPET busies his mind
   XXXII.  The hardships of the trail
  XXXIII.  The clouds of trouble gather
   XXXIV.  The taking of the claim
    XXXV.  The meetings of two strong men
   XXXVI.  Van runs amuck
  XXXVII.  The primitive law
 XXXVIII.  Beth makes demands
   XXXIX.  Algy’s cooking and Beth’s despair
      XL.  Glen and revelations
     XLI.  Suvy proves his love
    XLII.  The furnace of gold
   XLIII.  Preparing the net for A draw
    XLIV.  The engines of climax
     XLV.  The last cigars
    XLVI.  Wasted time
   XLVII.  A tribute to the desert

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

He Proceeded to Pan from a Dozen Different
  Places in the Cove . . . .  Frontispiece [missing from book]

His Hold Was Giving Way

The Angry Miner Lurching in Closer to Shoot [missing from book]

“Don’t You Want to Give This Man a Chance?”

Beth Felt Her Heart Begin New Gymnastics [missing from book]

No Corpse Snatched from Its Grave Could Have
  Been More Helplessly Inert

“Yesh, He’s Broke the Law”

Till the Mechanism Burst, He would Chase His
  Man Across the Desert [missing from book]

THE FURNACE OF GOLD

CHAPTER I

PRINCE OR BANDIT

Now Nevada, though robed in gray and white—­the gray of sagebrush and the white of snowy summits—­had never yet been accounted a nun when once again the early summer aroused the passions of her being and the wild peach burst into bloom.

It was out in Nauwish valley, at the desert-edge, where gold has been stored in the hungry-looking rock to lure man away from fairer pastures.  There were mountains everywhere—­huge, rugged mountains, erected in the igneous fury of world-making, long since calmed.  Above them all the sky was almost incredibly blue—­an intense ultramarine of extraordinary clearness and profundity.