“How can I guess?”

“I’m going to buy an engagement ring.”  Once more he leered repulsively.

“How nice!” said Natalie, coolly.  “Congratulations!”

“Guess who it’s for?”

“I couldn’t, really.”

“It’s for you.”

“Oh no, it isn’t!” Natalie’s voice was freezing.  “You have made a mistake, a very great mistake, Dan.  I like you, but—­we won’t even mention such things, if you please.”

Eliza’s entrance saved her further embarrassment, and she quickly made her escape.  Dan groaned so deeply as his sister bathed his injuries that she was really concerned.

“Goodness, Danny,” she said, “are you as badly hurt as all that?”

“I’m worse,” he confessed.  “I’ve just been shot through the heart.  Slow music and flowers for me!  Arrange for the services and put a rose in my hand, Sis.”

“Nonsense!  I’ll put a beefsteak on your eye,” she told him, unfeelingly.

Under Dr. Gray’s attention O’Neil’s ankle began to mend, and by the time the track had been laid far enough beyond the crossing to insure against further interference from Gordon he declared himself ready to complete the journey to Kyak, which he and the girls had begun nearly three weeks before.

During the interval Eliza had occupied herself in laying out her magazine stories, and now she was eager to complete her investigations so as to begin the final writing.  Her experience in the north thus far had given her an altered outlook upon the railroad situation, but as yet she knew little of the coal problem.  That, after all, was the more important subject, and she expected it to afford her the basis for a sensational exposure.  She had come to Alaska sharing her newspaper’s views upon questions of public policy, looking upon Murray O’Neil as a daring promoter bent upon seizing the means of transportation of a mighty realm for his own individual profit; upon Gordon as an unscrupulous adventurer; and upon the Copper Trust as a greedy corporation reaching out to strangle competition and absorb the riches of the northland.  But she had found O’Neil an honorably ambitious man, busied, like others, in the struggle for success, and backing his judgment with his last dollar.  She had learned, moreover, to sympathize with his aims, and his splendid determination awoke her admiration.  Her idea of the Trust had changed, likewise, for it seemed to be a fair and dignified competitor.  She had seen no signs of that conscienceless, grasping policy usually imputed to big business.  In regard to Gordon alone, her first conviction had remained unchanged.  He was, in truth, as evil as he had been reputed.

The readjustment of her ideas had been disappointing, in a way, since it robbed her of a large part of her ammunition; but she consoled herself with the thought that she had not yet reached the big, vital story which most deeply concerned the welfare of the north.

She was a bit afraid to pursue her inquiries into the coal subject, for her ideas were fixed, and she feared that O’Neil’s activities merited condemnation.  In his railroad-building, she believed, he was doing a fine work, but the coal was another matter.  Obviously it belonged to the people, and he had no right to lay hands upon their heritage.