dagger whetted for us fellows who own the rich diggings. I don't
think there's any truth in it, but you can't tell."

"The law is the foundation--there can't be any progress without
it. There is nothing here now but disorder."

"There isn't half the disorder you think there is. There weren't
any crimes in this country till the tenderfeet arrived. We didn't
know what a thief was. If you came to a cabin you walked in
without knocking. The owner filled up the coffee-pot and sliced
into the bacon; then when he'd started your meal, he shook hands
and asked your name. It was just the same whether his cache was
full or whether he'd packed his few pounds of food two hundred
miles on his back. That was hospitality to make your Southern
article look pretty small. If there was no one at home, you ate
what you needed. There was but one unpardonable breach of
etiquette--to fail to leave dry kindlings. I'm afraid of the
transitory stage we're coming to--that epoch of chaos between the
death of the old and the birth of the new. Frankly, I like the old
way best. I love the license of it. I love to wrestle with nature;
to snatch, and guard, and fight for what I have. I've been beyond
the law for years and I want to stay there, where life is just
what it was intended to be--a survival of the fittest."

His large hands, as he gripped the bulwark, were tense and corded,
while his rich voice issued softly from his chest with the hint of
power unlimited behind it. He stood over her, tall, virile, and
magnetic. She saw now why he had so joyously hailed the fight of
the previous night; to one of his kind it was as salt air to the
nostrils. Unconsciously she approached him, drawn by the spell of