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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

Chapter 07
Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Obtaining informed consent from research participants is a process that involves:

A. informing the participants about research.
B. obtaining consent to participate in research.
C. receiving consent from an institutional review board to conduct research.
D. informing the participants about research and obtaining consent to participate in it.

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2. In 1954, Vinacke wrote a letter to the editor of the American Psychologist:

A. regarding the overreliance on college students as participants in psychological research.
B. about the problem of nonrandom sampling in most psychological research.
C. about the general tendency of researchers to be more concerned with treating participants
ethically rather than with proper experimental procedures.
D. taking psychologists to task for a lack of concern over the welfare of their research
participants.

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3. The Nuremberg Code was developed after:

A. the unethical behavior of German soldiers during World War II.
B. the use of concentration camp inmates in medical experiments during World War II.
C. the use of elderly cancer patients in research without their knowledge in the United States.
D. None of the answers is correct.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

4. The Declaration of Helsinki:

A. specifically addresses medical research but also applies to research in the social sciences.
B. states that research must be reviewed by an independent group of individuals who will
ensure that the research protocol adheres to accepted ethical standards.
C. suggests that medical researchers are obligated to protect the health, welfare, and dignity of
research participants.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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5. The first ethical code of the American Psychological Association (APA) was accepted in:
A. 1935.
B. 1947.
C. 1953.
D. 1973.

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6. Respect for persons, beneficence, and justice are the three basic principles of ethical
treatment of human participants underlying all medical and behavioral research. These
principles are presented in the:
A. Nuremberg Code.
B. Declaration of Helsinki.
C. Belmont Report.
D. Colbert Report.

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7. In the context of the Belmont Report, which of the following is a component of

beneficence?
A. To protect the well-being of research participants
B. To discourage the submission of raw data
C. To assure the voluntary participation of research participants
D. To treat research participants as capable decision makers

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

8. In the context of the Belmont Report, which of the following principles states that
researchers and participants should share the costs and potential benefits of research as well as
prohibits using participant populations simply because they are readily available, are
convenient, and may have difficulty refusing participation in research?
A. Respect for persons
B. Beneficence
C. Justice
D. Equality

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9. According to the 2002 APA ethical principles that apply to human research participants,
informed consent shall be obtained when voices or images are recorded as data unless:
A. the research consists solely of artificial observation in private places.
B. the research design includes deception and consent for the use of the recording is obtained
during debriefing.
C. the recording will be used for teaching purposes in classrooms.
D. it is anticipated that the recording will be used in a manner that could cause medical
ailment.

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10. According to the 2002 APA ethical principles that apply to human research participants,
informed consent when required should include:
A. participants' right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once
participation has begun.
B. the foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing.
C. reasonably foreseeable factors that may be expected to influence participants' willingness
to participate.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

11. According to the 2002 APA ethical principles that apply to human research participants,
informed consent may be dispensed with only:
A. where research would not reasonably be assumed to cause distress or harm.
B. when information provided to obtain informed consent would cause individuals to refuse
participation.
C. if investigators feel that the potential benefits of research outweigh any harm that may
befall the participants.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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12. According to the APA ethical principles, deception is an acceptable research practice if:
A. investigators determine that the use of deceptive techniques is justified by the study's
significant prospective scientific value.
B. investigators have determined that no alternative procedures are available.
C. fully informing participants of the purposes of the experiment would cause them to refuse
participation.
D. investigators determine that the use of deceptive techniques is justified by the study's
significant prospective scientific, educational, or applied value and that effective
nondeceptive alternative procedures are not feasible.

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13. According to the APA principles, if you decide to use deception in your research, you
must:
A. make sure that you conceal the true nature of the research from your participants to avoid
negative effects on their self-esteem.
B. develop an elaborate cover story to ensure that participants will not find out about the true
purpose of your research.
C. explain that deception is an integral feature of the design and conduct of the research to
participants as early as is feasible.
D. conceal the true nature of the research from participants.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

14. According to the APA ethical principles, when psychologists conduct research with
clients/patients, students, or subordinates as participants, they should take steps to:
A. conceal the true nature of the research from the participants.
B. prevent the participants from being able to withdraw from the research.
C. protect the prospective participants from adverse consequences of declining or
withdrawing from participation.
D. make the participants an offer they can't refuse.

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15. In the context of the guidelines that apply to using children as research participants, the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2009) regulations for research with human
participants states that:
A. permission from one parent is sufficient even if there is greater than minimal risk to child
participants.
B. the assent of child participants must be obtained unless the research involving children is
exempt under the code.
C. permission from both parents is required when the research has a direct potential benefit to
child participants.
D. the participation of children in research should be eliminated because it is difficult to
safeguard their health and welfare.

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16. An institutional review board (IRB) reviews your research to ensure that it:
A. uses internally valid procedures.
B. does not use deception.
C. adheres to established ethical guidelines.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

17. A proposal submitted to an IRB includes:

A. a draft of your informed-consent form.
B. information concerning the potential risks to participants.
C. information about your plans for following up the research with reports to participants.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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18. One factor that both researchers and IRBs must assess is:
A. whether a proposed research is too expensive to conduct.
B. whether it is possible to carryout a proposed research in the suggested time.
C. the risk-benefit ratio of doing research.
D. whether researchers have the expertise to carryout a proposed research.

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19. Which of the following is a disadvantage of an institutional review board (IRB)?

A. It fails to protect psychologists from liabilities in case participants suffer harm during
research.
B. IRB review adds to the costs of doing research and leads to delay in conducting research.
C. It discourages communication between researchers and its members, thereby reducing
collaboration during research.
D. IRB review fails to determine if the benefits of a research outweigh the potential risks to
participants.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

20. An Internet research gives potential participants a full description of the study, an
informed-consent form, an opportunity to withdraw from the study, and information on how
to obtain follow-up information. This Internet research:
A. raises serious ethical concerns because researchers do not know who will choose to
participate.
B. poses no more ethical concerns than offline research.
C. should not be conducted because of a high potential for abuse.
D. does not require review by an IRB.

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21. Internet research that makes use of existing chat rooms, forums and communities, and e-
mail groups:
A. poses no more ethical concerns than normal, offline research.
B. should never be attempted because such research violates ethical principles.
C. raises a host of issues not covered particularly well in traditional ethical guidelines.
D. raises no ethical issues.

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22. Which of the following statements is true about the guidelines developed by the
Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) to address key ethical issues posed by Internet
research?
A. They focus on philosophically driven ethical arguments.
B. They are "top-down" principles.
C. They are rooted strongly in the Nuremberg Code and the Office of Research Integrity
(ORI).
D. They address ethical issues based on the nature and needs of specific research studies.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

23. Materials that people post on social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, _____.
A. are "public" in nature, and their use in research does not require informed consent by page
owners
B. may include postings by "third parties," thereby complicating the issue of whether
informed consent is required
C. may not be used for research purposes under any circumstance
D. can be used in research without informed consent as long as the names of the people who
have posted the materials remain confidential

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24. _____ means that you explain the methods used in a study to the participants, including
any deception.
A. Debriefing
B. Dehoaxing
C. Deluding
D. Detoxing

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25. "Dehoaxing" means that you:

A. explain to your participants the purpose of your study and ask for their consent to
participate in it.
B. explain to your participants the methods used in your study, including any deception.
C. convince your participants that the deception used in your study was necessary and take
steps to reverse any ill effects of being deceived.
D. convince your participants that crop circles are not created by aliens.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

26. While evaluating the chat room participants' responses to being part of a research study,
James Hudson and Amy Bruckman (2004) found that they were more likely to be kicked out
of a chat room when _____.
A. they failed to guarantee the security of whistleblowers
B. the number of moderators in the chat room decreased
C. there was an increase in the number of chat room members
D. they identified themselves as researchers

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27. According to Pittenger (2003), the Internet can be considered equivalent to a public place
like a shopping mall because:
A. Internet use is now so common that users should understand that it does not afford privacy.
B. people can easily maintain anonymity by using a pseudonym that cannot be traced back to
reveal their identity.
C. the exchange of information in open, public Internet forums does not fall under the heading
of research that requires informed consent and can be legitimately studied as long as there is
no potential harm to participants.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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28. Which of the following statements is true about an institutional review board (IRB)?
A. It is important because it allows a group of individuals who do not have a vested interest in
your research to screen your study.
B. It helps to protect you, your participants, and the sponsoring institution from legal liability
for any harm that comes to people as a result of participation in your research.
C. It eliminates the need for you to conduct a cost-benefit assessment of your research.
D. It is important because it allows a group of individuals who do not have a vested interest in
your research to screen your study, and its review and approval provide protection for you,
your participants, and the sponsoring institution.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

29. Proposals for research using animal subjects must be reviewed and approved by:
A. the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
B. an institutional review board (IRB).
C. an institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC).
D. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

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30. According to the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (National Research
Council, 2011), an institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) membership should
include:
A. a doctor of veterinary medicine who has training or experience in laboratory animal
science and medicine.
B. at least one practicing scientist experienced in research involving animals.
C. at least one member who is not a scientist selected from inside or outside the institution.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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31. Fraud in research:

A. can erode public's confidence in scientific findings.
B. can have real and detrimental effects on a person's health and well-being.
C. touches all types of research, from the social sciences to medical sciences.
D. All of the answers are correct.

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32. _____ defines three categories of research misconduct, which are data fabrication,
falsification, and plagiarism.
A. The Belmont Report
B. An institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC)
C. An institutional review board (IRB)
D. The Office of Research Integrity (ORI)

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

33. The most harmful, but rare, form of research fraud is:
A. the outright fabrication of data.
B. taking senior authorship on an article you had little to do with.
C. the alteration of data to make them look better.
D. the publication of several small articles from a single data set.

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34. Bell (1992) suggested that exactly quantifying research fraud may be difficult because:
A. researchers who suspect that a colleague is falsifying data may not bother to report it.
B. liabilities associated with "blowing the whistle" can be quite severe.
C. nobody cares about research fraud since it doesn't hurt anyone.
D. researchers who suspect that a colleague is falsifying data may not report it and liabilities
associated with "blowing the whistle" can be quite severe.

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35. You detect some research fraud in your laboratory. You decide to "blow the whistle" and
turn the offender in. You will most likely be:
A. given an award for blowing the whistle.
B. largely ignored for blowing the whistle.
C. respected and venerated for blowing the whistle.
D. vilified, and your own credibility will be called into question.

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36. Motivation to commit fraud in research may stem from the _____.
A. desire to publish in prestigious journals
B. pressure to obtain publications necessary for tenure
C. pressure to obtain scarce research funding
D. All of the answers are correct.

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

37. The best way to deal with research fraud is to:

A. make maximum use of the review processes.
B. replicate suspicious results.
C. train scientists so that they understand the importance of honesty in research.
D. secretly monitor researchers when they do research.

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38. Which of the following statements is true about the U.S. Office of Research Integrity
(ORI)?
A. It states that institutions are obligated to protect whistleblowers from retaliation in
accordance with U.S. law.
B. It states that research participants should be autonomous and allowed to make their own
decisions.
C. It states that research must be reviewed by an independent group of individuals who will
ensure that the research protocol adheres to the accepted U.S. ethical standards.
D. It states that both researchers and participants should share the costs and potential benefits
of research.

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True / False Questions

39. Current research practice requires that researchers obtain informed consent from human
participants.
TRUE

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40. As a researcher, you must present your research protocol for review of ethical issues
before you conduct your research.
TRUE

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

41. Respect for persons, beneficence, and justice are the three basic principles of ethical
treatment of human participants underlying all medical and behavioral research as outlined in
the Belmont Report.
TRUE

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42. Although psychologists are bound by the APA ethical principles, there are no government
regulations that apply to the conduct of psychological research.
FALSE

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43. According to the 2002 APA ethical principles, it is permissible to offer excessive financial
inducements for research participation when such inducements are likely to coerce
participation.
FALSE

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44. According to the 2002 APA ethical principles, when research participation is a course
requirement or an opportunity for extra credit, a prospective participant is given the choice of
equitable alternative activities.
TRUE

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45. Psychologists make reasonable efforts to avoid offering excessive or inappropriate

financial or other inducements for research participation when such inducements are likely to
coerce participation.
TRUE

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

46. Informed consent to participate in psychological research can never be dispensed with.
FALSE

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47. Psychologists have no obligation to offer participants a prompt opportunity to obtain

appropriate information about the nature, results, and conclusions of research.
FALSE

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48. The Department of Health and Human Services regulations were developed because
ethical violations persisted even after other ethical guidelines were adopted.
TRUE

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49. Submission of a research proposal to an institutional review board (IRB) is totally

voluntary in institutions that receive federal funding.
FALSE

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50. According to the principles for ethical Internet research practice, ethical issues must be
addressed at every stage of the research process, including designing the study, conducting the
study, and disseminating the results.
TRUE

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

51. According to the principles for ethical Internet research practice, making ethical decisions
is a deliberative process and an Internet researcher should consult others when making these
decisions.
TRUE

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52. Internet research that makes use of existing chat rooms, online communities, and e-mail
groups poses no more ethical concerns than offline research.
TRUE

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53. Unlike research using human participants, research using animal subjects does not require
review and approval by an institutional committee before being carried out.
FALSE

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54. Plagiarism is the most serious form of research fraud.

FALSE

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55. Research fraud can arise from scientific elitism.

TRUE

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

56. According to Uri Simonsohn of the University of Pennsylvania, it is easy to detect fraud
using raw data, and he advocates for posting raw data publically.
TRUE

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57. The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) program includes educational experiences
centering on issues such as research misconduct, responsible authorship, and peer review.
TRUE

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58. Scientists should be discouraged from reporting research fraud because their careers may
be threatened.
FALSE

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59. The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) suggests that whistleblowers are a crucial
component in the fight against misconduct in science.
TRUE

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Essay Questions

60. Discuss the evolution of ethical principles for research with human participants.

Answer may vary

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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

61. Outline the major points presented in the most recent version of the APA guidelines
developed for using human participants in research.

Answer may vary

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62. Describe the three basic principles of the Belmont Report that apply to all research with
human participants.

Answer may vary

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63. Imagine that you are a member of an IRB and have to review a proposal for an experiment
that uses human participants. With specific reference to the APA ethical guidelines, what
specific points would you consider to ensure that the participants are being treated ethically?

Answer may vary

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64. What kinds of Internet research pose ethical problems not covered particularly well by
traditional ethical guidelines? Describe the ethical issues that arise when entering an online
forum to study the interactions among the participants.

Answer may vary

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7-17
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Chapter 07 - Understanding Ethical Issues in the Research Process

65. Describe the principles listed in the 2012 American Psychological Association (APA)
ethical code for the care and use of animal subjects.

Answer may vary

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66. Discuss the problem of fraud in science, including its definition, prevalence, and possible
solutions.

Answer may vary

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67. In the context of detecting and dealing with research misconduct, list the steps that
journals can take to help fight research fraud as suggested by Cate et al. (2013).

Answer may vary

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Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
Dredging Company is a mere swindle. Be careful! I'll put the Crown
after you at the very first opportunity."
The object of his censure sniffed in scorn, but Ainsworth
continued:
"You invited my antagonism. Now perhaps you'll regret it. If
anything angers me, it is the loss of my self-respect, and those
Frenchmen took me for an idiot. But you sound decidedly out of
place next the Sahara, my friend. You should be at the Arctic end of
a different continent. What are you hunting in Algiers–floating
capital?"
"No," was the answer. "I am hunting my wife. I arrived but an
hour ago from Tangier, where the cursed doctors quarantined me for
a chill which they insisted on calling fever. When after twenty days'
hammering at their thick heads I convinced them of their mistake,
they let me out, and I found my wife had hurried away to escape
infection." He laughed, and with a cold, indignant significance
intensifying his words, repeated: "Hurried away to escape infection!"
"Your wife," echoed the puzzled lawyer. "What has that to do
with your offensive attitude? What has that to do with Rex Britton?"
"They tell me that in finding Britton I shall find my wife!"
Understanding rushed upon Ainsworth, and he, as well as
Trascott, was stirred to fiery excitement. He shook the man roughly
by the shoulder. "Your name?" he breathlessly demanded. "What did
you say was your name?"
"Morris–Christopher Morris," was the answer. "My wife's name is
Maud, and the devil gave her the prettiest face in England."
Ainsworth passed his hand across his forehead. His face held
the first expression of dismay that the curate had ever seen there.
To Trascott it was evident that the lawyer's unconcealed mistrust of
the woman concerned had not extended to such an unforeseen
contingency as now existed upon the statement of Morris.
The barrister was not looking at the curate and could not see
the accompanying signs of extreme agitation in the latter's
countenance. The former seemed to be weighing a doubtful point in
his mind, and when he spoke it was as to himself in a musing,
philosophical manner.
"This is either a drunken hallucination, insanity, or the truth," he
said, softly. "Let us have a test!" He dropped a vesta match upon the
green baize of the table.
"Pick that up," he said to Morris.
The man stared an instant and obeyed. Ainsworth watched him
closely. His fingers went down with disconcerting steadiness, closed
unerringly over the match and returned it to the barrister. The latter
raised appealing eyes to his friend and said:
"He drinks, but he is not overly drunk now. I'm afraid it is the
truth."
Trascott, his earnest face all troubled and his lips compressed in
a grim line, shook his head.
"This is something like what I feared," he groaned.

CHAPTER IV.

Morris mumbled something of repeated apology and made a

movement to leave the room.
 Ainsworth stopped him.
"I'll find Britton," he said. "This mess has to be straightened out,
and it wouldn't do for you to wander round till you meet him and
raise Cain before a lot of women. I'll bring him here in a minute."
"You're kind," grunted the other, sarcastically, "but I'll wait for
you."
The lawyer hastened out, peering into the different rooms in
search of the man he wanted. He suspected that he would find the
woman with Britton, and as he sought, unheeding acquaintances or
greetings, he came upon the couple in the dining-room.
They were standing at the buffet, chatting and laughing and
partaking of the six-franc supper which Britton had mentioned to his
friends. The dining-hall was full, and Ainsworth hesitated at the door.
He had a peculiar and intense hatred of scenes, and he knew that
this company, consisting partly of bored aristocracy and partly of
different gradings of the vulgar rich, was ready to stare and laugh at
an unconventional act, as, for instance, the interruption of
someone's luncheon.
Britton espied him at the door, and cut short his vacillation by
beckoning him over, making room for him at the same time.
Ainsworth approached them grimly.
"Have you not had lunch?" Britton inquired cheerily. "Come,
there's room here. We'll wait for you."
"I couldn't eat a bite," said the lawyer, truthfully. "I wanted to
speak to you for a moment, if you're through. That's all."
He avoided the eyes of Maud Morris and did not attempt to
address her directly.
 "There's the after-lunch dance, you know," objected Britton.
"It's a matter of etiquette with these people."
"Can't you let it go?" asked the lawyer, sharply.
His tone awakened his friend's scrutiny. "What's the matter?" he
asked. "How long do you want me?"
"It may be some time," answered Ainsworth. "I wish you would
come immediately."
Maud Morris smiled full upon the lawyer and forced him to meet
her glorious eyes.
"Just one round," she pleaded prettily, with a nod towards the
ballroom.
At that moment Ainsworth was transformed, in his own mind,
into the grim master of life. The other two were the trifling, wayward
children to whom chastisement would presently come. It did not
matter if, in their ignorance, they coveted those few turns together;
they could have their gambols just on the eve of disillusionment! It
might help the cure of Britton's malady when Ainsworth would
afterwards remind him of the incident.
"By all means," he said sarcastically. "It will satisfy these
sticklers."
They swept merrily into the adjacent ballroom, and Ainsworth
followed as far as the entrance. The occasion struck him with a
certain grim humor, and he chuckled silently as he stood in the
alcove watching the couple circling to the orchestra's music.
They floated slowly, as in a delightful dream, round the
immense and gorgeously-decorated salon, the woman looking
upward ecstatically, with her face aquiver with light, and whispering
with both lips and eyes. Britton, oblivious to the irony of the
situation, had forgotten even Ainsworth. He was plunged in the joy
of the moment, and the watching lawyer could imagine what words
he was murmuring in the meshes of her hair.
Then, in the midst of his ironical judgment, a pang of something
nearly akin to pity moved Ainsworth. For an instant he debated with
himself the issue if this amour should prove genuine on both sides,
but the thought was immediately dismissed by his cynical reasoning
as improbable. The man was in earnest, but the woman was a siren,
in Ainsworth's critical view.
One round of the ballroom floor was all the enjoyment they
allowed themselves, for the lawyer significantly stepped out when
they reached the entrance curtains. Britton looked at him vaguely
and contracted his brows in a half-frown when he remembered.
He led the lady to a settee and bent over her for a moment.
"You will come back soon?" she whispered with a shade of
wistfulness.
Britton pressed her fingers on her fan under pretence of
examining it.
"Yes," he promised, glorying in the depths of her eyes, "I'll
come back, not soon, but at once. Our dance isn't finished, you
know."
He strode across the room, tall and elegant, and smiling over
his shoulder so that the woman's heart leaped oddly as she watched
him.
"Now, Ainsworth," he said, laying a hand on his comrade's arm,
"what do you want with me? You'll please hurry, won't you?"
The lawyer drew Britton's arm tightly through his own and
turned across the main promenade.
 "That woman's married," he said with brutal directness, "and
I'm taking you to her husband."
Britton whipped out his arm from Ainsworth's grasp and held it
upraised, as if to deliver a blow, while a red wave of denunciation
flamed over his fine features.
"You–" he began, and halted, for the grim, set look in his
companion's eyes carried undeniable conviction.
"Strike me if you like," Ainsworth observed harshly, "but come
this way with me."
Britton's fist fell to his side, and he drew his whole frame rigidly
erect in a sort of convulsive movement. In spite of his great strength
he staggered a little, and his face was ashy-white.
He turned irresolutely back towards the entrance of the dancing
salon, but Ainsworth took his arm again.
"No, this way," he urged, and led him as he would a boy.
People marked his rigid muscles and pallid skin, and murmured
compassionately at the apparent stroke of illness.
"Hello, old chap!" cried one of his numerous acquaintances,
shouldering up, "what's wrong? Heat too much for you? By Jove,
you're in a beastly funk, and I don't wonder, for it's deuced close in
here."
The lawyer waved him aside, and they went on, while all the
guests began to complain of heat, and the assiduous concierge ran
to open wider the French casements on the lawns.
Once or twice Ainsworth looked up at his companion. Britton's
pallor and tremendous calm, so suggestive of the latent volcanic
powers, alarmed the lawyer.
"How do you feel?" he whispered sympathetically.
 "I feel nothing–absolutely nothing," responded Britton, in a dull,
passionless tone, and Ainsworth did not doubt him for a moment.
"Where is your man?" he asked after a second, in the same
listless and unimpassioned voice.
"Here, in this room," Ainsworth answered, entering the billiard
parlors. They skirted the tables and came where Morris stood with
Trascott.
"Here is the man Morris," he announced in a measured manner.
"Morris, this is Britton."
As Ainsworth spoke, he braced himself to guard against a
hundred ugly possibilities which this meeting presented. He scanned
the lineaments of the two men, alert to catch the nerve purpose
dependent upon each one's expression, and in thus studying the
features of Morris he lost sight of the latter's hands, which were
thrust loosely in the pockets of his coat.
The husband's narrow eyes glittered; his lips were drawn back
over his teeth in a wolfish snarl; all his capability for extreme hate
seemed to be given free scope as he centred ferocious glances on
the stony countenance of Rex Britton.
The other occupants of the room instinctively felt that the
atmosphere held some vital and dramatic portent. They stopped
their play and gazed wonderingly on the group over by the corner
table.
There the two principal figures glared at each other without
uttering a word, the one standing upright with set face and folded
arms, the other crouching like a beast ready to spring in rage.
Ainsworth had never felt such a tense moment, even in his
pleadings before tightly-packed courts of law. He was involuntarily
forced to hold his breath in suspense, and a band of steel seemed to
rim his chest. Trascott, with his habitual, comforting sanity, offered
no speech. He recognized arbitration to be as futile as it was
inconceivable. Things must run their course. Only he was ready, like
Ainsworth, to guard against deadly violence following the outbreak.
For some moments Morris crouched and glared, a malicious
quiver running through him. Then if any of the men had watched
where his right hand was hidden they might have seen the cloth of
the pocket poked forward by something cylindrical inside.
A stunning report, coming apparently from nowhere, shook the
windows. Britton reeled, as a tuft of hair floated off from above his
temple, and jumped like the recoil of a spring upon his would-be
murderer. He dealt two sharp, quick blows before the weapon could
be pulled again, and the thing was all over.
Morris lay in a quiet heap, with threads of white smoke drifting
up from the powder-blackened hole in his pocket.
Britton rubbed the red welt along his scalp and nodded gravely
to Ainsworth.
"You're my counsel in this matter, of course," he said. "Attend to
whatever explanations are needed! Trascott, will you come with
me?"
They elbowed out through the motley, clamorous, ever-
increasing crowd that the pistol-shot had gathered.
"What do you mean to do?" asked the curate, anxiously.
"The hardest thing I ever did," Britton answered pitifully. "I want
you, because I doubt if I can do it alone. I'm afraid of myself,
Trascott!"
 CHAPTER V.

They sought the concierge and met him, all flustered, coming out of
the office by the side entrance on his way to the room of tumult
which they had just quitted. Britton added to his cares by
despatching him with a message to Maud Morris in the ballroom.
"Tell Mrs. Morris that I am waiting in her drawing-room," he
said. "Ask her if she will take the elevator at once and see me on an
important matter."
The concierge made expressive gestures with his hands.
"Not Madame Morris," he suggested, somewhat puzzled.
"Monsieur means Mademoiselle!"
"Ah! yes, of course," returned the Englishman, quickly, "A mere
slip of the tongue! My message is for Mademoiselle, for Miss Morris.
You will find her on that large settee just at the entrance of the
salon."
He smiled grimly at the precise classification which to-morrow
would be of a different value. The ghost of the smile lingered on his
lips, as, disdaining the lift, he pulled Trascott towards the stairs.
"Let us walk up," he begged. "It will give me time to think."
Trascott moved beside him automatically and left Britton to his
own reflections. That, he thought, was undoubtedly the surest way
to victory.
Their ascent was slow and silent, their footfalls deadening to an
odd, mysterious void on the thickly-padded steps. The mounting
sensation, the absence of noise from his movements, seemed to lift
Britton away from himself. His personality was effaced, in the
physical sense, and the basic impulses which influenced his course
of existence lay bared before an inner tribunal.
The vaster issue remained with him; the moral measure applied
to his strength alone; the portentous effects of the next few minutes
would be essentially moulded at the dictum of his emotional
tendencies. The present exigency could be neither flouted nor
shunned. This difficulty of another's evolving, augmented in no small
measure by his own unseeing folly, demanded immediate and
decisive solution. Apology was cowardice and parley an affront to
Britton's frank fibre, and both of them smacked of guilt.
The suite of rooms taken by Maud Morris was situated on the
first floor just to the right of the public hall, near the landing. She
had at her disposal a luxurious drawing-room, a more luxurious
boudoir, and bath and sleeping apartments.
Trascott stopped at the stair-head and folded his arms,
signifying his exclusion from the approaching developments.
"I don't think you will have any need of me," he ventured
reassuringly.
Britton vouchsafed no reply. The swift momentary reaction he
experienced did not disturb the hard, emotionless mask of his
features, and the sudden, peculiarly human revolt stirred by his
unsatisfied heart-hunger was crushed with a tremendous
summoning of will-power.
He swiftly traversed the corridor and entered the drawing-room.
It was empty, and a poignant chagrin struck Britton, inflicting
pain scarcely definable from that of humiliation and disgrace, as he
realized that perhaps Maud Morris, detecting impending exposure,
had suddenly clutched seclusion as a safeguard with that wanton
spirit and careless indifference of the time-hardened trifler.
But Britton was wrong in this thought!
While he paced a few steps in indecision, the boudoir curtains
parted, and through the soft, shaded illumination of the room Maud
Morris looked out at him.
"I am waiting for you," she called, with a tremulous smile which
indicated the fluttering state of her feelings, yet left the origin of
that uncertainty in doubt.
If it was a bait, Britton snapped like a deluded fish. The sudden
presentation of the less disagreeable side of the situation weakened
his guard. He acted before he reflected, and stepped forward into
the boudoir.
The tapestry fell in place behind him, and with its silken swish
Britton felt the error he had unthinkingly committed. This boudoir,
which enthralled with its essentially feminine appointments, was the
worst place in the world for rallying stern resolutions and formulating
all-embracing decisions such as Britton proposed to make. The place
could only shake his sincere purpose. The drawing-room, in graver
setting, would have been far safer for him!
He put a rigid curb upon his impulses, and attempted to shut
out the powerful charm of low-burning rose lights, Bohemian color,
and lavish decoration, but a stronger influence than these laid its
hold upon him, that delicate, indefinable, alluring fragrance which is
found only within woman's precincts, and which attracts mightily,
like woman's love, because of its tender, subtle elusiveness.
Then, more compelling than the sense-conquering color-effect,
more entrancing than the pervading perfume, was the magic of
Maud Morris herself. To Britton's mind, in moments wholly calm and
lucid, he thought he had never seen perfections of face and form
which approached hers. Such beauty as she possessed was
technically matchless, but, in general, there are intervals when
fascination flags and any existing flaws in the object of admiration
force attention.
When Britton was cursed with these critical flashes, as he was
accustomed to inwardly express it, he could detect a lack of
something–it might have been soul–behind the level splendor of her
blue eyes, but if he tried to fathom these depths and define this
missing attribute, the mere outward splendor, like the crystal sheen
of deep, clear water, was dazzling enough to make him dizzy and
engulf him, and the effort at introspection went unrewarded.
So Britton stood wrestling with the spell of environment, hurling
mental refusals upon the suggestive enticement of the boudoir
atmosphere and battling against the magical allurement of the
woman who was the climax in the dainty sphere of exotic loveliness.
She seemed framed in the shell of the room as if it had been
especially designed to harmonize with her charms. Her pale, silver-
colored gown swept about her feet, leaving her figure in a contour
of marvellous grace; the arms and bosom, full and rounded, came
out from it, white as ivory; her face, beautiful as a rare orchid, with
the crowning glory of her hair above, was one to weaken a strong
man.
Harassed by a flood of doubts and regrets, Britton gazed at her
with wide, darkened eyes, the shame of his position vying in torture
with the pang of his loss. He had come to judge, to condemn and to
scorn, but his capacity for this was submerged in painful realization
of the black void of the future through which he must walk.
Maud Morris recognized the facing of a crisis in his attitude, and
she nervously clasped her slim fingers as she read something of
what was passing in his mind.
"Rex, you know!" she cried, with a sort of of awed inspiration
tinged by an inflection of fear.
"Yes, I know," he answered despairingly. "I know everything!
God help me–and you!"
There was no reproach in his words, rather a prayer. The thing
before him was too beautiful to curse. He had plainly misjudged his
strength and underrated his task. The animated presence of her he
loved filled both his physical and mental vision with impressionistic
power. The passion which he thought had died at the instant of
Ainsworth's announcement grew in magnitude as a spring torrent
grows with a rush of sorrowful rain. It mastered him, crushed his
scorn and turned condemnation upon his own head. To the great
credit of Britton's manlier qualities a phase of unconscious heroism
ruled as the foremost factor in his new solution of the problem.
"Good-bye," he said with a near approach to kindness, "and
forgive me if you can. I think I am the one to blame."
He held out his hand before turning to leave the boudoir. Maud
Morris snatched it rather than took it, apprehension in her eyes.
"Good-bye, Rex?" she whispered. "You can't go from me. Think
of how we've cared. Think of the invisible ties."
Britton's mouth hardened, showing his disgust. Her speech
came nearer rousing him to voluble contempt than any inherent
feeling.
 "Ties!" he exclaimed severely. "Ignominy upon a marriage bond
is no tie. It is rather a matter of expiation!"
His words had the intonation of farewell, and he laid one hand
on the portières, but Maud Morris rushed forward with a cry, holding
him with a passionate caress which was either the height of
consummate acting or the essence of mad desire.
Her touch thrilled Britton for one vivid, insane moment, and he
stood like a man in a dream listening to her vociferous pleading.
"Take me with you!" she cried. "Biskra is two days by rail, Sidi
Okba two hours more by carriage–then the desert! The Sahara, Rex,
do you hear? No one shall ever find us!"
Britton's brain swung slowly back through bewilderment at the
mention of detail, and he stared at her with a gradual horror
growing in his eyes as his idol ground itself to dust.
"The desert, dear,–and oblivion," she murmured again.
A hundred scenes flashed before his sight. One stood out–the
picture of Trascott waiting for him, his fine face plunged in anxiety
and a strong prayer in his generous heart. This psychic vision
completed Britton's revulsion, and he violently pushed the woman
away.
"The desert–and hell for us both!" he fiercely cried. "Let me get
out of this!"
In that moment of repulse Maud Morris assumed her true
character, and Britton read behind her eyes for the first time. She did
not lack a soul; the soul leaped out at him, but it was as the
advance of a serpent, malignant and revengeful. Her beauty lost
itself in a hard, bright mask of undistinctive flesh and eyes.
 "If you go, I'll ruin you!" she warned, in a voice hoarse with
jealous fury. "I'll spoil you for the dear eligibles from one end of
England to the other!"
Britton gazed at her transformation before answering, and
wondered why he had loved her.
"Your husband will do that," he said at last. "I hardly expect to
keep out of court."
"Reflect!" she said harshly. "He cannot do it as I can."
The knots of the portière cords would not yield to Britton's pull,
and he tore the silken curtains down in a heap upon the floor. Their
clinging folds seemed symbolic of their siren-like owner, and the man
shuddered as he dropped them from his fingers.
"You will not reflect?"
"The enormity of your proposal precludes reflection," said
Britton, witheringly.
"It's war then?" Her tone was steely.
"It's war, if you put it that way," he wearily responded; "but
hadn't you better spare your own name?"
She laughed shortly.
"Mine will not count," she said mockingly. "The public will
sympathize with the deluded wife. While holding me blameless,
English society will haul your reputation over the cobblestones till
there isn't a shred of it left."
Britton regarded her silently for a long, comprehensive minute,
and went swiftly out of the boudoir. She followed, still reluctant to
give up the battle.
"There is another consideration–the attitude of the Honorable
Oliver Britton in this disgrace," she said, using the last and most
cruel weapon of all. "Do you know what your uncle will do? If you
don't, I can tell you!"
Britton paled perceptibly, as he met the battery of her eyes,
upon the drawing-room threshold. He made a denunciatory wave of
his hand and closed the door sharply.
Trascott had no words. He gave Britton a fervent finger-clasp
and a bright smile of relief and thankfulness. No elation he had ever
felt at the rescuing of some poor wretch from the English slums
compared with his joy at Britton's personal victory.
They used the elevator. At the bottom of the lift, Ainsworth
waited beside a servant who held their coats and hats.
"Well, what is it?" questioned Britton, earnestly.
"He says it's law, as soon as they reach home," replied
Ainsworth, grimly. "Have you any thought of cruising in other parts?"
Retreat was repugnant to a strong man like Britton. He shook
his head decidedly.
In fifteen minutes they had reached the wharf and boarded the
Mottisfont. She rode at a single anchor chain, and twin coils of
grayish smoke issued from her double funnels.
It was the second watch, and the mate held the bridge. Britton
called to him.
"Have you a head of steam?"
"Plenty, sir," the mate replied.
"Then weigh your anchor!"
"Aye, aye, sir. Where away?"
"Home to New Shoreham!"
 CHAPTER VI.

The case of Morris versus Britton, as developed in the judicial courts,

was one of those neurotic society flurries that never fail to arouse
interest and promote discussion from highland to sea-down.
Complete details of all legal proceedings, together with copious
comment on the demeanor of complainant and defendant, as well as
irrelevant addenda concerning such things as dress and facial
expression, can be found in the back files of a certain aristocratic
journal, but nothing edifying is to be gained by perusal of this
voluminous report. The circulation of the sheet in question was given
sudden and tremendous impetus, yet this proved merely temporary,
for the revengeful note obtruded, the personal animosity broke
forth, overstepping all limits of honor and fair play, so that those
who had not heretofore followed public topics over-closely wondered
what was the editor's quarrel with the defendant. But his quarrel
was not with the nephew; although through the nephew he hoped
to reach the uncle, the Honorable Oliver Britton, who was abroad,
representing England in a consular capacity.
The name of Britton, of Britton Hall, was high enough and proud
enough and old enough to afford a splendid target for the batteries
of ignominy which were masked within the publishing offices of the
warring journal, and the fact that the Honorable Oliver Britton had
once humbled by personal opposition the political aspirations of the
editor was what made the reputation-shelling process so destructive.
Still, in spite of the deliberate use of his heaviest artillery, the man
behind the fire of words did not foresee the startling result of such
drastic measures.
 When, after months of fighting through successive law-courts,
the celebrated action came to an end, the journal's editor had to
announce, much to his chagrin, that the final verdict was dismissal
with a division of costs. This decision, the report intimated, was due
entirely to that matchless legal machine, Ainsworth.
However, the enemy of the Britton name enjoyed the
satisfaction of knowing that his vitriolic pen had done more than he
dared to hope, for he soon had the supreme delight of stating that,
owing to the disgrace involving the family name, the Honorable
Oliver Britton had resigned his post as Consul at a foreign court.
Furthermore, the powers that appoint had placed another in the post
in the diplomatic service which, it was understood, was being
reserved for Rex Britton till his return from the holiday cruise that his
honor-graduation at Oxford had earned.
And, later, the journal announced what it had not foreseen, the
news that the Honorable Oliver Britton had returned from the
Continent, violently quarrelled with his nephew and disinherited him.
It gloated over the cruel truth that of all the Brittons, who had for
generations counted thousands of pounds upon their rent-rolls, a
Britton now stood penniless, except for a paltry three hundred
guineas left out of his patrimony, nearly exhausted by the long legal
battle; gloated over him because the gentleman's hand must turn to
labor, the ambitious trusts of educational and diplomatic posts being
denied him on account of the name-smudge.
There the journal's report and comment ends, except for an
item telling that Christopher Morris and his wife had gone to
America.
 The night Rex Britton quarrelled with his uncle, he went out
from Britton Hall, down white gravel walks between clipped hedges,
under the massed oaks in the familiar grove, and along green
Sussex lanes to the depot. There he telegraphed Ainsworth to get
Trascott to meet him at the former's rooms, as new developments
had arisen which occasioned his departure from what he had
considered home since his boyhood days. The night express took
him up and whirled him away to London.
Trascott was with a dying woman in the slums, so it was
evening of the next day before the three friends could get together
in Cyril Ainsworth's rooms. The curate came in, weary and
depressed, and with a gravity of bearing caused by association with
the near presence of death.
"The uncle has cut the nephew out of the will and kicked him
off the estate," Ainsworth plunged, giving Trascott a terse summing-
up of Rex Britton's explanations. "He has left three hundred pounds
of money, three mountains of pride, and the strength of three bulls.
He's off to Canada and the Yukon!"
Trascott stilled his surprise and bent earnestly over the table.
"I'd stay," he advised pointedly. "You can live down the
disinheritment and open the barricaded doors of position. I'd stay in
England and live it down."
Britton was sullen and decided. "No," he returned, "I'm out of
England till I can buy back everything I've lost. Understand? I'm
disappearing from the dearly beloved public which takes such an
interest in my misfortune and in my future. Isn't that what victims of
circumstance try? I'll be welcomed as the prodigal nephew when I
return–if I ever do!"
 "Don't be cynical," Trascott warned. "It's dangerous in your
case."
"What would you have me do?" Rex exclaimed warmly. "Shall I
turn gamekeeper or valet? And don't think I'm priggish! I dare be
menial, but, by Jove, I won't be a slave! Independency is my
obsession. That's why I'm for this new gold-trail."
And the gold-trail held its persistent lure in spite of any
arguments.
Two weeks later he sighted Newfoundland from the decks of an
Allan Liner, passed through the waters of Belle Isle, chafing on
Labrador's iron coast, caught up Heath Point on bleak Anticosti, and
won the river-stretch of four hundred and thirty-eight miles to
Quebec. Twelve hours more and the liner anchored in the port of
Montreal.
Rex Britton had hunted for three seasons in the Laurentians,
and at Montreal he hastened to find two comrades of the chase who
had always been members of his party. One was the voyageur, Pierre
Giraud, and the other a plainsman, Jim Laurance, who had drifted up
from some place in the Southern States. Britton inquired for them in
their old haunts.
"Pierre?" cried a French riverman, at his question; "Pierre an'
Jim Laurance? Dey bot' gon' on de Yukon. Beeg strik' dere–ver' beeg
strik'."
Further enquiry elicited the information that Jim Laurance was
keeping a road-house at Indian River, on the Dawson Trail, while
Pierre Giraud was some place in the land of gold without his
whereabouts being definitely known.
 On hearing this news Britton dallied no further, but crossed the
continent alone, caught a Puget Sound boat and steamed north. All
the way up people talked insane things of a new strike east of
Juneau, and, like a fool, he listened. Like a fool, also, he rushed in
hot haste with the van of the stampede which followed the boat's
touching at Juneau. The lure of gold faded somewhat for him when
they reached the much-touted valley and found that not a hundredth
part of what had been reported was true.
Though hope was lessened in immense proportion, still Britton
staked with his fellows, only to have his ardor dampened still more.
The bedrock of his claim was as clean of yellow grains as a well-
swept floor, and while his neighbors struck pay-gravel of moderate
richness, a curse of bad luck blanked his own efforts.
Twice more he did the same thing, once on Admiralty Island and
again at Glacier Bay below Mount Crillon. Each time he reported his
ill-success to Jim Laurance by letters which he sent with in-going
steamers to Dyea, whence they were borne onward over Chilcoot by
the Dawson mail-carriers. And Laurance, deprived of the satisfaction
of replying on account of Britton's itinerancy, sat in his road-house at
Indian River and waited for the Englishman to come to him. He held
as a truism his own saying that the Dawson Trail knew every leg in
the Yukon at some time or other, and he did not doubt for an instant
that Britton's legs would presently appear, straining through the
weary miles like the countless pairs of limbs he had seen stamping
over the route which led to the Mecca of the gold-lands.
Having wasted the summer months and a great part of his
money in three futile stampedes, Britton found himself upon the
Dyea beach at the approach of winter, with another ignis fatuus
luring him on the inward trail. A tremendous rush was on to Forty
Forks, east of Lake Marsh, where, it was said, a prospector had
kicked over glistening nuggets with the soles of his hobnailed
cruisers. The wildest reports of wealth were circulating, as usual,
and men went forward in mad haste to locate on the creek before
the white breath of winter should blot out the face of the land.
Britton, grown wary through bitter experience, cut the reports
down to a sounder basis of common sense, sifted out apparent
exaggerations and discrepancies, and decided that Forty Forks was
at least worth trying for, although, when he remembered three
successive defeats, he misdoubted the issue.
Dyea was in a ferment. Boat-loads of passengers and baggage
crowded the beach and camp, and this tangled rabble resolved itself
into a perpetual stream of in-going Klondikers heading over the pass
to take advantage of the yet open waterway from Linderman.
The tang of first frost was in the gray morning air as Britton
pushed along the rough, bouldered wagon-road which runs up the
Dyea Valley. Hundreds went, like him, on foot, while those blessed
with a full money-belt procured what teamsters' wagons were to be
had and lashed ahead in frantic haste that soon brought Canyon City
in sight. From there to Sheep Camp the travel was more congested;
the weaker men already began to lag; the first strain of the race told
on the physically unfit.
All the way on to the Scales Britton passed faltering fellows,
singly or in groups of twos and threes. They cursed him in a
despairing way for his stalwart legs and sturdy back, and he came to
recognize that here at last was a country where they measured a
man according to his manliness, uninfluenced by extraneous
attributes.
Where the trail ascended Chilcoot, the footing grew worse, and
a mighty climb confronted those who would cross the pass. Britton's
strength here stood him in good stead, for in addition to the arduous
toil of the ascent there arose the handicap of a bitterly cold wind
which began to filter through the mountains, carrying ominous
snow-flurries. The icy blast numbed the climbers' muscles and
sapped their energies, and as if conscious of its power, the northland
loosed its lungs and blew a brawling storm down from the higher
plateaus.
Minute by minute the shrieking wind increased in velocity,
whirling sleet and snow in the faces of the toiling men, till their
persons were encrusted, and the mountain path grew white and
obscure. A gold-seeker slipped upon a rock ahead of Britton and
rolled back against his legs. Rex pulled him up and turned him
round. "Say, old friend, what do you call this?" he gasped.
"Holy road to Nome!" blasphemed the other, rubbing his bruised
limbs. "Don't you know a blizzard when you meet one? Keep your
mouth shut in this cold, or you won't make the pass."
It was indeed a blizzard of the roaring, ramping type that only
the Yukon knows, and it increased to diabolical fury as the toilers
reached the steepest pitch of the mountain. Men went down beside
the trail in sheer exhaustion, and the agony of their position
appealed more strongly to Britton on account of his inability to
render any lasting aid. This, of all the northern trails, was the Iron
Trail where none but the strong could survive.
 Seeing old-timers and hardened sourdoughs fall behind filled
Britton with a glow of pride in his own capabilities. He understood
that he was one of the fit to whom reward must finally come, and
the thought instilled new hope.
Over towering Chilcoot he climbed, in the teeth of that
memorable blizzard which froze a score of gold-seekers between the
Scales and the divide from Crater Lake. Nothing but his magnificent
physique and indomitable purpose carried him on, and when he
staggered across the little glacier which sloped to Crater Lake he had
won his way to the front, and was once more in the van of a
stampede. As Britton thawed himself in the camp there beside a
grizzled Alaskan who had followed every strike from Nome to
Klondike City, the old-timer regarded him admiringly.
"You're the hot stuff, mate," he averred, "when you can heel old
Larry Marsh over Chilcoot in that there hell-warmer. You're some
stampeder, too! Wasn't you in the front 'long of me at Juneau and
Glacier Bay?"
"I believe I remember you," Britton said, "although it did us
precious little good to be in the front."
The old man warmed his hairy paws for the tenth time and
shook his gray locks.
"Don't whine! Never whine, friend," he remarked. "You get
experience, grantin' nothin' else. You're sure some stampeder, and I
reckon they'll be namin' you 'long of Larry Marsh–him that named
Marsh Lake!"
And forthwith Britton's name travelled widely in fulfilment of the
old-timer's prophecy; they began to designate him as one of their
stampeders, that much-respected minority of men who have the grit
and the power to stay in the lead of the maddest of all mad races–
the gold-rush.
The halt at Crater Lake Camp was, of necessity, very short. The
stragglers were limping in, frost-bitten and exhausted, telling of
some who would never come in, when Marsh and Britton again hit
the trail. Dead men nor mountains, frosts nor blizzards, sufficed to
stay the stampede.
The lower levels were strangely quiet after the bellowings of the
windy pass, and the cold did not bite so keenly.
The rush passed on by Deep Lake and Long Lake, where fat
purses could buy the assistance of pack-trains of mules as far as
Linderman. When they reached the shore of this lake, they were
twenty-eight miles from Dyea, with the giant bulk of Chilcoot
looming between, its rugged head still wrapped in the swirling white
blizzard.
From the head of Lake Linderman the boats, bought or built for
different individuals, plied on the water-route which led by Lake
Marsh and the Forty Forks onward to Dawson. There were small
barges, but their sailings were very uncertain and could not be
depended on in a rush. Each man who dared the waterway before
the very maw of winter had to buy or make his craft at Linderman.
Here on the shore a motley throng congregated, with Marsh and
Britton in the front ranks. Some Nevada capitalists who had lost their
horses along the trail and hired Indian packers to carry their goods
over the pass at sixty cents a pound, clamored for boats to a stocky
Dane, who appeared to be a perfect genius at turning out freshly
sawn planks as the finished product, ready seamed and caulked,
with mast stepped, and altogether seaworthy. However, something
else beside clamor and a profligate show of money was necessary
for the securing of the vessels, and that was time. Work as they
might, the boat-builders could not supply the demand, and any with
skill in carpentering fell to toiling of their own will in order to get
boat after boat away and thus hasten their own turn. They were
pitting human celerity and skill against the unceasing advance of
winter. The freeze-up was approaching with chill, unpitying certainty
to snuff out delayed hopes by the close of navigation, and through
superhuman effort the gold-seekers thought to forestall the frost's
advent.
Every day the march of Arctic feet could be defined more
clearly; every night the snow-line slid a little farther down the hills;
north-east squalls blew up at unexpected hours; and the rivers
strained their waters through arrays of icy teeth stuck along the
margins.
Amidst the turmoil of Linderman, when others had done with
exhortations, expostulations, and entreaties, through the universal
desire for speed, Larry Marsh drew one Danish boat-builder aside
and conferred with him.
Whatever magic he used or whatever service of old needed
repayment, Britton did not know, but he saw the Dane hand over a
newly launched skiff to the gray Alaskan.
"Hey! you," the latter called to him, "come and steer this boat.
You're the man for me!"
Britton threw in his outfit with glad promptitude, and they
shoved off through the seething shore ice, which was ground to
fragments as quickly as it formed.
 "Keep her head straight," warned Larry Marsh. "I'll 'tend to this
here sail."
He busied himself with the squaresail, a large sheet that caught
the sweeping wind and whirled them down Lake Linderman like a
flash.
A mile portage connected Linderman with the next lake,
Bennett. The swift water was not navigable for large boats in the
ordinary way, so Britton brought the skiff to in a manner which
showed he was a skilful sailor and which Marsh did not fail to note.
"You've held a tiller before now, I'll warrant," he said. "Most
greenies would have piled the boat up on them boulders in the
rapid. Let's pack the outfits across and line her down to Bennett!"
Accordingly, having first portaged their goods, they lined the
skiff carefully through foaming white-water down to Lake Bennett,
where they again embarked. From the Police post at the head of the
lake the sergeant was watching a Government courier struggling in
with a Peterborough through the gale that raged. Britton and Marsh
saw him also as they staggered under their press of sail.
"He's in trouble," Rex cried. "Hadn't I better run closer?"
The courier was paddling mightily, but the squall which had
caught him half way up Bennett proved too strong. It was gradually
defeating him in spite of his desperate efforts.
"It'll swamp him in a minute," Marsh declared, eyeing the
helpless man. "I guess you'd better run past."
The skiff bore in toward the canoe just as a huge, white-capped
wave threatened to bury it. The stout fellow met it bravely with a
sweeping stroke. The spray hid the Peterborough's nose for an
instant, and it seemed as if the craft would never rise.
 "She's under!" shouted Britton.
"No, she lifts," cried his companion. "See, on the wave-top! By
heavens, it's mountain-high! Snap!–there goes his paddle."
The blade had broken clean in two under the tremendous strain.
The Peterborough spun round like a cork on the crest of the surf;
the courier grasped for his spare paddle, knotted to the thwarts, but
another wave capsized him before he could dip it.
Britton brought the boat's head round, and the skiff drifted past
the spot. The drenched man clung desperately to the careening,
upturned Peterborough. Britton jammed the tiller hard to windward,
and Marsh cast a rope. It missed.
"Here," said Rex, "keep the helm down, and I'll catch him as we
drift."
Old Larry took his place. Britton stretched himself on the
gunwale, like a cat, and grabbed the drowning courier's collar as
they rocked alongside. A powerful jerk, and the soaked fellow lay
shivering in the bottom of the skiff!
He was a Corsican and spoke bad English. While they reeled
down the thirty miles of Bennett before the screaming gale, he
patted Britton's shoulder in gratitude.
"I must ask thanks–much thanks for you," he kept reiterating.
They beached the courier at an Indian camp by Cariboo
Crossing and drove on through Tagish Lake. The wind veered and
baffled them, and the seas gave them hours of icy baling. Britton did
not count the tacks they made, but it must have been a hundred
before they reached Tagish Post, where the boat was put in for
good. The Englishman was not at all sorry to see it permanently tied
up and to be free of its cramped quarters, although the skiff had
served them such a good turn.
He stretched his toil-stiffened muscles and stamped about on
the ice-piled beach, the Alaskan following suit. Rex thought the
latter's face had a wan, tired look, and he realized how wearing were
these desperate drives in the teeth of overwhelming hardships.
"I reckon we've got the rest beat by a long shot," Marsh
observed. "Nevada coin-slingers ain't in it with us! I know a short
trail to Forty Forks by skirtin' Lake Marsh, so we can snooze at the
Post to-night and hit it in the mornin'."
They slept in comfort for once, sheltered at Mounted Police
headquarters, but before sunrise they were afoot and circling the
first headland of Lake Marsh. Some hours after, the other boats
began to arrive, and the land-rush was renewed with fresh vigor.
"What do you think of my namesake?" asked the Alaskan, as
they turned east from Lake Marsh's shore.
Britton looked at the sullen sweep of white-crested water with
the rubble of ice rattling on every wave, at the thickening films over
the inlets, and at the ever-descending snow-line on the bleak ridges.
"I think it will be closed before thirty-six hours," he said.
It was a tyro's guess, and for the only time within the
knowledge of Larry Marsh the tyro's guess came true. The next
evening he saw the freeze-up and the death of many a man's hopes.
The death of their own hopes crept round in a different way.
A mile below Forty Forks they met Jack McDonald, or "Scotty,"
as he was generally termed, a famous dog-musher of the Yukon, a
skilled prospector, and a friend of Marsh.
 "Headin' for the strike?" he asked in his broad Scotch accent.
"Then ye maun turn aroun'. 'Tisna worth a dang."
Britton's eager look faded. Larry Marsh glanced up with sharp
disgust.
"'Scotty'," he said, "you're not joking?"
"Joke, mon!" exclaimed McDonald. "I cam' frae Le Barge tae
look ower the groun', an' yon dinna seem like a joke. I tell ye 'tisna
worth a dang."
Marsh believed the announcement because it was uttered by
the Scotchman. He relied on McDonald's judgment as he would on
his own, and he turned about on the trail.
"That's gospel if 'Scotty' says so," he observed to Rex. "It's no
use of us wastin' time. Back-trail's the word!"
Britton was loath to give up so near the goal when his
expectations were so summarily scattered.
"It's only a mile to the new camp," he said. "I think I'll go on
and have a look. One never can tell what may turn up."
Larry Marsh shouldered his pack-sack again.
"All right," he grunted. "Where you goin', McDonald?"
"South o' Le Barge," the Scotchman answered. "I had a trace
there before I cam' awa' on this fool trip."
"I'm with you," cried Marsh, "and we'll follow it to the end." To
Britton he added: "Come with us, and we'll put you in right if
anything goes!"
The idea seemed vague and forlorn, and Rex shook his head.
"I'll glance over the Forks anyway," he decided.
They took the back-trail, and he tramped on. A week at Forty
Forks was convincing enough! He returned to Tagish Post, a very
downhearted man, and the first person he saw was the Government
courier, Franco Lessari, whom he had pulled out of Lake Bennett.
"I ask much thanks–for you, much thanks," the Corsican
greeted with a new show of gratitude. "For your kind heart I repay–
so little. Listen! Far up Samson Creek, I tell you for go on the north
branch. Look there for gold!"
Britton smiled indulgently. It was only another of the five
hundred kindly hints which had been given him by well-disposed
people; for well-disposed people never think that these vague pieces
of information, very often acquired simply by hearsay, waste a man's
time, by sending him off on false and useless scents. Britton had had
plenty of such news, and he thought no more of it till he heard it
whispered about the Post that there was something big on Samson
Creek.
He learned, too, that Franco Lessari had quitted the
Government service to go prospecting, and that lent more
significance to what the Corsican had told him. When he went to
bed that night, he counted the contents of his slack money-belt.
There remained about enough to purchase a team of dogs, with
some dollars left over for supplies. With his present means he could
go on one more stampede. If he failed to strike anything, he would
be stranded. Success or failure depended upon which direction he
took. There was another rumor in the air, the tale of riches in the
Logan Valley, and he did not know which way to turn. In his strait he
remembered the fatalistic beliefs of the Arabs in Algiers, and flipped
a coin to decide whether he should go on or turn back.
It fell heads–to go on–and Britton accepted the decision. Larry
Marsh and McDonald had gone south of Lake Le Barge, so he
purchased his dogs from another musher and set forth next day. The
frost held lakes and rivers with two-foot ice, and the snow had fallen
heavily for a week.
He worked across the frozen lakes; ranged the jammed curves
of Thirty Mile River; and reached the ice bridges of the White Horse.
The travelling was tedious, and he saved his dogs, going into camp
every night at six.
At the Mounted Police post on the Big Salmon, Britton rested
half a day, and then mushed along, undeterred by a filled trail, to
the Little Salmon, Pelly, and Selkirk, making halts where he must.
Between Selkirk and Stewart River, when Britton pulled out at
dawn, he could discern another team travelling behind him at a
considerable distance. He watched it with interest because it was the
first company he had seen on the trail since leaving Big Salmon, but
the sled did not appear to come any nearer no matter how slowly he
himself mushed.
"Who's behind?" asked the keeper of the roadhouse at Stewart
River, when Britton passed through.
"Don't know," Rex answered. "He will not come close enough
for examination."
"A shirker!" was the man's judgment on the laggard team, as he
watched the Englishman's sturdy figure breaking the way to Sixty
Mile.

CHAPTER VII.
Where the heavy trail from Sixty Mile forged toward Indian River,
Rex Britton halted his dog-train and eyed with an odd glance, half
relief, half reproach, the dog-sled which was now rapidly
approaching from the rear.
"Humph!" he growled through his fur hood, "the gentleman of
the rear-guard has a conscience after all. He apparently knows the
unwritten law of the Yukon that travellers take turns in breaking the
trail."
A fresh fall of snow had buried the Dawson route, and, unlucky
as usual, Britton had found it his task to pack the loose stuff all the
way from the Big Salmon. The other dog-train that had mushed
behind him since morning had not offered to do its duty till now. The
four o'clock gray was showing in the sky. Night lurked in the river
shadows. Britton breathed his dogs a little longer and waited.
The sled behind was drawn by a five-dog team like his own, but
the huskies appeared far fresher.
"Been nursing them while I've done the work!" was his
exclamation–"mighty good driver, too. By George, it's a woman!"
Britton's wide eyes strained to catch the detail of the figure. As
the distance lessened, his supposition was proven true. He saw the
novel sight of a five-dog team being urged at full speed over that
lonely trail by a mere slip of a girl.
"Gaucho, you lean beggar!" he cried to his leader. With a jump
the animal tautened the traces to the shrill menace of the lash. The
runners coughed a little in the sagging snow, and Britton was off
down the slope.
"You see it's a girl, you old wolf," he whimsically explained. "We
can't let her break a trail. No–not if we were dropping!"
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