Of course, the wires were burdened with the accounts; the reading public of the States awoke to the fact that a bitter strife was waging in the north between honest miners and the soulless Heidlemann syndicate.  Gordon’s previously written and carefully colored stories of the clash were printed far and wide.  Editorials breathed indignation at such lawlessness and pointed to the Cortez Home Railway as a commendable effort to destroy the Heidlemann throttle-hold upon the northland.  Stock subscriptions came in a deluge which fairly engulfed Gordon’s Seattle office force.

During this brief white-hot campaign the promoter had been actuated as much by his senseless hatred of O’Neil as by lust of glory and gain, and it was with no little satisfaction that he returned to Alaska conscious of having dealt a telling blow to his enemy.  He sent Natalie to Omar on another visit in order that he might hear at first hand how O’Neil took the matter.  But his complacency received a shock when the girl returned.  He had no need to question her.

“Uncle Curtis,” she began, excitedly, “you ought to stop these terrible newspaper stories about Mr. O’Neil and the Trust.”

“Stop them?  My dear, what do you mean?”

“He didn’t sell out to the Trust.  He has nothing to do with it.”

“What?” Gordon’s incredulity was a challenge.

“He sold to an Englishman named Illis.  They seem to be amused by your mistake over there at Omar, but I think some of the things printed are positively criminal.  I knew you’d want the truth—­”

“The truth, yes!  But this can’t be true,” stammered Gordon.

“It is.  Mr. O’Neil did try to interest the Heidlemanns, but they wouldn’t have anything to do with him, and the S. R. & N. was going to smash when Mr. Illis came along, barely in time.  It was too exiting and dramatic for anything the way Mr. O’Neil found him when he was in hiding—­”

“Hiding?”

“Yes.  There was something about blackmail, or a secret arrangement between Mr. Illis and the Yukon River lines—­I couldn’t understand just what it was—­but, anyhow, Murray took advantage of it and saved the North Pass and the S. R. & N. at the same time.  It was really a perfectly wonderful stroke of genius.  I determined a once that you should stop these lies and correct the general idea that he is in the pay of the Trust.  Why, he went to Cortez last week and they threatened his life!”

Mrs. Gordon, who had listened, said, quietly:  “Don’t blame Curtis for that.  That bloody affray at Beaver Canyon has made Cortez bitter against every one connected with the Heidlemanns.”

“What about this blackmail?” said her husband, upon whose ear the word had made a welcome impression.  “I don’t understand what you mean by O’Neil’s ‘saving’ the North Pass and his own road at the same time—­nor Illis’s being in hiding.”

“Neither do I.”  Natalie confessed, “but I know you have made a mistake that ought to be set right.”