night. It's beastly sickening, being out like this with nothing to eat.
Wouldn't have thought a fellow'd feel so bad after only a day of it. Have
you ever been out without grub?" said Peter cheerfully, warming his hands
at the blaze.

"Forty days and nights," said the stranger.

"Forty days! Ph--e--ew!" said Peter. "You must have have had a lot to
drink, or you wouldn't have stood it. I was feeling blue enough when you
turned up, but I'm better now, warmer."

Peter Halket re-arranged the logs on the fire.

"In the employ of the Chartered Company, I suppose?" said Peter, looking
into the fire he had made.

"No," said the stranger; "I have nothing to do with the Chartered Company."

"Oh," said Peter, "I don't wonder, then, that things aren't looking very
smart with you! There's not too much cakes and ale up here for those that
do belong to it, if they're not big-wigs, and none at all for those who
don't. I tried it when I first came up here. I was with a prospector who
was hooked on to the Company somehow, but I worked on my own account for
the prospector by the day. I tell you what, it's not the men who work up
here who make the money; it's the big-wigs who get the concessions!"

Peter felt exhilarated by the presence of the stranger. That one unarmed
man had robbed him of all fear.

Seeing that the stranger did not take up the thread of conversation, he