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The clock at the new Verinder Building showed ten minutes past eleven as Jack Kilmeny took the Utah Junction road out of Goldbanks with his loaded ore wagon It was a night of scudding clouds, through which gleaitive moon The mountain road was steep and narrow, but both the driver and the mules were used to its every turn and curve In early days the highgrader had driven a stage along it ht when he could not have seen the ears of the bronchos

His destination was the Jack Pot, a mine three miles fro worthless rock in the hope of striking the extension of the Mollie Gibson vein It was not quite true, as Bleyer had intimated, that his lease was h undoubtedly he used it for that purpose incidentally

Bleyer had guessed shrewdly that Kilmeny would drive out to the Jack Pot, put up in the deserted bunk-house till , and then haul the ore down to the junction to ship to the smelter on the presumption that it had been taken from the leased property This was exactly what Jack had intended to do Apparently his purpose was unchanged He wound steadily up the hill trail, keeping the ani spells The miner had been a mule skinner in his time, just as he had tried his hand at a dozen other occupations In the still night the crack of his whip sounded clear as a shot when it hissed above the flanks of the leaders without touching them

He ran into the expected ambush a half mile from the mine, at a point where the road dipped doooded slope to a sandy wash

"Hands up!" ordered a sharp voice

A horseon A second appeared froed diave his on plowed into the deep sand Before the wheels had made two revolutions the leaders were stopped Other ed the driver froh his face was buried in the sand and twohimself

"This is no way to treat a man's anatomy--most unladylike conduct I ever saw," he protested

He was sharply advised to shut up

After the pressure on his neck was a little relieved, Jack twisted round enough to see that his captors were all masked