Need help with a clipping mask problem

c.pfaffenbichler, yes, you are correct.  I should have seen that myself.  When the white image is unclipped from the black background and the gradient map is clipped to that white image, the gradient mask produces the desired result: an orange flame on a black background (as illustrated below).  Thank you.  I am still perplexed about the following:  The second set of images shows the layer stack from the online tutorial and the layer stack from my attempt to follow that tutorial.  In both cases, there is a bottom layer (black); white images of flames clipped to that bottom layer (3 image layers in the tutorial and 1 image layer in my case); and a gradient map clipped to the top image layer.  In the tutorial, the gradient map produced the desired result: an orange flame on a black background.  In my case, unhiding the gradient map produced an orange flame on an orange background, i.e., the gradient map was applied to the underlying black layer.  Your explanation makes perfect sense to me.  Unclipping the middle image layer from the black bottom layer does produce an orange flame on a black layer.   However, I would expect that same logic to extend to the tutorial.  When you compare the layer stack from the tutorial with the layer stack I produced initially, do you see any difference to explain the different result?