The Gold Trail

lside above the silent construction camp, endeavoring to mend

bout labeled "Early Riser," or somebody's "Excelsior." His companions had trooped off to the settlement about a league away, and a row of flat cars stood idle on the track which now led across the beaten muskeg. On the farther side of the latter, the t

or four of them appeared among the trees, and he recognized them as some of his friends, small ranchers who had, as often happens on the Pacific Slope, been forced to leave their lonely, half-cleared holdings and

hen they came up. "Sit right down," he added, neatly shaking Grenfe

by, and Grenfell waved his hand

ou're good bo

emained grinn

promised to see him through I'd have felt tempted to dump him into t

rust a hand into his pocket, and pulling out

dollars to face an unkind wo

and turned

I've got

k, anyway, and the boys are getting thin. Last thing he did was to put the indurated plates on t

and now he was past his prime; indulgence in deleterious whisky had further shaken him. He could not chop or ply the shovel, and it was with difficulty that his companions had born

where there was quartz streaked right through with wire gold I might have felt discouraged." Th

s when you have to look for

anced at hi

s on me. I was once Professor of-mineralogical chemist and famo

nodded as he gl

had a man from back east on thi

urned to

d explain ab

traight," Weston objected. "If he

ong ago. He has been forgetting right along whether he put salt in the hash or not, and

pped him wit

lately. Now I know a quartz lead that's run through with wire gold quite rich enough to mill at a profit, but I can't go up and

re i

he dim line of snow that gleamed hig

creek at one side, with a clear pool where it bends, and I came there one day very hot and hungry with the boots worn off me. I think"-and by his tense face h

the track-grade

. There were specks in the pebbles, and specks that showed plainer in the ledge.

w broken bits of rock. Weston, to whom he passed them, could see that little thread

I su

miled comp

ut guess I've told

inquired t

nd evidently runs back toward the range. An easy drive for an adit.

face gr

ecorde

ere was a mist in the ranges, and whichever way we headed we brought up on crags and precipices. Then we went up to look for another way a

gold trail did not invariably come back. He had heard of famishing men staggering along astonishing distances

ector about the lea

is camp, and I lay there very ill until he went on and left me with half a

track-grader, "

pread out

o look for it three or fou

ain. What is stranger still, there are mines that have been discovered several times by different men, none of whom was ever afterward able to retrace his steps. At any rate, if one accomplished it, he never came back to tell of his success, for the bones of many prospectors lie unburied in the wilderness. Indeed, when the wanderers wh

where one leaves off and the other begins, for that wild land has been aptly termed a sea of mountains. They seem piled on one another, peak on peak; and spur on spur, and among their hollows lie lonely lakes and frothing rivers almost without

urned to him an

-a third-share each," h

grader sho

here. So long as I can keep from riling Cassidy they

came upon him, and he felt the call of the wilderness. Besides, he was young enough to be sanguine, although, for that matter, older men, worn by disappointments and toilsome journeys among the hills, have set out once more on the gold trail

ame mind to-morrow I'll come. Still, if yo

ses were, it seemed reasonable to suppose, not particularly clear. Grenfel

s my knees," he said. "Want to put the thing thro

rader nodde

and off," he said. "He

tent; and all of these things are dear in that country. They recognized that it would be advisable also to take a horse or mule. Weston did not think that any of the bush ranchers would hire t

wo or three men came up the trail from the settlement, which l

e we left, and I guessed I'

d Weston had some little difficulty in readin

with you and may make a proposition. Enclos

meant to offer him promotion. Still, though he did not know exactly why, he shrank from accepting any favor from Miss Stirling's father, and, besides that, he had already pledged himself to Gr

Anson's For

e in the shape of blankets, provisions, and any

ton's face flushed as he read, "Won't you accept

nite sum in the order, and it was evident that she had taken some trouble to arrange the matter with the H. B. C. agent at Vancouver. The thing had been done in kindness, and yet it hurt him. He could have accepted it more readily from anybody else. On the other h

ed me Clarence," he said. "Somebody must ha

ns, and when Grenfell looked

aid, handing the order across. Grenfell

ens everything

In fact in some respects it rather complicates the thin

this, glanced with evident regret at th

e had to carry me every rod of the way back to camp," he said. "

rward, and went back with th

too steep for you?

too sure of it. It's quite likely that he fancied the whole

a moment, and app

nerves left, and he's no use on his legs. Gu

he track-grader, who turned away to speak to