Steep rocks rose above the narrow open space, but although
the trail went no farther there was nobody about. Standing behind a
fir trunk, Foster searched the edge of the bush, but saw nothing except
a ruined shack and some ironwork sticking out of the snow. He could
not examine the shack, because if the other man was near he would see
him when he left the trees. After waiting a few minutes, he touched
Pete and they turned back silently.

XXVI

THE REAL-ESTATE AGENT

Next morning Foster got up in the dark and walked briskly down the main
street to the bridge. Lights were beginning to blink in the houses he
passed and there was a pungent smell of burning wood. In front, the
forest rolled upwards in a blurred, dark mass, but he could not see the
mountains. The air was still and felt damp upon his skin, and he knew
a sudden rise of temperature accounted for the obscurity. The main
thing, however, was that there was nobody to watch him, and he set off
along the road he had taken on the previous night.

He had some trouble to keep the trail when he plunged in among the
trees, but day had broken when he reached the clearing, and a faint
gray light shone through the haze. There was no obvious reason why the
stranger's disappearance at the spot should interest him, but his
suspicions were quickly excited and it looked as if the fellow had
tried to make his acquaintance in order to learn his business in the
town. He had come early, hoping to find footprints that might give him
a hint, but was disappointed. There were a number of marks, but they
had lost their sharpness and he could not tell which had been made
recently.

In the meantime, the light was growing and he saw that the shack at the
foot of the rocks had partly fallen down. Thick wooden beams and props
lay beside the ironwork he had noticed on his last visit. It was
obvious that he was looking at a mineral claim that had been abandoned
after some development work had been done, while the trampled snow
indicated that somebody had been removing the material not long since.
Passing the heap of rusty iron, from which the snow was beginning to
shrink, he found a narrow opening in the foot of the hill. This was a
test adit, and the tilt of the strata indicated that its slope was
steep. The stone that had been taken out showed that it did not
penetrate far, and Foster saw no reason for entering.

He next studied the rocks, and although he saw no path,