amp, the fire gave them
light, and pungent odors issued from the resinous logs. The room was warm
and, by comparison with the frozen wilderness, supremely comfortable.

"What's the matter with your foot?" one of the men asked when Prescott
took off his boot.

Prescott described how it felt, though he explained that he could find no
sign of injury, and the other nodded.

"Ricked it a bit; got one of the ligaments or something kinked," he said.
"Known that happen when there wasn't much to show. You had better lie off
for a while."

It occurred to Prescott that he might be in much worse quarters, though
he shrank from the delay a rest would entail.

"What took you up the gully and over the Bench, anyway?" the man went on.

Prescott explained and then asked: "Have you come across my partner or
the other fellow, Hollin?"

"Never seen your partner." The man looked at his comrade and laughed.
"But we know Hollin, all right. Got an idea that he's a boss prospector
and froze on to the railroad job because it took him into the mountains.
Been all round looking for minerals; got fired for it at one or two
camps, and never struck anything worth speaking of. It's a point on which
he's certainly a crank."

It was characteristic of Kermode, Prescott thought, that he should be
willing to accompany a man with a craze of the kind.

"I'd expected to find them here. I understood they didn't mean to go back
to the camp at Butler Ridge," he said.

"We haven't seen their tracks, and if they were heading west, they'd have
to come down this valley; but I guess nobody could tell where Hollin
would make for. Of course, you can't prospect much in winter with
everything frozen up and the snow about, but so long as he can trail
through the mountains and find a few clean rocks the man will be happy;
and I'll allow that he's smart at it. Knows how to fix a camp, and find a
deer, if there's one in the country. It's a sure thing he'll have to
strike for a camp or store sooner or later; but it's likely he has
crossed the line south and is trying to make the Fraser and the
settlements along the Canadian Pacific railroad."

It was bad news to Prescott. He knew enough about the Pacific Province to
realize that if his host's suppositions were correct, he would have a
vast area to search; a region of stony uplands, mountain chains, and
rock-walled valleys.

"Would it be possible for me to get through?" he asked.

"No, sir! You don't want to th