ink of it. Guess your partner will be
pretty safe with Hollin; but you're a plainsman and you'd sure get lost
in a day or two and starve when your grub ran out."

"That's right," agreed the other man. "The thing can't be done."

Prescott fell in with his opinion. It would, he thought, require a number
of expert mountaineers to trace the men he sought through the desolation
of rock and forest to the south. Besides, British Columbia was well
populated along the Canadian Pacific line, from which many avenues of
communication opened up, and there would be a strong probability of his
missing Kermode.

"Well," he said reluctantly, "perhaps, I had better stop round here in
case they keep this track; and my foot's too sore to let me move. Could
you put me up for a week or two? I'll try to make it worth your while."

"Stop as long as you want," Steve responded. "We'll have to charge you
for the grub, because we paid quite a pile for it, but we'll only strike
you for your share."

"Thank you," said Prescott, and the others began to talk of Hollin.

"If that man would let up on prospecting he'd get rich," declared one.
"When a survey outfit goes up into the bush, Hollin's picked for the boss
packer's job, and when there's a new wagon road to be staked out they
generally put him on. A smart man at striking the easiest line through
rough country."

"That's so," agreed Steve. "Trouble is that he can't stay with it. Soon
as he collects some pay, he goes off on the prospecting trail, and then
heads for Vancouver with a bag of specimens that aren't worth anything.
When the mineral men hear of a new Hollin discovery they smile. Guess
he's found most everything--gold, copper, zinc, and platinum--and never
made fifty cents out of them, 'cept once when, so the boys say, a mining
company fellow gave him five dollars to promise he wouldn't worry him
again. Now they've orders in all the offices that if Hollin comes round
with any more specimens they're not to let him in."

Prescott laughed. The man he had heard described was Kermode's companion,
and he could imagine their wandering up and down the province, one as
irresponsible as the other; meeting with strange experiences, stubbornly
braving the perils of the wilds; making themselves a nuisance to business
men in the cities. The matter had, however, a more serious aspect.
Prescott had spent some time on the useless search and he could not
continue it throughout the winter. It would b