them around
here."

"They make a most infernal row, at all events. How the deuce is a
fellow going to sleep?" said Sellon, as the sound was taken up in a
sudden chorus of dismal howls, whose gruesome echoes, floating among the
krantzes, seemed to deepen the surrounding darkness, to enhance the
utter wildness of this desolate valley.

The camp was pitched in the entrance of a narrow gorge which wound right
up into the heart of the great ridge overhanging the river. It lay in a
grassy hollow, snugly sheltered on all sides. In the background some
hundred yards distant, and about eighty feet in height, rose a
perpendicular wall of rock, being one of the spurs of the main ridge.

"Oh, you'll sleep soundly enough once you're off, never fear," laughed
Renshaw. "And now, as we are fairly embarked upon our undertaking, we
may as well go over old Greenway's yarn together. Two heads are better
than one, they say, and a fresh mind brought to bear upon the story may
bring into it a fresh idea or two."

Putting his hand inside his shirt, he produced the buckskin pouch. At
last had come the moment Sellon had long dreaded. How he wished he had
refrained from meddling with the thing. Certainly he believed that his
friend could get along almost, if not quite as well without the paper,
as with it. Its contents must be stamped indelibly in his memory. Yet
how would he take the discovery of its loss?

"I've never gone into it with you before, Sellon," went on Renshaw,
holding the pouch in his hand, little thinking what tantalising suspense
his friend was undergoing. "You see, when a man holds a secret of this
kind--has been treasuring it up for years--he's apt to keep it mighty
close. But now that we are fairly in the swim together things are
different."

He undid the outer bag, then leisurely unrolled the waterproof wrapper,
Sellon meanwhile staring at the proceeding with a nervous fascination,
which, had his friend noticed, he would have put down to intense
excitement due to the importance of the disclosure. Still deliberately,
Renshaw unrolled the last fold of the wrapper, and produced--a scroll of
frayed and yellow paper.

Heavens and earth! It was the identical document! In his wild
amazement Sellon could not refrain from a violent start.

"What's the row?" said the other, quietly. "Keep cool. We want steady
nerves over this undertaking."

"You're right, old man. I own that mine are a little too high-strung