reasonable valley
should, in so far as it made legitimate entry on the lake. What was
wrong with it was its length--scarcely a hundred yards; its head a
straight up-and-down cliff of a thousand feet, over which a stream
pitched itself in descending veils of mist.

And here he encountered more smoke, floating lazily upward in the warm
sunshine beyond an outjut of rock. As he came around the corner he heard
a light, metallic tap-tapping and a merry whistling that kept the beat.
Then he saw the man, an upturned shoe between his knees, into the sole
of which he was driving hob-spikes.

"Hello!" was the stranger's greeting, and Smoke's heart went out to the
man in ready liking. "Just in time for a snack. There's coffee in the
pot, a couple of cold flapjacks, and some jerky."

"I'll go you if I lose," was Smoke's acceptance, as he sat down. "I've
been rather skimped on the last several meals, but there's oodles of
grub over in the cabin."

"Across the lake? That's what I was heading for."

"Seems Surprise Lake is becoming populous," Smoke complained, emptying
the coffee-pot.

"Go on, you're joking, aren't you?" the man said, astonishment painted
on his face.

Smoke laughed. "That's the way it takes everybody. You see those high
ledges across there to the northwest? There's where I first saw it. No
warning. Just suddenly caught the view of the whole lake from there. I'd
given up looking for it, too.

"Same here," the other agreed. "I'd headed back and was expecting to
fetch the Stewart last night, when out I popped in sight of the lake. If
that's it, where's the Stewart? And where have I been all the time? And
how did you come here? And what's your name?"

"Bellew. Kit Bellew."

"Oh! I know you." The man's eyes and face were bright with a joyous
smile, and his hand flashed eagerly out to Smoke's. "I've heard all
about you."

"Been reading police-court news, I see," Smoke sparred modestly.

"Nope." The man laughed and shook his head. "Merely recent Klondike
history. I might have recognized you if you'd been shaved. I watched you
putting it all over the gambling crowd when you were bucking roulette
in the Elkhorn. My name's Carson--Andy Carson; and I can't begin to tell
you how glad I am to meet up with you."

He was a slender man, wiry with health, with quick black eyes and a
magnetism of camaraderie.

"And this is Surprise Lake?" he murmured incredulously.

"It certainly is."

"And its bottom's buttered