, and half buried in it all was the
yellow nugget! In Wabi's pan there was no nugget but it was rich with
the gleam of fine gold.

Mukoki had dredged a bushel of sand and gravel from the pool, and was
upon his knees beside the heap which he had piled on the rock. When
Rod went to that rock for his third pan of dirt the old warrior made
no sign that he had discovered anything. The early gloom of afternoon
was beginning to settle between the chasm walls, and at the end of his
fourth pan Rod found that it was becoming so dark that he could
no longer distinguish the yellow particles in the sand. With the
exception of one nugget he had found only fine gold. With Wabi's dust
were three small nuggets.

When they ceased work Mukoki rose from beside the rock, chuckling,
grimacing, and holding out his hand. Wabi was the first to see, and
his cry of astonishment drew Rod quickly to his side. The hollow of
the old warrior's hand was filled with nuggets! He turned them into
Wabigoon's hand, and the young Indian turned them into Rod's, and
as he felt the weight of the treasure he held Rod could no longer
restrain the yell of exultation that had been held in all that
afternoon. Jumping high into the air and whooping at every other step
he raced to the camp and soon had the small scale which they had
brought with them from Wabinosh House. The nuggets they had found that
afternoon weighed full seven ounces, and the fine gold, after allowing
the deduction of a third for sand, weighed a little more than eleven
ounces.

"Eighteen ounces--and a quarter!"

Rod gave the total in a voice tremulous with incredulity.

"Eighteen ounces--at twenty dollars an ounce--three hundred and sixty
dollars!" he figured rapidly. "By George--" The prospect seemed too
big for him, and he stopped.

"Less than half a day's work," added Wabi. "We're doing better than
John Ball and the Frenchmen. It means eighteen thousand dollars a
month!"

"And by autumn--" began Rod.

He was interrupted by the inimitable chuckling laugh of Mukoki and
found the old warrior's face a map of creases and grimaces.

"In twent' t'ous'nd moon--mak' heem how much?" he questioned.

In all his life Wabigoon had never heard Mukoki joke before, and with
a wild whoop of joy he rolled the stoical old pathfinder off the rock
on which he was sitting, and Rod joined heartily in Wabi's merriment.

And Mukoki's question proved not to be so much of a joke after all,
as the boys were