soon to learn. For several days the work went on
uninterrupted. The buckskin bags in the balsam shelter grew heavier
and heavier. Each succeeding hour added to the visions of the gold
seekers. On the fifth day Rod found seventeen nuggets among his fine
gold, one of them as large as the end of his thumb. On the seventh
came the richest of all their panning, but on the ninth a startling
thing happened. Mukoki was compelled to work ceaselessly to keep the
two boys supplied with "pay dirt" from the pool. His improvised dredge
now brought up only a handful or two of sand and pebbles at a dip. It
was on this ninth day that the truth dawned upon them all.

The pool was becoming exhausted of its treasure!

But the discovery brought no great gloom with it. Somewhere near that
pool must be the very source of the treasure itself, and the gold
hunters were confident of finding it. Besides, they had already
accumulated what to them was a considerable fortune, at least two
thousand dollars apiece. For three more days the work continued, and
then Mukoki's dredge no longer brought up pebbles or sand from the
bottom of the pool.

The last pan was washed early in the morning, and as the warm
weather had begun to taint the caribou meat Mukoki and Wabigoon left
immediately after dinner to secure fresh meat out on the plains, while
Rod remained in camp. The strange thick gloom of night which began to
gather in the chasm before the sun had disappeared beyond the plains
above was already descending upon him when Rod began preparations for
supper. He knew that the Indians would not wait until dark before
reentering the break between the mountains, and confident that they
would soon appear he began mixing up flour and water for their usual
batch of hot-stone biscuits. So intent was he upon his task that he
did not see a shadowy form creeping up foot by foot from the rocks. He
caught no glimpse of the eyes that glared like smoldering coals from
out of the half darkness between him and the fall.

His first knowledge of another presence came in a low, whining cry, a
cry that was not much more than a whisper, and he leaped to his feet,
every nerve in his body once more tingling with that excitement which
had possessed him when he stood under the rock talking to the madman.
A dozen yards away he saw a face, a great, white, ghost-like face,
staring at him from out of the thickening shadows, and under that face
and its tangled veil of beard and ha