be a very long time before you can make another trip."

"No, I suppose I'm not logical," Agatha admitted, with a mocking smile.
"Logic is perhaps a useful guide for a _man_, but it doesn't always take
him far. However, I oughtn't to have expected you to understand, and
you're getting impatient--"

"Let's try to be practical," Thirlwell rejoined. "If we turn back at
once, some of the truck we haven't used might be sold, and we would save
the wages I promised the boys, but all we have spent would be thrown
away. Well, I'd hate to feel that either of us must bear a loss like
that."

"I have heard George say that a good business man cuts his losses."

"It's sometimes a better plan to hold on and get your money back."

"But how can we get our money back if we can't find the lode? You don't
think we'll do so."

Thirlwell frowned. "There's a chance of finding it; a fighting chance.
Now we're near the spot and have the truck, let's play the chance for
all it's worth. You can pay me when you get your patent, or make any
plan you like. Then Scott really supplied the stores and made some
suggestions that I didn't mean to talk about unless our search
succeeded."

He related what Scott had said, and added: "Anyhow, let's go on for a
fortnight. Then if you insist, we'll take the back trail."

Agatha gave him a quick glance and he thought her eyes had softened, but
she got up.

"Very well," she said, and went to her tent.

CHAPTER XXV

THE BROKEN RANGE

The fortnight Agatha agreed to had nearly gone when, early one morning,
Thirlwell and Drummond climbed a hill behind the camp and stood on the
summit, looking about. Thin mist drifted across the low ground in front,
but some miles off a forest-covered ridge rose against the sky. It was
hardly a range of hills, but rather what prospectors call a height of
land; a moderately elevated watershed marking off two river basins.
Running roughly east and west as far as he could see, it limited
Thirlwell's view and had puzzled him for some days.

Since the rivers that drained the country flowed northeast to Hudson
Bay, it was obvious that there must be an opening in the ridge, but he
had been unable to find one. Moreover, as Strange's creek ran south
before it turned east, he imagined it was on his side of the heighth of
land, but he had seen no stream flowing in either direction. Strange's
notes were incomplete; and although Thirlwell calculated that he was
about thirty