ought it into prominence; and the Golden
Girl was paying a royalty to David Drennen. Drennen himself did not
know how his account at the Lebarge bank took upon itself new
importance every third month when Marshall Sothern deposited the tenth
share of the net receipts.

Seeking Ygerne Bellaire and those with her, Drennen had gone from
Fanning into Whirlwind Valley, across the Pass and into the forests
beyond Neuve Patrie. He had followed rumours of three men and a woman
and after six or seven weeks came upon them, trappers and the wife of
one of them. He showed nothing of his emotions as he stared at them
with cold, hard eyes. He went back to Fanning, crossed the MacLeod to
Brunswick Towers and to the new village of Qu' Appelle. Spring had
passed into summer and he had had no clue which was not a lie like the
first. In all seeming the earth had opened to receive those whom he
followed.

Since he so seldom spoke, since when he did it was to ask concerning
three men and a woman, those who knew anything of him at all knew that
he was seeking Sefton, Lemarc, Garcia and a girl whom those who had
heard of her from the men of MacLeod's Settlement, called "the
Princess." A figure of interest already, Drennen gained double
interest now.

"He'll find them one day, _mes chers_," grunted the big blacksmith at
St. Anne's. "He'll do anything, that man. _Le bon Diable_ is his
papa. _Hein_? _Voyez, mon petit stupide_! Last week, because he
needs no more and because the devil likes him, he finds gold again in
the Nez Casse! _Nom d'un gros porc_! But who has dreamed to find gold
in the Nez Casse? Oho! Some day he comes up with three man and _la
princesse_. And then . . ."

He broke off, plunging his hot iron into his tub of water, so that the
hissing of the heated metal and the angry puff of steam might conclude
in fitting eloquence the thing he had in mind.

Once, just after Drennen had for the second time in six months found
gold, he heard the new epithet which had been given him: Lucky Drennen.
He turned and stared at the man who had spoken the name so that the
fellow fell back, flushing and paling under the terrible eyes. Then,
with his snarling laugh, Drennen passed on.

Until the winter came to lock the gateways into the mountains he was
everywhere the adventurous were pushing in the land of the North Woods.
He was the last man to take the trail from Gabrielle to the open.

But though winter lifted a froze