ry stillness and mystery in the
air, spoke this as the abode of the skeletons' secret.

It was this inexplicable _something_--this unseen, mysterious element
hovering in the air that caused the white youth to advance step by step,
silently, cautiously, as though the slightest sound under his feet might
awaken the deadliest of enemies. And it was because of this stealth in
his progress that he came very close upon something that was living, and
without startling it. Less than fifty yards ahead of him he saw an
object moving slowly among the rocks. It was a fox. Even before the
animal had detected his presence he had aimed and fired.

Thunderous echoes rose up about him. They rolled down the chasm, volume
upon volume, until in the ghostly gloom between the mountain walls he
stood and listened, a nervous shiver catching him once or twice. Not
until the last echo had died away did he approach where the fox lay upon
the snow. It was not red. It was not black. It was not--

His heart gave a big excited thump. The bleeding creature at his feet
was the most beautiful animal he had ever seen--and the tip of its thick
black fur was silver gray.

Then, in that lonely chasm, there went up a great human whoop of joy.

"A silver fox!"

Rod spoke the words aloud. For five minutes he stood and looked upon his
prize. He held it up and stroked it, and from what Wabi and Mukoki had
told him he knew that the silken pelt of this creature was worth more to
them than all the furs at the camp together.

He made no effort to skin it, but put the animal in his pack and resumed
his slow, noiseless exploration of the gulch.

He had now passed beyond those points in the range from which he had
looked down into this narrow, shut-in world. Ever more wild and gloomy
became the chasm. At times the two walls of rock seemed almost to meet
far above his head; under gigantic, overhanging crags there lurked the
shadows of night. Fascinated by the grandeur and loneliness of the
scenes through which he was passing Rod forgot the travel of time. Mile
after mile he continued his tireless trail. He had no inclination to
eat. He stopped only once at the creek to drink. And when he looked at
his watch he was astonished to find that it was three o'clock in the
afternoon.

It was now too late to think of returning to camp. Within an hour the
day gloom of the chasm would be thickening into that of night. So Rod
stopped at the first good camp site, threw off