skeleton fingers, but they as well as he had given it no special
significance, believing that it had been caught up in some terrible part
of the struggle when both combatants were upon the floor, or perhaps in
the dying agonies of the wounded man against the wall. Rod remembered
now that they had found no more birch-bark upon the floor, which they
would have done if a supply had been kept there for kindling fires. Step
by step he went over the search they had made in the old cabin, and more
and more satisfied did he become that the skeleton hand held something
of importance for them.

He replenished his fire and waited impatiently for dawn. At four
o'clock, before day had begun to dispel the gloom of night, he cooked
his breakfast and prepared his pack for the homeward journey. Soon
afterward a narrow rim of light broke through the rift in the chasm.
Slowly it crept downward, until the young hunter could make out objects
near him and the walls of the mountains.

Thick shadows still defied his vision when he began retracing his steps
over the trail he had made the day before. He returned with the same
caution that he had used in his advance. Even more carefully, if
possible, did he scrutinize the rocks and the creek ahead. He had
already found life in the chasm, and he might find more.

The full light of day came quickly now, and with it the youth's progress
became more rapid. He figured that if he lost no time in further
investigation of the creek he would arrive at camp by noon, and they
would dig up the skeleton without delay. There was little snow in the
chasm, in spite of the lateness of the season, and if the roll of bark
held the secret of the lost gold it would be possible for them to locate
the treasure before other snows came to baffle them.

At the spot where he had killed the silver fox Rod paused for a moment.
He wondered if foxes ever traveled in pairs, and regretted that he had
not asked Wabi or Mukoki that question. He could see where the fox had
come straight from the black wall of the mountain. Curiosity led him
over the trail. He had not followed it more than two hundred yards when
he stopped in sudden astonishment. Plainly marked in the snow before him
was the trail of a pair of snow-shoes! Whoever had been there had passed
since he shot the fox, for the imprints of the animal's feet were buried
under those of the snow-shoes.

Who was the other person in the chasm?

Was it Wabi?

Had Mukoki