osed with "firewater," had told them of a lonely unknown place in the
wilderness, where the ground was literally strewn with gold. Nuggets as
big as a man's fist, he said, could be found by merely scratching the
surface of the soil. They swallowed the yarn with the necessary grain
of salt; but in the gold region, where so many miracles have happened,
nothing is deemed impossible. The wildest romance receives credence.
Vast fortunes had been made over night on clues no less preposterous.
Anyhow, it was worth investigating. So, quietly, almost stealthily,
taking no one into their confidence, they started North.

After days of strenuous tramping and effort, climbing hills, fording
streams, cutting through impenetrable brushwood, they finally reached
the region of which the Indian had given a fairly accurate description.
Nearly two hundred miles from the nearest camp, on the top of a
mountain plateau, the country was as wild and desolate as it is
possible to imagine. Probably no white man had ever set foot there
before. Soon their supplies ran low, and as they advanced further into
the wilderness, and game grew scarcer, it became more difficult to find
food. In addition to hunger, they suffered severely from the cold, and
the jagged rocks tearing their boots made them footsore.

Of gold they had seen a few traces, but the ore was not present in such
quantities as to encourage them to believe they had stumbled across
another El Dorado, or even to make it worth their while to stake out a
claim. Branigan, disappointed, was in favor of going back. The Indian
was lying, he said. There was danger of getting lost in the mountains.
The severe winter storms were about due. Prudence counselled caution.
John took an opposite view. They had picked up several lumps of quartz
streaked with yellow. If gold was there in minute particles, he argued,
it was there also in larger quantities. The only thing was to have
patience, to go on prospecting, and ferret out the hiding-place where
jealous Nature secreted her treasures.

So they had struggled on, hoping against hope, thinking they would soon
come across a trapper's hut, fighting for mere existence each inch of
the way, becoming more bewildered and demoralized as they realized the
gravity of their plight, advancing further and further into the
merciless desert, literally stumbling into the jaws of death. Then came
the snow, and the faint Indian trails were completely obliterated. This
pu