"I know that, my lad. I say, the stream begins to show now as the place
gets narrower. Looks as if it'll be nearly closed in. Well, we must
risk it. There's no walking as I see on either side."

"Ahoy!" came from the right bank, where the lake was fast becoming a
river.

"Ahoy to you, and good morning, whoever you are," cried the Cornishman.

Some unintelligible words followed, he who uttered them being plainly to
be seen now on a ledge some fifty feet above the surface of the water.
But his signs were easy to be understood.

"Wants us to give him a lift," said Dallas. "Can we stop?"

"Oh, yes, and it would only be civil," said the Cornishman. "Just room
for one first-class passenger. All right; lend a hand here. I can
touch bottom. 'Bout seven foot."

Poles were thrust down, and the raft was urged across the flowing water
till the eddy on the far side was reached, and then, with the fierce
roar coming out of a narrow gap in the rocks a few hundred yards lower,
the raft was easily thrust into a little cove below the man on the
shelf.

"Going down the rapids?" he shouted.

"We are, my lad," cried their captain. "Why?"

"Will you give a poor fellow a lift down? I can't get any farther for
the rocks."

"Far as the gold country?"

"Oh, no: I don't ask that. Only to where I can tramp again."

"Well, we've just room for a little un," said the Cornishman. "Much
luggage?"

"Only this pack," was the reply.

"Jump in, then," said the leader, with a grim smile. "P'r'aps, though,
you'd better come lower."

The man nodded, slung his pack over his shoulder, and then, turning,
began to descend the almost perpendicular face of the rocks, twice over
narrowly escaping a bad fall. But at last he reached the foot, waded
out a little, and then stepped on board.

"Thankye," he said; "you are good Christians. I've been here a
fortnight, and couldn't get any farther. I shouldn't have been alive
now if I hadn't got a fish or two."

"You are tramping to the gold region all alone, then?"

"Yes, and I've nearly tramped all the way from Chicago."

The Cornishman turned and stared.

"I got a lift sometimes on the cattle and freight trains, though, when I
could creep on unseen."

"The gold has a magnetic attraction for you, then?" said Abel.

"I suppose so, but it's my last chance. This is a solitary way, though,
isn't it? I've hardly seen a soul. I saw your fire, though, last
night, across yonder.