sign of
flagging. He seemed intent and eager; and when they stopped, gasping,
where the rock fell straight down beneath their feet to the thick
timber that climbed from a thread-like river, he sat down and gazed
steadily below him.

"They're hemlocks along that bend?" he asked, pointing to a ridge of
somber green that rose above the water.

"Yes," said Weston, "I think they are."

Grenfell straightened himself suddenly.

"My sight's not as good as yours, but I seemed to know they must be.
Can you make out any Douglas firs in the thicker timber?"

"Yes," said Weston, excitedly, "there's a spire or two higher than the
rest. You recognize the place?"

His companion sat still with signs of tension in his face, and it was
clear that he was racking his befogged brain. The few weeks of
abstinence and healthful toil had made a change in him, but one cannot
in that space of time get rid of the results of years of indulgence;
and under stress of excitement the man became confused and fanciful.

"I'm not sure. I'm trying to think," he said, laying a lean, trembling
hand on Weston's arm. "Did you never feel that there was something you
ought to recollect about a spot which you couldn't have seen before?"

Weston was in no mood to discuss questions of that kind, though the
curious sensation was not altogether unfamiliar to him.

"There's only one way you could have known there was hemlock yonder,"
he asserted.

Grenfell looked up at him with a dry smile.

"You have to remember that I have been up in the ranges several times.
Parts of them are very much alike."

After that Weston sat very still for several minutes, though he found
it exceedingly difficult. He had more than once during the last few
weeks doubted that Grenfell had ever found the quartz-reef at all, for
it seemed quite possible that he had, as the track-grader suggested,
merely fancied that he had done so, and the man's manner had borne out
that supposition. Cut off from the whisky, he had now and then fallen
into fits of morbid moodiness, during which he seemed very far from
sure about the gold. This had naturally occasioned Weston a good deal
of anxiety. He had thrown up his occupation and sunk his last dollar
in the venture, and the finding of the quartz-reef would, he commenced
to realize, open up to him alluring possibilities. At length his
companion spoke slowly.

"If the river runs across the valley to the opposite range a mile
higher, this is t