e in carrying it out.

With this view he again opened the conversation.

"You are a hunter by profession--I think I have heard you say?"

"Yes; that is the vocation both of my comrade and myself."

"It is not a very profitable one, and yet attended with many dangers."

"Ah! it is a noble calling, my boy! My fathers followed it before my
time, and I, after a few years of interruption, have resumed the
profession of my fathers. Unfortunately I have no son to succeed me;
and I can say, without boasting, that when I am gone a brave and strong
race perishes with me."

"I, too," said Tiburcio, "follow the profession of my father--who, as I
have told you, was a gambusino."

"Ah! you are one of a race whom God has also created--in order that the
gold which He has given to the world should not be lost to the use of
man."

"My father," continued Tiburcio, "has left me a grand legacy--the
knowledge of a deposit of gold, not far from the frontier; and if two
men, such as you and your comrade, would join me in obtaining it, I
could promise to make you richer than ever you dreamt of becoming."

Tiburcio awaited the reply of the trapper, feeling almost certain of his
adhesion, notwithstanding the refusal the latter had made in his
presence to the proposal of Don Estevan. His astonishment, therefore,
was great when the Canadian, with a negative shake of the head, replied
as follows:

"Your proposal, young man, might be seductive to many--there was a time
when it would have been so to myself--but now it is no longer so. What
would gold be to me? I have no one to whom either to give it or leave
it. I have no longer a country. The woods and prairies are my home,
and gold would be of no service to me there. I thank you, young friend,
for your offer, but I must decline to accept it."

And as he said this, the Canadian covered his face with his huge hand,
as if to shut out from his eyes the seductive prospect which had been
offered to his view.

"Surely this is not your final answer?" said Tiburcio, as soon as he had
recovered from his surprise. "A man does not so readily refuse a
treasure that he has only to pick up from the ground?"

"Nevertheless," responded the trapper, "it is my resolution, fixed and
firm. I have other objects to follow. I have given myself, body and
soul, to aid my comrade there in an enterprise--my comrade of ten years'
standing."

During this conversation the words _gold_ and _treasure_, f