it out West here."

"Henry," said Brooks, "what have you been doing all these years?"

"Mine hunting."

"Mine hunting for fifteen years?"

"Yes."

"And have you found a mine yet?"

The woodsman laughed, and Brooks said:

"Desmond, we did indeed take desperate chances, and we've been making a
fool's chase, I reckon. Here is a man who has been mine hunting for
fifteen years and has not found one yet. Where do we come in?"

"I'll tell you," said Creedon; "it's luck when you find a mine. More are
found by chance than are discovered by experts, but I think I've found
one; I can't tell. You see, I was raised in a factory town, I've had no
education and I can't tell its value. I know where the find is located,
however, and some of these days I'll strike a prospecting party who will
have an engineer with them, and then I will know the value of my find."

"If you take a party in with you they will demand a share."

"Certainly."

"Do you intend to share with them?"

"I can't do otherwise."

"Yes, that is so; suppose I find an engineer for you?"

"I suppose you will want a rake in."

"Certainly."

"Well, Brooks, I'll tell you, I don't want to start in on a divide with
everyone, but I've made up my mind to take you in with me. I know you
are a kind-hearted and honest man, even though you are a tramp, a
whisky-loving tramp, and that I remember you emptied my canister that
night."

"Yes, but I am not drinking now; I've reformed."

"You have?"

"Yes."

"So much the better for you."

"I've something to tell you."

"Go it."

"I am just the man to establish the value of your mine."

"You are?"

"Yes, I am."

"How is that, eh? Have you become an expert after being in the mountains
six weeks? and I am not in one way, and I've been here for fifteen
years."

"I was an expert before I came to the mountains."

"You were?"

"Yes."

"How is that?"

"I am a civil engineer by profession."

"What's that?"

"I am a civil engineer by profession."

"You don't tell me!"

"That's what I tell you, and I tell you the truth."

"Then you are just the man I want."

"I said I was; I am more than an engineer, I am a mineralogist and a
geologist."

"Hold on, don't overcome a fellow out here in the mountains; if you are
a civil engineer that is enough for me. Hang your mineralogy and
geology; what I want is a man who can estimate. No doubt about the ledge
I've struck; the question is, how much will it cost