e questioned, without understanding.

Peter nodded.

"We'll take him to--his new home."

Eve bowed her head and covered her eyes with her hands.

"He's yours, Eve," the man went on softly. "Shall I?"

The woman nodded silently and rose to her feet. Peter stooped and
picked the boy up in his arms to carry him as he had carried him
before. Then he moved off and Eve followed him.

Jim hesitated for a moment. It almost seemed as though he had no right
to force himself upon the woman's grief. It seemed to him like
sacrilege, and yet---- Finally he, too, joined in the silent
procession.

They followed whither Peter chose to lead. There was no question. It
was not a moment for question. The kindly heart dictated. It was only
for the others to acquiesce. Peter, too, perhaps in lesser degree, had
loved the boy. But then it was in his nature to love all suffering
humanity. He had never had anything but kindness for Elia in life. Now
that he was dead his feelings were no less.

So they trailed across the prairie--on, slowly and solemnly on. Their
course was marked straight as an arrow's flight in Peter's mind. Nor
did he pause till the mound of gravel beside his cutting was reached.

He stood at the brink of the shallow pit. There in its depths lay a
broad, jagged, soil-stained ridge. Here and there on its rough surface
patches of dazzling white, streaked with the more generous tints of
deep red, and blue, and green, showed where the hard-driven pick had
split the gold-bearing quartz.

Eve stared wonderingly down. Jim looked on in silent awe. He knew
something of that which was in Peter's mind. Peter had found the
deposits for which he had so long searched. Here--here was the great
reef, round which the Indian stories had been woven.

He laid his burden on the edge of the pit. Then he clambered down into
it. He signed to Jim, and the waiting man understood. He carefully
passed the boy's body to the man below.

Then he stood up, and Eve came to his side. Silently she rested one
hand upon his shoulder, and together they watched the other at his
work.

With the utmost tenderness Peter laid the boy down on his gravelly
bed. They saw that the dead lad's face was turned so that its cheek
rested against the cold, auriferous quartz. Then the man untied the
silk scarf about his own neck and laid it over the waxen face. Then he
stood up and stripped the shoring planks from the walls of the pit,
and placed them a solid cover