ld come from you."

When Brady awoke many hours later three very serious faces confronted
him, and his acute mind saw at once that he was about to receive a
communication of weight.

"It looks like a committee," he said with solemn importance. "Who is the
spokesman?"

"I am," replied Will, "and what we have to say to you is really of
importance, of vast importance. Mr. Bent has been looking many years
for gold, but has never yet found a grain of it. Now he has given up his
independent search, and is joining with Mr. Boyd and me in a far bigger
hunt. You've been looking eight or ten years, you say, for the gigantic
beaver colony, but have never found it. Now we want you to give up that
hunt for the time, and join us, because we need you much."

"Your words have an earnest sound, young man, and I know that you and
your comrades are honest, but I do not take your full meaning."

"It is this," said Will, and he produced from his secret pocket the
precious map. "My father, who was a captain in the army, found a great
mine of gold, but before he could work it, or even make any preparations
to do so, he was called for the Civil War, in which he fell. But he left
this map that tells me how to reach it somewhere in the vast
northwestern mountains. To locate it and get out the treasure I need
fighting men, the best fighting men the world can furnish, wilderness
fighters, patient, enduring and full of knowledge. I have two such in
Mr. Boyd and Mr. Bent, but we need just one more, and we have agreed
that you should be the fourth, if you will favor us by entering into the
partnership. It is full of danger, as you know. We have already had a
fight with the Sioux, and another with a band of outlaws, led by Martin
Felton."

A spark leaped up in the stern eye of Stephen Brady.

"I am a fur hunter," he said, "though there is little prospect of
success for me now, owing to the Indian wars, but I have spent all my
manhood years among dangers. Perhaps I should feel lonely if they were
absent, and you may dismiss that idea."

"I thought so. Will you enter into full partnership with us in this
great enterprise? Mr. Bent has appraised your full value as a fighting
man in this crisis at a quarter of a million dollars, and we know that
the mine contains at least a million. I beg you not to refuse. We need
your strong arm and great heart. You will be conferring the favor upon
us."

"And the vast beaver colony that I'm going to find som