usual on
the border, asked him how he came to be a fur hunter.

"Drift," he replied. "You would not think it, but it was my original
intention to become a schoolmaster. An excursion into the west made me
fall in love with the forest, the mountains, solitude and independence.
I've always taken enough furs for a good living, and I'm absolutely my
own master. Moreover, I'm an explorer and it gives me a keen pleasure to
find a new river or a new mountain. And this northwest is filled with
wonders. After we find the gold and my beaver colony, I'm going to write
a book of a thousand pages about the wonders I've seen."

"I never saw anybody that wrote a book," said the Little Giant with the
respect of the unlettered for the lettered, "an' I confess I ain't much
of a hand at readin' 'em, but when I'm rich ez I expect to be a year or
two from now, an' I build my fine house in St. Looey, I mean to have a
room full of 'em, in fine leather an' morocco bindin's."

"Will you read them?" asked Will.

"Me read 'em! O' course not!" replied the Little Giant. "I'll hire a man
to read 'em, an' he kin keep busy on them books while I'm away on my
long huntin' trips."

"But that won't be you reading 'em."

"What diff'unce does that make? All a book asks is to be read by
somebody, en' ef it's read by my reader 'stead o' me it's jest the
same."

The days confirmed them in their choice of Brady as the fourth partner
in the great hunt. Despite his rather stern and solemn manner he was at
heart a man of most cheerful and optimistic temperament. He had, too, a
vast fund of experience and he knew much of the wilderness that was
unknown to others.

"What do you think of our plan of going straight ahead as soon as we can
travel, and passing over the left shoulder of the White Dome?" asked
Boyd.

"It's wisest," replied Brady thoughtfully. "I've heard something of this
Felton, with whom you had such a sanguinary encounter, and I'm inclined
to think from all you tell me that he has had a hint about the mine. He
has affiliated with the Indians and he can command a large band of his
own, white men, mostly murderous refugees from the border, and the worst
type of half breeds. It's better for us to keep as long as we can in the
depths of the mountains despite all the difficulties of travel there."

On the fifth day it turned much warmer and rained heavily, and so
violent were the changes in the high mountains that there was a
tremendous manifest