n they need a few. All that I ever seed did. But I'm
mighty glad the p'int hez been settled. It's been botherin' me fur
years. Thank you, young William."

"I think now," said Boyd, "that we'd better be looking for a camp."

"Among all these canyons and valleys," said Will, "it shouldn't be hard
to find a suitable place."

Canyons were too abundant for easy traveling, and finding a fairly level
though narrow place in one of the deepest, they pitched camp there,
building a fire with wood which they had added to their packs for this
purpose, and feeding to the animals grass which they had cut on the
lower slopes. With the warm food and the fire it was not so bad,
although the wind began to whistle fiercely far above their heads. The
animals hovered near the fire for warmth, looking to the human beings
who guided them for protection.

"I think we shall pass the highest point of our journey tomorrow," said
Brady, "and then for the descent along the shoulder of the White Dome.
Truly the stars have fought for us and I cannot believe that, after
having escaped so many perils, we will succumb to others to come."

"O' course we won't," said the Little Giant cheerfully, "an' all the
dangers we've passed through will make our gold all the more to us.
Things ain't much to you 'less you earn 'em. When I git my million,
which is to be my share o' that mine, I'll feel like I earned it."

"A quarter of a million, Tom," laughed Will. "You're getting avaricious
as we go on. You raised it to a half million and now you make it a
million."

"It does look ez ef my fancy grew more heated the nearer we come to the
gold. I do hev big expectations fur a feller that never found a speck of
it. How that wind does howl! Do you think, young William, that a glacier
is comin' right squar' down on us?"

"No, Tom. Glaciers, like tortoises, move slowly. We'll have time to get
out of the way of any glacier. It's easy to outrun the fastest one on
the globe."

"I've heard tell that the earth was mostly covered with 'em once. Is
that so?"

"They say there was an Ice Age fifty thousand or so years ago, when
everything that lived had to huddle along the equator. I don't vouch for
it. I'm merely telling what the scholars tell."

"I'll take your word for it, young William, an' all the same I'm glad I
didn't live then. Think o' bein' froze to death all your life. Ez it is
I'm ez cold ez I keer to be, layin' here right now in this canyon."

"If we wer