e'll follow 'em, Will, don't you worry about that. Gold draws men
anywhere. Through blizzards, over mountains, across deserts, right into
the face of the warlike Indian tribes, and the danger of death can't
break the spell. Haven't I seen 'em going to California, men, women and
children pressing on in the face of every peril that any army ever
faced, and it's not likely, Will, that you and me will turn back, when
women and children wouldn't."

"No, Jim, we couldn't do that. We're in this hunt to stay, and I for one
have the best of reasons for risking everything to carry it to a
successful end."

"And I'm with you because the Northwest is my natural stamping ground,
because I wouldn't mind being rich either, and because I like you, Will.
You're a good and brave boy, and if you can have the advantage of my
teaching and training for about fifty years you'll make a first rate
man."

"Thanks for the endorsement," laughed Will, "and so we stick together
'till everything is over."

"That's it."

The boy continued to look at the map.

"We've got a long journey over plains," he said, "but it seems to me
that when we pass 'em we'll enter mountains without ending. All the west
side of the map is covered with the black outlines that mean ridges and
peaks."

"It's right, too. I've been in that region. There are mountains,
mountains everywhere, and then more mountains, not the puny mountains
they have east of the Missip, a mile, or at best, a mile and a half
high, but crests shooting up so far that they hit right against the
stars, and dozens and dozens of 'em, with snow fields and glaciers, and
ice cold lakes here and there in the valleys. It's a grand country, a
wonderful country, Will, and there's no end to it. The old fur hunters
knew about it, but they've always kept it as secret as they could,
because they didn't want other people to learn about the beaver in
there."

"But we're going to visit it," exclaimed young Clarke with enthusiasm,
"and we're going to find something the fur hunters have never found. I
feel, Jim, that we're going to stand where my father stood and get out
the gold."

"I've feelings of that kind, too, but we've got to prop up feeling with
a power of work and patience and danger, and it's likely too, Will, that
it will be a long time before we reach the end of the line on that map."

Young Clarke folded up the parchment again and put it back in the inside
pocket of his waistcoat, the hunter wa