Thanks, I thought it would come to that."
He took off his hat very formally and strode on. In his angry brain
burned the thought that the sooner Clark came to grief, the sooner
Elsie would get rid of this illusion. And then, as always, the brave
and loyal soul of him sent out a silent protest.

By now the wires were humming, and through St. Marys the news ran like
quicksilver. In years past there had been individual discoveries by
wandering bushmen, but none of them of value. Tales were afloat that
old Shingwauk down at the settlement knew of a gold bearing vein, and
that the knowledge would die with him. But at the formal announcement
that the Consolidated had found gold, it was universally believed that
it was of a necessity a bigger and better thing than ever before, and
carried with it all the reputation of Clark's immense undertaking.

So began the rush to the woods. It was not one in which tenderfeet
deserted their jobs and took to the hills, but a stirring amongst the
stiff bones of old prospectors who had given up the fight but were now
infused with new courage. In Fisette they saw the man who had won out
for the second time while they sat and smoked. There was a seeking out
and sharpening of picks blunted by inumerable taps on forgotten ridges,
and a stuffing of dunnage bags, and a sortie to Filmer's store for
flour and bacon and a few sticks of forty per cent. dynamite, and
patching of leaky shoe packs. Twenty-four hours later the little
station up at the works was crammed with men whose leathern faces were
alight with an old time joy, and whose eyes sparkled with the flame of
a nearly extinguished fire. After them came others from greater
distance, then peddlers and engineers representing mining firms in
search of properties, and keepers of road houses where the lamps burned
all night, and there were women and songs and whiskey that flouted the
peace of the forest. And with all this the traffic returns of the
Consolidated Company's railway leaped up, and Fisette, who was in
charge of a dozen men stripping his find of roots and earth and moss,
began to hear all round him, both near and far, the dull thud of
blasting and the faint clink of hammer on steel.

But it was a month before the general manager's private car slid into
the siding at Mile 61, where Clark, descending, found Fisette waiting
for him, and together they stepped out for the discovery. Here and
there along the trail other prospecto