golden bullets and who screamed like a lynx was the man who had lived
there many, many years ago, and whom the boys called John Ball? Those
were the thoughts that Wabi had set working in his brain. The young
Indian had not suggested this to Rod. He had spoken of it to Mukoki
only because he knew the old pathfinder might help him to solve the
riddle, and so he had started Mukoki upon the trail.

The next morning, while the others were finishing their breakfast,
Mukoki equipped himself for a journey.

"Go down chasm," he explained to Rod "Fin' where get out to plain.
Shoot meat."

That day the gold hunters were more systematic in their work,
beginning close to the fall, one on each side of the stream, and
panning their way slowly down the chasm. By noon they had covered two
hundred yards, and their only reward was a tiny bit of gold, worth
no more than a dollar, which Rod had found in his pan. By the time
darkness again compelled them to stop they had prospected a quarter
of a mile down stream without discovering other signs of John Ball's
treasure. In spite of their failure they were less discouraged than
the previous evening, for this failure, in a way, was having a
sedative and healthful effect. It convinced them that there was a hard
and perhaps long task ahead of them, and that they could not expect to
find their treasure winnowed in yellow piles for them.

Early in the evening Mukoki returned laden with caribou meat, and with
the news that the first break in the chasm walls was fully five miles
below. The adventurers now regretted that they had chopped down the
stub, for it was decided that the next work should be in the stream
above the fall, which would necessitate a ten-mile tramp, five miles
to the break and five miles back. When the journey was begun at dawn
the following morning several days' supplies were taken along, and
also a stout rope by means of which the gold hunters could lower
themselves back into their old camp when their work above was
completed. Rod noticed that the rocks in the stream seemed much
larger than when he had first seen them, and he mentioned the fact to
Wabigoon.

"The floods are going down rapidly," explained the young Indian. "All
of the snow is melted from the sides of the mountains, and there are
no lakes to feed this chasm stream. Within a week there won't be more
than a few inches of water below the fall."

"And that is when we shall find the gold!" declared Rod with his