into his eyes. "I know it's not far
off, but I miss it when I'm just getting on the track."

Thirlwell left him and smiled half impatiently as he went back across
the rocks. He had sometimes been puzzled, and sometimes amused, by
Agatha's confidence, and now Drummond, who had given him no help so far,
talked about an elusive clue. It looked as if both allowed their
imagination too much rein, and trusted to vague feelings instead of
their reasoning powers. Give him a compass bearing, or a definite
base-line to calculate an angle from, and he would engage to take the
party to the required spot; but he had frankly no use for the other
thing. Yet he sometimes wondered--there was a calm assurance in Agatha's
eyes. If this was not founded on superstition, from what did it spring?

They launched again in the afternoon, and reached the head of the lake
wet and tired. Thirlwell did not talk much after supper, but sat by the
fire, smoking, for some time after Agatha went to her tent. He had, in
fact, been rather silent for the last few days. Now they were near the
end of their journey he did not know if he wanted Agatha to find the
lode or not. When they started he had imagined that the search would
lead to nothing, and had gone because her society had a charm and he
wanted to free her mind of a dangerous illusion. But he could no longer
think the lode an illusion. The silver was there, and if one searched
long enough, could, no doubt, be found.

This was somehow disturbing, but with a half-conscious wish to shirk the
truth he would not inquire bluntly why it disturbed him. He wanted the
girl to be happy, and had thought it best for her that she should give
up the attempt to find the lode. Now he must readjust his views, and it
was hard to see what place there would be for him in her affairs if she
became the owner of a rich mining claim.

Next morning they made a difficult portage to another lake, and
launching the canoes at noon found the wind blowing fresh. The lake was
wide, and when by and by an angry sea got up Thirlwell reluctantly
steered for the shelter of a rocky point. They had covered very little
ground since they started, and there was only another day of the
fortnight left. After supper some of the men went fishing, and Drummond
set off alone along the beach, while Agatha and Thirlwell sat among the
rocks where the pungent wood-smoke drifted past and kept the mosquitoes
off. The sun had set and the air was very