n these days one finds some
little difficulty in believing. Still, it must be admitted that I am
acquainted with one fact which appears to substantiate it."

As he saw the blood rise to Wyllard's forehead he broke off with a
laugh.

"My friend," he added, "is it permitted to offer you my felicitations?
The men who would attempt a thing of this kind are, I think, singularly
rare."

"What is the fact that gives me at least partial credence?" asked
Wyllard, impatiently.

"There is a Kamtchadale in my base camp who told me of a place where a
white man was buried some distance to the west of us. He spoke of a
second white man, but nobody, I understand, knows what became of him."

Wyllard straightened himself suddenly. "You will send for that
Kamtchadale?"

"Assuredly. The tale you have told me has stirred my curiosity. As my
path lies west up the river valley, we can, if it pleases you, go on for
a while together."

Wyllard, who thanked him, turned to Charly with a sigh of relief.

"It seems that we shall not bring those men back, but I think we may
find out where they lie," he said.

Charly made no comment, for this was the most he had expected, and a few
minutes later there was silence in the little tent when the men lay down
to sleep among the skins.

They started at sunrise next morning, and followed the river slowly by
easy stages until the man sent back to Overweg's base camp overtook them
with another Kamtchadale. Then they pushed on still further inland, and
it was a week later when one evening their guide led them up to a little
pile of stones upon a lonely ridge of rock. There were two letters very
rudely cut on one of the stones, and Wyllard, who stooped down beside
it, took off his cap when he rose.

"There's no doubt that Jake Leslie lies here," he said. Looking at
Overweg, he asked, "Your man is sure there was only one white man who
buried him?"

Overweg spoke to the Kamtchadale, who answered:

"There was only one white man. It seems he went inland afterwards--at
least a year ago."

Wyllard turned to Charly, and his face was very grave. "That makes it
certain that two of them have died. There was one left, and he may be
dead by this time." He made a forceful gesture. "If one only knew!"

Charly made no answer. He was not a man of education or much
imagination, but like others of his kind he had alternately borne many
privations in the wilderness, logging, prospecting, trail-cutting about
th