e, however, grew a
trifle brighter in his companion's eyes.

"That," he said solemnly, "only the Almighty knows, but if we stop here
there'll be an end of Harry. Now, there are some folks in the old
country who'd be sorry if you don't come back?"

Seaforth smiled a trifle bitterly. "I don't think there are. They had
an opportunity of showing their affection before I came out to Canada,
and didn't take it. I found the best friend I ever had in this
country--and as there seems no other way we'll try the canon."

Okanagan sat down again, and hacked away with Alton's knife at a piece
of redwood he was fashioning into a paddle. Both of them knew that the
effort they were to make on their friend's behalf might well cost their
life, but big, untaught bushman and once gently-nurtured Briton were in
one respect at least alike, and that was a fact which would never again
be mentioned between them.

It was an hour or thereabouts later when Alton opened his eyes.

"I don't know that I asked you, though I meant to, but you and Tom
staked two more claims off?" he said.

Okanagan appeared a trifle embarrassed, but Seaforth laughed. "I'm
afraid we didn't. You see, we started in a hurry, and I forgot."

Alton stared at him a moment in bewilderment, and then through the pain
that distorted it a curious look crept into his face.

"I figure you're lying, Charley, and you don't do it well," he said.
"Folks don't usually forget when they leave a fortune behind them."

Seaforth smiled a little. "Well, I may have been, but a fortune didn't
seem very likely to be much use to me then or now," he said.

Alton gravely shook his head, but the two men's eyes met for a moment,
and Seaforth felt embarrassed as he turned his aside. There was no
need to tell the injured man that his welfare had appeared of more
importance to his comrades than any profit that might accrue to them
from the silver mine.

"Well," he said simply, "you or Tom should get through to Somasco."

"I hope so," said Seaforth, as Okanagan signed to him. "You see, we
are all going there together by the shortest way, down the canon."

Alton stared at him a moment. "Now I had----" he commenced, and then
stopped abruptly.

Once more Seaforth smiled. "Then you had thought about it, Harry?"

Alton's eyes closed a little. "I'm not one of the folks who go round
telling people all they think," he said. "There's no way down that
canon."

Seaforth understood wha