hat encumbered the floor.

"The fellow must have simply got well and gone away with the other
half-breed," said Macgregor, after they had surveyed the place in
silence. "Well, that ends our hope of being millionaires next year.
We've come on a fool's errand."

"Nothing for it now but to go home again, is there?" said Fred, in
disgust.

"We've come one hundred and fifty miles to see this camp, and we ought
to look through it," said Maurice.

"We must disinfect the place before we can go in. And there's no
chance of our finding any diamonds here," Fred remarked.

"I want to have a look through, anyway. Let's get out the fumigating
machine."

It was a formaldehyde outfit, consisting simply of a can of the
disinfectant with a bracket attached underneath to hold a small spirit
lamp. By the heat of the flame, formalin gas, one of the deadliest
germ-killers known, was given off.

Macgregor opened the can, lighted the pale spirit flame, and set the
apparatus on a rude shelf that happened to be just inside the hut.
They forced the door shut again, and sealed it by throwing water
against it, for the water promptly froze. It was not necessary to
close the chimney, for the germicidal gas is heavier than air, and
fills a room exactly as water fills a tank.

As it would take the disinfectant ten or twelve hours to do its work,
they hastened to construct a camp, for it was growing dark. It was a
rather melancholy evening. The nearness of the cabin, with its
sinister associations, affected them disagreeably; and, moreover, they
were all tired with the day's tramp, and chagrined and mortified at
having come, as Peter said, "on a fool's errand." After all their
glittering hopes, there was nothing now for them except a week's
snowshoe tramp back to Waverley, with barely enough provisions to see
them through.

Still they were curious about the cabin, and before breakfast the next
morning they burst open the ice-sealed door. A suffocating odor issued
forth, so powerful that they staggered back.

"Good gracious!" gasped Fred, after a spasm of coughing. "It must
certainly be safe after that!"

They found it impossible to go in until the gas had cleared away, and
so, leaving the door wide open, they returned to breakfast. Afterward
they idled about, trying to kill time; it was afternoon before they
could venture inside the cabin for more than a moment.

It was disagreeable even then, for the whole interior was filled