alling!"

"What is calling?" asked Willis, straining his ear to catch the sound.

"Mother Nature," answered Ham, dryly. "Mother Nature's call--the call
of the wild. See, even the leaves are beckoning us back farther into the
deep, quiet wilderness. Some day I will part with my earthly possessions
and answer that call, for, do you know, I believe that the Indian did
come the nearest to living an ideal life of any of us!"

Every one knew that Ham was in for a long, private soliloquy, and so
began supper operations, for, although they had all heard the call of
Mother Nature, as Ham put it, to some of them at least it was only an
empty stomach calling to be fed.

Mr. Allen and Willis were the last ones to take to their blankets, for
they had many things to talk over between themselves.

What can draw out the innermost thoughts of a fellow's heart more quickly
than a chat with a sympathetic friend when both are seated before a fire
in such a place and on such a night? If you really wish to know a fellow
in a few days' time, you need to camp with him, to eat with him, and to
sit with him before an open fire in the wilderness under a canopy of
stars with the music of Nature about you. Then man speaks with man, and
all the conventionalities of life are forgotten.

"Yes, I have often wondered if I will ever find my father's partner,"
Willis was saying. "I would rather see him than any man on earth,
sometimes."

"Wouldn't you be happier if you didn't ever find him, though?" questioned
Mr. Allen.

"No, I wouldn't, Mr. Allen, because he could explain so many things to me
that I have wondered about. I don't know that I ever told you, but it has
always seemed so strange to me that my uncle, Mr. Williams, has never
once mentioned my father's name to me. He was the last man that saw him
alive, yet he has never spoken of him. I have been going to talk with
him several times, but he is so gruff and absorbed I can't get up my
nerve. There is one thing that has bothered me a lot lately, though, and
I've never told you of it, but I'm going to now. I probably never would
have thought much about it if it hadn't been for what the old prospector
told me the other day over on Cheyenne. I've been wondering if there
possibly could be any connection between his not wanting me to come on
this trip and the fact that he was just then sending men to do his
assessment work on the claim that once belonged to my father.

"There is another thing,