not goin' to look for that 'New Country' any more," Gale
replied.

"To-day," said the other, quietly.

"No."

"To-day! Dis affernoon! De blood in me is callin' for travel, John. I'm
livin' here on dis place five year dis fall, an' dat's long tarn' for
voyageur. I'm hongry for hear de axe in de woods an' de moose blow at
sundown. I want for see the camp-fire t'rough de brush w'en I come from
trap de fox an' dem little wild fellers. I want to smell smoke in de
dusk. My work she's finish here, so I'm paddle away to-day, an' I'll
fin' dat place dis tam', for sure--she's over dere." He raised his long
arm and pointed to the dim mountains that hid the valley of the
Koyukuk, the valley that called good men and strong, year after year,
and took them to itself, while in his face the trader saw the hunger of
his race, the unslaked longing for the wilderness, the driving desire
that led them ever North and West, and, seeing it, he knew the man
would go.

"Have you heard the news from the creeks?"

"No."

"Your claims are blanks; your men have quit."

The Frenchman shook his head sadly, then smiled--a wistful little smile.

"Wal, it's better I lose dan you--or Necia; I ain' de lucky kin', dat's
all; an', affer all, w'at good to me is riche gol'-mine? I ain' got no
use for money--any more."

They stood in the doorway together, two rugged, stalwart figures,
different in blood and birth and every other thing, yet brothers
withal, whom the ebb and flow of the far places had thrown together and
now drew apart again. And they were sad, these two, for their love was
deeper than comes to other people, and they knew this was farewell; so
they remained thus side by side, two dumb, sorrowful men, until they
were addressed by a person who hurried from the town.

He came as an apparition bearing the voice of "No Creek" Lee, the
mining king, but in no other way showing sign or symbol of their old
friend. Its style of face and curious outfit were utterly foreign to
the miner, for he had been bearded with the robust, unkempt growth of
many years, tanned to a leathery hue, and garbed perennially in the
habit of a scarecrow, while this creature was shaved and clipped and
curried, and the clothes it stood up in were of many startling hues.
Its face was scraped so clean of whiskers as to be a pallid white, but
lack of adornment ended at this point and the rest was overladen
wondrously, while from the centre of the half-brown, half-white f