had made
my way close up, when I heard a voice that sounded familiar say--

"Well, it's 'bout time we started. Be late enough when we get there.
Wonder whether any one 'll be on the look-out."

As I heard these words, a cold perspiration broke out on my cheeks, and
I felt as if something were stirring the hair about my forehead, for I
had just been walking into the lion's den; and if I had had any hope
that my ears were deceiving me, there, plainly enough, in the bright
glow cast by the fire, stood the second of the two men we had
encountered first in the steamer.

It was he plainly enough, and he had one hand in a sling; while, as I
peered forward round one of the trees, I counted eight men about the
fire; and they all seemed to be well armed.

Where were they going? I asked myself. Along the track by which I had
just come? They must be, I thought, and bent on seizing Gunson's claim.
They would surprise the four men; and there would be blood shed, unless
I could warn the poor fellows first.

"I'll go back at once," I thought; and then with a horrible sensation of
depression, I realised that this was impossible, for I did not know in
which direction to go.

I had hardly thought this when I saw the whole party afoot, moving off
in the direction away from me, and quickly making up my mind to follow
them out of the forest, and as soon as I could make out my whereabouts,
to get on somehow in front, and go on ahead, I followed them. It was no
easy task, for I had to get some distance round, away from the fire, and
I should have lost them if one of them had not laughed aloud at some
remark. This told me of the direction in which they were, and I crept
on in dread lest I should get too close and be seen, and again in dread
for fear I should be left behind.

To my great satisfaction they kept on talking, as if in not the
slightest fear of being overheard, and I followed as near as I dared go,
till in a few minutes, to my great delight, I found that we were out in
the open, and I could see the stars.

"Now," I thought, "whereabouts are we? If I could only make out that
large mass of rock that lay off to the left where I passed through the
forest in the morning, I could soon get on before them. Why I must have
walked right back, and--"

I stopped short, quite startled, for to my great astonishment I found,
instead of going in the direction leading to Gunson's claim, I had come
through the forest on the side I