“We could have dropped you off.”

“Well, yes, but out here we have to take chances, and it was necessary for me to do so.”

“It was?”

“Yes.”

“How so?”

“I need food; I have not struck any game lately.  The fact is, I’ve been up in the peaks where there is no game.  I hope you have a cold snack here, my friends, and some tobacco, for I have not had a regular tobacco smoke or chew for over a month.”

“We were just about to prepare some coffee and make a meal.”

“Good enough; did you say coffee?  Well, I have struck Elysium; I haven’t tasted a cup of coffee in a year.  You see I was snowbound away up in the mountains; fortunately I had plenty of dried meat, and I was compelled to wait until I was thawed out.”

Brooks commenced making the coffee, and while doing so the woodsman asked: 

“Are you regular hunters?”

“No.”

“Ever in the mountains before?”

“Never.”

“You’ve been taking great chances.”

“We have?”

“Yes.”

“How so?”

“The mountains are full of bad Indian fugitives, and they are very ugly.  Some are parts of a raiding gang of bucks, and others are rascals who have made a kick out at the reservation.  I’ve met twenty of them in the last ten days; they are in squads of twos and threes, and they are full of fight.”

“We have met some of them.”

“And you managed to escape?”

“We had a fight with one party.”

“You did?”

“Yes.”

“How did you come out?”

“Ahead, I reckon, or we would not be here.”

The conversation was between the woodsman and Desmond.

“What brought you into the mountains—­are you tourists?”

“No.”

“On business?”

“Yes.”

“Surveyors?”

“No.”

“I thought not; no use to survey out this way.  I suppose you are looking for a lost mine.”

“Well, we might take in a lost mine or find a new one, it don’t matter.”

“Ah!  I see; well, so far you’ve been lucky, but you’ve been taking desperate chances.”

“Oh! that’s a way we have.”

CHAPTER II.

A recognition—­the woodsman’s disclosures—­A
chance after all—­the bivouac—­Desmond’s
discovery—­savages galore.

The coffee was soon prepared and Brooks produced some dried meat and a few crackers, and the three men, so strangely met, sat down to enjoy their meal.  The woodsman was offered the first cup of coffee, and as he drank it down, all hot and steaming, he smacked his lips and exclaimed: 

“Well, that was good; that cup of coffee makes us friends.  I may do you a good turn.”

“Good enough; we are ready for a good turn.  We’ve had rather hard luck so far.”