“Well, yes, for the time being.”

“I give it up.”

“You don’t place me?”

“No.”

Again the woodsman laughed and said: 

“Do you remember about fifteen years ago a young fellow, tired, wet, and hungry, tried to find shelter in a freight car?”

“Hello! you are not Henry Creedon?”

“Yes, I am, and this is the second time you’ve fed me.  You appear to be my good angel; I may prove your good angel.”

“So you are Henry Creedon?”

“I am,” and turning to Desmond, Creedon said: 

“Your friend there one night made a fight for me, fed me and found shelter for me.  He was a tramp then; I was footing it out West here.”

“Henry,” said Brooks, “what have you been doing all these years?”

“Mine hunting.”

“Mine hunting for fifteen years?”

“Yes.”

“And have you found a mine yet?”

The woodsman laughed, and Brooks said: 

“Desmond, we did indeed take desperate chances, and we’ve been making a fool’s chase, I reckon.  Here is a man who has been mine hunting for fifteen years and has not found one yet.  Where do we come in?”

“I’ll tell you,” said Creedon; “it’s luck when you find a mine.  More are found by chance than are discovered by experts, but I think I’ve found one; I can’t tell.  You see, I was raised in a factory town, I’ve had no education and I can’t tell its value.  I know where the find is located, however, and some of these days I’ll strike a prospecting party who will have an engineer with them, and then I will know the value of my find.”

“If you take a party in with you they will demand a share.”

“Certainly.”

“Do you intend to share with them?”

“I can’t do otherwise.”

“Yes, that is so; suppose I find an engineer for you?”

“I suppose you will want a rake in.”

“Certainly.”

“Well, Brooks, I’ll tell you, I don’t want to start in on a divide with everyone, but I’ve made up my mind to take you in with me.  I know you are a kind-hearted and honest man, even though you are a tramp, a whisky-loving tramp, and that I remember you emptied my canister that night.”

“Yes, but I am not drinking now; I’ve reformed.”

“You have?”

“Yes.”

“So much the better for you.”

“I’ve something to tell you.”

“Go it.”

“I am just the man to establish the value of your mine.”

“You are?”

“Yes, I am.”

“How is that, eh?  Have you become an expert after being in the mountains six weeks? and I am not in one way, and I’ve been here for fifteen years.”

“I was an expert before I came to the mountains.”

“You were?”

“Yes.”

“How is that?”

“I am a civil engineer by profession.”

“What’s that?”

“I am a civil engineer by profession.”