They followed the lad for some distance, though the shingle was large and rough.  Now and then he turned and looked back impatiently, as if they were not coming fast enough; but at length he stopped and indicated the high ground to the north.  Its bold line, colored a soft blue, stood out against the yellow sky, and in one place there was a sharply defined gap.

“There!” he exclaimed breathlessly.  “I guess that’s the broken range!”

“I see the break,” said Thirlwell.  “What about it?”

“Don’t embarrass him,” Agatha interrupted.  “It’s something he remembers.  Perhaps his father talked about the gap.”

“He did,” said Drummond.  “The thing’s been kind of floating in my mind all day, but I couldn’t get it fixed.  Then I saw that gap and knew I’d got what I’d been feeling for.”

“What did your father say?”

“The Indian camp he sent Strange to was in thin bush, close under the broken range, on the north side.”

Thirlwell turned to Agatha.  “Then we oughtn’t to have much trouble in locating the ore.  We know where the factory stood, and if we can find the thin bush, I can follow the line your father took.”

Agatha’s eyes shone and her color came and went, but with an effort she preserved her calm.

“After all, the bush may have grown.”

“I think not,” said Thirlwell.  “It’s probably rocky ground where the trees are small.”

“But how was it my father did not see the gap?”

“That is easily accounted for.  The gap’s not large, and I expect you can only see it when you’re directly opposite, at a right angle to the line of the high ground.  If you moved back a mile or two, the rocks and trees would shut it in.  Drummond didn’t see it as we came up the lake.”

“I suppose we must wait until to-morrow?”

“Yes,” said Thirlwell.  “We must leave the water, and can’t get through the bush in the dark.”

Agatha made a sign of agreement.  “Very well; I am glad the nights are very short.  But I would like to start at daybreak.”

Then they turned and went back silently to camp.  Thirlwell was conscious of a keen disturbance that he would not analyze and saw that Agatha did not want to talk.  As a matter of fact, Agatha could not talk.  She felt a curious exaltation:  her heart was full.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE LODE

At daybreak next morning Thirlwell sent the Metis up the lake to make a cache of the provisions he did not need, and hide the canoes in the brush.  In the meantime, he scattered the ashes of the fire and buried the empty cans and all the chips he could find.  There was another party in the neighborhood, and he wanted to leave nothing to indicate that the spot had been recently occupied by a camp.  When the men returned the party set off along the beach, loaded with food and tools.  Walking across the stones and ledges was laborious, but he did not mean to leave a trail, and kept to the water’s edge for some distance before he plunged into the bush.