“I wonder why!”

Scott laughed.  “You understand machines and rocks; to some extent I understand men.  Anyhow, I find them interesting, and perhaps other people’s firm belief in the lode influences me.”

By and by Drummond came back and Scott studied him as he advanced.  He saw the lad had a strain of Indian blood, and he knew something about the half-breeds’ character.  They were marked by certain weaknesses, but as a rule inherited a slow tenacity from their Indian ancestors.  He had known a man, shot through the body, walk four hundred miles to reach a doctor, and they made the revenging of serious injuries a duty.  A Metis would wait the greater part of a lifetime for a chance of repaying in kind a man who had wronged him.  Drummond looked somewhat dissipated and had a superficial smartness that young men without much education acquire in Canadian towns, but Scott thought him intelligent.

“Sit down,” he said, indicating a short pine-stump.  “You want a job.  Is that all?”

“Yes,” said Drummond coolly, “it’s all I want now.  If you and Mr. Thirlwell mean to look for the ore and take me along, you can give me what you think my help is worth.  But I’ve already put Miss Strange wise.”

“You seem to be pretty trustful!  How did you find her?”

“My father knew where Strange, located after he left the factory, and I tried to get on the track of his folks when Stormont turned me down.  Talked to packing-house drummers at a department store in Winnipeg where I was employed, and found a man who sold Strange canned goods when he ran a grocery business.  The drummer had known him pretty well and told me Miss Strange was in Toronto.  By and by, when trade was slack in Winnipeg, the firm sent some of the clerks to their Toronto store and I bothered the department boss until he let me go.  Then I was ’most a month locating Miss Strange; couldn’t find her in the directory and Toronto’s a big town.”

Scott noted the determination that had helped him in his search.  “You knew about the lode for some time,” he said.  “Why did you wait so long?”

“I allowed there wasn’t much use in my butting in, until I read in a newspaper that Strange was drowned.  Besides, the drummer reckoned his own folks thought him a crank and there was nothing to his tale.  All the same, when I got tired of keeping store I thought I’d see what I could do about the lode.”

“I suppose it was because the drummer put you wise that you went to Miss Strange and not her brother?  No doubt you tried to interest other people first.  Still, as she promised you nothing, I don’t see why you came here.”

“Stormont played me for a sucker; found out all I knew and turned me down!” Drummond answered with a savage sparkle in his eyes.

Scott was silent for a few moments and then looked up.  “You can begin work to-morrow and Mr. Thirlwell will pay you what you’re worth.  We’ll make no further promise, but if you like, you can tell us anything you think important.”