glad to see them--it shows, anyhow, that we are right in our guess-work
as to the map, which we never felt quite sure of before, seeing them
three peaks war the only thing we had to go on, and the marks might not
have been meant for them arter all. Now the matter air clear and fixed,
and we have only got to go ahead."

"Yes, we will stick to the line they have traveled as shown in the map,
but if we miss it, it is no great odds; we know where we have got to go
to, and we can find our way there, I guess, anyhow. Still, their line
may be the best. They may have had some redskin as their guide, who knew
the country, and took them the best way. Anyhow, we can't do better than
try and follow it."




Chapter VIII.--The Golden Valley.


It was nearly a month later that the gold-seekers arrived at a point due
south of the three peaks. The journey had been a toilsome one. At times
they made their way through deep gorges. At others they had to climb
rocky hills, where the horses could scarce obtain a foothold. One of
their pack ponies had been lost, having slipped and fallen over a
precipice many hundreds of feet deep, and they had lost a day making a
long detour to reach the spot where he fell, in order to recover the
articles he had carried. For the first half of the distance they had,
they believed, followed the track marked on the map, but they then found
themselves at the head of a deep valley from which they could discover
no egress, and it was therefore clear that they must have misunderstood