"We, John Ball, Henri Langlois, and Peter Plante, having discovered
gold at this fall, do hereby agree to joint partnership in the same,
and do pledge ourselves to forget our past differences and work in
mutual good will and honesty, so help us God. Signed,

"JOHN BALL, HENRI LANGLOIS, PETER PLANTE."

Through the name of John Ball had been drawn a broad black line which
had almost destroyed the letters, and at the end of this line, in
brackets, was printed a word in French, which for the hundredth time
Wabi translated aloud:

"Dead!"

"From the handwriting of the original we know that Ball was a man of
some education," continued Rod. "And there is no doubt but that the
birch-bark sketch was made by him. All of the writing was in one hand,
with the exception of the signatures of Langlois and Plante, and you
could hardly decipher the letters in those signatures if you did not
already know their names. From these lines it is quite certain that
we were right at the cabin when we concluded that the two Frenchmen
killed the Englishman to get him out of the partnership. Isn't that
story clear enough?"

"Yes, as far as you have gone," replied Wabi. "These three men
discovered gold, quarreled, signed this agreement, and then Ball was
murdered. The two Frenchmen, as Mukoki suggested at the cabin, came
out a little later for supplies, and brought the buckskin bag full of
gold with them. They had come as far as the cabin at the head of the
chasm when they quarreled over possession of the map and agreement,