"You see, Jim," Tom explained, "this ridge runs southwesterly
from here."

"I see it does?" nodded the guide.

"Now, to the northeastward I don't believe there are any croppings
that look good enough. But just keep along to the southeast,
picking up a specimen here and there. Some of the rock looks
good to me."

Jim Ferrers didn't answer in words, though his eyes gleamed with the
old fever that he had known before.

"Here's a pretty piece of stone," called the guide in a low tone.
He stood holding a fragment about as big as his two fists.

"It's streaked" pretty well with yellow, you see, gentlemen,"
he remarked;

"It is," Tom agreed, taking the specimen.

"Does the vein run with the top of the ridge?" demanded Harry
eagerly.

"It runs a little more to eastward, from this point, I think,"
Tom made answer. "But let us walk along, in three parallel lines,
and see who finds the best indications."

By noon all three were fairly tired out by the steep climbing