Cameron watched him, still with resentment, yet with a curious and
growing interest. The campfire burst into a bright blaze, and by
its light Cameron saw a man whose gray hair somehow did not seem to
make him old, and whose stooped shoulders did not detract from an
impression of rugged strength.

"Find any mineral?" asked Cameron, presently.

His visitor looked up quickly, as if startled by the sound of a
human voice. He replied, and then the two men talked a little.
But the stranger evidently preferred silence. Cameron understood
that. He laughed grimly and bent a keener gaze upon the furrowed,
shadowy face. Another of those strange desert prospectors in whom
there was some relentless driving power besides the lust for gold!
Cameron felt that between this man and himself there was a subtle
affinity, vague and undefined, perhaps born of the divination that
here was a desert wanderer like himself, perhaps born of a deeper,
an unintelligible relation having its roots back in the past. A
long-forgotten sensation stirred in Cameron's breast, one so long
forgotten that he could not recognize it. But it was akin to pain.



II


When he awakened he found, to his surprise, that his companion had
departed. A trail in the sand led off to the north. There was no
water in that direction. Cameron shrugged his shoulders; it was
not his affair; he had his own problems. And straightway he forgot