"You are sure-footed," she remarked, when they stopped a minute or two
for breath.

Vane laughed as he glanced into the vapor-rilled depths beneath. They
stood on a ledge, two or three yards in width, with a tall crag behind
them and the beck, which had rapidly grown larger, leaping half seen from
rock to rock in the rift in front.

"I was born among these fells; and I have helped to pack various kinds of
mining truck over much rougher mountains."

"Have you ever gone up as steep a place as this with a load?"

"If I remember rightly, the top of the Hause drops about three hundred
feet, and we'll probably spend half an hour in reaching the valley. There
was one western divide that it took us several days to cross, dragging a
tent, camp gear and provisions in relays. Its foot was wrapped in tangled
brush that tore most of our clothes to rags, and the last pitch was two
thousand feet of rock where the snow lay waist-deep in the hollows."

"Two thousand feet! That dwarfs our little drop to the Hause. What were
you doing so far up in the ranges?"

"Looking for a copper mine."

"And you found one?"

"No; not that time. As a rule, the mineral trail leads poor men to
greater poverty, and sometimes to a grave; but once you have set your