Will threw aside the bearskin and dashed out. The two men followed, their rifles under their fur coats, where they were protected from the storm. The voice could now be heard very plainly calling, and Boyd and Bent were quite sure also that it was not one of Felton's band. It truly sounded like the voice of an honest man crying aloud in the wilderness.

Will still led the way and, as he approached, he gave a long, clear shout, to which the owner of the voice replied instantly, not a hundred yards away. Then the three pressed forward and they saw the figure of a man, exaggerated and gigantic in the falling snow. Behind him stood three horses, loaded heavily but drooping and apparently almost frozen.

He gave a cry of joy when the three drew near, and said:

"I called upon the Lord when all seemed lost, but I did not call in vain."

He was tall, clothed wholly in deerskin, and with a fur cap upon his head. His figure was one of great strength, but it was bent somewhat now with weariness. The Little Giant uttered an exclamation.

"By all that's wonderful, it's Steve Brady!" he said. "Steve Brady, the seeker after the lost beaver horde!"

The man extended a hand, clothed in a deerskin gauntlet.

"And it's you, Tom Bent, the Little Giant," he said. "I surely did not dream that when you and I met again it would be in such a place as this.

Providence moves in a mysterious way its wonders to perform, and it's a good thing for us it does, or I'd have frozen or starved to death in this valley. That quotation may not be strictly correct, but I mean well."

The Little Giant seized his hand and shook it violently. It was evident that the stranger was one whom he admired and liked.

"Ef we'd knowed it wuz you callin', Steve Brady," he said, "we'd hev come sooner. But hev you found that huge beaver colony you say is somewhar in the northwestern mountings, the biggest colony the world hez ever knowed?"

"I have not, Tom Bent. 'Search and ye shall find' says the Book, and I have searched years and years, but I have never found. If I had found, you would not see me here in this valley, a frozen man with three frozen horses, and I ask you, Tom Bent, if you have ever yet discovered a particle of the gold for which you've been looking all the years since you were a boy."

"Not a speck, Steve, not a speck of it. If I had I wouldn't be here. I'd be in old St. Looey, the grandest city in the world, stoppin' in the finest room at the Planters' House, an' tilted back in a rockin' chair pickin' my teeth with a gold tooth pick, after hevin' et a dinner that cost a hull five dollars. But you come into our house, Steve, an' warm up an' eat hot food, while Young William, here, takes your hosses to the stable, an' quite a good hoss boy is young William, too."

"House! Fire! Food! Stable! What do you mean?"

"Jest what I say. These are my friends, Thomas Boyd and William Clarke, young William. Boys, this is Stephen Brady, who has been a fur hunter all his life but who hasn't been findin' much o' late. Come on, Steve."

Will took the three horses and led them to the stable, into which he pushed them without much trouble, and where they received a fair welcome. He also threw them a quant.i.ty of the hay, and then he ran back to the house, where Boyd and Bent were rapidly fanning the coals into a blaze and were warming food. Brady's outer garments were steaming before the fire, and he was sitting on a stone outcrop, a look of solemn satisfaction on his face.

"It is truly a habitation in the wilderness," he said, "and friends the best and bravest in the world. It is more, far more, than I, a lone fur hunter, had a right to expect. Truly it is more than any humble mortal such as I had a right to hope for. But as the sun stood still over Gibeon, and as the moon stood still over the vale of Ajalon at the command of Joshua, so the wilderness and the storm opened at the command of the Lord, and disclosed to me those who would save me."

There was nothing of the unctuously pious about his tone and manner, instead it was sternly enthusiastic, full of courage and devotion. He made to Will a mental picture of one of Cromwell's Ironsides, or of the early New England Puritans, and his Biblical language and allusions heightened the impression. The lad felt instinctively that he was a strong man, great in the strength of body, mind and spirit.

"Take another slice o' the elk steak, Steve," said the hospitable Little Giant, who was broiling them over coals. "You've et only six, an' a man o' your build an' hunger ought to eat at least twelve. We've got plenty of it, you won't exhaust the supply, never fear. An' take another cup o'

coffee; it will warm your insides right down to your toes. I'm mighty glad to see you, an' young William's mighty glad to see you."

"You couldn't have been as glad to see me as I was to see you," said Brady with a solemn smile. "Truly it seems that one may be saved when apparently his last hour has come, if he will only hope and persist. It may be that you will yet find your gold, Thomas Bent, that you, James Boyd and William Clarke, will find whatever you seek, though I know not what it is, nor ask to know, and that I, too, will find some day the great beaver colony of which I have dreamed, a colony ten times as large as any other ever seen even in these mountains."

Boyd and Bent exchanged glances, but said nothing. It was evident that they had the same thought and Will's quick and active mind leaped up too. In their great quest they needed at least another man, a man honest, brave and resourceful, and such a man in the emergency was beyond price. But for the present they said nothing.

"Thar's one thing I'd like fur you to explain to me, Steve," said the Little Giant, who was enjoying the hospitality he gave, "why wuz you callin' so much through the storm? Wuz it jest a faint hope, one chance in a million that trappers might be here in the valley?"

"No, Thomas, it was not a hope. A sign was vouchsafed to me. When I knew the storm was coming I started for this valley, which I visited once, years ago, and, although the snow caught me before I could reach it, I managed, owing to my former knowledge, to get down the slope without losing any of my horses. Then in the valley I saw saplings cut freshly by the axe, cut so recently in truth that I knew the wielders of the steel must still be here, and in all likelihood were white men. Strong in that faith I called aloud and you answered, but I did not dream that one whom I knew long ago, and one, moreover, whom I knew to be honest and true, was here. It is a lesson to us that hope should never be wholly lost."

All were silent for a little s.p.a.ce, feeling deeply the truth of the man's words and manner, and then, when Brady finished his last elk steak and his last cup of coffee, Boyd said:

"I think, Mr. Brady, that you've had a terrible time and that you need sleep. You can roll in dry blankets in the corner there, and we'll arrange your packs for you. Will reports that your animals have made friends with ours, as you and we have surely made friends, and there's nothing left for you now but to take a big sleep."

"That I'll surely do," said Brady, smiling a solemn smile, "but first promise me one thing."

"What is that?"

"Don't call me Mr. Brady. It doesn't sound right coming from men of my own age. To you I'm Steve, just as I am to our friend Thomas."

"All right, Steve, but into the blankets with you. Even a fur hunter can catch pneumonia, if he's just bent on doing it."

Brady rolled himself in the blankets and soon slept. The hunter, the Little Giant and Will drew to the other side of the cavern, and before a word was spoken every one of the three was conscious of what was in the minds of the others. Will was the first to speak.

"He's the man," he said.

"We sh.o.r.ely need him," said the Little Giant.

"I don't think we could do better," said Boyd.

"It's luck, big luck, that we found him or he found us," continued the Little Giant. "When these solemn, prayin' men are real, they're real all over. He's as brave as a lion, he'll hang on like a grizzly bear, an'

he's as honest as they ever make 'em. He's a fightin' man from start to finish. From what you say thar must be more'n a million in that mine, an' in huntin' fur it an' keepin' it after we find it, Steve Brady is wuth at least a quarter o' a million to us."

"All of that," said the hunter. "But the mine really belongs to Will, here, and it's for him to bring in a new partner."

"It belongs to us all now," said the lad, "though I'll admit I was the original owner. I think Mr. Brady will just round out our band. I'm for offering him a full partnership."

"Then you do the talkin'," said the Little Giant. "It's right that it should come from you."

When Brady awoke many hours later three very serious faces confronted him, and his acute mind saw at once that he was about to receive a communication of weight.

"It looks like a committee," he said with solemn importance. "Who is the spokesman?"

"I am," replied Will, "and what we have to say to you is really of importance, of vast importance. Mr. Bent has been looking many years for gold, but has never yet found a grain of it. Now he has given up his independent search, and is joining with Mr. Boyd and me in a far bigger hunt. You've been looking eight or ten years, you say, for the gigantic beaver colony, but have never found it. Now we want you to give up that hunt for the time, and join us, because we need you much."

"Your words have an earnest sound, young man, and I know that you and your comrades are honest, but I do not take your full meaning."

"It is this," said Will, and he produced from his secret pocket the precious map. "My father, who was a captain in the army, found a great mine of gold, but before he could work it, or even make any preparations to do so, he was called for the Civil War, in which he fell. But he left this map that tells me how to reach it somewhere in the vast northwestern mountains. To locate it and get out the treasure I need fighting men, the best fighting men the world can furnish, wilderness fighters, patient, enduring and full of knowledge. I have two such in Mr. Boyd and Mr. Bent, but we need just one more, and we have agreed that you should be the fourth, if you will favor us by entering into the partnership. It is full of danger, as you know. We have already had a fight with the Sioux, and another with a band of outlaws, led by Martin Felton."

A spark leaped up in the stern eye of Stephen Brady.

"I am a fur hunter," he said, "though there is little prospect of success for me now, owing to the Indian wars, but I have spent all my manhood years among dangers. Perhaps I should feel lonely if they were absent, and you may dismiss that idea."

"I thought so. Will you enter into full partnership with us in this great enterprise? Mr. Bent has appraised your full value as a fighting man in this crisis at a quarter of a million dollars, and we know that the mine contains at least a million. I beg you not to refuse. We need your strong arm and great heart. You will be conferring the favor upon us."

"And the vast beaver colony that I'm going to find some day?"

"It can wait. It will be there after we get out the gold."

"And you are in full agreement with this, James Boyd?"

"I am."

"And you are in full agreement with this, too, Thomas Bent?"