Northern Diamonds

This book has appeared in the Youth's Companion in the form of a serial and sequel, and my thanks are due to the proprietors of that periodical for permission to reprint. FRANK LILLIE POLLOCK

It was nearly eleven o'clock at night when some one knocked at the door of Fred Osborne's room. He was not in the least expecting any caller at that hour, and had paid no attention when he had heard the doorbell of the boarding-house ring downstairs, and the sound of feet ascending the steps. He hastened to open the door, however, and in the dim hallway he recognized the dark, handsome face of Maurice Stark, and behind it the tall, raw-boned form of Peter Macgregor.
Both of them uttered an exclamation of satisfaction at seeing him. They were both in fur caps and overcoats, for it was a sharp Canadian December night, and at the first glance Fred observed that their faces wore an expression of excitement.
Come in, boys! he said. I wasn't going to bed. Here, take your coats off. What's up? You look as if something was the matter.
Is Horace in town? demanded Peter.
Fred shook his head. Horace was his elder brother, a mining engineer mostly employed in the North Country.
He's still somewhere in the North Woods. I haven't heard from him since October, but I'm expecting him to turn up almost any day now. Why, what's the matter?
The matter? Something pretty big, returned Maurice.
Maurice Stark was Fred's most intimate friend in Toronto University, from which he had himself graduated the summer before. He knew Macgregor less well, for the big Scotch-Canadian was in the medical school. His home place was somewhere far up in the North Woods, but he had a great intercollegiate reputation as a long-distance runner. It was, in fact, chiefly in a sporting way that Fred had come to know him, for Fred held an amateur skating championship, and was even then training for the ice tournament to be held in Toronto in a few weeks.
It's something big! Maurice repeated. I wish Horace were here, but—could you get a holiday from your office for a week or ten days?