All this time Mr Bell had been taking notes and making sketches for his journal; but when these young Englishmen described their good fortune, it excited him and caused him and May to desire to do as they had done, so they arranged to join in with the four Americans, in work and profit, sharing equally. May was, you understand, an acquisition, and could in many ways do as much as a man. So now there were six in company, all gold-diggers.
I did not hear many particulars of their journey up the Stewart, only that they landed and tried for gold frequently, They usually got "a show," principally of flour-gold, but nothing that looked like a pile big enough for six.
When they had gone up fifty miles, as they reckoned, a very likely looking branch went off to the south-east. The practical men of the party wanted to ascend it; but Mr Bell, knowing what May had heard, strenuously opposed this. Having some little knowledge of geology, besides the gift of talking well, he made a plausible theory, and soon got them to agree to try their luck up the north-west stream.
As they proceeded they found gold everywhere, and occasionally a coarse speck which encouraged them.
One day they were camped beside a creek which joined the Stewart, perhaps seventy miles from the Yukon. The miners had gone off prospecting. May and her father scrambled up this creek: it was very picturesque, and he wished to make a drawing.
Whilst he worked with his pencil, May, as usual, poked about the rocks and bars. She carried a tin dish always, with which she had learned dexterously to wash and prospect.
All was quiet, except the murmur of water running over the stones, the buzz of mosquitos, and the twitter of the humming-birds, who were darting amongst the flowers which were plentiful along the margin of the stream.
May having been silent for some minutes, suddenly came to her father, pale, and looking strangely at him.
He was alarmed, thinking perhaps a snake had bitten her. She pointed eagerly, and did not speak.
Going in the direction she indicated, he came to her dish. Then he, too, was excited, for the bottom of it was covered with gold—and coarse gold, too!