But they saw no remedy except to retreat, and they were not yet prepared for that. So they returned to the brook and resumed their hunt for the gold.
By this time the afternoon was well nigh passed, and little time was left for them to continue their work. They had nigh reached the place where they had discovered the auriferous particles the preceding spring, and they pressed on until they saw the yellow ore gleaming under the crystal waters, just as it had gleamed there for many a long year.
“Here’s some of the stuff any way,” said Black Tom, after he had lifted a lot in his hand and carefully scrutinized it.
“Yes; thar’s no mistake ’bout that,” replied old Stebbins. “We kin begin work right here, and make more in a day, than in a week by trapping. So, what do yer say? Do we resoom?”
“In the mornin’; we’ll take a sleep on it.”
Gathering up their implements, they started on their return. By the time they were fairly in the cañon again it was fully dark, and, walled in as they were on either hand by such high, rocky cliffs, the darkness became so profound that they could scarcely see a step before them.
But they remembered the route too well to go astray, and they moved cautiously but unhesitatingly forward in the direction of the cavern that they had selected for their home, while at work in this region.
At the upper end of the cañon, indeed before it narrowed enough really to deserve the name, there was a mass of trees and undergrowth, through which the three hunters were making their way, when Black Tom uttered his low, sudden “’sh!” of alarm.
The others paused and listened, and looked around to learn the cause of this signal of their companion.
Like the faint twinkle of a star low down in the horizon, the three caught the glimmer of a camp-fire in this mass of vegetation and undergrowth.