“Not unless you fell off a mountain,” answered Ned, glancing at the distant towering cliffs of the coast range.
“I was asking the Captain about those four men yonder,” said Tad.
“Oh, the fellows who don’t speak to anyone?” nodded Rector.
“Yes.”
“Who are they? I have wondered about them.”
“I don’t know their names, but the skipper tells me they are known as the Gold Diggers of Taku Pass,” replied Butler. “The queer part of it is, he says, that no one, so far as he is aware, knows even that there is such a place as Taku Pass. They don’t know themselves,” added Tad with a smile.
“That’s strange,” wondered Rector. “Crazy?”
“No, I think not. They are prospecting for an unknown claim,” replied Tad.
“I–I don’t know anything about that,” spoke up Stacy Brown. “But I know who those fellows are.”
“You do?” exclaimed the boys in chorus.