"Perhaps not, but they must have noticed our trail over the bridge and your footprints to the stream."
"O, I don't know; it snowed in the night, and besides, you see they were on the upper trail. They evidently came for some special purpose, and were anxious to get at it. You know, I've been thinking they must have come from Bruin Inn this morning, because they couldn't have gotten here so early if they had come all the way from the city."
"By Jove, boy! I hadn't thought of that, but since you speak of it, there certainly was something familiar in one of those voices, and that laugh! Why, of course, it was Old Ben, his dog, and some stranger."
Progress was slow, for the snow was deep in places. At the old tumbled-down cabin the trail turned and ran up the mountain side. Willis felt a strange pounding at his heart. The noise on the mountain had stopped, but every now and then he heard the sound of voices from somewhere up in the timber. As they reached the last turn in the trail, the two figures came into view. Ham had been correct in his supposition—one of the men was Old Ben, but the other was a stranger. Ben had, no doubt, seen the boys coming, for he stood looking down the trail toward them. When they were a little nearer he saluted them: "Howdy, young'uns. This is a tarnal cold morning for a pair o' city fellers, ain't it?"
"Not on your life," cheerily answered Ham; "there's nothing citified about us. Any one who could sleep in these hills a night like last night and not freeze is no tenderfoot. What brings you up here so early this morning?"
"Early, boys? You're so tarnal lazy, you think dinner time is early. See anything o' my dog round the cabin?"
"No, we haven't seen him, except when you went by a while ago."
Willis was interested in what the stranger was doing. He was bent over a big rock, filing a metal instrument. His back was turned. Willis was looking about to see what they could have been hammering, but could see no sign of their work.
"Prospecting a little?" queried Ham, as he picked up the light sledge that lay on the snow.
"Well, not jist exactly," drawled Old Ben; "it's too tarnal cold to do much prospectin'. We're jist on an observin' trip this time."