It was long past midday, and the appearance of this little stream had attracted Gunson so that he determined to camp by it for the night; and leaving Quong and Esau to get a fire and make cakes with the last of our flour, he took the gun, and I a light pine pole, to see if we could not get something in the way of fish or game. I did not say anything, but I knew that Gunson meant to try the sands of the stream as well for gold.
After about an hour’s walking, and stopping from time to time to wash a little of the gravel, and pause in likely places, I suddenly drew my companion’s attention to something moving in an open glade dotted with small pines and bushes, where the stream ran slowly by through quite a lawn-like stretch.
He threw himself down and I followed his example, watching him as he crawled forward, taking advantage of every bush and rock, till he suddenly stopped, aimed, there was a puff of white smoke, and we both sprang up.
“No miss this time, Mayne,” he said, as I reached him. “Look!”
Not above eighty yards away lay a beautiful little deer, quite motionless, and I forgot the destruction of the graceful little animal in the longing for a good supper that night.
“Too much to carry back, eh?” he said, as he finished reloading.
“Oh, no,” I cried; “we must carry it somehow.” And after the meat was dressed, we divided the load, making two packs of it in the halved skin, and then began to return, when a part of the stream tempted Gunson to make a fresh trial.
“Disappointing work,” he said, as he waded in. “Sit down and rest, my lad, for a few minutes. I’ll soon see.”
But he found nothing, and I sat down in the little gully watching him, and thinking that the prize he sought to find ought to be very big to recompense him for the tremendous labour he went through. It was very still and peaceful; and, hot and tired as I was with walking, I was turning drowsy, when I heard a voice say loudly—
“I saw the smoke rise quite plainly somewhere here;” and, as I started up, a tall, grey-haired, severe-looking, elderly man, in leather hunting-shirt and leggings, and wearing a fur cap, stood before me, rifle in hand, while another man was coming up not a dozen yards away.