"Leave!" Nance gave a little startled laugh. "I cannot tell now when we shall leave."
"An' d'ye expect to come back some day?"
"It is hardly likely. This place will be too busy for my father. He would never return, I feel quite sure of that."
"Have ye really lived up here all yer life, Miss?"
"Yes, all my life. My father and mother were drowned on the Mackenzie River when I was a little child, and so——"
"What's that ye tell me?" Tom interrupted in astonishment. "Isn't Martin yer father, then?"
"Oh, no. He happened along with several other men, and took me from the Indians, who would have kept me, and brought me to this place."
"Good Lord!" broke from the prospector's lips. "But go on, Miss."
"There's nothing more to tell except that we've lived here ever since."
"But what in the world kept yer father—I mean Martin—in sich a place as this? Didn't he ever tell ye?"