"You would have been put to death. No paleface ever entered the Quelchie camp and lived to tell about it."
"So other white men have come here, then, and you cruelly killed them?"
"They came to steal our land, and to find out what you call gold."
"Ah, now I see. That is why you have the prospector's pick and shovel there. You killed the man and kept these."
"Yes, there were two men, but one got away, and the Quelchies could not catch him."
At once there flashed into Keith's mind the story Constance had told him of the prospector who had died in the Vancouver Hospital, and the map he had entrusted to her. He had seen the sketch and it corresponded exactly with this locality. Was it the place, he wondered, where Pritchen and Kenneth had been?
"Tell me," he said, "how many pale-face men have entered this valley and went back again?"
"Only this many," and Shrahegan held up three fingers. "The man I told you about, and two when the geese went South. The Quelchies did not know they were here till too late to catch them."
"Shrahegan," and Keith looked earnestly at the Indian, "will you show me where that gold lies? Will you take me to the place?"
A stern expression came into the native's face, and Keith feared he had gone too far. It was only a fleeting shadow, however, which was instantly dispelled.