Alton stared at him a moment in bewilderment, and then through the pain that distorted it a curious look crept into his face.
"I figure you're lying, Charley, and you don't do it well," he said.
"Folks don't usually forget when they leave a fortune behind them."
Seaforth smiled a little. "Well, I may have been, but a fortune didn't seem very likely to be much use to me then or now," he said.
Alton gravely shook his head, but the two men's eyes met for a moment, and Seaforth felt embarrassed as he turned his aside. There was no need to tell the injured man that his welfare had appeared of more importance to his comrades than any profit that might accrue to them from the silver mine.
"Well," he said simply, "you or Tom should get through to Somasco."
"I hope so," said Seaforth, as Okanagan signed to him. "You see, we are all going there together by the shortest way, down the canon."
Alton stared at him a moment. "Now I had——" he commenced, and then stopped abruptly.
Once more Seaforth smiled. "Then you had thought about it, Harry?"
Alton's eyes closed a little. "I'm not one of the folks who go round telling people all they think," he said. "There's no way down that canon."
Seaforth understood what was passing in his comrade's mind, and knew that Alton had not kept silence because of the risk to himself, for whatever was done the chances were equally against him.