It occurred to Prescott that he might be in much worse quarters, though he shrank from the delay a rest would entail.
“What took you up the gully and over the Bench, anyway?” the man went on.
Prescott explained and then asked: “Have you come across my partner or the other fellow, Hollin?”
“Never seen your partner.” The man looked at his comrade and laughed. “But we know Hollin, all right. Got an idea that he’s a boss prospector and froze on to the railroad job because it took him into the mountains. Been all round looking for minerals; got fired for it at one or two camps, and never struck anything worth speaking of. It’s a point on which he’s certainly a crank.”
It was characteristic of Kermode, Prescott thought, that he should be willing to accompany a man with a craze of the kind.
“I’d expected to find them here. I understood they didn’t mean to go back to the camp at Butler Ridge,” he said.
“We haven’t seen their tracks, and if they were heading west, they’d have to come down this valley; but I guess nobody could tell where Hollin would make for. Of course, you can’t prospect much in winter with everything frozen up and the snow about, but so long as he can trail through the mountains and find a few clean rocks the man will be happy; and I’ll allow that he’s smart at it. Knows how to fix a camp, and find a deer, if there’s one in the country. It’s a sure thing he’ll have to strike for a camp or store sooner or later; but it’s likely he has crossed the line south and is trying to make the Fraser and the settlements along the Canadian Pacific railroad.”
It was bad news to Prescott. He knew enough about the Pacific Province to realize that if his host’s suppositions were correct, he would have a vast area to search; a region of stony uplands, mountain chains, and rock-walled valleys.
“Would it be possible for me to get through?” he asked.
“No, sir! You don’t want to think of it. Guess your partner will be pretty safe with Hollin; but you’re a plainsman and you’d sure get lost in a day or two and starve when your grub ran out.”