She did not laugh. Abandoning the direct line, she asked: "What do you do up here regularly?"
"Nothing regularly," he said with a smile. "A little of everything irregularly. I have horses across the mountains, and I make my living by packing freight to the trading posts, or for surveyors or private parties, wherever horses are needed. When I get a little ahead of the game like everybody else, I do a bit of prospecting. I have an eye on one or two things——"
"Gold?" she said with shining eyes. "Where?"
"That would be telling," said Jack, flicking his pony.
"Do you know anybody in Toronto?" she asked suddenly.
He smiled at her abrupt return to the main issue, and shook his head.
"In Montreal?"
His face changed a little. After a moment he said slyly: "I met a fellow across the mountains who was from Montreal."
"A gentleman?"
"More or less."