"Heem—"
He held up the two pieces. In the sun they gleamed a dull, rich yellow.
"That bullet made of gold!" he breathed, scarcely above a whisper. "No yellow lead. That gold, pure gold!"
CHAPTER IX
UP THE OMBABIKA
For a few moments after Mukoki's remarkable discovery the three stood speechless. Wabigoon stared as if he could not bring himself to believe the evidence of his eyes. Rod was quivering with the old, thrilling excitement that had first come to him in the cabin where they had found the skeletons and the buckskin bag with its precious nuggets, and Mukoki's face was a study. The thin, long fingers which held the two pieces of the gold bullet trembled, which was an unusual symptom in the old pathfinder. It was he who broke the silence, and his words gave utterance to the question which had rushed into the heads of the two young hunters.
"Who shoot gold bullets at bear?"
And to this question there was, for the time, absolutely no answer. To tell who shot that bullet was impossible. But why was it used?
Wabigoon had taken the parts of the yellow ball and was weighing them in the palm of his hand.
"It weighs an ounce," he declared.