"Go ahead," said the Little Giant, settling himself into a comfortable position.
CHAPTER IV
THE FLIGHT
Boyd had no mean powers as a narrator. He did not speak at first of their own immediate search, but alluded to the great belief that gold was scattered all through the West, although it seldom had a trace or trail leading to it. Then he spoke of Clarke's father, and what he had discovered, returning soon afterward to the civil war, in which he had fallen.
The Little Giant's eyes brightened with the flame of pursuit as the hunter talked. He who had sought gold for so many years without finding a particle of it was seeing it now, in pockets, and in almost solid ledges, beyond anything he had ever dreamed. But when Boyd told of the officer's death on the battlefield he sighed deeply and his face clouded.
"That's always the way," he said. "Jest when you've got it, it slips through your fingers, though I will say to you, young William, that it's not the lost gold only I'm mournin' 'bout. I'm sorry, too, for the death of your brave father."
"But, knowing the uncertainties of war, he took thought for the future," said Boyd. "He drew a map showing where his great mine is, and it's now in the possession of his son, Will, who sits before you."