“I’ve got a hunch,” returned Ranny, briefly. Though instantly besieged with questions, he did not continue until they were well away from the clearing.
“It’s just this,” he said, without moderating his brisk pace. “We certainly can’t expect to find something that even the natives have lost track of, by just tramping around aimlessly. Of course, we might happen to stumble on it, but that would be a thousand-to-one chance. The best way is to use system. Did any of you notice the old fellow who brought over a load of fish this morning?”
“The man with whiskers you were talking to at the cook-shack?” asked Frank Sanson.
“Yes. Well, he’s lived around here all his life and is quite a character. I was asking him about this lost mine just out of curiosity and without having heard anything about the stunt this afternoon. He didn’t know much, but he finally did say his grandfather had once told him of an old building they used as a smelter, or something.”
“Gee!” exclaimed Sanson, excitedly. “And is this the way to it?”
“He hadn’t any idea. He’d never seen it himself, and of course it must have gone to ruin ages ago. But it stands to reason, doesn’t it, that a smelter would be more on the level and not on the side of a hill like this? They’d have to cart stuff to and from it along some kind of a road–”
“The one we came along!” put in Parker, eagerly.
“Maybe, though no road would keep open all this time without cutting. Very likely that’s just a lumbering-track. The point is, if we can only locate this building, we’ll be somewhere near the mine and won’t have to go prospecting all over the map. So that’s what we want to look for–a foundation of any kind or the least sign of a building. As soon as we’re down a bit farther we’ll spread out and hunt systematically. It may be clear on the other side of the hill, but at least we’ll have something definite to look for.”
“I’ll bet it’s on this side,” said Dale Tompkins, suddenly. “In the old days they didn’t have many roads and did most of their traveling by water, so I should think– Oh, shucks! I forgot the smelter would be near the mine and that might be anywhere.”
“It might,” agreed Ranny; “but it won’t do any harm to try this side first.”