“You say you’ve made a very careful search?” asked Wyatt.
“Yes.”
“The only thing that I can think of,” hazarded the police constable, “is that Burnnel and Emery hid the treasure somewhere near their camp before they retired for the night.”
“That’s possible,” said Dick. “It didn’t occur to me. Of course, they wouldn’t tell us if they had.”
“Naturally not,” Wyatt smiled grimly.
On the following morning they reached the trail and the first habitation they had seen for many, many miles. Here they were able to procure another horse, and thereafter they moved forward more quickly. The next day, threading their way along through the cool forest spaces, a turn in the trail revealed two approaching horsemen. Dick and Sandy rose in their stirrups and waved their hats wildly.
The two horsemen were Corporal Rand and Toma.
CHAPTER XXI
THE KEY TO THE MYSTERY
Two days later, on its way north to the Mackenzie River barracks, the party stopped for the night at Meade’s Ferry. After supper Toma, Sandy and Frederick Meade went over to the river for an evening’s fishing. The two policemen and Dick remained behind. Sitting in the large trading-room, they conversed quietly.
“There’s only one thing that I regret,” said Corporal Rand, “and that is that we have been unable to recover Dewberry’s treasure.”