The man, staring into the face of this beautiful girl upon whose nuptials he had stumbled by chance, experienced a thrill of emotion which he could not understand. Some secret monition moved him to an alarm. He felt an unreasonable disturbance in the presence of this girl.... Dan McGrew had no suspicion that he had blundered thus on the child who, years before, had been swept away from him in the darkness of the river's flood-tide.... Nor did the woman, who stood behind him so wearily, waiting for the end of this tiresome ceremony, guess that the gentle girl, blushing there under the storm of kisses claimed by the crowd, was, in fact, the daughter for whose death she had mourned through so many years.... Nell did not see the woman at all.
"THEY'VE STRUCK IT RICH ON FORGOTTEN CREEK!"
Of a sudden there came an interruption:
A man leaped through the doorway. He waved his hands and staggered as one drunken. His voice rose in a raucous shriek:
"They've struck it rich on Forgotten Creek!"
There was a moment of intense stillness. These men had fled from civilization in pursuit of the will-o'-the-wisp of gold. Now sounded the clarion call:
"They've struck it rich on Forgotten Creek!"
