Jim hesitated for a moment. It almost seemed as though he had no right to force himself upon the woman’s grief. It seemed to him like sacrilege, and yet––– Finally he, too, joined in the silent procession.
They followed whither Peter chose to lead. There was no question. It was not a moment for question. The kindly heart dictated. It was only for the others to acquiesce. Peter, too, perhaps in lesser degree, had loved the boy. But then it was in his nature to love all suffering humanity. He had never had anything but kindness for Elia in life. Now that he was dead his feelings were no less.
So they trailed across the prairie––on, slowly and solemnly on. Their course was marked straight as an arrow’s flight in Peter’s mind. Nor did he pause till the mound of gravel beside his cutting was reached.
He stood at the brink of the shallow pit. There in its depths lay a broad, jagged, soil-stained ridge. Here and there on its rough surface patches of dazzling white, streaked with the more generous tints of deep red, and blue, and green, showed where the hard-driven pick had split the gold-bearing quartz.
Eve stared wonderingly down. Jim looked on in silent awe. He knew something of that which was in Peter’s mind. Peter had found the deposits for which he had so long searched. Here––here was the great reef, round which the Indian stories had been woven.
He laid his burden on the edge of the pit. Then he clambered down into it. He signed to Jim, and the waiting man understood. He carefully passed the boy’s body to the man below.
Then he stood up, and Eve came to his side. Silently 404 she rested one hand upon his shoulder, and together they watched the other at his work.
With the utmost tenderness Peter laid the boy down on his gravelly bed. They saw that the dead lad’s face was turned so that its cheek rested against the cold, auriferous quartz. Then the man untied the silk scarf about his own neck and laid it over the waxen face. Then he stood up and stripped the shoring planks from the walls of the pit, and placed them a solid covering over the boy’s body, resting them on two large stones, one at his head and one at his feet. Finally he tested their solidity, and climbed out of the grave.
Now he joined the others, and gazed silently down into the pit. For some moments he stood thus, until presently he glanced across at the eastern sky. A fiery line, like the light of a distant prairie fire, hovered upon the horizon. He knew it was the rising of the sun.