But not now. We've got to wade in
and make camp, then you're comin' up the hill with me."
"Hee! hee!" he chuckled later, as they fitted the pipe of the Yukon
stove. "Slow sighted and short. Couldn't follow me, eh? But I'll
show you some time, oh, I'll show you all right, all right!"
"Grab an axe an' come on," he commanded when the camp was completed.
He led the way up Eldorado, borrowed a pick, shovel, and pan at a
cabin, and headed up among the benches near the mouth of French Creek.
Vance, though feeling somewhat sore, was laughing at himself by this
time and enjoying the situation. He exaggerated the humility with
which he walked at the heel of his conqueror, while the extravagant
servility which marked his obedience to his hired man made that
individual grin.
"You'll do. You've got the makin's in you!" Del threw down the tools
and scanned the run of the snow-surface carefully. "Here, take the
axe, shinny up the hill, and lug me down some _skookum_ dry wood."
By the time Corliss returned with the last load of wood, the
pocket-miner had cleared away the snow and moss in divers spots, and
formed, in general design, a rude cross.
"Cuttin' her both ways," he explained. "Mebbe I'll hit her here, or
over there, or up above; but if there's anything in the hunch, this is
the place. Bedrock dips in above, and it's deep there and most likely
richer, but too much work.
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