2 THE CARIBOO TRAIL

demanded shovels, picks, iron ladles, and wire
screens. It was only when they came to pay
that Finlayson felt sure of what he had already
guessed. They unstrapped those little leather
bags round under their cartridge belts and
produced in tiny gold nuggets the price of
what they had bought.

Finlayson did not know exactly what to
do. The fur-trader hated the miner. The
miner, wherever he went, sounded the knell
of fur-trading ; and the trapper did not like
to have his game preserve overrun by fellows
who scared off all animals from traps, set fire
going to clear away underbrush, and owned
responsibility to no authority. No doubt
these men were ‘ argonauts’ drifted up from
the gold diggings of California ; no doubt they
were searching for new mines; but who had
ever heard of gold in Vancouver Island, or in
New Caledonia, as the mainland was named P
If there had been gold, would not the company
have found it? Finlayson probably thought
the easiest way to get rid of the unwelcome
visitors was to let them go on into the dangers
of the wilds and then spread the news of the
disappointment bound to be theirs.

He handled their nuggets doubtfully. Who
knew for a certainty that it was gold anyhow P