Harold Edward Bindloss

“ It was not at all an uncommon story in that country, and when Weston looked at Grenfell with a smile, the latter waved his hand.
"Oh," he said, "we're a most worshipful company of broken deadbeats, fed on credit, and out on a forlorn hope; but it seems to me that the storekeeper who supplied us with provisions is the craziest of all the crowd."
"It was the broken men who made this country," said Devine. ”

“ Weston laughed softly.
"It's my third attempt, and I don't know how often Grenfell has tried. One could almost fancy that the lake has vanished. That sounds a little absurd, doesn't it?"
"Well," said Devine, with an air of reflection, "we won't admit that it's an impossibility. If you can take that for granted, it simplifies the thing."
Grenfell, who lay with his back against a fir trunk, roused himself suddenly.
"I never thought of it in that way," he said. "Still, lakes as big as that one don't vanish."
"Anyway, mines seem to do so. The woods are full of them, if all one hears is true." ”

“ It filled a deep valley that was hemmed in by almost precipitous crags, and though charred logs and branches lay here and there, most of the burned forest was still standing. As a matter of fact, a fire in this region very seldom brings the trees down. It merely strips them. As the men pushed wearily on, endless ranks of blackened trunks moved steadily back before them. ”

“ He was quite willing to give them the benefit of his professional services on somewhat similar terms to those the storekeeper had made.
The result of this was that early one morning they set out once more on the gold trail. When they made their first camp at sunset in a grove of towering pines they held a council. It was almost dark amidst the serried rows of tremendous trunks, but the light of the snapping fire fell upon their faces, which were all a trifle grave. ”

“ There was a certain truth in this observation, as the rest of them knew, for, after all, it was the outcast and the desperate who first pushed grimly on into the wilderness, up tremendous defiles and over passes choked with snow, and afterward played a leading part in the Titanic struggle with nature in the strongholds where she had ruled supreme. The wilderness is merciless ”

“ I'd much sooner have a sherry cobbler, as they used to make it with a big lump of ice swimming in it, at the—it's the club, I mean. That is," he added, with a sigh, "if I could get it."
"You can't," observed Devine, dryly. "I'd be content with water. But didn't you break off rather suddenly in one place?"
"You're young," said Grenfell, looking at him solemnly. "If you weren't, I should regard that observation as an impertinence. I said the club, which is sufficient. They used to make you really excellent sherry cobblers there." ”

“ Devine, who was a young man, flushed slightly.
"The cold fact is that I was only afraid you wouldn't take me. It's a big inducement to know that one has a reasonable supply of provisions in hand."
"You've evidently been up against it, like the rest of us," Grenfell suggested. ”