He remembered what Cribbens had said about the Armagosa Mountains in the country on the other side of Death Valley.

It was all hell to get into that country, Cribbens had said, and not many men went there, because of the terrible valley of alkali that barred the way, a horrible vast sink of white sand and salt below even the sea level, the dry bed, no doubt, of some prehistoric lake.

But McTeague resolved to make a circuit of the valley, keeping to the south, until he should strike the Armagosa River.

He would make a circuit of the valley and come up on the other side.

He would get into that country around Gold Mountain in the Armagosa hills, barred off from the world by the leagues of the red-hot alkali of Death Valley.