CHAPTER VIII .-- The Golden Valley.
It was nearly a month later that the gold-seekers arrived at a point due south of the three peaks.

The journey had been a toilsome one.

At times they made their way through deep gorges.

At others they had to climb rocky hills, where the horses could scarce obtain a foothold.

One of their pack ponies had been lost, having slipped and fallen over a precipice many hundreds of feet deep, and they had lost a day making a long detour to reach the spot where he fell, in order to recover the articles he had carried.