But just keep along to the southeast, picking up a specimen here and there.

Some of the rock looks good to me." Jim Ferrers didn't answer in words, though his eyes gleamed with the old fever that he had known before.
"Here's a pretty piece of stone," called the guide in a low tone.
He stood holding a fragment about as big as his two fists.
"It's streaked" pretty well with yellow, you see, gentlemen," he remarked; "It is," Tom agreed, taking the specimen.
"Does the vein run with the top of the ridge ?" demanded Harry eagerly.
"It runs a little more to eastward, from this point, I think," Tom made answer.

"But let us walk along, in three parallel lines, and see who finds the best indications." By noon all three were fairly tired out by the steep climbing over the rocky ground.

Each had as many specimens as he could carry.

The result of the exploration had tended to confirm Tom's notion as to where the vein lay.
"Now, let's see about where we'd stake the claim," Tom proposed.
"Of course, we want to get the best rock obtainable.