"I have wished it undone many times," said the old man. "I have tried
this night to repay it."
"By what you have done this night I am repaid," said the stranger.
"It was only a sheep."
"It was one of God's creatures," said the man.
So they went on up the trail, and it seemed sometimes to Jerry that he
wandered alone in the dark, that he was cold, and his lantern had gone
out; and again he would hear the stranger comfort and encourage him. At
last they came toward the cabin, and saw the light stream out of the
window and the fire leap in the stove. Then Jerry thought of the mine,
and that the stranger had brought back the luck again. It seemed that
the young man had promised him this, though he could not be sure of
that, nor very clear in his mind on any point except that he had come
home again. But as he drew near, it seemed a brightness came out of the
tunnel of the mine, a warmth and a great light. As he came into it
tremblingly, he saw that the light came from the walls, and from the
lode at the far end of it, and it was the brightness of pure gold. And
Jerry smiled and stretched out his arms to it, making sure that the luck
had come again.
After the week of the Big Snow there were people in the town who
remembered Jerry, and wondered how he fared. So when the snow had a
crust over it, they came up by the windy canyon and sought him in his
house, where the door stood open and a charred wick flared feebly in the
lamp, and in his mine, where they found him at the far end of the
tunnel, and it seemed as if he slept and smiled.
"It is a worthless lode," they said, "but he loved it."
So they took powder and made a blast, and with it a great heap of
stones, shutting off the end of the tunnel from the outer air, and so
left him with his luck and the Golden Fortune.