The evening world. Newspaper, September 22, 1915, Page 17

; The Evening World ea ne OY Gh RENO CHAPrEne te Ber o 7 A OF eHow Vetere ate dee How Her tring treme ees werd Wy Wihiup mem, whe have Wied te ering (ram Bim the meet coke ol some 4, Me pow! prepery oie Iie partner, Mond Homan has bere Billet The holdup - eg Hel Ma Mare mtd, courting hee quartet ok emprtene, in biantiing teri, Meter + ‘ Fedged Wo 0 ptivaie and put tw the guarthonee ‘ fee Daria toys maven” votle Love ot her father's CHAPTER V. (Cowtioned ) The Vanishing Act. OR ten of twelve milee we kept the MacLeod trail, never more than a half mile behind the “transient treasury,” as Goodell Jok- ingly termed it. He was a pretty bright sort, that same Goodell; al- together too quick witted to be an Engilshman; for that matter, none of the three carried the amp of hin nationality on his face or in ble apeech, They might have nn any breed—of white blood; but they ‘sat their horses like men born to rough riding, and a good rider usually doop other things equally well, The scout I didn't take much notice of, except that when he spoke, he was given to lote of which was seldom, Using better language than white men | know. Goodell swung away from the beat- mm track presently and headed straight for Stony Crossing. At noon we } camped and cooked dinner while the horses grazed; ate, and went on again, | About 4 o'clock, as near as | could Judge, we dipped Into a wooded creek bottom. The creek itself went brawl- ing along in a deep worn channel, and when my horse struok the water he promptly stopped and plunged his muzzle into the stream to drink, The others kept on, climbed the bank and passed from view—and that was the last 1 saw of them for some time! I fot off, cinched up my saddle and | rolled a olgarette, secure in the Knowledge that they couldn't get more than two or three hundred yards uiead of me But when I rode out of the water washed gully they had utterly disappeared, It was many a moon ere I knew how I had missed them; how and why they had vanished so completely from the face of the earth in those few minutes. The print of stoel- rimmed hoofs showed in the soft jJoam as plain & moccasin-track in fresh snow. Around a grove of quaking-aep, eternally shivering in the deadest of calms, their trat! led through the long grass that carpeted the bottom, and out on the level, Kravelly bench above. No further, gif there was other mark of their ‘hassing, it was hidden from me, Wondering, I spurted up, and loped to @ point that overlooked the creek | @ full mile up and down. Cotton- wwood and willow, cut-bank and ) crooning water lay green and brown and silver-white béfere me; but no riders, no thing that lived and moved came within scope of my vision. T turned away from the bank and raged up tho green slope for a saw- baoked ridge that promised largely of unobstructed view, A dirty gray Jather stood out in spumy roils around the saddle-blanket edge; and the wet flanks of my horse heaved like the shoulders of a sobbing woman when I ahecked him on top of @ bald sand- stone poak—and, though as much of the Northwest as one man eo may hope to cover lay bared on every hand, yet the quartet that rode with me from Fort Walsh occupied no par’ of the landscapy T could see ten miles; and, except for a lite herd of buffalo whicn fed peacefully within sound of my voice, IT could seo nothing but rolling " “prairie, threaded here and there witn Fe -Msarkor lines, that stood for crewas ' and coules I got off and sat upon @ rock, rolled a@ cigarette, and waited. The way to / Stony Crossing led over the ridge, a ialf mile on either side of me, as the spirit moved @ traveller who fol- 4 lowed an approximately straight line. Whatever road they had taken, they could not be more than three or four miles from that sentinel peal there's a well defined limit to the dis- tagoe a mounted manu may go in @ given space Gt time, Aud fev uy roost I could note the passing of anything bigger than a buffalo years Ung within a radius of six or seven miles, ‘Therefore 1 smoked my clg- aretts without misgiving, and watched for bobbing black dots against the far-flung green I might have pe don that pin- nacie for all I saw, The sun dropped ., lower; dropped till ite under edge ? rested on the rim of the wo and long, black shadows crept out of the low places, and buttes and ridgo@ were crowned with clear gold, last eitt of « dying day—only then did I A Treesure Hunt Story With o New Twist By BERTRAND W. SINCLAIR om to myenif thet, by book oF by (rowk -mmoatly by eroek, 1 beg think they bed even me th @f A compuncher betes te eam he ean jose bimeelf from bis teil ih ve minutes, eapecially @hen they run four in @ buneb, bul I eure man. eard it that day They bad let me holding the sack tn & mighty poor *hipe country, And when the creep- Diankeied pinnagie and ail that remained o (he 94m wae (he Mamboyant erim- son-yellow on the gathering clouds, 1 forked my dun caballo and beaded for Pend d'Oreilie, Hetore 1d gone (wo miles, the boo- doo that had been Working overtime on my behalf ever line gol busy again. Were rolling wp from down piled thick and biack overbea end for all practical purposes | was & bind man in & sivange country, ting prodigally the strength of my borse in bootiess wander 1 sought & sbeitered place, j camped-and @ blames jean camp 1) found it | About midnight the combination of sultry beat and banked clouds pro- duced the usual results Lightoing first; lightning that ripped the aky open from end to end and from sido to side in great biasing ; and thunder that cracked and boomed and rumbied till @ man coulda’t bear bim- welt think; thea rain in big, chunks, as if some o d yanked the bottom out of the wky and let the accumulated moisture of centuries drop on (hat particular portion of the northwest, In five minutes the only bat dry part of was the crown of my head, thanks be to @ good Stetson hat. And my arms ached from the strain of hanging onto my horse, for he wanted to get up and quit Canada posthasto when the fireworks began, w the storm drifted by and the stars camo blinking out, a cold wind whistled up from the east, and | spent the rest of the night shivering in my clammy clothes, | At daybreak I saddied up and broke t the jut the for a high divide, so as to benefit of the first hoodoo was { topped a little ri plump into the arms of a buneh of) Indians, Numbers 1 can't give; [) hadn't the time nor inclination to; count. The general ensemble of war) paint and spotted ponies was enough; { comprehended what !t meant to mé and fied in the opposite direction Ik @ soared antelope. | Only rotten shooting saved | me. If they'd been white men I'd have been curled in a neat heap in-j| side of a hundred yards. As it was,! they shot altocether too close for comfort; and the yells they turned loose in that peaceful atmosphere made me feel that ] was due to be forcibly separated from the natural covering of my cranium if f lost any time getting out of their sphere of influence. The persistent beggars chased me a good ten miles before they con- cluded that I was too well mounted for them to overhaul. But it might have ben @ lot worse; I still had my scalp Intact, and I'd made good time In the direction I wanted to go. Thereafter I kept gn. high ground, where I could see a mile or two, for I was very much alive to the fact that if one of those surprise parties jumped me when my horse was tired it. was a cinch that they'd have a lot of fun with and an Indian's Idea of fun doesn’t coincide with mine, not by a long shot! IT made some inted remarks to my horse about Mr. Goodel) and his companions as [ rode along. If Pend d'Oreille hadn't been the nearest place Td have turned back to Walsh and made that bunch of exhumers come a me, If it was absolutely neces sary that I should pilot them, Perso ally, T thought those two old pial men, if they could have been con sulted in the matter, wouldn't thank Major Lessard for diaturbing their lart, lone sleep; the wide, unreopied prairies had been their lifelong home, and I felt that they'd rather be laid away fn some quiet coulee than In a conventional graveyard, with head- stones and an tron tence around them. A Western man likes lots of room, dead or alive; It irka him to be part noon I reached Pend d’Orelll 'd just got nicely started on the remains of the troopers’ dinner, id his outfit poy looked down on tly as you please, you beat us In," Goodell greeted airily. “You must have found @ short cut. “Sure thing.” T responded, “Where the deuce did you go, any- way, after you stopped in the creek?” he asked, with much apparent curios- itv, “We like to play out our horses galloping around looking for you~ when we'd eons about a mile, and you didn't catch up.” “Then you must have kept darned close to the conlee bottoms.” I re- storted oneractously, “for I burned the earth getting up ona pinnacle where you could see me before you had time to en very fa “Oh, well, {t's easy to lose track of aman in this bie country,” he re- turned. unruffled, “We all got here, so wha the ofa?” Tt strick me that he was oncom. monty nhfinsonhical about it, no 1 merely grunted, and went on with my dinner, That evenin when we were at the atohle fixt for the micenr. nee 3 hoon doing come toll riding. all rleht, Their mounta couldn't have loaved wor > if they had been draeeed through a Krothole three sizes too amall, eamnartenn omy tired emantaerime horse was froeh nen morning breeze, CPAPTFR VI. Tre Second Hold-Up. T took n# all of the next day to make the trip from Pend WVOretile to Btony Crossing and back by way of the place where Rutter was burted. Goodell had no fancy, he sald, for a night camp in the pratri . . Daily Mag * HOW THe ForT FOR IAM Comina* a HUMANE TORPEDO ahs \ \ \ RS THe SELF FEL OING mo TORPEDO ON ITS — when ft could be avoided. By making breed scout—lagged /fifty or eixty €n early start from Pend d'Oreili [catered and Macitae turned ip saddle an e me & queer look could reach Walsh by siding late the sy°wasn't Joking last nixht whea T ent. we swung back to told Goodell that this was a forlorn the river post well toward evening. hope,” ho said. “Are you ready to I felt anything but cheerful. The tke @ chance on getting your thr ghastly burdens, borne none too will- “I eat there about an hour, | reek- on,” he weat on, “By that time it was darker than @ stack of black cuts, and’ fixing to storm, and | thought 1 might as move on as sit there and get soaked to the hide. While L was Ugatening up the cinch, 1 heard a coupie of shots, then In a second a regular fusillade—away off, set the outMt afoot They'd turned every horse feeding all together, When I'd brough cut or being shot in the back, Sarg on about my own business, I stared at him a second. It ingly by the extra horses, put @ sounded more like the language of a YOU KOOW; UbgUl like a slick of wood grey yORsthe ridge, within a few buns damper on me, and I'm a pretty conspirator in a howling melodrama Cracking in Bony whee eve out at, I came slap o sanguine individual, as a rule: but than cold-blooded statement of fact; #de the cabin, oped out of ib® four shod horses had pounded a trail Goodell and his redcoate weren't DUt he Was looking at mo soberly hollow by the spring, and looked dowa jn ine wet sod that @ kid could fol- toward (ne irradi. bee fed lasses were breaking out like a bunch of firecrackers and with pretty much .* Lreturned, “Why? Pe same sound. I[t¥didn’t last long; if we find what wo're Maybe @ minute’ or two. 1 listened after that’s the sort of formation we'll Gute ® while, but there was nothing have to buck against until we get ob oor seen, aud 1 beard no more ‘ort Walsh,” he replied S90tnR, rimly, “Beautiful prospect, eb? ‘Now, | knew that the pay-wagon listen to me, Sarge, and don't be aur- Was somewhere OB Fiat raed end i a vy pula Be fps rd had Hans and Rowan, and held us op je-day you left, Lessard had me might have tried the same game on it. up on the carpet again hon he nd, trom the noise 1 Judges Wt hadnt got through cross-questioning me, he hoon a walkway, It Wass wild oo considered a while, and finally told i! guess, but I thought I'd go down and see, me that, under the circumstances, he th folt that loss of rank waa punish- Singlehanded, and so dark that you rat could almost feel, s ment enough for the neubordiation to aideatep Fete at was ane miles north of Writing, Stone a been gullty of, and he'd revoke or whiskey-runnors and Laut nary when. That the thirty-day sentence, I pricked to mix tn I got to Pend up my ears at that, you het, he- one, 3 cause ho inn't built that way. When gone gene about & mile down the you talk to an officer the way I did (uur the shy open In five eantutee $0 Tie yOu Bes (av bes a coming tO the worst of it Was right over me, and te sD i OES, eran to 8° one flash came on top of the other, light pretty quick, however. He sald ' enough, and he wasn't in the habit troubled by dead men, apparently. of saying startling things for the They might have been packing 0 sake of effect much merchand) When we had unloaded the two bodies from the snorting horses and laid them In a jean-to at the stable end we led our mounts inside, and Goodell paused in the doorway and emitted a surprised whistle at aight of @ horse in one of the stalls, I looked over his should nimed at a giance the MacRae had ridden. “They must have given his horse to another trooper,” I said, “Not what you could notice, Goodell replied, as be went on in. “They don't switch mounts in the force, If they have now, it’s the first time, When @ man’s in clink, his hor stands in the stable tll his low. camp, and beg, d all the men he 1d spare, a listen to such a thing. come back after It. to a trall ran out inte nothin, ly beach of Pak-o-Goe left for the Crossing. “That's partly why,” hands full if we do locate that it's a big chunk of mor temporartly— which trick bears the earmarks of the bunch that held us up that night. loose a mile or go away, and | found them them in I got @ bite to ent and came 1 tore back t the paymaster'’s d and prayed him to we'd follow it up, But he wouldn't don't know why, unless he had somé money they had overlooked, and was afraid they'd So 1 went back and hit the trail alone. From the top of the ridge It led due south for about ten mile timbered bottom on picked them up and swung west to- ward Pak-o-Gee Lake, and about noon Qh on the ten ft quit before yesterday. "Oreille yesterday morning, two hours after you fellows he said thoughtfully, “I think we'll have our azine. Wednesday. September 22. 1915 woes that own, ° | When Gork come we paired off for [the wight Mac and fe rt to (reat those dee as if they ' | tere ries. | they showed 1 ine but» Ite minty hard nerves, thowrh, to be in touch all and lie down to sleep at nicht f t of men \hat you only waiting the proper introduce unk of lea inte your aystem.-or slip a knife under | er ftth rib Tow truthfully 7 that either of we slept well dhat aight. CHAPTER VII. , What Hi ppened at the Stone. ARIK days later Mao and I scaled the steep bank at the weat end of the cliff, and threw ourselves, panting, on the level that ran up to the sheer dropoff, When we'd got back the | breath we'd lost on that mansard-roof lellinb, we drew gear to the edge, | where we could stare nto the valley four hundred feet below, while we ; made @ cigarette, 1! wore just a mite discournged | Beginning that first morning at the east end of tho Writing-@jone, wo had worked weet, conning the’ weather-worn face of It fora mark that would givé @ olge to the cache. Also we had scanned carefully tho \aandy soil patches along the boulder- strewn base, seeking the telltale foot~ prints of horse or man. And we had found nothing, Each day the conviction grow stronger upon ua that finding that old would be bilnd chance, of a | miracle of luck; systematic search had, far, resulted in nothing but bitste heels from much walking. And, unless we did find it, thereby giving the gentlemen of the masks a chance to match themselves against us, We weren't apt to have the oppor- tunity of breaking up @ nervy buach of murdering thieves. We reasoned that the mon whose guns we had faced over Rutte body, and those who held up the pay- t master on the MacLeod trail, were tarred with the same stick; likewise, that even now two of them ate out of the same pot with us three times daily. Tho thing was to prove It Porsonaily, the paymaster’s trouble was none of my concern; what I wanted was to get back that \ thousand dollars, or deal those J pers ten thousand © lars’ worth of misery. Not that I wasn't willing to take @ long chance to help Lyn to remember that I had something at stake myself. It was a pretty grouchy astock-hand, name of Flood, who blew cigarette smoke out over the brow of Writing-Stone that eve- ning. finished his smoke and ground the stub Into the earth with his heel. ¥ minute or two longer he sat quiet, flipping pebbles over the bank, "L reckon we might as well follow along the top td camp,” he sald at last, getting to his feet. "I sent that blamed breed back, down there, ao could talk without having to keep caxes on him, This i# beginning to este ret oe About the gold business, and learned piain as day, and the next you'd have Wont stop them. We “Some,” I admitted. “f did think T pulled the saddle off my horse and {hat her father and Hana Rutter to feel to wha the ears Seino hatne, every minute of the time we prow ADA eons Mabe cask mani eek Ue ob slapped it down on the floor, and went re Sure enough headed this way 1 pulled up, for I didn’t care to go afound those pain ke, That's &® the right track; but don't sea any frat man my eyes lighted on as 1 fi . nee play to make a shining mark of me; Ril, 4 Just have to keep on going It blind.” nm on the spot when Rutter it--tf they can.’ ide Was Macias, hum and, while I sat there wondert A “ ; 8 seepssolately. on the edge of a bunk, “ed, and know the Stone country 90 fang Wt would laste ® Seating streak Ehaven't quite got a gambler’s faith Of course; "ell Have bho gts Maybe I wasn't glad to see him! But “ell, he thought I'd stand a better went zigzagging up out of the north, in @ bunch, or presentiment or ine oy {d, “But I've been think- 1 hadn't time to say more than “Hel- Show than some of the others of and another out of the west; and stinctive conclusion, whatever YOU fie ial ie might be @ good plam to lol" before Goodell and the others finding thelr cnche. fo he wrote that when they met overhead, and the chouse to terin 4. but for the moment take a fall out of these. twa 6 came in. Mac drew a letter from his 9M en nnd started me cut white «are spread across the clouds, he spoke of sewing four ridery On thet sorked nis thumb In the direction of join you—with a warning that we'd hetter keep our @yes open, for undoubtedly the men who killed during ments, a crazy ide turning over and o' pocket and handed It to Goodell, He glanced quickly through it; then eyed the rest of us with a quizsical {t was Uke the sun breaking out over the whole country, It lit up every. thing for as much as ten seconds, and kept pore iy in my mind; and when Mac got that far, I blurted camp. “If we've alred them up right {t will net things moving, and If we're mistaken there'll be no harm done, Ml ust ha’ ‘a those two old fellowa and held u showed me four n ¥y 0 Pull with die old? man. Mace" he Would be watching for'n chance at slope on a high run Tdont think they {tout for what it was worth, prefac- Pll tell you my dea, We ip er couple laughed. "I suppose you know what's @% !f we found the gold.” sow me at all, for they passed me, in {ne it with the happenings of the trip [% (inl Vals HUMA. | Min up a oe ie in this billy -doo?” “We knew that much," I inter- the dark that shut down after the from Walsh to Pend d'Oreille, Uf 1 oh MOY foam, nou Mii, alt aoe “Partly,” Mac answered, rupted, “without him to tell us." lichtning, so clone that I heard the thought to surprise him, It didn’t horse without letting them see what's “I'm to turn Hicks and Gregory "Certainly," Mao agreed, “Fut Pat-a-pat of the hoofs, And when Work; he listened without the Interest If Lessard told me right over to you"—Goodell road the note walt a minute, This was about thres the next flash came they weren't In it acomed to me to demand, tapping (fore; Mf Uenan! told me reli, sieht. “A few minutes after that the rain {n the afternoon, and he ordered mo again to make sure of his word: n’ to pull out at once, so [ cowl entch MY ve you to your own devives. odd pucker to his mouth, his fingers idly on the saddie-horn, and staring straight ahead with an or fifty pounds of dust, [t's small in bulk, but heavy as a had conscience. What's the excitement, anyway? you fellowa as soon aa possible hit me ike @ spring flood, That was ny o 4 ty le Plegan on the war-path again? Bull- started at haifepast’ three You yee over quick, and whan it pettied toa _.°f Was Just golng to nak roy it you If wa bed enna Og TEE AACE 8 train wing, or whiskey runners mamber the paymaster'n train left drizzle I went on down to the pay- Si! camo through together,” he rex Cor se teuyl lel mrt ote jetting fresh, or what? The major that name mornint. We had a master's camp—I'd caught a glimpse Warked, In @ capual tone. ot ng Oe a nee for mold dust. tn as established a precedent; you're mounted escort of ten, besides team- of It when that Infernal Mghtning fected to say that | wok preity tals Vote wes et May excited and the frat man that hasn't had to #rve gtors, The MacLeod trail, you know, was playing tag in the clouds, Things look st the face of the gentleman who pei Ne cll tat ere tookin full time in clink, ‘Tell us how you rung ahout twenty milax north of were sure in an uproar at the camp, Tae! ihe lead of the four, Fee ee a eet ek it'll be we Managed it, Mac, We might want t0 hore, 1 followed it, knowing about Two men dead, two or three more jp, evi, naan heheh t aee 60, ue te pet the tant of thamet Te BFt.A Rentsnce suspended some GAY. where they'd ston for the nicht, and. badly shot up, and the paymaster sO ype il fer ott mieht work. Tf vou think tt re ' thinking Td make the'r camn and ne like a maniac, I'd pretty near) “y ‘ c oulde: wonld make them tt hetr hand I The high-and-mighty sent me ot got something to eat and a chance to ed the turn, The gentleman ti. hte Rin THERE howe ot : eer eet with von 1 reniled. This nee to lead a forlorn hope,” Mac respond+ ‘Does that look like a sus- ont He tiened his arm © the nipped on the ridge had held the nd looted a hundred thou- In enld enahttt I broke in, “A hundred sleep an hour or then Te through hie teeth, “It was Gregory! twor ’ hut they'd “While L was w you see what we're up againat, igesting this Hicks the-other-fetlow business is making ervona aR an old woman, Once t thowe twa dend ta rlrhte they mieht let out something that would lching where his sergeant’s stripes Usual, and thonsand—and they got off with it!" and Grogory caffkht up, and for the put us next to the reat of the bineh: had been cut away. 7 or an Tanit the trail and “Hilek and clean,” Mac anawered pent of the Mournay wartrin rode sic und when. wal had, (hans All ewunded Most of us have been there,” atruck neroes the hile, for T ditn't calmly, ‘They made a sneak on the bow to elbow, and conversation was up we cou'd come hack and hunt for Goodell observed sympathetically; wont to rite too far ont of the way camp in the pitch dark, knifed both gcant. Rowan's gold-dust in peace" and there the subject resied. Whon T rot on ton of the frat bie sentries and had their guna on the — Bfid-afternoon saw us camped un- "You've got the tea exactly," Mac Though [ was burning to know divite, Toran onto a enrir and rest before they knew anything was der the Writing: Stone, Taking every> returned, “Put don't wet married to things, wo had no chanee to talk that stonned to water my herve and let wrong. They got the money and took thing into consideration, | began tothe notion that t } courh un all evening. Nine lusty-lunged adults in him nic a bit of grees: 4 heen every horse in the camp. The shoot- think we were in no immed they know rimht off the reel. leo! that one room prohibited confidential riting eteht henna and atl) hod ing I heard came off as they started ger of getting ovr throats mieht, if you went at him hard speech. Not till next morning, w anite a fount ta mote. Tomnst h away with the plunder. Some of the anke of the treasure, Hans had #ald enoveh, But not the other. fella rode away from Pend d'Oreille, heen phew three miles south of the troopers grabbed up thelr guns and “under the Stone'—rather Greeory's game clear through—he's with the sun lazily clearing the bile trai) thea” cut loose at random; and these hold. rections, for the Stone, roughly eatl- demonstrated that in different ways tops, and a week's grub packed on an — He stonned to ieht the ctearettte up people returned the complimenf mated, was a good mile in length, » I've been in the force. You extra horse, did Mackae and T hava he rolled na he toleed, ond T kant with deadly effect, It faced the river, a perpendicular 4 carve him to pieces without opportunity to unburden our souls, at!!! wandering what wanld eame “That txn't all.” he continued mood- wall of mray sand rock. An aptly ing a cheen, if he decitea to keep hen we were fairly under way revt, Mortar wasn't one to tole at fly. “LE stayed there till daylight and named place, too; wherever a ledge his mouth shut. And he's ahont as tp the direction of Writing-on-the- that length unless he had something gathered up their live stock, All the geve foothold, and even In places that dangerous a man as I know, If ther Stone, Hicks and Gregory—the hbalt- to tell, ‘thieves wanted of the horses wap to acemed beyond reach of human a row, don'taverlook Mr, ry. BY ‘ tm, 98 - i her own, but I was human enough to je yy of Cur movements we dropped inte & Wesbout end sneaked slong it to the foot of the bank, where « ae point of rock bid eight of us climbing Ce bulk We hadat thought of epying on them at i wee smplg to be r of their onerous presence for 6 fe we come heat Camp e town hue. Hut Macttae took a notion to id ing. over atthe. foe ite. wes pultering around a cooking supper, evidently, and Gi wer Craw there again, Sarge, and look straight down at the fire! ledge from the bot- tom, Hurry; you won't @ee anyth! if the sun has Be 5 We don't want to rouse thelr eur piciona till we have to.” Cautiously 1 peered over the brink, straight down, a Mao had dirsoted. The shadow that follows on the heels of a Cyr sun was just creep ing over the lodge, but the slanting plain sight of ther Gold! 1 oraw! hack from the rim of Writing-Stone, a set of never- to-be-forgotten tinging it; ant hendingty. “Oh, thunder!® I exelaitned. “Do dummies we were not to look on those led, You can’t see the aur face of tl from the flat; and we might have known they wouldn't pur @ mark where it could be seen by every pilgrim that happened along. “Lord, I hope re right!” 1 grunted opti:nistically. “We'll settle it beyond a doubt |) the morning,” ie ‘y pd me when we raise that nee Are apt to tighte:, t don't Tike § Ri in the now I'm hungry, yt that stuff will keep, Come cat camp, Sarge; our troubles are either nearly over or just beaten Sed We followed the uplan ie ou of the Stone, till we found a slop: that didn’t require wings for descent. icks or Gre, wondered at our arrival from the opposite direction they didn't betray any oalty. Supper con: the twilight hour, and when dark shut down we took to our blankets and dosed through the night, At daybreak we breakfasted. With- out a word to Macken picked up hia carbine and walked ou! of camp. TI followed at once. It was [venupit sieeald. Stahiag’ teh oth cau, m wis! it deal fartharcout of range ‘of hoes watchful eyes—and wondering how it would feel to be potted at the mo- ment of discovery. ning ‘hous ie ks Brad be. ind an lo a little guess! . as Cxplained, ‘when he stood Mader the shelf upon which we had looked down the evening before, “We're right un- der thelr noses, so they won't do any- thing till elght.” He regarded the face of the cliff minute. The ledge jutted out twenty feet ubove our heads, but it eee be ate the stuft’s actually jin reached by a series of jagged and knobs; @ sort of natural at “Shin up there, Sarge,” commanded, “and locate that It ought to be an easy climb, I "shinned,” and reached the ledge with a good deal of skin peeled from various parts of my person, The first object my eyes fell upon, as I holsted myself onto the four-foot ledge, was a dull yellow spot on the rock, so near that I could lean forward and touch it with my fingers. A two-inch clir- cle of the real thing—I'é seen enough wold in the raw to know it without any acid test—hammered into the coarse sandstone, 1 pried it up with the blade of my knife, and looked it over. Originally it had been a fair sized nugget. Hans or Rowan had pounded it lato place with the back of a hatehet—he eor- ner-marks told me that-—flattening it to many times its natural diameter 1 threw it down ta MacRae, and looked carefully along the ledge, There was no other mark that Tecould sce; I began to wonder If we were a» hot on the scent as we had thought, “Le th @ piece of rock up there?” Mac called to me, after a live, “Ie there set it on the ledge in line with where this was.” I found a fragment the sizo of my fist and set it on the rim of the ledge. He squinted up at it a moment, then nodded, smiling. "Come en down now, Sarge,” he erinned; and, seating himaeif on a rock, began.to roll a cigarette, ag.if the finding of Hank Rowan's gold cache was a thing of no impertance wheats,