ood enough. 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. We don't
want to leave the best part of this slope for some one else to
stake out. It seems to me that the claim ought to start up by
that blasted tree. What do you say, Jim?"

"Well, I don't like to make mistakes where you young gentleman
are concerned," Ferrers answered, taking off his felt hat and
scratching his head. "You see, it isn't my claim."

"The dickens it isn't!" Reade retorted.

"Why, you---you gentlemen didn't plan to take me in, did you,"
asked Ferrers, opening his eyes very wide in his amazement over
the idea. "You see I---I can't contribute my share of the brains,
along with a pair like you," continued the guide. "Look at you
two---engineers already! Then look at me---more'n twice as old
as either of you, and yet I'm only a cook."

"You're an honest man, aren't you, Jim?" demanded Reade.

"Why, there's some folks who say I am," Ferrers slowly admitted.

"And we're among those who believe that way," Tom continued.
"Now, Jim, you're with us, and you've every right to be a partner
if we find anything worth taking up in the mine line."

"But there ain't no sense in it," protested the guide, his voice
shaking with emotion. "You don't need me."

"We need a man of your kind, Jim," Tom rejoined, resting a very
friendly hand on the guide's shoulder. "Listen to me. Hazelton
and I are engineers first of all. We'd sooner be engineers than