ntly doing the same. A minute later they
had to slacken their pace because of the need to climb some bowlders
and make their way through an avenue between massive rocks, but the
instant it was possible they were trotting again.

It had been the custom for the gold-seekers to take a lunch with them
to the diggings. This saved time, and their real meal was eaten in the
evening after their return home.

The moment Roswell caught sight of the round, irregular opening which
served as the door of their dwelling, he anxiously scanned it and the
pile of wood and embers on the outside, where the fire was kindled for
cooking purposes. The fact that he saw nothing amiss gave him hope, but
did not remove the singular distrust that had brought both in such
haste from the diggings.

He ran faster, while Frank, discommoded by the heavy, bouncing bag over
his shoulder, stumbled, and his hat fell off. With an impatient
exclamation he caught it up, recovered himself, and was off again.

As he looked ahead he saw Roswell duck his head and plunge through the
opening.

"Is everything right?" shouted Frank, whose dread intensified with each
passing second.

Before he could reach the door out came his cousin, as if fired by a
catapult. His eyes were staring and his face as white as death.

"Right!" he gasped; "we have been robbed! All the gold is gone!"

[Illustration: "WE HAVE BEEN ROBBED! ALL THE GOLD IS GONE."]

And overcome by the shock the poor fellow collapsed and sank to the
ground as weak as a kitten. Frank let the bag fall and straightened up.

"No; it cannot be," he said in a husky voice.

"Look for yourself," replied Roswell, swallowing a lump in his throat
and turning his eyes pitifully toward his comrade.

A strange fear held Frank motionless for several seconds. Despite the
startling declaration of his cousin, a faint hope thrilled him that he
was mistaken, and yet he dared not peer into the interior through dread
of finding he was not.

Reflecting, however, upon the childish part he was playing, he pulled
himself together, and with the deliberation of Jeff Graham himself bent
his head and passed through the door.

Enough sunlight penetrated the cavern to reveal the whole interior in
the faint illumination. When they left that morning the row of canvas
bags was neatly arranged along the farther wall, where they stood like
so many corpulent little brownies.

Every one had vanished.

Frank Mansley stared for a