for the thing had
seemed to travel in a definite direction. Besides, if this was true, why
the machine-gun fire? Had they killed the only occupants? Johnny hoped
not. He hated death. Whatever the men had done, he hoped they had not been
killed. But why had Pant taken such chances?

Then as he looked, he saw a package drop over the side of the cabin. It
fell straight downward, with tremendous velocity. But there came a sudden
check. It was attached to a parachute. The parachute had opened. Its
course was now marked by a little down-rush, then a pause, then a rush
again.

He had been so intent on his observation of this that he did not realize
that once more an object had fallen from the car. This time it was a man.
He also was attached to a parachute.

As he came into Johnny's circle of vision, the boy rose and waved his
arms, crying with a hoarse shout of joy:

"Pant! Pant! Good old Pant! He's safe!"

* * * * *

When Dave Tower and Jarvis led the little band of miners back through the
cave, they found, as they had expected, that a small tunnel had been cut
out of the frozen earth to form an entrance to the mine. Before entering
this tunnel, they paused to look about them. Ranged about the walls, piled
tier on tier, were black cubes of sand and gravel. From these came the
glitter of yellow metal. These were cubes of pay dirt which would yield a
rich return when the spring thaw came. Bits of cable, twisted coils of
wire, a pair of rusty pliers, told that electricity had been employed as
power for mining.

A smooth spot on the cave's floor showed where some form of engine had
been set. That the power of the engine had been supplied by gasoline was
shown by a great pile of empty one hundred gallon steel tanks which had
been stolen from the company's supply in the sheds.

Dave picked up the pliers and rubbed the rust from them.

"They're Orientals all right," he mused. "Pliers got their stamp on 'em.
But say! These boys sure had some ideas about mining placer gold. A man
could take their machine to Alaska and make a fortune. Let's have a
look."

"Sure! Sure!" came from a half score of throats.

They hurried down the narrow tunnel to find themselves in the mine. Here,
as in the cave, they found cubes of pay dirt piled high on every side. At
the end of it all was a low square machine with a buzz-saw-like wheel
extending from it. The power wires, still attached to it, ha