for jest, and
set off in high glee directly after breakfast, saying they were not to
be expected back at any definite time, as they should stay until Lance
had made a thorough examination of the entire locality. Deeply in love,
however, as they both were, they had the forethought to provide
themselves with a good substantial luncheon, and Evelin also slipped a
tolerably heavy hammer and a cold chisel into his pocket.

Blithely the pair stepped out,--for is not happiness always light of
foot?--and in due time, a much shorter time, by the way than was
occupied in the previous journey, they arrived at the brink of the
ravine, and looked down upon the tiny crystal stream and the pool
wherein the nuggets had been found.

Lance took in the geological characteristics of the place at a glance.
He recognised the rocks as genuine out-crops of gold-bearing quartz, and
the minute yellow specks therein as the precious metal itself, their
visible presence being an indication of the extraordinary richness of
the reef.

"Why, Blanche darling!" he exclaimed, all his miner's instincts fully
aroused as he chipped and broke off "specimens" here and there, to find
tiny pellets and nodules of gold thickly clustering in each, "this mine
of yours is worth a nation's ransom; I do not believe there is such
another reef as this in the whole world. With proper crushing machinery
we might all make our fortunes in a month. But let us take a look at
the pool; unless I am greatly mistaken there is a princely fortune lying
about here, and to be had for the mere picking up, without the need of
machinery at all."

They scrambled down the side of the ravine and stood by the margin of
the pool. Then Lance looked upward in the direction of the flow of the
rivulet, attentively noting the "run" of the strata. Glancing about
him, he saw a small broken branch lying on the ground at no great
distance; and securing it he cut away with his knife the sides of the
larger end so as to produce a flat surface, making of the branch a very
narrow-bladed wooden spade, in fact. Reaching as far forward as he
could, he plunged the blade of his extemporised spade into the sandy
bottom of the pool, pressing it gently down into the sand until he could
get it no deeper, when he "prized" it upward, so as to bring to the
surface a specimen of the subsoil. Raising it very carefully, the end
of the branch at length came into view, bringing with it a small
quantity of ye