membered how the three ranges looked on the map--the Hermosas, the
first range east of Las Plumas, with the wide Fernandez plain lying
beyond, then the Fernandez range, more like high, grassy hills than
mountains, with only their highest summits barren and rocky, and
separated from the Oro Fino--the Fine Gold--mountains, by the desert
they had crossed the day before. He recalled the descriptions he had
heard of these Oro Fino mountains--high, barren, precipitous cliffs,
separated by boulder-strewn canyons and cleft by deep gorges and
chasms, a wild and almost impassable region. He remembered, too, that
he had been told that these mountains were rich in minerals, that the
whole rocky, jumbled, upreared, deep-cleft mass was streaked and
striped and crisscrossed with veins of silver and gold, turquoise,
marble, coal and iron, but that it was all practically safe from the
hand of man because of the lack of wholesome water. Alkali and mineral
springs and streams there were, but of so baneful nature that if a
thirsty man were to drink his fill but once he would drink to his
death. Recalling these things, Wellesly concluded that this trickling
spring of sweet, cool water and the little green canyon must be rare
exceptions to the general character of the mountains and that this
must have been the objective point of his captors from the start.

Along with the awakened memories came also a sudden recollection of a
tale once told him in Denver by a prospector, whom he was grubstaking
for the San Juan country, of a lost mine in the Oro Fino mountains of
New Mexico. He was able to recall the salient points of the story and
it occurred to him that it might be useful in the present emergency.
While they ate dinner Wellesly spoke again of the dangers of the
desert and of the risks he knew he would be taking if he should
attempt to cross it alone.

"With my deficient sense of direction," he said, "I should probably
wander all over it a dozen times before I could find my way out."

"You'd be dead long before that time," said Jim.

"Yes, it's very likely I would," Wellesly calmly assented.

"Of course," said Haney, "our friend 'ere 'asn't got much grub and if
you and me continue to live off 'im it won't last long. 'E knows a way
to get through these mountains and go down to El Paso, but of course
'e can't be expected to pilot you down there for nothin'. Now, if you
made it worth 'is w'ile, I dare say 'e'd be willin' to stop 'is
prosp