ff a precipice, and had a devil of
a time getting out and getting well again. Then he wanted me to
grubstake him for another hunt for it, but I think a man is more
likely to find a new mine than he is a lost one and so I sent him to
the San Juan instead."

"Lots of men have gone into these mountains hunting for the Winters
mine," said Jim, "but all I've known anything about have always gone
farther north than this."

"Yes," said Wellesly, as easily as if it were not an inspiration of
the moment, "Bill Frank told me that when he talked about it he always
made people think that Winters had said it was in the northern part of
the range, but that it was really in the southern part."

Jim got up and walked away and presently called Haney. Wellesly lay
down and pulled his hat over his face. He fell into a light slumber
and awoke himself with a snore. He heard the voices of the two men,
and so he kept on snoring, listening intently, meanwhile, to their
conversation. He could not hear all that they said, but he soon found
that they were talking about the lost mine.

"If this here tenderfoot ain't lyin'," said Jim, "the Winters mine
ain't far from here. I know these mountains and I know this here
spring is the only sweet water within ten miles, yes, twenty of 'em,
unless there may be one up so high among the cliffs that nothing but a
goat could find it. If Dick Winters' mine is in the southern part of
the Oro Fino mountains it's somewhere within two miles of us."

Then he heard them talk about "finishing up" with him and coming back
to look for the mine. Haney suggested that as they had enough
provisions to last two or three days longer they might spend a day
examining the near-by canyons and "finish up" with Wellesly afterward.

"If we find the stuff," he heard Haney say, "and this chap don't
conclude to be reasonable, we can leave 'im 'ere. If 'e does come to
time, we'll 'ave so much the more."

Then they walked farther away and Wellesly heard no more. His scheme
was coming out as he wished, for they would of course take him with
them, and in their search for the lost mine they might become so
interested that their vigilance would relax and he would find an
opportunity to slip away unobserved. He thought he could find his way
out of the mountains by following the downward course of the canyons.
That would be sure to bring him to the desert.

After breakfast the next morning Haney said:

"Well, Mr. Wellesly, do you t