ands a varied and picturesque beauty. Alfonso walked up to
the obelisk, which stands in one of the squares of the Upper Town, in
joint memory of the brave generals Wolfe and Montgomery.

Next morning he was off on the Canadian Pacific Railway for Duluth, the
zenith city. Thence the journey west was through. Dakota in sight of
occasional tepees, where the brave Sioux patiently waits his call to join
the buffalo in the happy hunting grounds. Alfonso did not agree with the
popular sentiment, "The best Indian is a dead Indian," for the Sioux
seemed to him to belong to a noble race of red men.

Alfonso's enthusiasm for mining was greatly quickened by a fellow
traveler, who was the owner of a large block of stock in the famous
Homestake Mining Co. of Lead City, Black Hills, So. Dakota. This company
possesses one of the largest gold mines and mills in the world. The ore
bodies show a working face from two to four hundred feet in width, and
sink to a seemingly inexhaustible depth. The Homestake has produced over
$25,000,000 in bullion, and has divided over six millions in dividends to
stockholders.

Three days' journey brought young Harris to Montana, an inland empire
state, which lies on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. The Pacific
Express was laden with a motley crowd of men and women in search of fame
and fortune. Alfonso soon caught their enthusiasm, and visions of castles
with gilded domes floated in his imagination.

It was 1:35 P.M. when No. 1, the Pacific Express, pulled into thrifty
Helena, capital of Montana, a commercial metropolis metamorphosed from
a rude mining camp of twenty-five years ago.

The electric cars carried Alfonso to the Hotel Helena on Grand St.,
which he thought quite as good as any in his own city. Here he was
fortunate in meeting Mr. Davidson, a gentleman of large experience
as owner, organizer, and locator of some of the best gold and silver
properties in Montana and adjoining states. Irrigating canals and
water-rights were a special branch of Mr. Davidson's business. He never
failed to make the round of the leading hotels after the arrival of the
Overland. In this way he met Alfonso Harris. Davidson knew when to tell a
good story, and when to be serious. He took Alfonso to the Club, located
in elegant quarters, and the secretary gave him a complimentary visitor's
card. Davidson quickly discerned that Harris needed a week's rest, and so
took him on the motor line two miles out to the Hotel B