ns. This
general fact did not concern Alfonso. He was ambitious to unlock for his
own use only a single box of the huge vault. He was familiar with the
wonderful story of Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, Kings of the
Comstock Lode, and owners of the Big Bonanza, who paid their 600 miners
five dollars per day in gold, for eight hours' labor a third of a mile
below the earth's surface. The Comstock Lode yielded over $5,000,000 per
month, or a total output of silver and gold of over $250,000,000.

For six long weary months Alfonso and his companion searched for gold
down the Green River and along the river bottom of the Grand Canyon of
the Colorado, till they reached the Needles on the A. & P. Railway.
Thence they rode west to Kern River. This stream they followed on
horseback into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, all the time searching for
precious metals, especially gold. The mountains were crossed over to
Owen's Lake, and a river traced north. Alfonso was prospecting in new
fields, but his search thus far was fruitless. His companion sickened and
died, but Alfonso bravely climbed among the mountains hoping to cross the
crest and reach the cabins of friendly government officials on duty in
the park of the big trees in Mariposa County.

It was late in the fall, grasses and leaves had browned, Alfonso's horse
had grown thin, and being too weak and lame to go forward, finally died.
His provisions had given out; his own strength and courage had failed; he
needed water for his parched tongue and lips, but none was at hand; fever
quickened his pulse. Sitting alone in the shadow of a giant boulder that
afforded partial protection from the gathering storm, his mind reverted
to his home at Harrisville where abundance could be had, to his family
that thought him dead, and to Christine across the sea, whom he had
vowed to win with gold. All seemed lost. Alfonso's head reeled, he fell
back upon the ground, and the early snows seemed to form for him a
shroud.

Good fortune guided this way a party of Yosemite Indians, who were
returning from an extended hunt for deer and elk. They had also slain a
few bears and a couple of mountain lions. The dead horse first arrested
their attention, and then the exhausted miner was found asleep covered
with snow. The Indians wrapped the sick man at once in a grizzly bear
skin, fastened him to a pony, and carried him to their camp near the big
trees. It was morning before Alfonso was conscious of his