se?" he added, inquiringly.

"Yes, he has," answered my father, surprised in his turn. "Why do you
ask?"

"Oh, I just thought he might have, that's all."

"Yes, he was here yesterday afternoon. I sold him my one-third share."

"Did you?" asked Tom, eagerly. "I hope you got a good price."

"Yes, I made a very satisfactory bargain. I traded my share for his
thirty acres here, so that now, at last, I own the whole of Crawford's
Basin, I'm glad to say."

"Bully!" cried Tom, clapping his hands together with a report which made
his pony shy. "That's great! Tell us about it, Mr. Crawford."

"Why, Yetmore rode in yesterday afternoon, as I told you, on his way to
town--he said. But I rather suspected the truth of his statement. He had
come in a desperate hurry, for his horse was in a lather, and if he was
in such haste to get to town, why did he waste time talking to me, as he
did for twenty minutes? But when, just as he was starting off again, he
turned back and asked me if I wanted to sell my share in the drill and
claim, I knew that that was what he had come about, and I had a strong
suspicion that he had heard of a strike of some sort and was trying to
get the better of me. So when he asked what I wanted for my share, I
said I would take his thirty acres, and in spite of his protestations
that I was asking far too much, I stuck to it. The final result was that
I rode on with him to town, where we exchanged deeds and the bargain was
completed."

"That's great!" exclaimed Connor once more, rubbing his hands. "And now
I'll tell you our part of the story."

When he had finished, my father stood thinking for a minute, and then
said: "Well, the deal will have to stand. Yetmore believed we had a
three-foot vein of galena, and it is perfectly evident that he meant to
get my share out of me at a trifling price before I was aware of its
value. It was a shabby trick. If he had dealt squarely with me, I would
have offered to give him back his deed, but, as it is, I shan't. The
deal will have to stand."

Thus it was that my father became sole owner of Crawford's Basin.

CHAPTER IV

LOST IN THE CLOUDS

The fact that he had lost his little all in the core-boring venture did
not trouble Tom Connor in the least; the money was gone, and as worrying
about it would not bring it back, Tom decided not to worry. The same
thing had happened to him many a time before, for his system of life was
to work in the mines until he h