er pretentious
fireplace, or place of fire, for it resembled not at all the tiny
little cooking hearth of desert Indians. A stone hatchet lay beside
it, and, what was much more surprising, two iron instruments of white
man's manufacturing, a wedge and a long chisel.

He picked up the chisel, weighed it in his hand, and looked at the
girl. He was now becoming accustomed to the dim light and could see
her eyes following his every movement with curious questioning. There
was a tiny frowning wrinkle between her brows as if serious matters
were being decided there.

"It is here," she said again. "Maybe someone dies when a white friend
is shown the way--maybe I die, who knows?--but it is here--El Alisal
of the gold of the rose!"

She made a little gesture and moved aside, and the chisel fell to the
stone floor with a clang as Kit shouted and dropped on his knees
before an incredible thing in the gray wall.

That upthrust of the rock wall had strange variety of color, and
between the granite and the gray limestone there was a ragged rusty
band of iron as a note of contrast to the sprinkling of glittering
quartz catching the ray of light, but the quartz was sprinkled on a
six inch band of yellow--not the usual quartz formation with dots of
color, but a deep definite yellow held together by white crystals.

"The red gold! it's the red gold!" he said feeling the yellow surface
instinctively.

"Yes, senor, it is the red gold of El Alisal, and it is to you," but
her eyes were watching him hungrily as she spoke. And something of
that pathetic fear penetrated his amazed mind, and he remembered.

"No, Tula, only my share to me. I do the work, but the great share is
to you, that it may buy back your mother from the slavers of the
south."

"Also my sister," said the girl, and for the first time she wept.

"Come, come! This is the time for joy. The danger is gone, and we are
at rest beside this--why, it's a dream come true, the golden dream!
Come, help me cook that we may be strong for the work."

She helped silently, fetching water and more sticks for the fire.

There were many things to ask, but he asked no questions, only gazed
between bites and sups at the amazing facts facing him.

"I've seen ores and ores in my time, but nothing like this!" he
exulted. "Why, I can 'high grade' mule loads of this and take it out
without smelting," and then he grinned at his little partner. "We just
struck it in time,--meat is mighty n