the main road, and then opened the
box.

It contained three flakes of placer or surface gold, weighing in all
about a quarter of an ounce. They could easily have slipped into the
interstices of the broken pan and not have been observed by him. If this
was the result of the washing of a single pan--and he could now easily
imagine that other flakes might have escaped--what--But he stopped,
dazed and bewildered at the bare suggestion. He gazed upon the vanishing
figure of "mammy." Could she--could Katinka--have the least suspicion of
the possibilities of this discovery? Or had Providence put the keeping
of this secret into the hands of those who least understood its
importance? For an instant he thought of running after her with a
word of caution; but on reflection he saw that this might awaken her
suspicion and precipitate a discovery by another.

His only safety for the present was silence, until he could repeat his
experiment. And that must be done quickly.

How should he get away without his partners' knowledge of his purpose?
He was too loyal to them to wish to keep this good fortune to himself,
but he was not yet sure of his good fortune. It might be only a little
"pocket" which he had just emptied; it might be a larger one which
another trial would exhaust.

He had put up no "notice;" he might find it already in possession of
Katinka's father, or any chance prospector like himself. In either case
he would be covered with ridicule by his partners and the camp, or more
seriously rebuked for his carelessness and stupidity. No! he could not
tell them the truth; nor could he lie. He would say he was called away
for a day on private business.

Luckily for him, the active imagination of his partners was even now
helping him. The theory of the "tinker" and the "pan" was indignantly
rejected by his other partner. His blushes and embarrassment were
suddenly remembered by Faulkner, and by the time he reached his cabin,
they had settled that the negro woman had brought him a love letter! He
was young and good looking; what was more natural than that he should
have some distant love affair?

His embarrassed statement that he must leave early the next morning
on business that he could not at PRESENT disclose was considered amply
confirmatory, and received with maliciously significant acquiescence.
"Only," said Faulkner, "at YOUR age, sonny,"--he was nine months older
than Fleming,--"I should have gone TO-NIGHT." Surely Pro