t they passed up _some_ wash and from that into
another one; and so on until he was lost; and the most he could do was
to drop a few white beans from the pocketful that Lynch had provided.
The night was very dark and they rode on interminably, camping at dawn
in a shut-in canyon; and so on for three nights until his mind became a
blank as far as direction was concerned. His liberal supply of beans had
been exhausted the first night and since then they had passed over a
hundred rocky hog-backs and down a thousand boulder-strewn canyons. As
to the whereabouts of Blackwater he had no more idea than a cat that has
been carried in a bag; and he lacked that intimate sense of direction
which often enables the cat to come back. He was lost, and a little
scared, when Wunpost stopped in a gulch and showed him a neat pile of
rocks.

"There's my monument," he said, "ain't that a neat piece of work? I
learned how to make them from a surveyor. This tobacco can here contains
my notice of location--that was a steer when I said it wasn't staked.
Git down and help yourself!"

He assisted his companion, who was slightly saddle-sore, to alight and
inspect the monument and then he waited expectantly.

"Oh, the mine! The mine!" cried Wunpost gaily. "Come along--have you got
your sack? Well, bring along a sack and we'll fill it so full of gold
it'll bust and spill out going home. Be a nice way to mark the trail, if
you should want to come back sometime--and by the way, have you got that
thousand dollar bill?"

"Yes, I've got it," whined the barkeeper, "but where's your cussed mine?
This don't look like nothing to me!"

"No, that's it," expounded Wunpost, "you haven't got my system--they's
no use for you to turn prospector. Now look in this crack--notice that
stuff up and down there? Well, now, that's where I'd look to find gold."

"Jee-rusalem!" exclaimed the barkeeper, or words to that effect, and
dropped down to dig out the rock. It was the very same ore that Wunpost
had shown when he had entered The Mint at Blackwater, only some of it
was actually richer than any of the pieces he had seen. And there was a
six-inch streak of it, running down into the country-rock as if it were
going to China. He dug and dug again while Wunpost, all unmindful,
unpacked and cooked a good meal. Fellowes filled his small sack and all
his pockets and wrapped up the rest in his handkerchief; and before they
packed to go he borrowed the dish-towel and went b