ed away to the Chinaman.

"Golly! You boyee go shootee?" exclaimed the celestial when he had
received the orders to pack their food. "No flaid ghostee?"

"Of course not," replied Horace. "There's no such thing as ghosts,
Hop Joy."

"Mebbe so, mebbe not; no be too sure," grunted the Chinaman.
"Plete, him say they be."

But the boys did not linger to argue the matter, and only waiting
to see that Hop Joy put in a quantity of doughnuts, went to get
their rifles and shells ready.

To their surprise, when they returned to the piazza, they found the
ranchman busily overhauling his guns.

"I reckon I'll go with you," he explained. "I haven't been hunting
for some time, and as everything is quiet I can get away for three
or four days as well as not."

"Oh, good! Hooray!" exclaimed the boys.

And Horace added: "Now we won't have to worry about getting lost."

Not long did it take the lads to clean their rifles and fill their
cartridge belt with shells.

"Have you two got any knives?" inquired Mr. Wilder, looking at Tom
and Larry.

"Sure," replied Larry, and he told of the old gold miner's presents
and his advice about always carrying the pieces of thong with them.

"Silas is no fool," smiled the ranchman. "If you remember all he
told you, you won't get into trouble. Still, I think it would be
just as well for you to let me put your money in my safe. Then you
surely can't lose it."

"That's what father told us to do," said Larry as he and Tom
removed their buckskin money bags and gave them to the ranchman.
"We forgot it, though."

"Speaking about forgetting, what about the German boy?" asked Mrs.
Wilder, who had come to learn the cause of the preparations.

At the mention of Hans the four lads looked at one another in
dismay. But the ranchman came to the rescue, saying:

"From all Larry and Tom say, I don't reckon he'll be keen on
hunting. You can let him help Ned."

"Ned's our handy man," explained Horace in a whisper. "He drives
the grub wagon to Tolopah, and to the boys in their camps."

"Well, here comes the wagon now," observed Mrs. Wilder as she
caught sight of the big white-covered wagon, called a prairie
schooner in the old days, bobbing over the plains about a mile away.

"Oh, don't let's wait," protested Horace. "We can saddle up and go
and meet them. I'll make my pony dance and perhaps that will scare
Hans so he won't care to go."

"All right," laughed Mr. Wilder. "Bring up the