d obscurity lay his
hopes of escape.

"I'd give half this nugget if I was safe in San Francisco," he said
to himself.

He stumbled on, occasionally forced by his fatigue to sit down and
rest.

"I hope I'm going in the right direction, but I don't know," he said
to himself.

He had been traveling with occasional rests for four hours when
fatigue overcame him. He lay down to take a slight nap, but when he
awoke the sun was up.

"Good Heaven!" he exclaimed in alarm. "I must have slept for some
hours. I will eat something to give me strength, and then I must
hurry on."

He had taken the precaution to take some provisions with him, and he
began to eat them as he hurried along.

"They have just discovered their loss," thought Hogan. "Will they
follow me, I wonder? I must be a good twelve miles away, and this is
a fair start. They will turn back before they have come as far as
this. Besides, they won't know in what direction I have come."

Hogan was mistaken in supposing himself to be twelve miles away. In
reality, he was not eight. During the night he had traveled at
disadvantage, and taken a round-about way without being aware of it.
He was mistaken also in supposing that the pursuit would be easily
abandoned. Mining communities could not afford to condone theft, nor
were they disposed to facilitate the escape of the thief. More than
once the murderer had escaped, while the thief was pursued
relentlessly. All this made Hogan's position a perilous one. If he
had been long enough in the country to understand the feeling of the
people, he would not have ventured to steal the nugget.

About eleven o'clock Hogan sat down to rest. He reclined on the
greensward near the edge of a precipitous descent. He did not dream
that danger was so close till he heard his name called and two men
came running toward him. Hogan, starting to his feet in dismay,
recognized Crane and Peabody, two of his late comrades.

"What do you want?" he faltered, as they came within hearing.

"The nugget," said Crane sternly.

Hogan would have denied its possession if he could, but there it was
at his side.

"There it is," he said.

"What induced you to steal it?" demanded Crane.

"I was dead broke. Luck was against me. I couldn't help it."

"It was a bad day's work for you," said Peabody. "Didn't you know
the penalty attached to theft in the mining-camps?"

"No," faltered Hogan, alarmed at the stem looks of his captor