to mine it; how much
is there of it? You see I've had some experience here in the mountains,
and sometimes we strike what is called a pocket; we might find gold for
a few feet one way and another, and then strike dead rock and no gold. I
ain't a mineralogist or geologist or a civil engineer, and I am afraid
my find won't amount to much, but it is worth investigation, and as you
are able to estimate we will make a start. To-morrow I will take you to
my ledge and then we will know whether we are millionaires or
tramps--eh? mountain tramps--but I am grateful for this food and coffee,
and now if you'll give me a little tobacco I'll be the most contented
man in the mountains, whether my mine turns out a hit or a misthrow."

So tobacco was produced; Brooks himself was an inveterate smoker, and
since being in the mountains Desmond had taken to the weed, and there
was promise that some day he might become an inveterate.

The three men had a jolly time, but in a quiet way. Creedon was a good
story teller; he had had many weird experiences in the mountains. He had
acted as guide to a great many parties, he had engaged in about fifty
fights with Indians during his residence in the great West, and had met
a great many very notable characters.

When the men concluded to lie down to sleep for the night they
extinguished their fire, and each man found a crevice into which he
crept, and only those who have slept in the open air in a pure climate
can tell of the exhilarating effects that follow a slumber under the
conditions described.

Desmond was the first to awake, and he peeped forth from his crevice and
glanced down toward the point where the fire had been, when he beheld a
sight that caused his blood to run cold. Five fierce-looking savages
were grouped around the spot where the campfire had been, and he had a
chance to study a scene he had never before witnessed. He beheld five
savages in full war paint; they were dressed in a most grotesque manner,
part of their attire being fragments of United States uniforms, showing
that the red men had been in a skirmish, and possibly had come out
victorious, and had had an opportunity to strip the bodies of the dead.

A great deal has been written about the shrewdness of redmen. They are
shrewd when their qualities are once fully aroused and they are on the
scent, but they are given to assumptions, the same as white men. Of
course Creedon was practically to be credited when he said tha