nfidentially. 'Those two out
there are just a couple of youngsters this morning. You and I will
have to be the serious brains of the occasion.'

Howard glanced over his shoulder. Carr's broad back was turned to him,
Helen's eyes, glancing toward the shack, were sparkling.

'Fire away,' he said colourlessly. 'What's in the wind?'

'First thing--Had breakfast yet?'

Oddly, Howard had no longer any appetite for coffee and bacon, though
he had hungrily swallowed his last bit of dried meat an hour ago.

'Then,' said Longstreet eagerly, 'come in here where we can talk.' And
to Helen he called, 'My dear, I want a few words with Mr. Howard.'

'Oh, we won't disturb you,' Helen laughed back at him. It struck
Howard that she would laugh at anything this morning. 'Mr. Carr and I
were just going up on the cliff for the view.'

Longstreet came in and dropped the flap behind him. Then he stepped to
a shelf and took down a roll of paper which he spread upon the table.
Howard looking at it with lack-lustre eyes saw that it was a sort of
geological chart of the neighbourhood. Longstreet set his finger upon
a point where he had made a cross in red pencil.

'It's there,' he announced triumphantly.

Howard was thinking of the view from the cliff and failed to grasp the
other's meaning.

'What's there?' he asked.

'Gold, man!' cried Longstreet. 'Gold! Didn't I say it was as simple
as A B C to find gold here? Well, I've done it!'

'Oh, gold.' And even yet Howard's interest was not greatly intrigued.
'I see.'

Longstreet stared at him wonderingly. And then, suddenly, Howard came
to earth. Why, the thing, if true, was wonderful, glorious! With all
his heart he hoped it was true; for Longstreet's dear old sake, for
Helen's. He studied the map.

'That would be right over yonder? About half a mile from here? In Dry
Gulch?'

'Precisely. And it has been there since the time Dry Gulch was not dry
but filled with rushing waters. It has been there for any man to find
who was not a fool or blind. It rather looks,' and he chuckled, 'as
though it had been waiting since the Pliocene age for me.'

'You are sure? You haven't just stumbled upon a little pocket----'

Longstreet snorted.

'I am going into the nearest fair-sized town right away,' he said
emphatically, 'to get men and implements to begin a moderate
development. It is a gold mine, my dear young sir--nothing else or
less. Here; look at this.'

It w