said Pud.

They were soon ready. Mr. Waterman and Pierre brought along their guns.
The party was made up of the three boys, the two leaders just mentioned
and Mr. Anderson. They were soon over in to the second lake. There they
stopped to fish, except Mr. Waterman, who went off to one end of the
lake as he thought that he was pretty sure to bag a duck or two there.
He was right, as his gun was heard occasionally during the next two
hours. The fishing was fine and when Mr. Waterman returned with six fine
young ducks, the boys knew that they were going to have a big supper
again. They had lunch and then went on to the cabin. They determined to
stay there all night and just explore the gulch.

"I have often been up on the sides of this gulch but I have never been
down here to see what was here," said Mr. Anderson.

Behind the cabin they found an excellent spring with a little stream
leading away from it.

"I guess we'll make no mistake if we take this spring for a starting
point to-morrow. This stream will surely lead us out of the gulch, as
it must have an outlet," said Mr. Waterman.

"There is sure to be an outlet because there is no lake here," said Bob.

The stream led them further down the gulch and they found themselves
going down even further. When they had reached a point about a half mile
from the cabin, they found that the path they had been following stopped
and turned up the hill. This was not the path they had previously noted
as leading to the top of the mountain.

"Let's follow this path," said Bill.

"All right," said Pud.

They turned off and they had not gone far before they came to what
seemed like a mine. The boys were very excited as it seemed to them that
they had discovered the reason why Field and his friends had made their
summer home in this gulch rather than in some other that would have been
just as suitable from the wireless standpoint.

"This looks like a mine to me," said Bob.

"It certainly does look that way," replied Bill.

"He has a lot of quartz over here," said Bob as he went over to a little
pile that had been made to one side.

"It looks as if this were a recent discovery," said Bill.

"It certainly does," said Pud.

They examined the quartz but it did not look like anything they had ever
seen.

"Let's take some of it back with us," said Bob. "Mr. Waterman is quite
an expert on metals, rocks, etc., and he will probably know what it
is."

"That's a good idea," said