to the southward of that valley there's another one deeper, wilder,
hard to get into but with the richest pay dirt you ever dreamed of. We
staked out our claims and left one man to hold it, while we go back to
the States for supplies and better equipment. The gold's harder to get
out, but it's there all right. It makes American River look like
nothing at all."

He turned in the saddle and looked up the little stream bed where the
water lay in shallow pools below the overhanging bushes. The black
mare had at last struggled to her feet and was now grazing on the
sparse grass that bordered the river.

"It is none too safe for you to be here alone, young fellow," the man
observed. "There's a band of Indians have been doing considerable
mischief around this neighborhood just lately. We've been hearing of
them from every party as we came along."

"I'm not afraid," returned Felix stoutly. "One boy and one horse would
be hard to find in this great wide prairie. Aren't you afraid you will
meet the Indians yourselves?"

"Afraid!" The other laughed aloud. "Why, we're looking for them and it
will be a sorry day for them when we find them." He sobered and went
on earnestly: "The woman in that party you left called out a message
for you as we came by. 'Tell him,' she said to us, 'that the horse is
his and that he is to go back with you to the States. Tell him, God
bless him,' she said. We'll be glad enough to have you if you care to
come with us," he concluded.

Felix looked at the long, empty trail before him; he looked up at the
prospector's hard brown face, and then at the little heap of gold dust
in his hand.

"I'll not go back--just yet," he said. "There are things I must see
first."

They rode jingling away, the sun glinting on their gun barrels and
pistol butts until they disappeared in the shimmering hot distance of
the dusty trail. Felix, as the heat of the day increased, led the mare
up the watercourse to where the bushes were tall enough to afford a
little shade. He, himself, crawled under a rock beside one of the
pools and lay there very quietly, waiting for the long, sleepy day to
pass. It was noontime, with the world so still that he could actually
hear the water of the stream filtering through the sand as it ran
sluggishly from pool to pool, when a new sound caught his attention.
There was a shuffling of muffled feet, a stone dislodged from the bank
above, the click of metal against metal, but every noise so