ut of sight;
whether attention was attracted by certain perforated dippers or pans
which they now brought into assiduous use, but which they sought to
conceal; whether they had been all the time furtively watched, with a
suspicion never abated, one can hardly say. They had observed every
precaution of secrecy that the most zealous heed could suggest. Only one
worked with the pan while the other lay motionless and idle, and
vigilantly watched and listened for any stealthy sign of approach. They
fully realized the jealousy of the Indians concerning the mineral wealth
of their territory, lest its discovery bring hordes of the craving white
people to dispossess them. This prophetic terror was later fulfilled in
the Ayrate division of the tribe, but to the northward, along the
Tennessee River, they sedulously guarded this knowledge. Traditions
there are to the present day in the Great Smoky Mountains concerning
mines of silver and lead, and of localities rich in auriferous gravel
which are approximately ascertained, but which the Cherokees knew
accurately and worked as far as they listed;--they carried their secret
with them to the grave or the far west.

The exploration of L'Epine and O'Kimmon of necessity was conducted
chiefly by day, but one night the prospectors could not be still, the
moon on the sand was so bright!

The time which they had fixed for a silent, secret departure was drawing
near. Their bags were almost filled, but they lingered for a little
more, and covetously a little more still. And this night, this memorable
night, the moon on the sand was as bright as day!

The light slanted across the Tennessee River and shimmered in the
ripples. One could see, if one would, the stately lines of dark summits
along a far horizon. A mockingbird was singing from out the boscage of
the laurel near at hand, and the night wind was astir. And suddenly the
two gold-washers in the depths of the grotto became conscious that they
were not alone.

There, sitting like stone figures one on each side of the narrow portal,
were the two cheera-taghe of the town, silent, motionless, watching with
eyes how long alert, listening with ears how discerningly attentive, it
is impossible to divine.

The gold-washers sprang to their feet, each instinctively grasping for
his weapon, but alack, neither was armed! The pan had come to seem the
most potent of accoutrements, with which, in good sooth, one might take
the world by storm, and t