t Will
shook his head with a cunning leer. Let them go and seek it as he had
to do, he said. And forthwith his advice was acted upon by no less
than a dozen men, who promptly abandoned profitable billets for the
pursuit of the elusive yellow ore.

Two weeks later Will again visited the village. This time he staggered
the folks by taking his wife to Abe Horsley's store, and spending two
hundred dollars in dry-goods and draperies for her. He flashed a "wad"
of bills that dazzled the lay-preacher's eyes, and talked of buying a
ranch and building himself a mansion on it.

Nor did he visit the saloon. He was sober, and looked the picture of
health and cheerfulness. He talked freely of his strike and its
possibilities. He swaggered and patronized his less fortunate fellow
townsmen, until he had them all by the ears and set them tumbling over
each other to get out after the gold.

He was followed and watched. Men shadowed his every movement in the
hope of discovering his mine, but he was too clever for them. They
kept his trail to the hills, but there he quickly lost them. He never
took the same route twice, and, on one occasion, traveled for three
days and nights, due north, before entering the foot-hills. He was as
elusive as the very gold his pursuers sought.

One by one the would-be prospectors returned disappointed to the
village, and again took up their various works, forced to the sorry
consolation of listening to the tales of Will's wealth, and watching
him occasionally run in to the village and scatter his money broadcast
amongst the storekeepers.

Of all Barnriff Peter Blunt seemed the least disturbed. He went calmly
on with his work, smiling gently whenever spoken to on the subject.
And his reply was invariably the same.

"I'm not handling 'placer,'" he told Doc Crombie one day, when that
strenuous person was endeavoring to "pump" him on the subject. "I
allow 'placers' are easy, and make a big show. But my 'meat' is high
grade ore that's going to work for years. His strike don't interest me
a heap, except it proves there's gold in plenty around these parts."

Nor could he be drawn into further discussion in the matter.

Yet his interest was far greater than he admitted. He was puzzled,
too. He could not quite make out how he had missed the signs of
alluvial deposit. Both scientifically and practically he was a master
of his hobby, in spite of local opinion. Yet he had missed this rich
haul under his very n