dollars."

"Then we had better stay, hadn't we?" said Earl.

"Why, of course, Earl; you didn't expect to do much better than that,
unless you struck nuggets."

"One fellow over to Gold Bottom said he was taking out a hundred dollars
to the panful," put in Randy.

"Fairy stories, my lad," answered the captain. "A claim as will turn
out eight dollars to the pan is mighty good--as good as I'm a-lookin'
fer just now."

"And we haven't gone very far into this gulch," put in the doctor. "It
may be better further up."

"And it may be worse," said Foster Portney, "although I'm inclined to
think it will be better. We had best stake out our claims without
delay."

This was readily agreed to, and before they went back to the tents they
had staked out three claims, one for each of the men. Earl might have
taken up a claim, too, being just old enough, but the three covered all
the ground which the party thought of any account. Each claim was five
hundred feet long and the upper one covered both gulches, which was an
excellent thing, as it would give them a fair amount of water by which
to do their washing. The posts firmly planted and marked, they walked
slowly back to camp, talking over the prospects and mapping out their
future work.

It was decided to move the tents to a more convenient locality, and a
spot was readily found at a point above where the two gulches joined, or
rather where the one gulch split into two. The transfer to this new
home-spot was made the next day by Earl, Randy, and the doctor, Mr.
Portney and the captain going back to uncover several other portions of
the claims, to ascertain, if possible, just what their values might be.

The next week was a busy one. The camp removed and put into comfortable
shape, the next work was to dam up the gulch where the pocket had been
found, so that all the water might flow through Mosquito Hollow, as the
doctor had facetiously dubbed the new diggings,--a name that stuck to
it. This work was done by Randy and Dr. Barwaithe, while Earl joined the
captain and his uncle in burning down the brush and getting rid of the
tundra.

Before turning the water from Prosper Gulch into Mosquito Hollow, Foster
Portney advised sinking several holes along the latter gulch, that any
gold washed along by the flow would be caught. The captain put these
down, and then came the long labor of cleaning the sand and dirt from
the bedrock below. As it would have taken all summer to clean