" answered Earl, as coolly as he could,
although still highly excited. "Where are you bound?"

"Thought we'd try it over to Hunker Creek. Some good reports from there
this week."

"So I've heard," said Randy. "I wonder if it would pay us to go over."

"It might--everybody has an equal chance, ye know," said the second
miner. "Say, do ye calkerlate to git anything outer thet split?" he went
on, with a look of disdain on his face.

"I thought I would see what was in it," said Earl. "If a fellow don't
try, he'll never find anything."

"Ye won't git nuthin' out o' thar; the split don't lay right. Better go
up to the top end o' your claim; ye'll stand more chance thar." And
after a few words more the two miners moved off, and the boys breathed
easier.

"That shows what he knows about it," said Earl, when he dared to broach
the subject. "Wouldn't he open his eyes if he knew the truth?"

"And wouldn't he be in for squeezing a claim right on top of us?" added
Randy. "No; we had best keep this find to ourselves, at least until
we've found just what is in the split and how far away from the gulch it
runs."

"Throw all the nuggets into the hole over yonder," said Earl, "and cover
them up. We'll take them to the tent to-night, and bury them in some
safe place. I'm going ahead." And he began to pick away as though his
life depended upon it, while Randy and Fred went over the sand, gravel,
and dirt with their shovels and hands, to pick out some small nuggets,
which they found to the number of forty-three, some not larger than a
grain of rice, and others the size of coffee beans.

"Here is another lump," said Earl, presently, and brought out a thin
sheet of gold, mixed with stone. "I shouldn't wonder if there is a layer
of quartz rock somewhere along here, although I don't see anything of it
yet. I guess this lump will produce thirty or forty dollars' worth of
gold more. Pretty good for five minutes' work." And he went at it again
with renewed vigor, scattering the sand and gravel behind him, like a
mother hen looking for worms.

An hour later the split was cleaned out so far as it could be
accomplished with the tools at hand. There remained a small crack still,
running downward three feet, as Earl ascertained by testing it with a
berry-bush switch. What there might be at the bottom of the crack there
was no telling, although it must contain some gold, if only in dust.
Three additional nuggets had been unearthed, one as la