d this ingenuous pleasantry passed unnoticed. Nevertheless, as the
express-wagon rolled away, his active fancy began to consider this new
danger that might threaten the hidden wealth of his claim. But he
reflected that for a time, at least, only the crude ore would be taken
out and shipped to Marysville in a shape that offered no profit to the
highwaymen. Had it been a gold mine!--but here again was the
interposition of Providence!

A week later Preble Key returned to Skinner's with a foreman and ten
men, and an unlimited credit to draw upon at Marysville! Expeditions of
this kind created no surprise at Skinner's. Parties had before this
entered the wilderness gayly, none knew where or what for; the sedate
and silent woods had kept their secret while there; they had
evaporated, none knew when or where--often, alas! with an unpaid
account at Skinner's. Consequently, there was nothing in Key's party
to challenge curiosity. In another week a rambling, one-storied shed
of pine logs occupied the site of the mysterious ruins, and contained
the party; in two weeks excavations had been made, and the whole face
of the outcrop was exposed; in three weeks every vestige of former
tenancy which the fire had not consumed was trampled out by the alien
feet of these toilers of the "Sylvan Silver Hollow Company." None of
Key's former companions would have recognized the hollow in its
blackened leveling and rocky foundation; even Collinson would not have
remembered this stripped and splintered rock, with its heaps of fresh
debris, as the place where he had overtaken Key. And Key himself had
forgotten, in his triumph, everything but the chance experiment that
had led to his success.

Perhaps it was well, therefore, that one night, when the darkness had
mercifully fallen upon this scene of sylvan desolation, and its still
more incongruous and unsavory human restoration, and the low murmur of
the pines occasionally swelled up from the unscathed mountain-side, a
loud shout and the trampling of horses' feet awoke the dwellers in the
shanty. Springing to their feet, they hurriedly seized their weapons
and rushed out, only to be confronted by a dark, motionless ring of
horsemen, two flaming torches of pine knots, and a low but distinct
voice of authority. In their excitement, half-awakened suspicion, and
confusion, they were affected by its note of calm preparation and
conscious power.

"Drop those guns--hold up your hands! We've go