to drink?" he added, looking longingly at the crystal
stream flowing under the round circle of the flashlight. "Who wants to
try it?"

Frank Shaw did not wait to make many tests. Tormented with thirst, he
felt of the water by rubbing it between his thumb and fingers, smelled
of it, put it cautiously to his lips, and then, experiencing no bad
effects from this contact, took a few drops into his mouth.

"It is fine!" he shouted, then. "Cold as ice and sweet as sugar! This
beats a soda fountain, Jimmie!"

"Now, was this tunnel constructed on purpose to reach this spring?"
asked Harry.

The lads examined the walls minutely, but there was no opening from the
chamber, save the one by which they had entered.

"This must have been the milk house," laughed Frank, always ready to
turn any subject under discussion into a joke. "I wonder if they kept
their cows on the top of the peak? If they had tied their tails
together and put one over each side, they never could have run away."

On their way back to Chamber B the boys discovered an opening in the
north wall of the tunnel. This led to another tunnel, running in a
northwesterly direction for about one hundred feet and ending in a
chamber larger than any of the others. Nestor caught sight of a
sparkle on the walls as he swung the flashlight about and pointed
glittering sections out to the boys.

"Gold!" cried Frank.

"I'll bet a cooky we've found the hidden mine!" cried Jimmie.

"It is gold, all right," Harry Stevens said, "but there's no knowing
whether it is here in quantities sufficient to pay the expense of
mining and crushing the ore."

"Huh!" cried Jimmie, in a tone of reproach. "Don't you know that rock
that will produce a dollar a tone is worth working? Well, then, look
at this! There's ten dollars worth in the spot I cover with my hand!
We've found somethin', boys!"

"So it wasn't to escape their enemies that the old chaps sequestered
themselves here," said Fenton. "It was to dig out gold!"

"I never heard that there was gold in this part of Mexico," observed
Jack. "I reckon we'll wake up when we get out into the sunlight."

"If you'll read up," Fenton replied, "you'll find that the state of
Chihuahua abounds in niter and other salts, and is rich in mines of
gold and silver. Do you really think we have come upon the deserted
mine Jimmie talks about so much?" he added, turning to Nestor.

The latter took a folded paper from his pocket and exami