ut from above, and then came to an opening.
He was now nearly 400 feet from the gold chamber. When he looked out of
the round opening to which he had come he saw that beyond ran a deep
gully, or canyon. At the point where the opening cut the wall of the
canyon, however, there was a gradual descent for perhaps 400 feet to
the bottom of the break in the mountain.

Elsewhere the walls of the canyon seemed to stand perpendicular, and
Nestor was for a moment puzzled to account for the filling of the break
at that particular spot, as if a rude stairway had been laid to the
ground below. Then the truth flashed upon him. The tunnel had been
built as a chute for the disposition of the rock crushed in the mine.

There was no knowing how many years the natives had worked in that
underground mine, crushing out the gold with rude appliances and
disposing of the refuse by means of the tunnel cut through the fault in
the rock. The canyon into which the crushed rock had been cast was a
wild and almost inaccessible break almost at the top of the mountain
range, and might have been used for years--perhaps for
centuries--without the truth of its gradual filling up becoming known
to hostile peoples.

Looking down into the canyon, Nestor wondered if an easy route to the
bottom might not be found there. He was already more than 200 feet
below the shelf of rock from which the mine opened. The floor of the
canyon was at least 400 feet below him, and at the south another cut,
running east and west, seemed to connect with the first. He heard the
trinkle of water below, and was satisfied that there was a succession
of canyons leading to the plain below, in which case descent would be
comparatively easy.

This piece of good fortune, Nestor congratulated himself, would enable
the boys to reach the camping place of the renegade and his men shortly
after dark, as the approach to the sandy plain would be comparatively
free of obstruction. This was an important thing, as there might be
many miles to travel before the next day after Fremont was rescued.

It was not so easy getting back to the shaft, but in a short time
Nestor made his way there and was soon in consultation with his
friends. All were eager to pass through the tunnel, and so, one by
one, they were let down until all were at the slope which led to the
bottom of the canyon.

They found it easy to clamber down the heap of crushed rock to the
floor of the canyon, and also to pas