'
smashin' whoever was inside. But to prove what they said about th'
gold, they sent one of their number down, while we waited on th'
side of th' mountain."

"Did he get any gold?" asked Tom, eagerly.

For answer the old miner pulled from his pocket a few yellow
pebbles--little stones of dull, gleaming yellow.

"There's some of th' gold from amid th' caves of ice," he remarked
simply. "I kept 'em for a souvenir, hopin' some day I might git back
there. Well, Jim an' me watched th' Indian going down into th'
valley. He come back in about three hours, havin' only gone to th'
nearest cave, an' he had two pockets filled with these little chunks
of solid gold. They gave me an' Jim some, but they wouldn't hear of
us goin' t' th' valley by ourselves."

"Then a bad storm come up, an' we had t' hit th' trail for home--the
Indians' home, I mean--for Jim an' I was far enough away from ours."

"Well, t' make a long story short, Jim an' me tried every way we
knowed t' git t' that valley, but we couldn't. It come off colder
an' colder, an' th' tribe of Indians with whom we lived was attacked
by some of their enemies, an' driven away from their campin'
grounds. Jim an' me, we went too, but not before Jim had drawed this
map on a piece of dog-skin we found in one of the huts. We had an
idea we might get back, some day, an' find the valley, so we'd need
a map t' go by. But poor Jim never got back. He got badly frozen
when the Indians drove us an' our friends away, an' he never got
over it. He died up there in th' ice, an' we buried him. I took th'
map, an' when spring come, I made a hike out of that country. From
then until now I've been plannin' how t' git t' that valley, an' th'
only way I seen was an airship. Then, when I was prospectin' around
out in Colorado I saw Tom's machine hidden in th' trees, an' I
waited until he come along, which part you know as well as I do,"
finished Abe.

"And that's the story of the valley of gold," spoke Mr. Swift.

"That's all there is to it," assented Abe, simply.

"Do you think there is much gold there?" asked Tom.

"Plenty of it--for th' pickin' up," replied the miner. "Around th'
caves of ice it's full of it, but, of course, it's dangerous. An'
th' only way t' git t' it, an' pass th' savage Indians that are all
around in th' mountains about th' valley, is t' fly over their heads
in th' airship."

"Then that's what we'll do," decided Tom.

"Will you go all the way in the RED CLOUD?"