se of the gold to me then?" he added, with a
dry chuckle.

"Ah, what indeed?" said Chris seriously. "But don't talk about it. I
say, when you were keeping watch in the night, did you hear or see
anything?"

"Didn't see much, but I seemed to hear a good deal that was a bit
strange."

"What?" asked Chris eagerly.

"Oh, I don't know; creepy sounds in the black darkness under the trees,
and splashings in the big pool, just as if it was full of six-foot
alligators waiting for something or some one to eat."

"I heard that," said Chris; "but it was only fish."

"Like enough, my lad. I never heard of any 'gators in these parts.
Hallo! That was something.--Nearly had me off."

"A snake!" cried Chris, for Griggs' mustang had suddenly plunged,
bounding sidewise with a jerk to its rider which nearly sent him out of
his saddle.

"Rattler, I expect; nearly trod on him. Isn't bitten, or he wouldn't go
on so quietly," added the American, turning in his saddle to look back
at the trampled track they had made through the brush, but nothing was
to be seen.

"Oughtn't we to ride back and warn the others?" said Chris.

"No need, my lad; that gentleman, if he was a rattler, has gone to earth
fast enough, and won't show himself till we're gone. Yes, I don't think
my nag was touched. I shouldn't like that. Deal rather Master Skeeter
here got it. A bite would make him smile and look more handsome than he
does now."

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

NED SEES SOMETHING.

"No luck yet, Griggs," said the doctor, riding up to the head of the
little caravan one morning, after many, many days of travel since the
party made its first plunge into the unknown, untraversed wilds, to keep
trudging on at the rate dictated by the mules, which, laden as they
were, could not be hurried. Sometimes when the track they made for
themselves was easy and level a good many miles were got over; at others
the hindrances seemed to multiply, and Griggs laughingly said it never
rained but it poured, and then the tale of miles traversed became very
few at the end of the day.

But the American worked harder than any one, and always with unfailing
good-humour. There were times when he seemed to be furious, raging out
in language especially his own, the vocabulary being wonderful, the
names he called astounding in their fluency, novelty, and peculiarity;
still the objects of these displays of temper were never his
fellow-travellers, but the mules, and as so