ly made coffee filled the air and all drew
close, to have a cup, and to partake of some fried bacon and some of Abe
Blower's famous flapjacks.

"Them flapjacks made Abe a good friend," observed Tom Dillon, while
eating. "They was the means o' introducing Maurice Harrison to him.
Ain't that so, Abe?" And the old miner grinned broadly.

"Right you are!" was the ready reply. "We was in the mountains together,
and Maurice didn't have nuthin' to eat. I made him some o' my flapjacks
an' then we became pardners fer nigh on to a year. Thet was up at tudder
end o' the State," explained Abe Blower.

By the time breakfast was over and the horses had been cared for, the
rain had stopped and the sun was breaking through the eastern sky. All
in the camp lost no time in changing their wet garments for dry. The
soaked clothing was then hung up around the fire and on the rocks in
the sun.

"You want to be careful how you climb around this mornin'," warned Tom
Dillon. "Some o' the places is mighty slippery. You don't want to slide
over no rocks into a hollow an' git killed!"

"No, indeed!" replied Roger, earnestly.

It was not until the middle of the afternoon that they took up the hunt
for the lost mine once more. This time the three boys went off together,
Abe Blower advising them not to separate while the rocky slopes were so
wet.

"You keep together an' me an' Tom will do the same thing," he said.
"Then, if anything happens to anybody, the others can help."

For over two hours the boys hunted around, making their way along a
ledge of rocks below the point where they had hunted before.

"From the description left by Uncle Maurice, that mine was pretty deep,"
said Roger. "And if it was, maybe we'll be more apt to find an opening
to it from below rather than from above."

"Well, it won't do any harm to look around here, anyway," returned Dave.

They had to proceed with great care, for in spots the water was still
running over the rocks and the footing was very slippery. They had a
rope with them and all took hold of this, Dave being in front, Phil
coming next, and Roger bringing up the rear.

"It's not such an easy job as I thought it would be," panted Phil, after
they had made an unusually difficult turn of the ledge. "It kind of
takes the wind out of a fellow!"

"Let us rest a bit," suggested Dave. "We can't go much further along the
ledge anyway," he added, looking ahead.

They had reached a point where the outcroppi