ridge of the mountainside.

"Link Merwell and Job Haskers, and that Sol Blugg is with them," he
murmured. "Evidently they are not going to give up the hunt."

Dave watched the party of three for several minutes and then continued
his own hunt. Roger and Phil had now disappeared from view, and Abe
Blower and Tom Dillon were far away,--almost to the top of the mountain.

A quarter of an hour passed and Dave discovered something which he
considered worth investigating. Just above his head was an opening
between the rocks,--an irregular slit fifteen or twenty feet high and
two to four feet wide.

He had seen many openings before, but this was peculiar for the reason
that one edge of the rocks looked as if it had been drilled and blasted
away. More than this, within the split lay the broken-off handle of a
shovel.

"Oh, what if I have found the lost mine!" he thought. "That
shovel-handle proves that somebody has been here, and, yes, that is
where somebody bored into the rocks and set off a blast! I must
investigate this, and if it looks promising I'll call the others. No use
in exciting Roger unless it's worth while."

Dave climbed up to the split and peered within. All was so dark that he
could see but little. Yet he made out what looked to be a fairly level
bit of flooring and he swung himself to this, first, however, placing
his handkerchief on a rock outside, for it had been agreed that if
anybody went into any sort of opening he should leave something behind,
so that the others, coming that way, might know where he was.

Each of the party had provided himself with a dry stick of wood, to use
for a torch if one was required, and Dave now lit the stick he carried
and swung it into a blaze. With this in hand he commenced an inspection
of the opening he had discovered.

The cave, if such it can be called, proved to be long and
narrow,--little more than a split in the rocks. At some points the
roofing was out of sight. The flooring, too, was irregular, and our hero
had to proceed with care, for pitfalls were numerous and he had no
desire to tumble into one of these.

"This mountainside is a good deal like Cave Island," he muttered, as he
advanced. "That was honeycombed with caves and so is this. No wonder
they have landslides here. The ground and rocks are bound to settle,
with so many openings to fill up."

He had gone forward about a hundred and fifty feet when he found the
opening leading upward. Then of a su