s performance was
to produce a thick coating of mud on the feet and ankles, which,
when dried in the sun, was supposed to harden the skin and render
their shoes superfluous. It was also felt to be the first real step
towards independence; they looked down at their ensanguined
extremities and recognized the impossibility of their ever again
crossing (unwashed) the family threshold.

Then they again hesitated. There was a manifest need of some well
defined piratical purpose. The last act was reckless and
irretrievable, but it was vague. They gazed at each other. There was
a stolid look of resigned and superior tolerance in Wan Lee's eyes.
Polly's glance wandered down the side of the slope to the distant
little tunnels or openings made by the miners who were at work in
the bowels of the mountain. "I'd like to go into one of them funny
holes," she said to herself, half aloud.

Wan Lee suddenly began to blink his eyes with unwonted excitement.
"Catchee tunnel--heap gold," he said, quickly. "When manee come
outside to catchee dinner--Pilats go inside catchee tunnel! Shabbee!
Pilats catchee gold allee samee Melican man!"

[Illustration]

"And take perseshiun," said Hickory.

"And hoist the Pirate flag," said Patsey.

"And build a fire, and cook, and have a family," said Polly.

The idea was fascinating to the point of being irresistible. The
eyes of the four children became rounder and rounder. They seized
each other's hands and swung them backwards and forwards,
occasionally lifting their legs in a solemn rhythmic movement known
only to childhood.

"Its orful far off!" said Patsey, with a sudden look of dark
importance. "Pap sez its free miles on the road. Take all day ter
get there."

The bright faces were overcast.

"Less go down er slide!" said Hickory, boldly.

[Illustration]

They approached the edge of the cliff. The "slide" was simply a
sharp incline zigzagging down the side of the mountain used for
sliding goods and provisions from the summit to the tunnel men at
the different openings below. The continual traffic had gradually
worn a shallow gulley half filled with earth and gravel into the
face of the mountain which checked the momentum of the goods in
their downward passage, but afforded no foothold for a pedestrian.
No one had ever been known to descend a slide. That feat was
evidently reserved for the Pirate band. They approached the edge of
the slide hand in hand, hesitated--and the next moment