ether regions.

The next day they planned to bi-plane up and down the John Muir trail
again and see if the Mexicans could have crossed to the Eastern side of
the range. They might have made their way through some pass, traveling
after nightfall and hiding by day, and once on the desert around Mono
Lake they would be easy to locate. For it seemed ridiculous that they
could actually make a get-away.

CHAPTER XII

GOLD!

In the pass between two appalling peaks the two boys sighted the smoke of
a cook-fire, and without once reflecting that they were unarmed,
pan-caked down for a closer inspection. But there was no need to land. It
was a band of Indians. And though they searched till they were ready to
drop with fatigue,--and all but frozen stiff in those high
altitudes,--not the sign of a Mexican did they sight after that.

They returned utterly discouraged.

"What kind of Indians were they?" asked Long Lester.

"Oh, just Indians," said the ranch boy.

"That is like saying, oh, just whites," said Norris. "Indians differ more
than you would ever imagine."

"Why is that, Mr. Norris?" Ted wanted to know. "They're mostly mighty
good for nothing specimens, to judge from our Diggers."

"I'll tell you after supper," Norris promised them.

Pedro had been out with his trout rod. Descending to the river, which
here circled around a huge bowlder from which he thought he could cast,
he had a string in no time.

Now Pedro was thoroughly well liked, with his Castilian courtesy and his
ever ready song. The lack of physical courage had been his greatest
drawback. Always had the fear been secret within him that at some crucial
moment he might show the white feather. His experience with the Mexicans
had removed that, but he was still mortally afraid of three
things,--bears, rattlesnakes, and thunder storms,--that is, real wild
bears, not the half tame kind that haunt the Parks.

Still, he had not noticed the furry form that stood neck-deep in the
riffles, fishing with his great, barbed paw,--so perfectly did he blend
into the background.

The shadow of the canyon wall had made twilight while yet the sun sent
orange shafts through the trees on the canyon rim. Suddenly around the
turn of the trail rose a huge brown form that gave a startled grunt,
rising inquiringly on its shaggy hind legs and swinging its long head
from side to side. Pedro's heart began beating like a trip-hammer. (He
wondered if the bear could hear