he sound. But that is sure no fancy," and his eyes
glared at the stone, which Thure still held.

"And I was sound asleep right on the other side of that log at that very
moment!" and Thure's weather-bronzed face whitened a little. "No more
logs for bedfellows for me!"

"Yes, and he must have been lying right on the other side of that log,
when I bent over you to see if you were all right," added Bud. "If I'd
been only smart enough to look, it might have saved us from a lot of
trouble," and Bud's lips tightened grimly.

"Better as it is," Thure declared. "Now, we've had our warning and
nobody hurt; but, if you had discovered the fellow behind the log,
they'd have got you, sure, and, probably, me, too. Both were doubtless
on hand; and would have shot you before you could have done anything, if
you had discovered one of them. Now, I reckon, if they had found the
camp unguarded, they were intending to have a try for the map then and
there--and they would have got it! Well, what do you think about doing
as they ask, and leaving the map under the stone? It seems from what
that stone says--"

"What!" and Bud turned in astonishment to Thure. "Give up that map to a
couple of the biggest cowards and cut-throats in California? I'd sooner
give them every drop of blood in my body. I--"

"Well, you need not get so rambunctuous over it," laughed Thure. "But,"
and his face sobered, "I reckon that that there is no idle threat," and
he pointed to the flat stone, which now lay on the ground at his feet;
"and I fancy the sooner we get to our dads the better it will be for us.
Not that I'd be afraid of those two skunks," he added hastily, "if
they'd come out in the open, where one could see them; but I do not care
for any more creeping upon a fellow in the dark, when he's asleep," and
he glanced shudderingly toward the log. "But, there is no use of talking
any more about it. Let's get busy. We must make Sacramento City to-night
sure."

In a very short time breakfast was eaten, the horses saddled and bridled
and packed, and the two boys ready to mount and to start on their way
again.

"Now, for our answer to that there message," and Thure picked up the
flat stone and dropped it into the camp-fire. "I reckon that will tell
them what we think of their threat; and that we're too old to be scart
like little school boys," and he sprang on the back of his horse. "Now
for Sacramento City!" and the two boys, with watchful eyes glancing all