p itself was a small
circle, marked "Hangtown"; and from there a crooked line trailed in a
northeasterly direction to the upper right-hand quarter of the skin,
where a map of Lot's Canyon and Crooked Arm Gulch was drawn with
considerable detail.

[Illustration: THE SKIN MAP.]

For a couple of minutes the two boys studied this map in silence, while
the conviction that the Cave of Gold was no deathbed hallucination, but
a wonderful reality, grew upon them; or else, how came the skin map,
which evidently had been made many days ago?

"Hangtown!" and Thure pointed excitedly to the name on the map. "That's
the name of the mining camp where dad was when he wrote last. And here,"
and his finger followed up the trail marked on the map, "is Lot's
Canyon! and the Big Tree! and Crooked Arm Gulch! and the Golden Elbow!
and--and this black spot, marked 'cave,' right at the point of the
Golden Elbow, must be the Cave of Gold! Great Moses, but I believe the
miner did actually find that Cave of Gold, just as he said he did!" and
Thure's eyes and face glowed with excitement.

"So do I," Bud agreed emphatically. "The skin map, the gold nugget--why,
even his murder! all go to prove the truth of his tale. The robbers
killed him to get this map. They could have got the gold without killing
and got away all right; but they knew of the Cave of Gold and the
map--the miner said he told them--and, expecting to get the map along
with the gold, they killed him to get him out of the way, so that they
could have all the gold in the cave to themselves. Say, but let's hurry
home and tell our mothers. They can't refuse to let us go to the mines
now! And we must start just as soon as possible. Come," and, for the
moment, in his excitement, forgetting the dead body of the miner, he
started to mount his horse.

"But, we can't leave him there!" and Thure pointed to the body. "Just
help me to get him up on the horse in front of me and then we'll get
home as soon as possible," and, picking up the little buckskin bag, he
slipped the nugget and the map back into it, thrust it into his pocket,
and soon, with the help of Bud, was on his horse, with the body of the
dead miner in front of him.

Bud now quickly threw the grizzly bearskin back on his horse, jumped
into his saddle, and the homeward journey was resumed.

CHAPTER IV

AT THE CONROYAL RANCHO

When Thure, bearing in his arms the dead body of a man, and Bud, with
the huge skin of a griz