started back to camp. Why I did
not come a header in that fearful, boulder-strewn wash I cannot tell
you. Certainly I took no care of my going, but leaped recklessly from
rock to rock like a goat. When I reached the flat, I ran, whooping like
an Indian. From the river I could see Johnny and Buck Barry running,
too, and had sense enough to laugh as it occurred to me they must think
us attacked by Indians. Far down the stream I could just make out
figures I knew to be Yank and McNally. They too seemed to be coming to
camp, though I could not imagine that my shouts had carried so far.

I burst in on Bagsby, who was smoking his pipe and leisurely washing the
breakfast dishes, with a whoop, lifted him bodily by the shoulders,
whirled him around in a clumsy dance. He aimed a swipe at me with the
wet dish cloth that caught me across the eyes.

"You tarnation young grizzly b'ar!" said he.

I wiped the water from my eyes. Johnny and Buck Barry ran up. Somehow
they did not seem to be anticipating an Indian attack after all. Johnny
ran up to thump me on the back.

"Isn't it _great_!" he cried. "Right off the reel! First pop!
Bagsby, old sport, you're a wonder!" He started for Bagsby, who promptly
rushed for his long rifle.

"I'm going to kill the first lunatic I see," he announced.

Johnny laughed excitedly, and turned back to thump me again.

"How did you guess what it was?" I asked.

"Didn't. Just blundered on it."

"What!" I yelled. "Have you struck it, too?"

"First shovel," said Johnny. "But you don't mean----"

I thrust my three nuggets under his eyes.

"Say," broke in Buck Barry, "if you fellows know where the whiskey is,
hide it, and hide it quick. If I see it, I'll get drunk!"

Yank and McNally at this moment strolled from around the bushes. We all
burst out on them.

"See your fool nuggets and 'colour,' and raise you this," drawled Yank,
and he hauled from his pocket the very largest chunk of virgin gold it
has ever been my good fortune to behold. It was irregular in shape,
pitted and scored, shaped a good deal like an egg, and nearly its size.
One pound and a tiny fraction that great nugget balanced--when we got
around to weighing it. And then to crown the glorious day which the gods
were brimming for us, came Don Gaspar and Vasquez, trailed by that long
and saturnine individual, Missouri Jones. The Spaniards were outwardly
calm, but their eyes snapped. As soon as they saw us they waved their
hats.