"Ah! also you have found the gold!" cried Don Gaspar, sensing
immediately the significance of our presence. "We, too. It is of good
colour; there above by the bend." His eye widened as he saw what Yank
held. "_Madre de dios!_" he murmured.

McNally, who had said and done nothing, suddenly uttered a resounding
whoop and stood on his hands. Missouri Jones, taking aim, spat carefully
into the centre of the fire, missing the dishpan by a calculated and
accurate inch.

"The country is just _lousy_ with gold," he pronounced.

Then we blew up. We hugged each other, we pounded each other's backs, we
emulated McNally's wild Irish whoops, finally we joined hands and danced
around and around the remains of the fire, kicking up our heels
absurdly. Bagsby, a leathery grin on his face, stood off one side. He
still held his long-barrelled rifle, which he presented at whoever
neared him.

"I tell you, look out!" he kept saying over and over. "I'm shootin'
lunatics to-day; and apparently there's plenty game to choose from."

CHAPTER XXIII

THE CAMP ON THE PORCUPINE

We should all have liked to start right in digging, but Bagsby
strenuously opposed this.

"You-all have a rich diggings yere," said he; "and you want to stay a
while and git the most there is out of them. And if you're going to do
that, you've got to get a good ready. You've got make a decent camp, and
a stockade for the hosses at night; and if you want yore grub to last
you more than a month there's got to be some reg'lar hunting and fishing
done."

"That'll take a week!" cried Johnny impatiently.

"Or more," agreed Bagsby with entire complacence. "You can bull at it
and go to t'aring up the scenery if you want to; but you won't last
long."

Unpalatable as this advice seemed, with all the loose gold lying about,
we ended by adopting it. Indeed, we added slightly to our self-imposed
tasks by determining on the construction of cradles. Yank had figured
out a scheme having to do with hollowed logs and canvas with cleats that
would obviate the need of lumber. We deputed Johnny to help him. Bagsby
and Vasquez were to hunt and fish for the general benefit, while the
rest of us put up a stockade, or corral, and erected a cabin.

I must confess the labour was pleasant. We had plenty of axes, and four
of us were skilled in their use. Personally I like nothing better than
the exercise of swinging a keen blade, the feeling of skillful accuracy
and of nicely adj