n
the latter went to get a drink of water near by. Artemus looked as
though he wanted to keep them from having any communications out of
his range of hearing; but he sank back in his seat again, plainly
afraid of invoking the anger of the big sheriff, who, he already felt,
did not feel any too warmly toward him and his cause.

And as they sat down by the little stream to dip up some of the clear
water with the tin cup Sheriff Bob had made sure to fetch along, Allan
made it a point to tell the other all that Aleck had said about the
motives of his father's lawyer brother, and how for a long time he had
bothered the widow, trying to find out if she knew anything about the
hidden mine; which until lately of course she had not.

Allan knew how to talk. Moreover, he had an interested listener in the
officer, and that counted for a great deal. Besides, he felt deeply
for the persecuted boy, and his heart was filled with a desire to
assist him secure the legacy left by his father, than whom no living
soul had ever gazed upon the hidden mine.

Sheriff Bob listened to all that the boy said. Several times he
scratched his head reflectively, and made a grimace, as though
conflicting forces had begun to engage him in an inward war.

And when finally Allan declared that he now knew all, the officer
drew a long breath, and remarked, quietly:

"I seem to smell a pretty good-sized rat about this game Mr. Artemus is
putting up; but as I said, the warrant he swore out is in my hands for
serving, and I just reckon I'll have to do my sworn duty and arrest this
same Aleck----that is, if so be he shows up while we're around here."

Allan looked him squarely in the eye; and he was sure one of the lids
above the blue orbs of the official dropped a little in a suggestive
way.

He too drew a long breath, and with a smile on his boyish face, said
as he arose:

"Thank you, Mr. Sheriff, thank you very much!"

CHAPTER XXII.

THE GUARDIAN OF THE SILVER LODE.

As has been mentioned before, Thad had a plan in view when he left the
camp in company with Aleck, somewhere about midnight. Though for
certain reasons which he considered good, he had not seen fit to take
a single one of his comrades into his confidence, the scoutmaster
believed that the only way for Aleck to win his own game was to find
the long-lost mine, and take possession of the same in the name of
his father, who had been the original discoverer of the lode.

Score