urt, nobody could steal it away. And that's going to be
just where the Boy Scouts can help you."

"Well, we'll know more than we do now, before a great many hours,"
asserted the miner's son; "unless this little map is all wrong, and
poor dad only believed he had found a rich lode. But remember, he
brought home specimens that were nearly pure silver; and every one who
saw them said they beat the world for richness. I can remember my dad
saying that there were tons and tons without end of that same sort, in
_his_ mine. And then he was suddenly taken down sick, and died with
the secret untold. All these long years, when we've been poor and
wanting many things, there that secret lay in my hand, oh! hundreds of
times, and I never dreamed of it still accident showed me the paper,
back of the glass in the little pocket mirror that dad had carried
with him a long time."

They relapsed into silence again for a long time, each busy with his
thoughts. Aleck knew what few simple directions his rude chart
carried; he had gazed at it so many times that it was photographed on
his mind, and there had been no need for him to rip the seam of his
coat, and take the slip of faded paper out. Kracker had not dreamed
how near the coveted clue had been to his hands, at the time he
actually held the boy, and closely examined all his pockets.

"It's lucky," remarked Thad, after fully an hour more had passed, with
both boys pushing forward steadily all the time, over rugged ways that
severely tried their abilities--"it's lucky, I say, that we are
heading exactly away from the direction where that Sheriff, and your
uncle, must be coming from."

"Yes, but I knew we'd do that before we ever started out," replied
Aleck.

"You've been sizing up the region all day in camp, and laying your
plans, if the chance ever came to try them out; isn't that so, Aleck?"

"You never said truer words in your life, Thad," answered the other.
"I found a pretty high rock on which I could perch; and that gave me a
chance to look over in this region with those fine glasses of yours.
And I tell you now, it gave me a great thrill when I recognized
something dad had marked on that little chart. It seemed just as if I
could hear his voice calling me from the grave, and telling me I was
doing the right thing--to go ahead, no matter who tried to stop me."

"What sort of a land-mark was it you saw?" asked the other scout.

"Why, you see, he made a rough sketch of a roc