to see something away off, when all we have to do is to turn our eyes
up and look."

Aleck instantly "caught on" to what his companion meant. He bent his
head back, and gave utterance to a low cry of satisfaction.

"Well, if that doesn't beat anything?" he ejaculated, apparently highly
pleased; "it's the head, as sure as I live, and towering right above us,
almost. No wonder I couldn't see it, looking away off, and thinking it
lay further on. We've found the land-mark dad set down in his little
map, Thad. And now to discover the crack in the wall, hidden by the
hanging vines, where he followed a fox in, just out of curiosity, and
discovered the richest silver lode he ever knew about. Oh! I'm just
shaking all over with excitement. And I sure hope my mother's thinking
about me right now, thinking, and praying for me to succeed!"

CHAPTER XXIII.

A WOLF BROOD IN THE WAY.

It was plain to the young scoutmaster that Aleck had studied his map
carefully. For after he had taken his bearings anew, from the rocky
head that towered almost above them, the other was able to make a
direct course to the foot of an adjoining cliff, where the moonlight
fell upon the chalky wall.

Thad saw first of all that there were strange markings across the face
of this cliff, or rather running up and down. They consisted of
several thicknesses, and as the boys drew closer, he discovered that
what he suspected before was the truth; and that these were caused by
vines that ascended for various distances, clinging tenaciously to the
rock wall.

Toward their base they seemed of unusual thickness; and it was easily
believable that one of these might conceal a fissure in the rock, just
as Aleck had mentioned, when speaking of the way his father discovered
the entrance to Aladdin's Cave of treasure.

The boy seemed to be counting these dark veins traversing the face of
the cliff, and when they came to the fourth one he stopped still.

"There it is, Thad, the vines he marked, fourth from the right!" he
said, in a low and trembling voice, as though the intensity of his
feelings almost overcame him.

"Yes, I can see it," replied the other, steadily, feeling that he must
bolster up Aleck's courage in this trying time. "And we want to know
right away whether it really does hide a gap in the rock. Come on,
Aleck!"

He led the way forward, with the other half holding back. Feverish with
impatience though Aleck might be, to know whether all