ould have ever done what intense
gratitude filled his boyish heart.

"The original discoverer of the wonderful silver mine that has never
been located since that time, so long ago?" Thad went on.

"Then you _do_ know about that?" Aleck remarked, quickly; "I was
wondering, seeing that you must be strangers around these regions,
whether you had heard."

"Our guide, Tony Smathers here, told us; he used to know your father;
and he said there was a family located somewhere down in Utah," the
scoutmaster continued.

"My mother, and three small sisters; the youngest was a baby when he
died," Aleck went on to say, as though he realized that explanations
from him must now be in order, since these boys had done so much for
him; and besides, even though they were next door to strangers to him,
some sort of free masonry within seemed to tell Aleck that they were
going to prove the best friends he had ever known.

"Do you feel able to walk with us down into the valley to our camp?"
Thad asked.

"I should say I did, and be only too glad into the bargain!"
exclaimed the other, his voice filled with delight. "And while we're
going I want to tell you just how it came that I was on that horrible
little shelf of rock, placed there by Colonel Kracker, who said I
would never leave it alive unless I gave up to him the secret of my
father's hidden silver mine. And he promised to come up there above me
every day, to ask me if I was ready to throw up the sponge. But I'd
have died there before I played the coward, and told him what he
wanted; for how could I ever look my mother and sisters in the face
again, if I saved my useless life by selling out their mine to that
cruel and hateful man?"

CHAPTER VI.

BACKED BY THE SILVER FOX PATROL.

"Hurrah for you, Aleck!" exclaimed Giraffe, unable to repress his
feelings any longer.

Thad himself felt just as full of enthusiasm over the brave manner in
which this son of Jerry Rawson had defied the man whose one desire in
life now seemed to be the discovery and confiscation of the rich mine
that had eluded his eager fingers for so many years; but he knew
better how to repress his delight.

They were starting along the top of the precipice now. Toby leading
the way, and every now and then turning his head, to warn them of a
particularly risky place. Thad had made sure to coil up that precious
rope belonging to generous Bumpus, and which had so frequently proven
to be worth its weigh