rs in the air almost every
time, but no opportunity occurred in which he could exercise his
markmanship for the benefit of the camp.

He also told any number of good stories, at which the boys, Whitey
included, laughed heartily; he sang jolly songs, with a very fair tenor
voice, and all the boys joined in the chorus; and he played a banjo in
style, which always set the boys to capering as gracefully as a crowd of
bachelor bears.

But still Whitey remained in camp and in office, and the captain, who
was as humane as he was ambitious, had no idea of attempting to remove
the old chief by force.

On Monday night the whole camp retired early, and slept soundly. Monday
had at all times a very short evening at Black Hat, for the boys were
generally weary after the duties and excitements of Sunday; but on this
particular Monday a slide had threatened on the hillside, and the boys
had been hard at work cutting and carrying huge logs to make a break or
barricade.

So, soon after supper they took a drink or two, and sprinkled to their
several huts, and Black Hat was at peace, There were no dogs or cats to
make night hideous--no uneasy roosters to be sounding alarm at unearthly
hours--no horrible policemen thumping the sidewalks with clubs--no
fashionable or dissipated people rattling about in carriages. Excepting
an occasional cough, or sneeze, or over-loud snore, the most perfect
peace reigned at Black Hat.

[Illustration: THEY FOUND HIM SENSELESS, AND CARRIED HIM TO THE SALOON,
WHERE THE CANDLES WERE ALREADY LIGHTED. ONE OF THE MINERS, WHO HAD BEEN
A DOCTOR, PROMPTLY EXAMINED HIS BRUISES.]

Suddenly a low but heavy rumble, and a trembling of the ground, roused
every man in camp, and, rushing out of their huts, the miners saw a mass
of stones and earth had been loosened far up the hillside, and were
breaking over the barricade in one place, and coming down in a perfect
torrent.

They were fortunately moving toward the river on a line obstructed by no
houses, though the hut of old Miller, who was very sick, was close to
the rocky torrent.

But while they stared, a young pine-tree, perhaps a foot thick, which
had been torn loose by the rocks and brought down by them, suddenly
tumbled, root first, over a steep rock, a few feet in front of old
Miller's door. The leverage exerted by the lower portion of the stem
threw the whole tree into a vertical position for an instant; then it
caught the wind, tottered, and finally fell