fty dollars. To this contract the old man now
affixed his signature, in a very shaky hand.

"There, I'm glad that's settled," said he. And a moment later he had
fallen out of his chair upon the floor.

Miner's paralysis! Even the Woolsey boys knew the symptoms. They lifted
the old man up and put him on his bed, gave him whiskey, and then
consulted as to their next duty. They could not leave him there alone
upon the mountain-top; nor was it an easy matter to descend to the
bottom of the canon for help.

"You stay here, Charley," said John, "and I'll go for Dr. Mason."

"That won't do, Jack. It will be five o'clock before you can cross the
canon, and dark by the time you reach North Bloomfield. Alleghany City
is the place to strike for. Get Dr. Lefevre over there. They say he can
cure paralysis if any man can."

"It's no easy trip to Alleghany, either," said John thoughtfully. "The
canon of Wolf Creek is as bad as the canon of the Middle Yuba. And
there's Kanaka Creek beyond."

"Then again, whichever way you go," responded his brother, "you ain't
sure of finding the doctor. Better take the old man with us and make for
Alleghany, I guess."

This seemed the most feasible plan. So they saddled Palmer's sure-footed
horse, put his sick master into the saddle, and started down the trail
across the canon of Wolf Creek. It was a long, hard trip. To the Woolsey
boys, holding and steadying the old man, the canon had never seemed so
deep. At last they reached the Plumbago Mine, on the opposite height,
where they borrowed two mules to carry them the rest of the way. It was
easy going now as far as Chipp's Flat. Late in the evening they climbed
the steep trail from Kanaka Creek to Alleghany City, took their charge
to the hotel, and hunted up Dr. Lefevre.

So began a long, hard sickness, the first serious sickness Robert Palmer
had suffered since his arrival in the gold fields. For days he lay
helpless. As soon as he was sufficiently recovered to take notice of his
surroundings, he begged to be moved from the noisy hotel, with its
sickening smells, to the cabin of an old friend named Lee, who lived
some distance from the main street.

There are not more than half a dozen streets in Alleghany City, the
principal one being the road along the mountain-side, which, leaving the
village, climbs up over an ancient stream of lava, and crossing the
summit of the mountain plunges down to Forest City. Dr. Lefevre was the
only doctor in