and Jeff were awaiting them.

"Look!" called the delighted Frank, holding up the nugget. "See what we
found!"

"Begorra, but I shouldn't wonder if that's worth something," remarked
Tim, catching the contagion. Jeff merely smiled and reached out his
hand without any appearance of excitement.

"Let me have a look at it."

He never used glasses, nor did he bring any acid with which to test
such yellow metals as they might find, for he needed neither. He had
been trained too well in his early manhood.

The instant he noted its great weight he was convinced of the truth.
But, without speaking for a minute or two, he turned the nugget over,
held it up to the light, and then put it between his big, sound teeth
as if it were a hickory-nut which he wished to crack. He looked at the
abrasion made by his teeth, tossed the nugget several feet in the air,
and, catching it in his palm as it descended, said:

"That's pure gold. Haven't you any more?"

"No," replied Frank; "we searched, but couldn't find any."

Jeff moved his hand up and down and closed one eye, as if that would
help him to estimate the weight more exactly.

"I should say that it is worth from six to eight hundred dollars; you
younkers have made purty good wages for to-day. I hope," he added
quizzically, "you'll be able to keep it up."

"And how have you made out?" asked Roswell.

"Tim says he didn't come onto anything that looks like pay dirt; but I
struck a spot that gives me hope. We'll locate here for a while."

Of course it was impossible for the party to bring any material with
them from which to construct a dwelling. The regulation miner's cabin
is twelve by fourteen feet, with walls six or seven feet high, and
gables two feet higher. It consists of a single room, with the roof
heavily earthed and the worst sort of ventilation, owing to the small
windows and the necessity of keeping warm in a climate that sometimes
drops to fifty or sixty degrees below zero. The miners keep close
within the cabins during the terrible winter weather, or, if it
permits, they sink a shaft to bed-rock and then tunnel in different
directions. The ground never thaws below a depth of two feet, so there
is no need of shoring to prevent its caving. The pay dirt is brought up
by means of a small windlass and thrown into a heap, where it remains
until spring, when it is washed out.

Since the season was well advanced, the men and boys prepared
themselves to wash the pay d