aving his
cap and shouting some words we could not distinguish. We were all on
tiptoe with expectation.

At length the man approached, broke through the group, ran up to
Yetmore, who was standing on his door-step, shook hands with him, and
then turning round, he shouted out:

"Great strike in the Pelican, boys! In the old workings above the
fifth--Yetmore's lease. One of those pockets of tellurium that's never
been known to run less than twenty thousand to the ton. Hooray for
Yetmore!"

The shout that went up was genuinely hearty. Once more the mayor was
mobbed by his enthusiastic fellow citizens and once more he shook hands
till his arm ached--during which proceeding Joe and I slipped away.

We had not gone far when I heard my name called, and turning round I saw
a man on horseback who handed me a letter.

"I've just come up through your place," said he, "and your father asked
me to give you this if I should see you."

The note was to the effect that the rain had been heavy on the ranch, no
plowing was possible, and so we were to stay in town that day and come
down on the morrow after the mail from the south came in, as he was
expecting an important letter, and it would thus save another trip up
and down.

We were glad enough to do this, so, making our way up the street past
the knots of people, all talking over and over again the two exciting
topics of the day, we retraced our steps to Tom's house, where we got
ready the dinner against Tom's return. Shortly after twelve he came in,
when we related to him what we had learned in town; demanding in our
turn particulars of the great strike.

"It's a rich strike, all right," said Tom, "but there isn't much of
it--about five hundred pounds--just a pocket, and not a very large one.
But it is very rich stuff, carrying over three thousand ounces of silver
and a thousand of gold to the ton. The five hundred pounds should be
worth ten or twelve dollars a pound. They've found the same stuff
several times before in the Pelican, always unexpectedly and always in
pockets."

"Then," remarked Joe, "Yetmore will have made, perhaps, six thousand
dollars this morning."

"No, no," said Tom; "he won't have done anything of the sort; though I
don't wonder you should think so after the way the people have been
carrying on down town. They've just been led away by their enthusiasm.
Most of 'em know the terms of Yetmore's lease well enough, but they have
forgotten them for the mom