rowed the feelings of the community--and then, in a
very mild way, they struck it. Together they drifted down the single
street of the camp, arm in arm, an elaborate nonchalance steadying their
steps. Near the horse trough they paused.

"Gold," said Jimmy, oracularly, to George, "is where you find it."

"Likewise horse sense," quoth George.

Whereupon they whooped wildly and descended on the astonished group. To
it they exhibited yellow dust to the value of an hundred dollars. "And
more where that came from," said they.

"What kind of rock did you find it in?" demanded Tibbetts, after he had
recovered his breath from the youngsters' enthusiastic man-handling.

"Oh, a kind of red, pasty-looking rock," said they.

"Show us," demanded the miners.

"What?" cried Jimmy, astounded, "and give Old Man Luck the backhand slap
just when he's decided to buy a corner lot in the Gaynes Addition? Not
on your saccharine existence!"

"But we'll show you some more of this to-morrow Q.M.," said George.

They bought drinks all round, and paid their various bills, and departed
again feverishly to the Lost Dog whence rose smoke and clankings. And
next day, sure enough, they left their work just long enough to exhibit
another respectable little clean-up of fifty dollars or so.

"And we're just getting into it!" said George, triumphantly.

California John and all the rest of his good friends rejoiced
exceedingly and genuinely. They liked the Babes. The little strike of
the Lost Dog quite overshadowed in importance the fact that old man
Bright's "Clarice" had run into a fabulously rich pocket.

The end of the month drew near. The Lost Dog had produced nearly eight
hundred dollars. The Babes waxed important and talked largely of their
moneyed interests.

"I think," said Jimmy, importantly, "that we will decide to keep three
hundred dollars to boost the game; and nail down the rest where moths
won't corrupt. Where do you fellows salt your surplus, anyway?"

"There's an express goes out pretty soon," someone explained, "with the
clean-up of the Clarice. We send our dust out with that; and I reckon
you can fix it with Bright."

They saw Bright, but ran up against an unexpected difficulty. Old Man
Bright received them with considerable surliness. He considered himself
as the originator, discoverer, inventor, and almost the proprietor of
Bright's Cove and all it contained. Therefore, when he first heard of
the new strike, he walked u