we'll have other men to help you.

"When you leave the last wagon, put on all the water your horses can
draw. You'll strike little or no sand after that and we'll need all the
water we can get. With no bad luck, you come out opposite the south end
of your black mountain the third day. Wait there for us. It's three long
days, horseback, from Tucson; we ought to get to your camp that night.

"If we don't come, wait till noon the next day. Then saddle up, take your
pack-saddles and kegs, and drag it for the extreme south end of the
mountains on your west, about twenty miles. That ought to leave enough
water at the wagon for us to camp on if we come later. If you wait for
us, your horses will use it all up.

"When you come to the south end of your Cabeza Prieta Mountain, right
spang on the border, you'll find a canon there, coming down from the
north, splitting the range. Turn up that canon, and when it gets so rough
you can't go any farther, keep right on; you'll find some rock tanks full
of water, in a box where the sun can't get 'em. That's all. Got that?"

"I've got it," said Carr. "But Pete, aren't you taking too long a chance?
Why can't I--or both of us--just slip down there quietly and do enough
work on your mine to hold it? They're liable to beat you to it."

"I've been tryin' to make myself believe that a long time," said Pete
earnestly; "but I am far too intelligent. These people are capable of any
rudeness. And they are strictly on the lookout. I do not count myself
timid, but I don't want to tackle it. That mine ain't worth over six or
eight millions at best."

"But they won't be watching me," said Carr.

"Maybe not. I hope not. For one thing, you'll have a good excuse to pull
out from Cobre. You won't get any freighting here. Old Zurich has got it
all grabbed and contracted for. All you could get would be a subcontract,
giving you a chance to do the work and let Zurich take the profit.

"Now, to come back to this mine: No one knows where it is. It's pretty
safe till I go after it; and I'm pretty safe till I go after it. Once
we get to it, it's going to be a case of armed pickets and Who goes
there?--night and day, till we get legal title. And it's going to take
slews of money and men and horses to get water and supplies to those
miners and warriors. Listen: One or the other of two things--two--is
going to happen. Count 'em off on your fingers. Either no one will find
that mine before me and my friends me