elled bitterness; but his mother was happy in the confidence
that at last justice would be done and her son restored to her.

Dick found Harry moodily smoking in the garden, and addressed him through
the fence.

'What d'ye think?' he said, with the air of one propounding a conundrum.

Harry was not in a guessing mood; he gave it up at once and Dick took
another course.

'I got somethin' p'tickler to tell you,' he said.

'Have you, Ginger?' Harry was quite alert now. 'About this
gold-stealin'?'

'No--o, not quite about that. I'm goin' to tell all that to Downy, but
it's somethin' jist as p'tickler--about a reef we found.'

'A reef? Nonsense, Dick. How could you find a reef?'

'By diggin' fer it, I s'pose. What'd you think if I said we fellers' ye
got a mine--a really mine--me an' Jacker Mack, an' Ted McKnight, an'
Billy Peterson, an' Phil Doon? What'd you say, eh?'

'I'd say you didn't know what you were talking about, Ginger, my boy.'

'But if I took you down the shaft an' showed you the reef, an' showed you
stone with gold stickin' in it--suppose I done that, how then?'

'Where is this reef?' asked Harry, becoming impressed by the boy's
earnestness.

'Tellin's!'

'But didn't you come to tell me?'

'Come to tell you we'd found it, an' to ask what to do, so's no one can
jump it. We want it took up on a proper lease, all right fer me an' the
rest o' the fellers, an' we'll let you stand in.'

'I can't take up a lease unless I know where the reef is, can I?'

'Well, it ain't far from the Bed Rand.'

'Nonsense, Dick! The bottom must be over three hundred feet deep there.
You couldn't cut a reef any shallower than that.'

'On'y we have.'

Harry sat for a moment lost in thought. He had suddenly recalled old talk
about mysterious indications of a shallow reef in that locality, a reef
the existence of which would have been in open opposition to mining
traditions, and contrary to all locally known theories of scientific
mining. He remembered hearing of a shaft that had been put down by a few
believers, in defiance of local derision; he recalled, too, the eccentric
and unheard-of drive thrown out by the Red Hand in some such absurd
quest, and his respect for the boy's opinion grew into something like
conviction.

'It's very queer, Dick,' he said; 'but if you'll show it to me I'll do
all I can for you.'

'That's good! You see we're all in it. We're the Mount of Gold
Quartz-minin' Company--me an' Jacker an