poke.

"I think that's the best thing to do," replied Zeke quietly. "Personally I
haven't any strong feeling about what happens to my carcass after I have
left it."

"Have you any idea who or what this man was?" Fred asked.

"I found this in his pocket," responded Zeke, displaying the little book
he had taken from the coat.

"What is it? What is it?" inquired Fred eagerly.

"It looks to me like it was a diary. Some of it is missing and some is
faded, but it looks to me on the whole as if the man was keeping an
account every day of what he was doing and where he went."

"Can't you find his name in there somewhere?" inquired John.

"I haven't yet. I have a suspicion that these bones belong to old Simon
Moultrie. He was an odd stick and I guess was more than half crazy. He was
prospecting most of his life, leastwise as soon as he came out to these
regions. The funny part of it all was that he wouldn't go with anybody and
wouldn't let anybody go with him. Once or twice he thought he had struck
it rich, but I never heard that anything panned out."

"What makes you think the dead man was Simon Moultrie?"

"Mostly because he hasn't been heard from of late. It must be seven or
eight months since he has shown up. You see he used to come in twice a
year for supplies and then he would start out prospecting and not show up
again for six months, or until his supplies ran low."

"How old a man was he?" inquired John.

"Sixty-three or sixty-six, I should reckon," replied Zeke glibly. "He was
a bit off, same as I was telling you, and had just gone dippy on the
subject of finding a mine."

"And you say he did find one or two?"

"He thought he did find one or two, but when he came to follow them up,
why the stuff didn't assay worth a cent, or else it was just a little
pocket he had happened to find. What do you think ought to be done with
these bones?" again inquired the guide.

"The best thing to do is to bury them and mark the spot just as John
said," said Fred.

The suggestion was speedily acted upon and taking the spade which had been
found Zeke soon digged a grave in the soft soil. Then carefully and
silently the bones of the unfortunate man were collected and covered. A
bleached limb of a mesquite tree which had doubtless been torn away and
been carried far from its location by one of the terrific wind storms that
occasionally sweep over the region, was thrust into the ground at the head
of the little grave. Next