be here when you'll have the chance to fill a good-sized
building with boarders. I reckon there's plenty of dust here that hasn't
been dug out yet."

"There ain't no doubt about that, Cap," spoke up one of the miners.
"This is goin' ter be one of ther best minin' camps in ther middle part
of Nevada, an' there ain't no mistake on that. It's most placer minin'
that we've been doin' here, 'cause we ain't got no machinery ter go down
deep in ther ground. But that there's big deposits down under us there
ain't no doubt. I've cleaned up a cool, thousand so fur this week, an'
I've got two more days ter make almost another one. I'm goin' ter send
my stuff over to ther Bend Saturday afternoon."

"By the long route, I suppose?" and Cap Roche smiled in a peculiar way.

"Yes; that's ther way ther wagons goes nowadays."

"Well, I'll guarantee that it will be safe to go through the pass, just
the same."

"How is it that you are able to give such a guarantee as that,
stranger?"

The voice came from the doorway, and, turning, Cap Roche saw a
dashing-looking boy, with a wealth of chestnut hair hanging over his
shoulders, standing there, looking at him.

The villain knew who it was without being told.

"Young Wild West, I reckon?" he said, coolly. "Come on in; don't stand
there. I don't know just what kind of a guarantee I can give that this
man's gold will go safely through the pass, but it is my opinion that
there are no robbers there. That's why I spoke that way."

"Oh!"

Our hero walked in followed by his partners and John Sedgwick.

As the reader may judge, Wild had suspected the man the moment he saw
him looking at the sign at the mouth of the pass.

When he heard Sedgwick say he was the storekeeper over in Silver Bend he
did not alter his opinion, either.

Determined to find out more about the man, he had walked over to the
saloon.

Cap Roche was talking when our friends got there, and as his back
happened to be toward the door he did not see them until after the young
deadshot spoke.

Wild knew that the only way to get anything out of the man would be
first to anger him.

He had tried to do this, but apparently he had not succeeded.

The face of Roche wore, a smile as he came in, and, giving a nod, he
said:

"I never saw you before, but I knew you right away. I am glad to meet
you, Young Wild West."

"All right, Cap Roche. I am glad to meet you, too."

"Ah! You know me, then?"

"Well, Sedgwick told me