in a tone of conviction.

"Did you hear or see anything of him during the night?"

"No--I slept too sound."

"Is anything else taken?" asked Joe. "The bag of dust------"

"Is safe. It's only the nugget that's gone."

The loss was quickly noised about the camp. Such an incident was of
common interest. Miners lived so much in common--their property was
necessarily left so unguarded--that theft was something more than
misdemeanor or light offense. Stern was the justice which overtook
the thief in those days. It was necessary, perhaps, for it was a
primitive state of society, and the code which in established
communities was a safeguard did not extend its protection here.

Suspicion fell upon Hogan at once. No one of the miners remembered
to have seen him since rising.

"Did any one see him last night?" asked Joe.

Kellogg answered.

"I saw him near your tent," he said. "I did not think anything of
it. Perhaps if I had been less sleepy I should have been more likely
to suspect that his design was not a good one."

"About what hour was this?"

"It must have been between ten and eleven o'clock."

"We did not go to sleep at once. Mr. Bickford and I were talking
over our plans."

"I wish I'd been awake when the skunk come round," said Bickford.
"I'd have grabbed him so he'd thought an old grizzly'd got hold of
him."

"Did you notice anything in his manner that led you to think he
intended robbery?" asked Kellogg.

"He was complainin' of his luck. He thought Joe and I got more than
our share, and I'm willin' to allow we have; but if we'd been as lazy
and shif'less as Hogan we wouldn't have got down to the nugget at
all."

An informal council was held, and it was decided to pursue Hogan. As
it was uncertain in which direction he had fled, it was resolved to
send out four parties of two men each to hunt him. Joe and Kellogg
went together, Joshua and another miner departed in a different
direction, and two other pairs started out.

"I guess we'll fix him," said Mr. Bickford. "If he can dodge us all,
he's smarter than I think he is."

Meanwhile Hogan, with the precious nugget in his possession, hurried
forward with feverish haste. The night was dark and the country was
broken. From time to time he stumbled over some obstacle, the root
of a tree or something similar, and this made his journey more
arduous.

"I wish it was light," he muttered.

Then he revoked his wish. In the darkness an