re any more rascals
steal a march on you. But be sure to send Mike back for us, the moment
Anne and you arrive there and find everything is all right," replied
Eleanor.

So Mike spurred his broncho along the trail, while Polly and Anne rode
after him. Soon they disappeared around the bend where giant pines
formed a wall on either side of the narrow going.

CHAPTER II

THE CLAIM-JUMPERS

The moment the three had passed out of sight, Sam Brewster jumped from
his horse and led him over to the great tree that caused the trail to
turn aside and run around it. He looped the reins over his arm and
placed his hands in his coat pockets. As he leaned against the
tree-trunk nibbling nonchalantly at a sprig of grass, a tenderfoot would
never have dreamed that his fingers were tensely held against the
triggers of the revolvers hidden in his pockets.

Soon after Mr. Brewster had taken his stand where he could see the first
appearance of any one coming up the trail, two riders approached eagerly
scanning the large trees, in evident search of something. As they came
to the giant tree where the rancher waited, both men started in
surprise.

"How-dy, friends? Out early this morning, eh?" was the greeting the two
amazed men received from the alert man at the tree.

"Oh--oh, yes!" stammered one, plainly uneasy.

"Hoh, it's Sam Brewster of Pebbly Pit, ain't it?" said the other, also
confused in his manner.

"Right you are, Hank. You see, when a man has to attend to the girls'
gold mine, he has to be up right early to forestall the plans of any
claim-jumpers who read the records at Oak Creek, yesterday, after we
left there. That's why I got a posse to guard the place. I reckon, now,
Hank, that your boss sent you-all on to help we-all up yonder, eh?"
laughed Mr. Brewster, tantalizingly, as he recognized Hank to be the
clerk at the filing office in Oak Creek.

The man Hank laughed also, but a discordant note rang through his forced
merriment. "We-all ain't claim-jumpers, Mr. Brewster, but it seemed so
quare to find Old Montresor's Mine hed ben found again, that Ah sez to
my pal, here, 'How'd you-all like to run up to the Slide and have a
squint at that cave?' An' havin' a day off, he reckoned he'd enjy the
trip. So here we-all are."

"Yes--so Ah see! Here you-all are. And Ah says to my girls and the
posse, says Ah: 'There'll be a lot of fools start off at night-fall, to
hit this trail to the Slide just out of dern-fool c