ration, for he guessed that Jack was
intending to try to secure a snapshot of the man working with that
pickax, as though desirous of offering it as positive proof that could
not be denied.

Creeping behind a neighboring tree the generous trunk of which offered
him the necessary asylum, Jack watched his chance. He waited until the
man stood up to rest, with the pickax held over his shoulder, and the
sun well on his face. Then a tiny click announced to Toby that the thing
had been done.

He was keeping his eyes glued on the man; but as several crows were
holding a noisy confab not far away, and a squirrel had taken to barking
at the intruder with the digging tool, such a slight sound as the
clicking of the camera apparently passed unnoticed.

The stranger seemed to be more or less excited. After mopping his
perspiring forehead he once more commenced digging here and there in a
most tantalizing fashion. Toby could not comprehend what it could mean.
Was there gold or some other precious deposit to be found up here among
these hills, and might this strange man be an old prospector from the
West who had had long experience in searching for mineral lodes? But
then such things were seldom discovered so near the top of the ground,
Toby recollected. He wished the man would go away so he could speak to
Jack, and ask him what he thought; because the more he considered the
matter the greater became his conviction that Jack must surely know.

Now the man seemed to have satisfied himself, for he again shouldered
the pick, and started to leave the spot. Toby was glad to notice that he
had turned aside and consequently there would be no danger of his coming
upon them in their hiding-place. He waved a farewell after the other,
boylike.

"Goodbye, Mister Man," Jack heard him whisper, exultantly; "come again
when you can't stay so long. Your room is better appreciated than your
company. Who are you, anyway; and what're you muddling about around
here, I'd like to know."

After the man had been swallowed up in the depths of the woods Jack made
the other lie quiet for something like five minutes. This was to make
doubly sure the stranger did not turn on his tracks, and come back
again. It was hard for Jack to hold in, because he was quivering with
eagerness to investigate, and see if he could find out what had
interested the other so much.

"Guess he's gone for keeps, Jack," suggested the eager Toby, fretting
like a hound held in th