ouple of hundred feet apart and off to itself.

The scene of the camp was a small canyon near his old home and on the
trail leading to it. There was gold in the canyon, for he had discovered
it there and taken some away, while he had marked it as his claim, it
having been already staked as one of the finds and claims of the real
Andrew Seldon.

In truth, there were a dozen such claims in the Grand Canyon found by
Andrew Seldon, all of them paying finds.

Having reached a point within a hundred yards of the camp-fires, Seldon
leaned over a rock and began to survey the scene.

The three fires were burning brightly, and beyond the light fell upon a
number of horses corralled in the canyon, where there was grass and
water. There were brush shelters near, three in number, and about the
fires in front of them were gathered a number of men.

Counting them, Andrew Seldon found that there were eight in sight.

There appeared to be no guard kept, and the camp was certainly not a
very new one, apparently having been made there several weeks before.

Emboldened by his discovery, the gold-hunter crept nearer and nearer,
and then could see that the men were all masked.

This struck him as being a very remarkable circumstance, indeed, since
they were clad like miners, some of them wearing beards that came below
their masks. All were armed thoroughly.

They were eating their supper as Andrew Seldon looked at them.

Gaining a point of observation still nearer, the gold-hunter obtained a
view of the camp-fire apart from the others. A comfortable little cabin
was just behind the fire, and a rustic bench had been made near it.

A blanket hung over the door of the tiny cabin, and about the fire was
the evidence of a supper recently eaten, for a cup, tin plate, and
knives, with the remains of a meal, were upon a rock that served as a
table.

Upon the rustic seat sat one whose presence there was a great surprise
to Andrew Seldon.

"By Heaven, it is a woman!" he almost cried aloud in his amazement.

Then he determined to get a still nearer view, and after surveying the
position, he decided that he could do so by passing around to the edge
of the cliff and creeping along it to a point not sixty feet away.

As he, after very cautious work, reached the point he sought, some forty
feet from the one at the camp-fire, gazing upon her he muttered to
himself:

"It is a young and beautiful girl, and why is she here with those
strange