emselves. I don't care to stop in any little
half-civilized western town for any length of time, but if I could
just go right out into the heart of the mountains somewhere, and
stay for a few weeks, that would be an experience worth having."

Houston smiled; "How would you like a trip out into the part of the
country where I am going? As near as I can make out, it is twenty-five
miles from the nearest town, just a rough mining camp, with very few
people aside from the miners."

"Why," replied Rutherford, "I think that would be fine; anyhow, I'll
try it if you have no objections; it will be a change anyway."

And so it was decided that Rutherford should extend his pleasure trip
into the mining camp, and Houston was pleased with the arrangement,
for, notwithstanding the work which he had planned, he expected to
find many lonely hours and monotonous days, little dreaming of the
interests that awaited him, or that he was entering upon the most
eventful portion of his life.

At about one o'clock the train arrived at Silver City, a town of about
fifteen thousand inhabitants. The young men, as they left the train,
caught a glimpse of the indefatigable Mr. Wilson as he was boarding a
street car in company with two intended victims which he had already
secured. They took a carriage, and as they were whirled rapidly
through the steep, narrow streets on their way to the hotel, the
little city seemed to them like a thoroughly typical, western, mining
town. The town was surrounded by mountains, and prospect holes and
abandoned placer diggings could be seen in every direction, while
interspersed among the business blocks of brick and stone, were tiny
cabins, built of logs,--all relics of the earlier days when Silver
City was but a large mining camp.

After lunch, Houston started forth in search of the city office of The
Northwestern Mining, Land and Investment Company, which he found
without difficulty. He was surprised to discover that business there
was conducted on something of a co-operative plan, as the one large
room in which he found himself constituted the offices of some
half-dozen mining and real estate companies, and was occupied at the
time by eight or ten different men, each seated at his own desk, and
separated from his neighbors by a little wooden railing. A broad aisle
extended through the center of the room, and at the farther end were
two or three accountants' desks, two large safes and two typewriters.

The