r outfit, but the' wasn't
enough chance in that. I got to have a trace of gamblin' in anything I
do; so the first thing I knew I was down in Nevada lookin' for the
treasure 'at Bill Brophy had buried there. The last of his gang had
tried to describe the place, but his description would have done for
'most any place in Nevada--she not bein' what you might call
free-handed in the way of variety.

Well, I ragged around in the mountains between Nevada and California,
lookin' for a flat-shaped rock with a mountain-peak on each side of it,
an' a cold wind sweepin' up the canon--I don't know just how the cold
wind got included, but the dyin' outlaw dwelt upon that cold wind
something particular. I stayed out puny late in the season, an' if cold
winds was identifyin', Brophy had his treasure buried purty unpartially
all over the West.

I reckon I'd have died if I had it fallen in with Slocum. Slocum was a
queer lookin' speciment when you first came upon him. His skin didn't
fit him very well, bein' a trifle too big, an' wrankled an' baggy in
consequence; his eyes was kind of a washy blue, an' they stuck out from
his face, givin' him the most sorrowful expression I ever see. You just
couldn't be suspicious of a man with such eyes as that; he seemed to
have throwed himself wide open an' invited the whole world to come an'
look inside. Why, a perfect stranger would have trusted Slocum with his
last plug of tobacoo, and like as not he'd have gotten part of it back.
Well, as I said, I was headin' for warmer weather, but I got overtook
an' had about given up all hope when I noticed the smell of smoke in
the air. I was walkin' on foot an' pullin' a burro with a pack behind
me, an' after a time I located that smoke comin' right up through the
snow.

I yelled and shouted around for a while without gettin' any response.
Night and the snow was both fallin' fast, an' that smoke was exceeding
temptin'. Finally I took a piece of burlap off the pack, put it over
the hole where the smoke was comin' up through, an' piled snow on top
of it. I was curious to see what would happen. I waited--perhaps it was
only five minutes, but it seemed that many hours--an' then a low, calm
voice, down somewhere beneath me, sez, "Get off that chimney!"

"I will," sez I, "when you tell me how to get to the fire."

I waited again, an' then a man with a lantern emerged into the cut
about forty feet below me, an' told me how I could wind around and come
down t