er,
can't I dig into ye for two bits?" asked one. The man was trembly and
his lips quivered as he spoke. Remembering his own recent condition
Rayder handed the fellow a dollar and motioning to the others, said:
"Divide up." The men jumped to their feet with alacrity and followed
the first man to the bar.

Rayder walked to the faro table where Amos sat with his back to him
putting down twenty dollar gold pieces on the money. "I never squeal,"
Amos was saying to another man who was drawing out the cards from the
box. "Bet yer life, man wins my money I never squeal," Amos was saying
to the dealer. "Got skads of it anyhow, and when that's gone I know
where to get a mine worth more an' a million." Rayder stood watching
the player tossing twenty after twenty in gold and tapping a tiny bell
now and then when a waiter came and took the orders from those seated
around the table watching the game. They all called for whisky except
the dealer, he took a cigar. It requires a clear head to deal faro.

Rayder grew tired of watching and sat down. He was thinking where did
Amos get so much money? He had not attended to the business of his
office since his recovery and had had no occasion to look into his
check book. After a certain period of the night with Amos in his back
office, everything was a blank. He remembered the conversation about
Annie and the mine but had no recollection about signing the check. To
see Amos sitting at that table losing money like a prince at Monte
Carlo, almost took his breath. He began to feel certain now as to the
fabulous riches of the mine, for he could conceive of no other way by
which Amos could get possession of so much money. He had learned of
Mrs. Amos purchasing the ranch and paying for it in gold, and wondered
at the time. Then he thought that perhaps Amos was trying to throw him
off the purchase of the mine in order to secure the property himself.
There was a mystery somewhere he could not fathom.

The board partition against which he sat was thin, and while he was
not playing eavesdropper, he could not help hearing: "The secret of
that mine has been known to me since I was a child," a woman was
saying, "but I never supposed Carson would locate it when I gave him
the papers." And then she recounted the story of the hidden Spanish
treasure in the Grand river hills and continued: "The two men they are
trying to rescue from under the snow slide are dead long ago and the
only one left that is int