e a pocket, like the one I found on Prosper
Gulch." He went forward, but Earl was ahead of him, and was using the
pick with all the speed and skill at his command. As the remainder of
the rock came away, a mass of sand, gravel, and dirt followed.

"Here are four small nuggets," said Randy, picking them up.
"Fifty-dollar finds, every one of them."

Earl said nothing, although he heard the talk. He had espied a gleam of
dull yellow wedged in between the side of the split and a second rock.
He tried to force the second rock out, and as it moved forward the gleam
of yellow became larger and larger, until his hand could not have
covered it. He worked on frantically, hardly daring to breathe. At last
the rock fell and the face of the nugget lay revealed, shaped very much
like the sole and heel of a large man's shoe.

"What have you got?" asked Randy and Fred simultaneously, seeing
something was up; but Earl kept right on, picking away below the find,
and to both sides. It seemed to him the thing would never come out, and
as he realized how large the nugget was, his hands trembled so he could
scarcely hold the pick. "I've struck a fortune!" he muttered, at last,
in a strangely hoarse voice. "See if anybody is looking, Randy." And
then the nugget came loose, and he clutched it in both hands and held it
up,--a dull, dirty, yellowish lump, worth at least three thousand
dollars!

CHAPTER XXVI.

SLUICE BOXES AND PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER.

A nugget worth three thousand dollars was, by far, the largest find yet
made in that district, and the three young miners could scarcely believe
it true, as they surveyed the lump in Earl's hands.

"Do you suppose it's pure gold?" asked Randy, as he took it from his
brother. "It's heavy enough."

"I think it's almost pure," said Earl. "We've struck it rich this time.
Be sure and keep your mouth shut, both of you, or we'll have all of Gold
Bottom up here," he added. "We've got at least four thousand dollars'
worth of stuff out of there, so far, and goodness only knows how much
more there is."

"Here come a couple of miners now," whispered Fred, happening to glance
down the gulch. He dropped some of the smaller nuggets into his pockets,
while Randy took care of the rest. Earl let the large lump fall into the
dirt and covered it up with tundra muck.

"Well, pards, how air ye makin' it?" asked one of the miners, as he
halted on the edge of the gulch.

"Oh, we're doing fairly well,