interesting, Miss Armstrong, but we have a fortnight
to turn round in."

"Yes; that is so."

"I am delighted, for now I shall have the pleasure of trying a fall with
the estimable Mr. Ricketts."

VI.--THE BUNK HOUSE PRISONER.

As the wound in his shoulder healed, Stranleigh began to enjoy himself
on the ranch. He was experiencing a life entirely new to him, and being
always a lover of waving woods and rushing waters, even in the tamed
state which England presents, he keenly appreciated these natural
beauties in the wilderness, where so-called human improvements had not
interfered with them. Without attempting to indulge in the sport for
which he had come, he wandered about the ranch a good deal, studying its
features, and at the same time developing an appetite that did justice
to the excellent meals prepared for him. He visited Jim Dean, who had
shot him, and tried to scrape acquaintance with his five aiders and
abettors in that drastic act, but they met his advances with suspicion,
naturally regarding him as a tenderfoot, nor were they satisfied that
his long residence among them was as friendly as he evidently wished it
to appear.

The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only,
with a shack outside where the cooking was done. In the large room were
a dozen bunks; half of them in a very dishevelled state, giving sleeping
accommodation for the company, while the other half were ready in case
of an accession of help, should the mine prosper.

The cabin was as securely built as a fortress, of the rugged stone which
had been blasted from the rocks in opening the mine. The mine itself was
situated about five hundred yards to the south of this edifice, but
instead of being dug downwards, as Stranleigh expected, it extended
westward on the level toward the heart of the mountain, so that a rudely
built truck could carry out the debris, and dump it down the steep hill.
To his aesthetic fancy this seemed a pity, because a short distance south
from the opening of the mine, the river formed a cascade descending a
hundred feet or more; a cascade of entrancing beauty, whose loveliness
would be more or less destroyed as the mining operations progressed.

The rising sun illumined the tunnel to its final wall, and Stranleigh
found no difficulty in exploring it to the remotest corner. He passed
the abandoned truck partly turned over beside an assortment of picks,
shovels, hand-drills and the lik