ght
to have been man enough to have worked the old tunnel just a little
farther. Bill was so certain that things looked better, and--"

"Tad, hain't ye ever been in the old hole sence that day, honest Injun? I
used t' think that's where ye went when ye'd go off fer a week er ten
days in the hills all by yerself."

"No, Dad, I give you my word, I've never been in that hole since the day
I carried poor Bill's broken body out. I've never been near since I put
that great, heavy lock on the door, and then I dropped the only key into
the old shaft. I thought that perhaps some time the temptation to go back
in might be too strong, and I'd do it."

Both smoked silently for a long time, then Dad spoke:

"S'posin' somebody would jump ye over yonder, Tad. What's to hinder 'em
a breakin' in an' startin' operations? I've heerd tell that old Williams
claimed that property, but course it's a dern lie--"

"He couldn't jump it, Dad, because I hold the deed to it. We proved up on
that, you know, the summer before; but I believe Williams does hold a
placer claim on the property. You know placers can run into regular lode
claims. He could claim the tunnel, all right, too, I suppose, if the
owner couldn't be found. Especially since he seems to be the only
relative Bill had, except his wife."

"What do ye s'pose ever possessed that old pole-cat to stake a placer
claim jest there, 'stead o' somewhere else? The dirt won't pan color,
will it?" asked Dad. "That's just what has bothered me, Dad. The only way
that I can figure it out is that Williams got some inkling of the
prospects of the tunnel from some of Bill's papers or letters. It wasn't
two weeks after Bill died till that old skinflint went tramping up there
and staked that placer claim. He's worked assessments on it every year
since. One year he repaired the cabin, and one year he built a dam; at
other times he built a bridge and a trail, and dug an assessment hole or
two--most anything to get in the required hundred dollars' worth of
working. It's that, more than anything else, that has set me to wondering
just what was in the old hole, after all, that made him so interested.
Bill was conscious long enough to talk a little before he died, and I
never believed that Williams told me the truth about what he said. It's
taken me a long time to think it all out, but I believe there is
something I don't know about the deal."

"Well, who knows, Tad, who knows; maybe we're a sittin' on a