e, Jack," Jim suggested finally. "I know you are tired
and need a rest before we start back. Carlos, look after Miss Jack and
don't go out of sight. I want to explore the neighborhood a bit. I will
not be long. Nothing will happen, but if you want me call out."

Jack paid no special attention to Jim's departure. She found a
comfortable place, sat down and closed her eyes. How soon she fell
asleep she did not know, but she heard no sound from Carlos when he
slipped away into the woods back of them. Tempted by the possession of a
new gun, the boy disobeyed a second time that day.

CHAPTER IX

"MINER'S FOLLY"

Jack sat up with a start. She had dozed only a few minutes, and felt
indignant with Carlos when she found he also had deserted her. It was
time they were starting back for camp. "Jim! Jim! Carlos!" she halloed,
in half-hearted fashion; then she hugged her sweater closer about her,
glad that Ruth had insisted on her wearing it, for as evening approached
it was growing strangely cooler.

There seemed nothing to do that was interesting before her companions
returned. Jack wandered idly to the edge of the pine woods behind the
hills, but saw and heard nothing of Carlos; then she examined the small
stream along one of the hillsides, knelt and scooped up a handful of
water, putting it to her lips. It was salt as the Dead Sea, and must
have made life doubly hard for the men who worked in "Miner's Folly,"
for they could hear its soft trickle by day and night and yet never
quench their thirst in its waters.

All this time Jack was thinking, not of what she was doing, but of the
queer big hole in the side of the hill, that was like a wound.
Irresistibly she was drawn toward it by an impulse of curiosity and
dread. Jim had told her of no tragedies except disappointed hopes that
were buried in the deserted mine, yet she felt that if the cavern could
suddenly change into an open mouth it would have many strange stories to
tell of lives and fortunes lost by its false lure.

Jack stared so hard into the entrance of the tunnel that it no longer
seemed dark to her. She went into it a few feet and peered about her.
Curiosity was one of the strongest traits of Jacqueline Ralston's
character, not a girl's idle desire so much as a boy's firm
determination to find out what things are like, and how they are
accomplished. Jack had never seen a gold mine before, and she did not
wish to tell the girls nothing except that it wa