aware of that fact for some hours, and it had
dazed him a little. He had walked on without asking a question of
anybody. He had a dim idea that the metal he had found was worth a
great deal of money, but he hardly cared to know how much. It was a new
and wonderful sensation. His father told him there was enough of it to
buy him a farm and stock it, and when Yellow Pine had finished his other
duties, at going into camp, and had noted all the signs the Nez Perces
left behind, he said to Sile,

"Now, my boy, gather up all the charcoal you can rake from those dead
fires and I'll show you something. Slugs are safer to carry than dust
and nuggets. I allers used to slug my finds, first thing."

That was Greek to Sile, but Yellow Pine rummaged one of the wagons and
brought out a long-nosed bellows and a crucible and a sort of mould that
opened with two handles. He put the crucible in among the coals, filled
it from Sile's yellow heap, covered it, and began to work the bellows.
Sile was astonished to find how speedily what Pine called "bullion"
would melt, and how easy it was to run it into little bars. There did
not seem to be so much of it, but there was less danger that any of the
smaller chunks and scales and particles could get away.

"There, Sile. There's your farm, cows, hosses, hogs and all, and it only
cost you a gitten' thirsty."

"They're wonderful," was all Sile could make out to say, and his father
put them in a bag and locked them up in an iron-bound box in one of the
wagons.

"You needn't scratch into all the sand you come to after this," said
Yellow Pine. "That's what takes the tuck out of placer miners. One good
pocket'll most ginerally spile the eyes of a green hand."

He assured the judge that one more push would bring them to good grass,
and he added,

"What's more, we ain't in any hurry to ketch up with no redskins till we
know what they are. It's peace with most on 'em, but this 'ere isn't a
strong band, and I kinder want to feel my way."

There was sense in that, especially as he knew that Indians without
horses are also Indians on the lookout for some. What he did not know
was the state of mind that band of Nez Perces was in at that hour.

They had set out very early that morning, and were plodding on steadily
down the winding slopes of the canon, when there came to them an
unexpected sensation. It was a dog.

Right up the trail trotted One-eye, all alone, and with an air of
business anxiety.