ent into the bottom of the gorge, along which he
made his way till he was level with and joined them.

"Find the door locked?" said Wilton, laughing.

"No," was the reply, as the American stretched himself on the grass.

"No? You couldn't have got along that way any further, could you?" said
the doctor.

"Oh yes; the place seems to come to a blank end from here, but from up
yonder you can see that it doubles back round a sharp corner to the
left."

"But the mules couldn't get by?"

"Oh yes; it looks narrow, but not so strait as that. We can ride
along."

"Indeed?" cried Bourne, while the boys listened eagerly.

"I half thought we should have to go back, but it's all right. This
place only zigzags a bit, and we can get through into the next valley
when the beasts have had their feed. It's much better to go forward
than journey back."

"Did you find anything when you were chipping up there?" said Ned.

"Yes," replied the American coolly; "there's gold in the rock up yonder
by the water, and I found this in one little hole."

He took a scrap of yellow metal from his pocket, and held it out to the
doctor.

"A nugget of gold," said that gentleman, "very much worn by the water."

"And the stones," said Griggs sharply; "and no wonder, for it was being
swept round and round. One minute I could see it, the next it was gone;
but it was washed right into my hand at last. I dare say we might wash
a good deal here."

"But you do not propose to stop?"

"No, sir; I've an idea that this is the most likely part we've come to
yet. Let's get on. We could come back then if we found nothing
better."

Griggs' remarks roused the interest of all present, and at the end of
half-an-hour, spent by the boys in washing the sand in a pool lower
down, where they found a few scales of the rich metal, the journey was
continued, Griggs leading, to where all further progress seemed
impossible, for they were compelled to halt by the apparent closing-in
of the gorge, which presented, in fact, an unclimbable precipice. A few
steps farther there was a narrow rift extending from their feet to the
top of the cliff a couple of thousand feet above their heads, and
literally doubling back into this, they threaded their way along a
passage not twenty feet in width, which zigzagged here and there for
about a quarter of a mile deeper and deeper into the mountains, growing
more and more gloomy, and then all at once displaying the bright