es of operations he uttered a low
whistle of surprise.

"What does it mean?" asked Nort.

CHAPTER X

DEL PINZO

Characteristic it was of Bud Merkel not to answer at once the sharp and
excited question of his cousin. Living all his life in the West, as he
had done, and most of it having been spent on his father's ranches, Bud
had unconsciously acquired the valuable habit of observation--and quiet
observation at that. He wanted to look about and notice the "sign"
before he gave his opinion. In this he was like the Indians, whence,
doubtless, our own plainsmen developed the habit of looking twice
before they spoke once.

I don't mean to say that Bud was not a regular fellow, or that he was
not at times almost as impulsive as Nort. He was like the majority of
boys, but on this occasion, when it appeared that something unusual was
afoot, Bud held back his opinion for a moment.

"Well, what do you think of it?" asked Nort again, as eagerly as
before. "Doesn't this look like they'd been digging for gold?"

"I should say it did!" cried Dick, no less eager, now, than his
brother. "Those professors saying they weren't after the yellow boys
was all bunk and bluff! They did it to throw us off the track, so we
wouldn't try to have a hand in it. They've been mining here, Bud, as
sure as guns!"

Bud slowly shook his head.

"Why not?" asked Nort, seeing his cousin's denial of the theory that
fitted in so well with his own ideas.

"Well, they don't mine this way--that is, I've never seen any done in
this fashion, and I've been in several mining localities," spoke Bud.
"This looks more like they'd been prospecting for water, digging here,
there and everywhere. But there wasn't any need of that, for here's a
good spring of water, and the river isn't so far away. This is a good
watered country, and that's what makes it so valuable for
cattle--you've got to have grass and water and we've got that on
Diamond X."

"But what do you s'pose this all means?" asked Nort again, as he
slipped from his saddle, and, by pulling the reins forward, over his
pony's head, thus gave that animal the universal sign of the plains
that it was not to wander.

"I don't know," Bud was frank to say, as he shook his head. "They sure
have been tearing up the ground," he added, as he noticed on the side
hill, where there was an outcropping of red sandstone, that many
excavations had been made.

"If it isn't gold maybe it's silver,"