on the
prairie, as he had done when he came forward in a similar way to rescue
him on board the _Susan Jane_ on the ship's being taken aback the
previous year.

"I guess thaar's sunthin' up now," said Noah Webster, as the two men
came towards him and the others, noticing a slight assumption of mystery
on the part of Tom Cannon and his companion, a man who was familiarly
styled "Left Bower" amongst the miners, from the fact not only of his
surname being Bower, but on account of the singular dexterity he
exhibited in the great American card game of euchre.

"Guess so," said Seth, sotto voce. "They've been downright busy since
you've been gone, workin' like hosses, that they have! Waal, b'ys," he
added aloud for the benefit of the coming deputation, "what's the rumpus
neow? Panned out anythin' tall?"

"See!" said Tom Cannon, opening his closed fist and displaying a little
tiny heap of gold dust lying in the palm of his hand. "All that came
out o' one lump o' quartz taken out of the gravel in the heading we've
begun. We can see it everywhere in the rock, and it was getting richer
every inch we got in."

"Ay," put in Left Bower, "heaps, I reckon, boss," addressing himself to
Mr Rawlings, who turned as pale at the receipt of the news as if he
were going to faint. "We've struck the lode at last, mister, and run
slick inter a bonanza if ever they were one; may I never see Frisco
again, if we haven't!"

"Hooray!" shouted Seth, attempting to rise and wave his hat as he was
wont to do in moments of triumph, but quickly quieting down again as the
pain of his foot reminded him of having been wounded. "Didn't I say
so--ask any a one in camp if I didn't--that we'd find the gold at last?
Hooray!" he repeated aloud at the pitch of his voice, his cheer being
taken up instantly by the main body of the miners, who were gossiping in
front of Josh's caboose, with a heartiness that resounded through the
valley and even made the hills echo again; while Jasper, who had been
under a sort of cloud ever since his cowardly conduct on the prairie,
joined Josh in an exciting pas a deux before the latter's culinary
sanctum, and repeating ever and anon his jubilant song, "Golly, massa,
um told yer so!"

"And you are not through the vein yet?" asked Ernest Wilton when he was
able to speak calmly, he and Mr Rawlings hurrying towards the head of
the new workings in company with Noah Webster and the first discoverers
of the ore; the rest of