the miners following after at a distance; eager
to set to work again at once as soon as their leaders should give orders
to that effect. Seth, seeing himself thus deserted, and not wishing to
be "left out in the cold," therefore requisitioned the aid of the two
darkeys, and made them carry him in the rear of the procession, which
put a summary stop to their dancing, but delighted them equally as well,
for they were thus enabled to learn all that was going on without the
annoyance of having their ears perchance boxed for listening without
permission: consequently there was a general move all round.

"No sign of the other wall," said Tom Cannon as spokesman, "we're nigh
four feet in from the bottom of the shaft. The richest is that near the
river."

"That is just what we expected from the statement of Mr Rawlings'
original discoverer. He found it rich in the little shaft he sank
there, and that is at the point where the two lodes run into each other.
I expect we shall find it richer every foot we go in that direction.
If so, it will be one of the richest finds we know of."

So saying, Ernest, full of eagerness and expectation, was lowered away
into the mine by the men. He did not stop very long below the surface;
and on his return his face seemed to glow with the goods news he
brought.

"It's all right," he gasped out, almost before he got out of the shaft;
"you've hit on the richest lode I ever saw in my experience. We ought
to get tons of gold out of that quartz. We have just struck the centre
of a pocket, I think, which must extend to the old workings of your
cousin Ned. Mr Rawlings, I congratulate you; your luck has changed at
last, and if all turns out as I expect, you'll be the wealthiest man in
Dakota!"

"Hooray, b'ys!" shouted out Seth, almost choking poor Josh and Jasper by
gripping their necks with his muscular arms in his excitement, the
darkeys supporting him, as if in a chair with their hands clasped
beneath him, on which he sat with his arms resting on their shoulders,
although he now shifted his hold unwittingly to their necks. "Hooray!
I sed the Britisher were the b'y for us; an' so he air!"

STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY.

INDIAN ALARMS.

The men now worked with unflagging vigour. The cross-cut was first
pushed across the vein, which was found to extend thirteen feet beyond
the side of the shaft. It was not unbroken quartz, as here and there
the rock came in, but seemed to consist of f