our separate veins, which
sometimes joined together, sometimes were separated by partitions of
rock. The richest portion of the vein was two feet from the farthest
wall, and here the gold was everywhere thickly scattered through the
quartz. Now, they drove right and left along the course of the lode,
and found that in both directions the walls were coming closer together.

"It is only a pocket," Ernest Wilton said. "You will see that in about
five fathoms either way the quartz will finish in to its usual width,
and become poor. However, we must not mind that; if it holds for a few
fathoms in depth there will be half a million pounds' worth at least.
Twenty tons of quartz like this we see would suffice to make us all rich
men, and we know that there is double that at least."

As the young engineer predicted, the lode fell away to its original
width, and soon ceased to carry visible gold.

Then they began to sink deeper. Twenty feet lower the walls of the lode
again began to approach each other, and there was now a possibility of
calculating the amount of quartz in the "pocket."

"I am of opinion," Ernest Wilton said, "that there will be fifty tons of
the richest stuff, and nearly two hundred of what I may call second
class, but which is still exceedingly rich. But it is time now that we
should carry out our plans. We must get up a small mill with five
stamps, with a wheel to be worked by water from the mountain stream. It
is likely enough that such a set could be got in one of the
mining-camps, and I must make a short journey to Bismark and perhaps
further west in search of gear. While I am away, the men will have to
cut a leet to bring the water along the side of the hill from the
torrent, and get all the quartz out of the mine."

All this time, however, even with the confident expectation of untold
wealth being now almost within his grasp, not one of the party had
forgotten the parting threat of Rising Cloud, and his warning that, ere
many months were over, the camp at Minturne Creek would be assailed by
the Sioux tribe in full force.

Indeed, if Mr Rawlings or Seth, or Noah especially, who had had such a
long experience of the dangers of backwoods life away from the
settlements, and thoroughly appreciated the old adage that "he who is
forewarned is forearmed," were at all inclined to laugh at the Indian's
declaration as an empty boast, many circumstances would have constrained
them to alter their opinio