, eagerly.

"Not exactly a strike," answered Merwell. "All of us came out to
relocate the lost Landslide Mine."

"What! That mine!" yelled Staver, and the tone of his voice showed his
deep disgust. "Nuthin' to it--nuthin' at all. If you're arfter thet mine
ye might as well go right back home. It's buried deep an' fer good."

"Let us hear what they have to tell," said Sol Blugg. "They may have
news worth listenin' to, Ham."

"I ain't goin' to waste no time lookin' fer thet lost mine," growled the
rascal who had been shot. "I'm goin' back to town an' let a doctor look
at this hand o' mine."

"And I will go with you!" put in Job Haskers, eagerly. "I have had
enough of the mountains! The others can locate that lost mine if they
wish."

"See here, you fellers sit down an' we'll talk this thing over," said
Sol Blugg. "If you've got Blower an' Dillon interested in lookin' fer
the lost mine there must be somethin' in it wuth knowin'. Might be as
you've got a new lead, or somethin'."

"I'll tell you what I know," answered Link Merwell.

He and Haskers, after bringing in their horses, sat down, and a talk
lasting the best part of an hour followed. The men from Butte asked many
questions, and wanted to know about the map and papers Roger was
carrying. Blugg and Jaley were evidently much impressed.

"You are right about one thing, Merwell," he said. "That mine is now
teetotally lost--the claim was shifted by the landslide. If we could
relocate the mine I think we could make our claim to it good at the land
office."

"Let us try it!" cried Merwell, eagerly. "We have as much chance to do
it as the Morr crowd."

"But he has that map, and the directions."

"We overheard all their talk, so I know as much as Roger Morr does. As
for Blower and Dillon, they don't know this district any better than you
men do, do they?"

"Not much better," answered Larry Jaley. "We've been here a good many
years." He turned to Staver. "What do you say, now?"

"Wall, wot this young feller says puts a different look on the
situation," replied the man who had been shot. "I'd like to have an
interest in thet mine myself--thet or the one Tom Dillon onct said he
had near it. An' as Sol says, if we relocated the claim, maybe we could
hold it at the land office--anyway, we could claim a fat slice o' the
wuth o' it."

"We'd claim it all!" cried Merwell.

"So we would!" came from Sol Blugg. "Say, sonny, you're the right kind,
I reckon, an' we'll