ets was of unknown depth.

"It's the lost Landslide Mine!" said Dave to himself. "The lost mine
beyond a doubt, and all this gold belongs to Mrs. Morr! Oh, won't Roger
be glad when I tell him the glorious news!"

Gathering up the nuggets he had found, Dave placed them in his pocket to
show to the others, and then started to leave the place.

As he did this, he heard a peculiar rumbling sound, coming from a
distance. He stopped to listen, and the rumble grew louder and louder.

"What in the world can that be?" he asked himself. "Sounds like a train
of cars rushing through a tunnel. I wonder----Oh!"

Dave stopped short, and it is no wonder that a sudden chill passed over
him. The very rocks on which he was standing had begun to quake. Then
from overhead several stones fell, one so close that it brushed his
shoulder.

"It's an earthquake, or another landslide!" he gasped. "I must get out
of this, or I'll be buried alive!"

And then, torch in hand, he started for the opening to the mine.

He had hardly covered half the distance to the outer air when there came
another quaking, and more rocks fell, one hitting him on the arm. The
torch was knocked from his hand and he tripped and fell. Then came a
crash and a roar, and to Dave it seemed as if the end of the world had
come. He was more than half-stunned, and he fell against a wall of
rocks, wondering what would happen next.

CHAPTER XXIX

ANOTHER LANDSLIDE

It was another landslide, crashing and roaring down the side of the
mountain, carrying rocks, dirt, and brushwood before it. The earth
roared and shook, and it was said afterwards that the slide could be
heard many miles away.

Down in the mine that he had but just discovered, Dave remained
crouching against a wall of rock, murmuring a prayer for his safe
deliverance from the peril that encompassed him. Every moment he
expected would be his last--that those rocky walls would crash in on him
and become his tomb. Roar followed roar, as the landslide continued and
more rocks fell. Then the air around him seemed to be compressed, until
he could scarcely breathe.

"Oh, if I were only out of this!" he thought, and at that moment he
would have gladly given all he was worth to have been in the outer air
once more.

Gradually the roaring and the quaking ceased, and Dave breathed a little
more freely. He groped around in the darkness and managed to locate the
fallen torch, which still glowed faintly. He swu