sor Jenks, overhearing
Tom's last remark.

Jack flushed with pleasure and embarrassment. It was very gratifying
to know that his friends thought highly of him, but at the same time
he wished they would not give him that uneasy feeling with their
sincere compliments. So he hurried away, asking the others to follow
him toward getting together Masterson's outfit.

While the dumpy little geologist went once more to search for strange
specimens, the boys readily set to work and in a very short time the
camping equipment was placed on board the Wondership.

When the boys arrived at Yuma, Masterson found no difficulty in
selling the camping outfit to old man McGee, who decided to make one
more try to find the Three Buttes.

"Don't you think you're too old, and that the gold, after all, may not
be there?" Tom asked the eccentric miner.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed McGee indignantly. "As I tole you afore, it
stands ter reason thar's gold out thar, and 'at it war'ent up to
Peg-leg Smith nor'n to Guv'nor Downey, nor'n to McGuire, nor'n to Dr.
De Courcy, nor'n to any of 'em to find the Buttes, but as I says
afore, I says ag'in--'at ther good Lord never made nuthin' thet wasn't
of some use. Very well, then, the desert is good fer nuthin' else but
mineral wealth, and Providence made it so plagued hard ter git at so
'at all of us couldn't git rich at once. I've been arter the Buttes
all me life, and _this_ wack I'm goin' to land it rich!"

The fanatical old prospector, chuckling gleefully and sucking his
pipe, ambled away while Tom looked after him, shaking his head
sympathetically.

"Look out! Look out!" someone shouted in Tom's ear. "There's a beauty,
a wonder!"

Tom, startled, whirled about to see the professor, gazing intently at
a small rock upon which one of Tom's heels was resting. The professor
violently pushed him aside, out came his little hammer, and in a
moment the new specimen was in his bag. Then, the man of science,
without looking up to see whom he had spoken to, pounced on another
stone.

Tom could not help laughing outright at the professor's queer ways and
deep concentration on his pet hobby.

"What a funny world this is!" remarked Tom, still amused. "Here is a
man forever after rocks, rocks, and there goes a miner set upon
becoming rich and discovering some imaginary mine."

He saw Jack waving to him from the veranda of the hotel.

"Listen, Tom," said his chum when they stood side by side, "I was
thinkin