a rugged shelf not much unlike the one from
which he had descended, save that it was densely covered with shrubby
growth.

This shelf suddenly ended in a rift like a huge crevice in the face of
the mountain, but there was a broad crack before it, and this it was
necessary to leap before entering the rift.

Bart stopped short, gazing down into what seemed an awful abyss, but the
Beaver passed him lightly, as if there were no danger whatever, and
lightly leaped across to some rough pieces of rock.

The distance was nothing, but the depths below made it seem an awful
leap, till Bart felt that the Doctor must have gone over it before him,
and without further hesitation he bounded across and stood beside the
chief, who led the way farther into the rift to where, some fifty feet
from the entrance, the Doctor was standing, hammer in hand, gazing
intently at the newly chipped rock and the fragments that lay around.

"At last, Bart!" he cried joyously.

"What! Is it a vein?" said Bart, eagerly.

"A vein, boy? It is a mountain of silver--a valley of silver. Here are
great threads of the precious metal, and masses of ore as well. It
seems as if it ran right down the sides of the canyon, and from what the
Indian appears to know, it does, Bart, I never expected to make such a
find as this."

As he spoke, he handed pieces of the rock to Bart, who found that in
some there were angular pieces of what seemed to be native silver, while
others were full of threads and veins, or appeared as pieces of dull
metalliferous stone.

"It is a huge fortune--wealth untold, Bart," said the Doctor.

"Is it, sir?" said Bart coolly, for he could not feel the same rapture
as the Doctor.

"Is it, boy? Yes! enormous wealth."

"But how are we to carry it away, sir?" asked Bart dryly.

"Carry it away! Why, do you not understand that this mine will want
working, and that we must have a large number of men here? But no; you
cannot conceive the greatness of this find."

As he spoke, the Doctor hurried to the mouth of the rift, and then
cautiously lowered himself into the chasm, over which Bart had leaped,
clinging to the stout stems of the various shrubs.

For a few moments Bart hesitated. Then he followed till they were both
quite a hundred feet below the shelf, and the part of the rift they had
first entered, and were able to creep right out till they were level
with the side of the canyon, and able to look down to the river.

But