usted effort. We felled dozens, hundreds, of tall young
pines eight inches to a foot in diameter, and planted them upright in a
trench to form a stockade. Then we ran up a rough sort of cabin of two
rooms. Yank, somewhat hampered by Johnny, finished his cradles, and
turned in to help us. Bagsby and Vasquez brought in several deer and an
elk, and trapped many quail and hares. We fared royally, worked
healthfully in the shade of our trees, and enjoyed huge smokes and
powwows around our fire of an evening. Every night we drove the horses
within the enclosure; and slept heavily.

Always in the background of consciousness lay the gold, the incredibly
abundant gold. It coloured our dreams, it gilded our labour. As we drew
to the end of our construction work, I really believe we experienced a
slight, a very slight, feeling of regret that this fine flavour of
anticipation was so nearly at an end. However, I noticed that though we
completed the house at three of the afternoon, we none of us showed any
disposition to wait for the morrow. We promptly lugged one of Yank's log
cradles to the border of the stream and put in two hours washing.

The results were most encouraging, for we gained in that short time
nearly two ounces of flake gold.

That evening we reviewed our situation carefully. The older heads of the
party--Yank, Bagsby, Don Gaspar, and Missouri Jones--overruled our young
desire to jump into things headlong.

"If this camp is going to get on right," said Yank, "we got to make some
provision for working right. Somebody's got to be in camp all the time,
that's sure--to cook some decent meals, do the odd chores, and keep an
eye on the stock." Bagsby nodded emphatically at this. "And somebody's
got to rustle game and fish. Yere's nine husky men to eat. If we leave
one man in camp and two to hunt, we have six left for gold washing.
That's three to a cradle, and that's just right."

We came to that, too; and so settled into our routine. Bagsby was the
only permanent office-holder among us. He was unanimously elected the
official hunter. The rest of us agreed to take turn about at the other
jobs. It was further agreed to increase our chances by utilizing the
cradles at two totally different kinds of diggings. One we located on
the bar to wash out the shingle. The other we carried to a point
opposite the dry ravine in which I had found my three little nuggets.

Don Gaspar had worked like a nailer at the construction altho