in on them; but possibly
Artemus may have found himself unable to travel as fast as his
ambition would force him, and the pair had been compelled to rest up
somewhere on the road.

Every one in the camp was of course on the line of duty at daybreak.
While Bumpus and Bob White started to get breakfast, Giraffe and
Allan were using their eyes as best they could, seeing that the mists
still hung over the valley, obscuring things at a little distance.

Thad was invisible, also Aleck. Truth to tell they had betaken
themselves off within an hour after that astounding message was received
from the far-distant point where Step Hen waved his fiery torch.

Of course, one of the first things Thad had done was to question the
other concerning this man who called himself Artemus Rawson. Aleck
admitted that he was in truth his own uncle; but added that the lawyer
from Denver had fallen under the same spell as many others, and was
allowing himself to dream of being the one to re-discover the
long-lost mine.

Aleck had said that it seemed as though every one who heard about it
became imbued with a mad desire to possess the treasure. There was
Kracker who had made several long searching trips up here with that
one object in view; and was even then doing everything in his power to
get possession of the secret.

Crafty Uncle Artemus had gone about it in a different way. He had hung
around the dwelling-place of the widow, and in his sly, lawyer-like
method, tried to learn what was going on. He suspected that the secret
of the location of the mine had been discovered in some way, from the
change in the atmosphere about the Rawson home, and the air of
excitement that could not easily be subdued; but no matter how he
tried, he could not learn just what it all meant.

Then came the sudden vanishing of Aleck. This must have given the
lawyer points and he started after the boy. His accusation concerning
his nephew having robbed him was of course all a part of a fine little
scheme he had hatched up. While the big prospector believed in actual
force to squeeze the secret from the unwilling lips of the lad; shrewd
Uncle Artemus was inclined to try and make a show of having the law on
his side.

But in both cases, actually robbery was intended.

And Thad believed every word of the explanation made by Aleck. He
could not have done otherwise, looking in those frank and fearless
eyes, and reading the clean soul of the Rawson boy.

So the sc