r, and decide
how much money they'll advance to begin its working; and you wouldn't
find it nice here, if we left these bodies to cause a disagreeable
odor. But we must be careful not to disarrange the vines. And I want
to rub out any tracks we may leave, before quitting this place."

Accordingly both the mother wolf and the cub were taken outside. It
was not a difficult thing to find a deep hole into which all of the
dead animals could be cast; and after this duty had been accomplished
the two boys returned to the mouth of the hidden mine.

The fire had been kicked under foot, and extinguished; though Thad
afterwards made sure to place the embers in such a position that it
would appear to have gone out of its own accord. This was to keep the
prospectors from suspecting the truth, should they have the temerity
to ever come back again, for one of them had lost his hat in his mad
haste to depart.

Then lighting the lantern, Thad tried the best he knew how to smooth
over any footprint he or his companion may have made close to the
fissure in the rock. He wished Allan might be there just then, for he
would have known how to go about it better.

"All right now," he announced a little later, as he arose from his
knees.

"What had we better do, stay around here, or try and work a little
closer back to camp, to see what has happened there?" Aleck questioned.

"I was thinking it might pay us to do that last," the scoutmaster
replied. "We needn't show ourselves, of course; but could hang around
until your rascally old uncle and that sheriff went away. Now, if only
it was some one else he wanted to nab, what a fine chance this would
be for you to get him as an officer of the law to help you locate the
mine. But I suppose that would be too dangerous."

"It's an idea worth thinking about," Aleck declared, "and we may find
a way yet to carry it out. I hope we won't run across those three
scared men, because they headed this way when they ran off. You don't
mean to carry the lantern lighted, do you, Thad?"

"Well, I should say not. It would only advertise the fact that a
couple of very fresh Boy Scouts were wandering around. Why, those very
men might sight us and lie in wait to capture you again," with which
Thad blew out the lantern.

They started on.

Thanks to the moonlight they were able to keep their course fairly
well; sometimes under the low trees, and again among masses of piled
up rocks. Far above their heads tow