ered the mighty mountains, their
tops capped with snow. Thad never glanced up at them without thinking
how eagerly he and his chums had looked forward to this chance for
seeing the fortress Nature had built up and down the Western country,
separating the Pacific Coast from the balance of the land.

"Listen!" said Aleck, laying a hand on his companion's sleeve.

"Did you think you heard a voice again?" asked Thad, whispering the
words, for there was a spice of danger in the very air around them.

"I sure did; and there it is again. Whatever is that man doing?"

"Sounds to me like that Waffles?" suggested Thad.

"But what would he be praying for, tell me?" asked Aleck.

"Praying?" echoed the other, astonished himself.

"Well, listen to him, would you; he seems to be begging somebody not
to hurt him? Do you suppose they've gone, and had a falling-out among
themselves, and the colonel is threatening to finish his man for
running away?" Aleck went on, still keeping his voice lowered.

"Why, hardly that, because he ran as fast as the rest of them,"
replied Thad. "But come, let's creep forward a little, and find out
what all the fuss is about."

As they proceeded to do this, the sound of Waffles' peculiar voice
came more and more plainly to their hearing; and sure enough, he was
certainly pleading earnestly with some unknown one.

"Think what a guy I'll be if so be ye do hit, and cut my pore ears
off, jest in spite work?" he was whining; "I admit that I done ye
dirt, when I hooked that bead belt from yer place, meanin' to sell the
same. But shore I didn't know as how ye vallied it so high. Never'd a
put a hand on it, if I'd been told 'twar a sacred fambly relic, and
that outsiders hadn't orter touch the same. Let me go this time, Fox,
and shore I promises never to do hit again. My ears is all I got, and
think how I'd look without the same. Ye got me down, and I cain't help
myself, ef so be ye mean to do hit; but better let me off this time.
You ain't a wild Injun, and you knows it ain't doin' right to try and
mend one wrong with another. Let me go, Fox; I'm asayin' I'm sorry,
an' a man can't do more'n that."

The mystery was explained. The Fox had followed Thad and Aleck from the
camp, no doubt with the idea of standing up for them, if they needed
help. He must have been hovering near when the three prospectors started
their fire, and witnessed all that happened afterward.

When the three frightened men made their