`Durn it, this ain't goin' to be such a picnic as I thought,' he soliloquised. `Guess I'll have to look around for likelier spots.'
He tried several other places with the same result, and at length flung down his tools in disgust and went a-fishing. Here he met with more success and soon three speckled beauties lay on the grass beside him. He broiled them for his supper and turned in. On the following morning he again tackled the search for wealth and found it no more successful or attractive than it had been the day before. But he stuck manfully to it, for he was conscious of a conviction that he was not alone in the canyon. Therefore, he was not so surprised as he appeared to be when a rider came ambling along the bank of the stream on which he was working, and pulled up to watch with a cordial greeting of, `Howdy, stranger.' Green returned the salutation, while his quick eyes gathered the details of the newcomer's appearance. He was evidently a cowhand, about forty, with a clean-shaven, open face, good-humour in every line of it. Hecarried a revolver at his hip and had a winchester on the saddle. He was riding a pinto horse the brand on which Green could not see. Pushing back his big sombrero, the visitor said: `Findin' much?'
Green, kneeling over the pan, grinned up at him. `Plenty dirt,' he replied, `but not a smidgin' o' gold so far.'
The stranger looked around. `Seems a likely place,' he remarked. `But that's the funny thing 'bout minin'; yu never can tell.'
`I take it yo're speakin' from experience.'
`Shore I am--wasted part o' my life in California. Meanin' no offence, I take it yu are new at this game.'
`Yu take it correct; I reckon I must seem plumb clumsy.'
The other man laughed. `Everythin' has to be learned, an' yu shore are makin' yoreself in a mess. Lemme show yu the trick of it.'
Dismounting from his horse, he trailed the reins, and took the pan of dirt Green was beginning to wash. In about half the time the novice had required the pan was empty save for a tiny residue of sand which the operator scanned eagerly, and then threw out.
`Not a colour,' he said. `Well, let's try her again.'
`Yu shore have got that there pannin' business thrown an' tied,' Green remarked, as he watched the deft hands of the expert. `I'm hopin' yu'll stay an' eat with me; my camp's just handy.'
`Yu bet I will. I'm short on grub an' got a goodish way to go,' replied the other.
The puncher left him busy with his self-imposed task and went to prepare a meal. A few fortunate casts provided him with fish, and when, in response to his hail, the visitor reached the camp, an appetising odour of broiled trout and coffee greeted him. Facing his host, cross-legged on the grass, he attacked the food like a hungry man.
`Say, these fish is prime,' he remarked presently. `Yu may be a mite awkward with a gold-pan but with a frying-pan yo're ace-high.'
Over the meal the newcomer grew communicative. His name, he said, was Dick West, more commonly known as `California,' and he was now punching for an outfit whose headquarters were situated at the base of the Big Chief range.
`What brand?' asked the host.
`Crossed Dumb-bell,' replied the other, watching closely.
`New to me,' Green said carelessly. `Didn't know there was a ranch in that part, but then I ain't infested this locality long my own self.' He went on to give his own name, and the bare fact of his dismissal from the Y Z, taking care that his resentment should not be too obvious. The stranger nodded understandingly.
`If you weren't wedded to thisyer grubbin' for gold, yu could come along o' me,' he offered. `I reckon we could use another man. The pay is fifty per an' shares, an' the shares is better than the fifty per I'm tellin' yu, for the right man.'
`Sounds good,' Green commented.
`It's as good as it sounds too,' said the other. `Old Jeffs ain't a bad sort either.'
`That the boss?'
'Actin'-boss--there's another feller back of him.'
For some time they smoked in silence, Green apparently turning over the proposition in his mind; it was no part of his plan to accept eagerly. That the rustlers saw in him a useful recruit was possible, and what he wanted them to believe, but there was also the chance that this was merely a trap to destroy him. Nevertheless, he intended to go, for it was what he had been hoping for. It was the visitor himself who brought matters to a head. Getting up, he stretched lazily, and remarked :
`Well, thanks for the feed. I gotta drift; yu comin' along?' `Guess I might as well,' Green replied. `I'll cache my tools here an' I can come back if I want to.'
This did not take long and having saddled his pony, he was ready.
`Ain't yu got another hoss--to carry yore pack?' queried West, and the puncher hid a smile, guessing that perhaps his visitor had expected to see the roan. He shook his head.
`Not here,' he replied. `Bullet's a good little hoss. He carried the pack an' me, though I ain't sayin' he liked it.'
`Some hosses is damn near human,' said West, as he led the way up the canyon.
They reached the tunnel and passed through into the valley, heading straight across for the far end. Green wondered how they would get out; he soon learned. On reaching the ledge which had baffled the Frying Pan posse, West said:
`We gotta get down here an' do a bit o' work.'
Turning to the right, he conducted his companion to a thick clump of brush which at first glance appeared to be impenetrable. They found a way in, however, and in the centre lay a pile of long, roughly-fashioned planks.
`Reckon a couple'll be enough,' said California. `Give us a hand.'
The planks were stout and it required two trips to get them to where they had left the horses. Placed side by side, with ends resting on the ledge, they made a practicable gangway for the animals. They were then returned to their hiding-place and the men clambered up the face of the ledge on foot. West directed
Green to mount, and then took his blanket, rolled it and tied one end of his lariat round the middle. He too then mounted and pacing his horse directly in the wake of his companion, dragged the roll of blanket behind him, completely obliterating their tracks in the soft sand.
`Smart Injun dodge that,' commented Green. `Yu thinkin' anybody's after us?'
Nope, but we use that valley an' ain't honin' to advertise it,' was the meaning reply.
In a few moments they left the sand, descending a stony slope into another broad grass depression, and from thence plunging into a network of rocky winding gulches, ravines, and patches of forest. Through this labyrinth they followed a definite trail, over which cattle had evidently passed at no distant date. Only one incident of note occurred and that was when California got down to drink at a stream. As he lifted his foot to the stirrup his horse reared suddenly, and taken unawares, he lost his balance and toppled backwards into a bush. Instantly there came a warning rattle and a threatening head shot up, poised to strike, only a foot from the prostrate man's face. Another second and the poisonous fangs would have done their deadly work, but Green's gun spoke and the reptile's head, shattered by the bullet, fell back into the bush. When West got to his feet he was shaking.
`Gawd, that was a close call,' he said. `I'm thankin' yu, pardner, an' if ever I can square the 'count, yu can bank on me. Yu shore are some slick with a gun.'