ment, for poesy did not flourish at the Lowber Mine, and it was rather startling, in fact, when abruptly introduced. But, after all, it But, after all, it might not be so unnatural under the circumstances of a young fellow preparing to bury his father or brother, and so I attempted no comment, but wisely came at once to the business of the moment.

which one would scarcely have given him credit, judging him only from that pale, weaklooking face. looking face. Whatever spirit of enforced determination had hitherto been gathered into his expression, somehow, now seemed marvelously increased. "No one but yourself must help us."

For the moment I studied him intently, as

as well go to work," I responded.

The Dutchman had brought a spade, and I a pick. The turf was tolerably free from stones, and could easily be lifted off; beneath were loose stones mingled with the earth, and gradually growing more and more thickly embedded as the grave became deepened. There was plenty of work for both of us; one loosening the stones with his pick, and the other throwing them out, while Charley stood motionless on the bank. For two hours we thus worked, having again fallen into silence. At the end of that time, we had excavated a grave nearly seven feet long and about five feet deep. Little by little, the labor became more severe, as the character of the soil changed for the worse, and, finally, I began to think that we had gone far enough. "Seeing that we are near the water mark of the stream, when there is any stream at all," I said. The Dutchman and I were both resting for the moment, still standing in the grave; I looking down, while carelessly prodding a little around my feet with the pick, he following with his eyes the last spadeful of earth and stones which he had thrown up to the surface. Suddenly I found myself giving a little start, immediately, however, recover ing myself; and with an almost imperceptible motion, in obedience to what might be called a quick instinct, I let a little shower of loose earth fall from the side of the pit upon the bottom. "And yet," I added, in an indifferent sort of tone, "if you think it should be made a little deeper-See, here, Charley! You two had better go back for the body, and while you are away, I will cut the grave down a little further. Will save time, you see."

"We will all three go back together," the boy responded, in a steady, decided tone, for

he really knew or suspected, and thereby definitely mark out my own course of action. My survey was unsatisfactory-at least unfavorable to any further insistence upon my first proposed intention. And after all, might it not be best to humor the matter a little ? A quarrel now might spoil everything; but if I chanced to be wrong in supposing that his keen glance had penetrated my secret, there would be abundant opportunity to make it right in the future, at my own sweet leisure, and for my sole benefit, as well.

"All right," I said, dropping my pick, "Let us all go, then."

So we went back to the camp, leaving our implements behind. The body had meanwhile been prepared for burial as suitably as possible. There were no pine boards in the settlement, out of which a coffin could be made-not even a cracker box. But the canvas, which at the first had been loosely thrown over the remains, was now bound tightly around them in many folds, and closed up at the head and feet, the whole being neatly sewed in place, so that the body was prepared for its interment pretty much as if made ready to be buried at sea. Meanwhile, a sort of bundle of boughs, with outreaching handles, had been manufactured, and the body was placed on this, for easy transport to its last resting place. Several of the miners volunteered for this last duty, but I declined their assistance. Two men could comfortably bear all the load, I said, and it seemed proper that those who had already dug the grave should be left to finish the business to its end. There was little logic in the argument, but there was no one interested to refute it. So all the volunteers for the funeral-none of them were very urgent in the matter-cheerfully relinquished

participation in it, with something like a quiet laugh at my queer taste; and the Dutch man and myself, nothing regarding them, lifted the hurdle by its long handles, and soon wended our way out of sight behind the slope of the hills, and to the newly dug grave. There we set our burden down beside the brink, and for the first time since leaving the camp, Charley and I looked each other in the eye. His face was still nervous in expression, and yet behind it all, cool and determined beyond any supposable conception of him.

"See here!" I whispered, drawing him one side, so that the Dutchman could not hear us, "I think, Charley, that we might as well have a little talk about this matter before going any further. You seem to understand this thing as well as I do, so there can be no use in fooling around it. I won't deny that when I first saw the gold down there," -pointing to the bottom of the grave "I had it in my mind to keep still about it, and capture the whole pile. That's natural, after all; for I was the discoverer, and I wasn't called upon to divide. But since you seem to have seen it too—well, all we have got to do is to put him aside for a little while, and send the Dutchman away upon some pretext, until we can take out the gold share and share alike, as they say."

"It shall not be taken out at all," the boy responded. "The grave must stay as we have made it. It is his—just as nature intended it-and it shall not be plundered."

I stood somewhat astounded, and for a moment too much overpowered to answer.

"But do you know what you are talking about?" at length I gasped forth. "This is no little matter, that you can throw aside without thinking any more about it. Do you realize what's in that hole? Something more than a few flakes of gold-thousands, maybe; and only waiting for us to stoop down and pick them up. 'He"-pointing to the dead man-"is not buried yet, and there is no harm done, so far. Of course, you have some sentiment about him. I suppose it is natural, but it is scarcely worth while to give everything away. He would not have you do

so, if he could speak to you about it. For that matter, we can make some pretense to choose another burial place. And then we will have enough, perhaps, to send us both home rich for life."

"And what do I care for that? There is only this thing to think of, that he is gone, and that we have chosen this spot for his grave, and it shall not be despoiled. He can't use the money, but all the same it is his. And if any one-you or any one else, I care not who-tries to take it from him, I'll—”

"You'll what, Charley?"

"I will shoot him down like a dog."

The boy's face, ordinarily so mild and passive, and up to this point merely resolute, now seemed to blaze with passion. It was pretty evident that he meant what he said. I stood for a moment in increasing amazement. It is not a pleasant thing to be threatened; but I am rather an even-tempered man, and not one to take offense even under more direct provocation of violence. Moreover, the relation in which the young fellow seemed to stand to the dead man took away from me all possibility of any other feeling than of compassion for his weakness and over-strained sensibility. That he could be so utterly senseless as to refuse his share of the fortune lying at our feet, and simply through some spirit of childish sentimentality, was a thing very hard to comprehend. But would it be worth while to get up any quarrel about it at all?

I stopped for a moment and reflected. A great deal of thinking can be done in a second or two, upon an emergency, and this was the almost instant purport of mine. In one sense, I had the remedy in my own hands. I had only to reveal my secret to Judge Conley, who was the leading spirit in the settlement, and under the prevailing mining law, all my rights in the discovery would be reserved to me. The find of gold would be adjudged too valuable to give way for a bit of sentiment, and the body of the gambler would be laid elsewhere, and the claim be allowed to be worked for all that it was worth. But in that case the Dutchman,

as one who had helped open the hole, would be given his part; and Charley, too, if he desired it. This would leave me only a third. Moreover, other claims would be staked out on either side, as near as the mining law would permit, and possibly the whole stratum for many rods each way might be rich in ore. Why might I not reserve the whole to myself, if I had only the discretion to hold my tongue, and seem to give way? In a few days the matter would probably pass from the boy's mind, he would have moved away from the Bar, and then

"I believe you are crazy, Charley," I said, "But I wont try to stand out against you. And as for threats, one would think that there had been already enough shooting for one day. I, for my part, do not care to begin it again. And very likely there may not be as much gold here as at first seemed. As for that matter it is all around us, only waiting to be scraped up; so perhaps it is just as well to let this man keep his own. He loved it dearly enough in his lifetime to be treated to a little of it now. So, after all, we might as well lift him over, and be done with it."

The Dutchman and myself then lowered the body into the grave; and alternately taking turns with the spade, threw back the loose earth and stones until there was again a level surface. Then we turned to go, and in silence; only that as we left, the boy once more uttered his warning threat.

saw almost at once that he had determined to remain and keep a watch upon me, and indeed, it was pretty evident that it had become our policy to watch each other. For could anything be more probable than that, as soon as his first grief for his lost companion should become deadened, he should begin to think as regretfully as I did about the buried gold, and so be led to invent artful plans for its secret acquisition by himself alone? Certainly I did not feel disposed to allow a march to be stolen upon me; and therefore, he, as well as myself, must be well watched. This mutual espionage might have seemed a difficult thing to maintain in the confusion of mining life, but it became a very easy thing, after all, with that one interest in the mind of each of us absorbing all others. The reality of the watchfulness became apparent that very afternoon, indeed. I had not gone back to my claim, concluding that the hour or two of daylight which remained could scarcely be worth saving, and apart from that, finding my appetite for immediate labor somewhat blunted by the unusual excitement of the day. But it chanced that fate, or some other subtle fascination which I felt powerless to resist, led me in almost a direct course toward the gambler's grave. It was not that I had any present purpose of plundering it of its hidden store of wealth: that must remain for some better opportunity, when espionage or opposition might no longer be apprehended.

But

stone to my steps; I could at least gaze upon the fresh soil, and revel in the thought of what lay concealed there. Yet when I had nearly reached the spot, happening to turn, I saw the boy Charley at a fair distance behind, craftily keeping me in sight. And so, diverging from my route, with a very unsuccessful pretense of not knowing that I was being watched, I returned to my tent. The next moming the same thing; creeping slowly towards the grave as drawn by an irresistible fascination; only that this time I saw that the boy had anticipated me, and been attracted in the same direction, in his turn now diverging and returning homeward

So, almost daily, for a week, and then for another, and again another. Meanwhile our singular conduct began to attract the attention of the rest of the miners. It seemed very strange that I should have so suddenly abandoned labor at my claim; and that the boy, instead of taking the earliest opportunity to leave the mine, in which he could no longer have any interest, and going off to his own place, wherever that might be, should still linger around. And why, whenever we strolled away, did we always take the same direction; and why was one so constantly followed by the other-neither of us by any chance speaking, yet both of us invariably bending our steps toward the same point, as though attracted by some common interest? It seemed all very strange indeed. And yet, as time ran on, and the mystery remained unsolved, new objects of attention of course came up, and so discussion of the matter gradually dropped, until even private speculation was at last abandoned. It grew to be an old story, in fact; and among that gathering of all kinds of character, personal eccentricities were too common to command long continued attention.

The

So for a month-and then another. fall of the year was now well advanced, and there were symptoms of an approaching movement among the miners. It was not a large settlement,—had been the creation of a single source of attraction—was ten miles removed, and by only a mule path at that, from the nearest of the more permanent mining centers; thence it was more than eighty miles by wagon road from Stockton. It behooved any who might intend to remain during the winter to begin making themselves comfortable with log huts instead of tents, and with such a plentiful stock of provisions as might probably be within the means of very few. Possibly it did not happen to be within the means of any, for during the first week of November, there seemed to be a very general stirring about on the part of all to get out of the place. First, a few Chileans, whom nobody missed,

ous good byes and farewell drinks among the American settlers; and daily, white tents that here and there had dotted the plain, disappeared, and heavily laden mules were seen struggling up the path that led to the higher land above. Now and then, too, a single miner with a blanket on his back, and a few light implements in his hand, could be seen plodding away muleless, in the insignificance of his destitution, stealing away almost as unregarded as the Chileans. Among the last to go was our elected Judge. He had been detained, closing up some rather extensive interests in a flume; and now, being ready to leave, came to me.

"I am a little anxious, Michigan, about that boy-Charley, as he is called. In one way he is nothing to me, of course, and yet he seems so weak and unprotected-in fact, he should have gone home, wherever that is, weeks ago. You seem to know as much about him as any one. Can't you look to him a little, if you stay much longer?

"I don't know how much longer I shall stay here, Judge Conley. But I will promise to do what I can to help the boy, if he will let me, and that I will not leave the mine before he does."

ask.

"Right: I suppose that is all anybody can Well, good bye, and luck to you." He turned off, and was gone that same afternoon. Others almost immediately followed him, and within a day or two-it had come to about the middle of the month— nearly the whole population of the mine had melted away. There was nothing left standing upon the whole plain, in fact, except the two small tents about a quarter of a mile apart, from which Charley and I still kept our solitary watch upon each other.

We had never spoken together since we had parted after the gambler's funeral; we had scarcely ever met, and if by any chance a meeting was threatened, had mutually avoided it by some divergence upon one side or the other. Not that there was any actual quarrel between us: but when men are moved by different and diverse interests, it is perhaps as well that they should keep

apart; and when those interests naturally lead to unceasing watchfulness upon each other's actions, merging often into unpleasant espionage, it becomes instinctively felt that any meeting, however accidental, might give rise to bloodshed. Therefore, we, not unwisely, kept apart; and now, that we were the only persons left in all the settlement, it might have seemed a very difficult thing to do, so necessary to every one is the possession of some manifestation of human sympathy, however slight. Still, we persevered all the same in our self-imposed relation, more difficult to be maintained by me than ever, as the days slowly loitered, or because, with the nearer approach of winter, the diversion of occupation became more than ever lost. For the first snow came ;-in the distant Sierras deep and drifting, turning the blue mountain tops to a dazzling white; in the Lowber valley only a few inches as yet, but a disagreeable foretaste of the heavier falls that were sure to come in time. Little as it was, however, with the first wind it drifted into the gulches, and filled them to the exclusion of continuous labor, even in some few places obliterating the markings out of claims. The air, too, became colder, and the ground somewhat frozen, though not as yet very far down. There seemed nothing now left for me to do but to make myself as comfortable as I could for the time, and await, if possible, the far-off spring.

The more I thought it over, the more uncertain and uneasy I felt. I had not calculated to be detained so long at my weary vigilmy opponent had shown himself more enduring and more plucky than could have been deemed possible, judging from his small, delicate features and slight frame; and the contest of patience might be destined to go on for some time longer. Not having foreseen such a state of things, I had neglected to replenish my stores for a winter's stay, and now began dolefully to eye my half barrel of biscuit and fifty pounds of pork with exceedingly faint hope of their lasting me through. How, meanwhile, did the boy stand upon that question? Which of us would first break down and retire from the field? There

was no way of knowing. Each day I wandered around in the neighborhood of my tent, and broke off chunks from the rotting logs that lay close at hand, and lighted my little fire and boiled my single cup of coffee; and always at about the same hours I looked across and saw Charley gathering up stores of half rotted wood and making an answering fire. Perhaps that blue smoke curled up over more abundant supplies than I could dream of possessing - perhaps even over what in the mines would rank as the delicacies of the season. Who could tell?

Meanwhile, the autumn slowly traveled on into winter; the air gained a few degrees in cold. There came a new fall of snow upon the Sierras, making them seem, in the full blaze of the sun, whiter even than before, were that possible; a few inches more snow in the valley; then a mild day or two, during which the sharp air became more endurable, and the snow already fallen began slightly to soften. This was something of a relief to me, for I could now sit and smoke at the entrance of my tent without begirting myself with all my blankets. But there was no relief to be gained in gazing into the fast increasing vacuity of my biscuit barrel; and now I began not merely to suspect, but to realize for a certainty, that before many days I must be starved into giving up the strife, and retire from the field. And how with the boy?

For the hundredth time I had asked myself that question, when one day towards evening I saw that his camp fire was not lighted. I had noticed it blazing as usual in the morning and at noon, and that Charley was diligently employed around it; but now no longer did it gleam against the thick. clump of firs beyond. Could it be possible that at last, in spite of all watchfulness, he had stolen a march upon me, rifling the rich grave, and fleeing unperceived with the plunder?

Roused into activity by this suspicion, I immediately made a long circuit around his tent, and saw with satisfaction that there were no footprints in the snow leading from it. So far, well. Then, little by little, con