The boys stood side by side, and grasping their rifles firmly, peered toward a thick clump of fir woods from whence the sound had proceeded.

But no more laughter came. Instead, the branches parted and coming toward them they distinguished the forms of three men.

Suddenly the hearty mirth broke out once more, and the shoulders of one of the three were seen to bob up and down as if his mirth was unrestrainable. But this time the outburst was roughly checked.

"Shut up, Rufus!" exclaimed one of the men angrily. "A joke lasts you longer than anybody I ever saw."

"Wha's dat? Oh, lawdy! Look-ee, boss! Dere's two white boys!"

It was a short, stocky negro who gasped out these words, his lower jaw dropping in a comical manner as he stared at them as though they had been beings from another world. For their part, the boys were no less astonished at this encounter.

The negro's exclamation was the first apprisal that his two white companions had of the boys' presence on the scene, and their surprise appeared no less than his. They were both rough, wild-looking fellows, with s.h.a.ggy, unkempt beards and rough clothes with knee boots. Both carried shovels and tin pans, while the negro bore a pick and other mining tools. The boys guessed at once that the men were prospectors.

"Howdy, pards," exclaimed one of the men, coming toward the boys with extended hand, "what in the name of time air you doin' roun' these diggin's?"

"Glad to meet you," said Tom, taking the proffered hand and introducing his brother and himself. He then explained his plight.

Both men raised their eyebrows as they listened, and the negro rolled his eyes in an odd fashion.

"Well, I'll be hanged," exclaimed the companion of the man who had first addressed the boys. "That's a tarnation bad fix and no mistake, ain't it, Jim?"

"It sure is, Seth," replied the other, "an' I ain't got no idea of the track they ought to take, seem' as we come inter this country from the other way."

Jim Stapleton, for that was his name, pulled out a pipe and lit it.

His companion, Seth Ingalls, shook his head as if in meditation. Then the two men whispered together for a time while the negro surveyed the boys with a blank expression. There was something about that look that puzzled them. It was not till afterward that they were to learn what it meant. The black man appeared to be about to speak, when the two men, who had withdrawn a little for their confab, came back.

"How come you so far from the river?" asked Jim, and Tom for a pa.s.sing moment thought he detected suspicion in his tones.

"As I told you, to look after our trap line," said Tom.

"Humph! This is a funny time of the year to go trapping."

Tom, omitting all the details that he could, explained the reason for the line being set out before the early winter closed in. If the man had been suspicious, as Tom had for an instant fancied, the answer appeared to lull such thoughts.

"We were foolish to start off in that fog," went on Tom, "but of course I'd no idea that the compa.s.s would betray us like it did."

The men made no rejoinder to this. Then Jim spoke up and in his rough voice told the boys that they were camped not far from there and would be glad to make them welcome if they cared to come along.

The boys, after some hesitation, accepted this proposition. For one thing they were full of youthful curiosity concerning these men, and in the second place, after their experiences of the morning they did not feel inclined to resume their journey, which now bade fair to be a long and arduous one, till they had had some rest.

The men explained that they had been out that morning with the negro Rufus, who acted as cook and did the rough work about the camp, on a prospecting expedition to a distant ridge. But, explained Jim Stapleton, at their home camp lay the real object of their quest in these wild and solitary hills.

"We're the luckiest fellows in the whole world," exclaimed Jim, swinging his arms in wild gesticulation. "We'll be the richest people in America, in Europe, in the whole world! The gold is not far off now. We'll be greater than Solomon in all his glory. We'll be----"

"Here, here, choke off, will you, Jim Stapleton," growled his companion in a taciturn tone.

The boys gazed at the two men in astonishment. The outburst of Jim Stapleton seemed more like the ravings of an unbalanced mind than the speech of a well disciplined one. His eyes had flashed as he spoke, with a wild sort of light and his gesticulations were extravagant. Tom was about to speak, but in the very act his eye caught that of Rufus, the negro cook. To his astonishment the black man's left eye closed in a swift but unmistakable wink that said as plainly as words, "Say nothing."

Jack, who was not so alert as his brother, had noticed none of this by-play, but he, too, had been astonished at the miner's outburst. As for Tom, a suspicion shot into his mind that was to bear fruit in the near future.

The gruff rebuke of Seth Ingalls seemed to have had its effect upon his companion, for Jim Stapleton said no more as they trudged on, and ere long they came in sight of what was the gold-seekers'

headquarters.

Among piled up ma.s.ses of huge rocks and boulders, the two men had found a retreat which could not have been better suited to their purposes if it had been built to order. It consisted in a general way of a cavern about a dozen yards in depth and one-fourth as broad and high, with an entrance that an ordinary sized man could pa.s.s through by slightly stooping.

The floor, walls and ceiling were of solid rock, but an opening must have existed in the rear, for a fire was smouldering in that portion of the cavern, with some sort of food cooking above it in a huge iron pot, and the smoke was curling up and vanishing through some unseen aperture.

Into this curious home, the men whom the boys had encountered had moved their belongings. These consisted of the most primitive and barely necessary sort, a cooking-kit, extra clothing and provisions such as a gun cannot procure. In one corner was a pile of blankets, and a sort of burlap curtain had been fitted over the opening which could presumably be drawn in severe weather, making the place snug and weather proof.

"Do you know anything about the gold mining business?" was almost the first thing Jim Stapleton said as he ushered the boys into this cave home.

"Well, we've never looked for it except in the shape of coined money,"

said Tom with a smile.

"I never knew that there was much to be found in this part of the country," added Jack.

"Then that's just where you're wrong," said Jim, who, despite his taciturn comrade's frowns and winks, seemed bound to talk. "There's gold in plenty here. It's no guesswork on our part. _We know it!_"

Again into his eyes came the odd gleam that Tom had noticed. It never appeared there but when he talked of gold. Then his optics danced and glittered like living coals.

Seth Ingalls had gone outside on some errand connected with the business of the men's retreat. Rufus was chopping wood. The boys were alone in the cave with Jim Stapleton. He leaned forward suddenly and whispered in Tom's ear.

[Ill.u.s.tration: He unfolded it and showed it to the youths.--_Page 257._]

"We have the secret. We'll have gold enough for all. You shall share it. The treasures of Ophir never for an instant compared with what lies in Dead Man's Mine."

"Dead Man's Mine!" echoed Tom. The name carried a sinister suggestion.

"That's its name. See here."

Jim Stapleton arose and tip-toed to the wall. From behind a recess he drew out a rolled up bit of paper, stained and dirty. He unfolded it and showed it to the youths. All the markings were in lead pencil, blurred and indistinct. But one thing about the plan, which was ent.i.tled in bold letters "Plan of Dead Man's Mine," attracted Tom's keen attention.

Upon the map was marked prominently amidst a maze of marks "The Lone Pine," and under it was drawn a crude representation of a blasted, leafless tree of seemingly great size. Now Tom was certain that he had seen no such tree in the vicinity of the cavern. The map, however, did show a canyon similar to the one where the cave was, and also indicated a cave at about the same location. Not far from it a red star showed where the gold was supposed to lie.

Tom glanced up at Stapleton from a scrutiny of the map. As he did so, the suspicion that had flashed across him at their first meeting revisited him. But this time it was a stronger and more sinister impression. He looked at Jack, but apparently he had noticed nothing amiss.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE DEAD MAN'S MINE.

"How did you come into possession of this paper?" asked Tom, feeling an irresistible curiosity concerning the matter.

A look of cunning crept into Stapleton's eyes. His tone grew confidential.

"It's as odd a story as ever you heard," he said. "Do you want to hear it?"

"By all means."