VI. THE MINERS.

IT WAS late in the when the occurred, and it was just to dark when the three friends the Yellowstone.

This was in their favor, although there an hour or two of great danger, in case the Indians any search for them. In case of discovery, there was an for escape.

The or raft, as it might be termed, had very down-stream for about an hour, when the ears of the danger.

'Thar be some of the that are creep-in 'long shore,' said he; 'you'd in under this tree and fast awhile.'

The was heeded. Just them, the of an oak, in the current, an screen. As the log, thither, this, Mickey and Ethan of the and themselves motionless.

'Now wait till it's dark, and then thar'll be no of the varmints,' added the trapper.

''Sh! I sumfin'!' the Irishman

'What is it?' asked Ethan.

'How I know till still?'

'It's the goin' long the banks,' said the trapper.

The were yet in his mouth, when the voice of one Indian was calling to another. Neither Mickey Ethan had the idea of the meaning of the uttered, but the told them that they were of each other anything had been of more fugitives. The answer being in the negative, our friends their present position safe.

When it was dark, and nothing more was or of the Indians, the was permitted to free, and they with the current. They the river until daylight, when, having been in the water so long, they it best to land and themselves. By the of their they succeeded in' a fire, the of which proved to all.

They would have had a very time had they not a party of who them to St. Louis, where the had friends, and where, also, he had a good of money in the bank.

Here Baldy all winter, he from the which he the and of the steamer. When the Irishman and Yankee were about to depart, he asked them where they were going.

'I'm goin' home in Connecticut and goin' to work on the farm, and that's where I'm goin' to stay. I was a to it for this place. I live put there, and that's more than I can do in this country.'

'And I shall go to work on the Erie railroad, at thirty-siven a day and myself,' the Irishman.

'If were of findin' all the gold want, would go to Califony?''

'Arrah. Now, what are talkin' about?' asked McSquizzle, impatiently. 'What is the good of talkin'?'

'I didn't ax to with yer,' the trapper, 'thar's a place that I know away out West, that I call Wolf Ravine, thar's gold to make of than afore, and then some for children.'

'Jerusalem! but you're a lucky dog!' Ethan Hopkins, not to that he would the place. 'Why don't you it up naow, yourself?'

'I only it a month ago, and I a good of it, as it was. When that old of mine with the steamer, he a powerful of gold with him, and if his carcass, it'll be the most one they come across.'

'Jingo! if I'd know'd that, I'd taken a for him myself.'

'Howsumever, that's neither thar. You done me a good turn when I got into trouble on the river, and I mud' up my mind to do what I toward payin' it the I got. I didn't say nothin' of it when we was on our way, 'cause I was it would make you too to go ag'in: but if you'll come this way next I'll make the with you.'

'Why not go naow?' Hopkins.

'It's too late in the season. I don't want to be when thar's too much onto the ground, and then I must till I well over that I got on the boat.'

It is necessary to say that the offer of the kind-hearted was with the enthusiasm. Mickey and Ethan were more to go out upon the than they had been a year and a before, when they started so full of and for that wilderness, and had come with such and disgust.

It was that as soon as the had set in, they would set out on their return for St. Louis, where the would meet and them to the gold region of which he had spoken.

Before their homeward, Baldy presented each with a complete outfit, paid their passage to their homes, and gave them a over. Like the Indian, he a him, do too great a to those who had so him.

So the took place again; and, on the Mickey and Ethan appeared in St. Louis, where they had no in their old friend, the trapper.

He had from his blow, and was them, and to join in the promised search for gold. As the weather had begun, there was no time in delay. The of Baldy Bicknell was deep, and he had not the common of intoxication, which takes so much from a man. He purchased a and for each of his friends; and, they started westward, saw that nothing at all was in their outfit.

Three later the men in a of valley, very but not very wide. It was on the of an prairie, while a river of size by the rear, and by a its way into the of the ravine, and in a canyon.

The and of the was with and rocks, while large and trees to everywhere.

'Yar's what I call Wolf Ravine,' said Baldy when they had some time in looking; about them.

'And be the same towken, where is the goold?' Mickey.

'Yes, that there is what I call the question,' added Ethan.

'That it is, of the account, as me observed, she off the staaple, and her pipe was broke.'

'It's in thar,' was the reply of the hunter, as he pointed to the wildest-looking of the ravine.

'Let's it then.'

'Thar be some other that have got to be looked after first,' was the reply, 'and we've got to a place to ourselves away.'

This was a of difficulty: but they succeeded at last in a in the rocks, where they were secure from any attack, no by how a number made.

After this, they up a place for their animals, which were loose.

They soon that the had not them. There was an rich deposit of gold in one of the ravine, and the men to work with a will, that they would a rich for their labor.

The name, Wolf Ravine, had been to it by the trapper, on his of it he had a large wolf, that was up the side; but none others were afterward.

But there was one to this of wealth. Indians of the most and were all around them, and were by no means to-let them alone.

On the second day after their labor, a of them came upon them; and had it not been for the safe retreat, which the trapper's had secured, all three would have been massacred.