Six intensely interested individuals sat about the supper-table in the living room at Pebbly Pit Ranch-house, the evening of the day they rode to Oak Creek to file the claim on the gold mine. Sary, the maid-of-all-work, had the supper ready for the weary riders when they returned from their trip.

Having served the dessert, Sary went out to the barn to help Jeb, the foreman on the ranch, with the horses which had just come in from the long day's work. So the group about the table felt free to talk as they liked. But Polly Brewster and her friend Eleanor Maynard were almost talked out by the time they finished the last bit of Sary's delicious dessert; and Barbara Maynard tried her best to hide a yawn behind her hand, while Anne Stewart, the pretty teacher who was the fourth member in the party that spent a night in the cave, was eager to continue planning for the future of the mine, but Nature demanded rest after the three days' excitement.

Finally, Polly turned to her father and said: "I wish we could see John's face when he reads that telegram!"

"If we had only dared word it plainly, there sure would be something queer to laugh at when John read it. But we had to cipher it, you know," chuckled Sam Brewster.

"I can't see why such foolish fear of talking about it is entertained by all you folks," declared Barbara, loftily.

"Can't you? Well, then, Bob, Ah'll tell you plainly that that message had to be camouflaged, as we are not taking any risks on having your claim jumped over night. If we sent a wire to John telling him plainly that you girls discovered a vein of gold on Top Notch Trail, every last rascal in Oak Creek would hit the trail before that message was delivered," replied Mr. Brewster.

"Even as it is, I suppose every one who can read the records at Oak Creek will start out at once, so as to stake new claims as near to Montresor's Mine as possible; perhaps they'll try to pick up some nuggets from your claim, as well," added Mrs. Brewster.

"Then, when word spreads around the country—and such news always travels like lightning—every gambler and bunco man in Wyoming and Colorado will be seen camping on Top Notch Trail, each trying in his own way to wheedle money or gold-dust from the unwary ones," laughed Mr. Brewster.

"There now, Daddy! You've laughed, so I know your spell of worry is over with. Won't you tell us what made you so serious?" exclaimed Polly.

"Ah was trying to plan for the best way to avoid trouble over this claim; and at the same time protect our own rights, and any rights Old Montresor's family might have in this rediscovery. That is why Ah insisted upon Simms being one of our party, to-morrow; and the sheriff with his stalwart son, too. They are both strong, trusty men, and with Simms, Jeb and myself, we ought to be able to hold our own in case of an argument up there."

"Oh, Mr. Brewster! Do you mean there is likely to be a fight, and shooting?" cried Barbara, horrified at the very idea.

"Not so that you-all can notice it—if we get there first. But let those claim-jumpers camp on our grounds first, and we-all may have to use gun-persuasion to move them on to safer ground."

"Dear me, I think it is going to be more fun than a movie-picture play in the filming!" exclaimed Eleanor, her eyes shining with excitement.

"I hope we won't have the same kind of gun-play that we see in the wild-west films," hinted Anne Stewart, hitherto a listener.

"Would you rather remain here, Anne?" asked Barbara, with an eager expression as if to say: "'I hope you do—then I will stay with you.'"

"I should say no! I wouldn't miss the picnic we are going to have, to-morrow, for anything in Colorado!" declared Anne, emphatically.

Mrs. Brewster laughed at the young teacher's vehement tones, and then turned to her husband with a suggestion.

"Sam, what do you think of sending Jeb on before, in the morning, to tell Rattle-Snake Mike he must act as guide and cook for us while we are on the mountain? He is the cleverest Indian anywhere about, you know."

"Just the thing, Mary! Ah'm mighty glad you-all thought of it. Jeb can ride on whiles we-all branch off at Bear Forks for the Old Indian Trail. Then Mike and Jeb can catch up with us."

"I don't know about that, Sam," returned Mrs. Brewster, thoughtfully. "I'd rather see Jeb start from here about four o'clock, so Mike and he can meet us at five-thirty at the school-house."

"You must have some good reason for that," ventured Polly.

"Yes, Mike may hear about this claim and leave his cabin early, so as to act as guide to strangers who will be glad to pay him any price just to get him and his wonderful scouting experience."

"Right as usual, Mary! Ah'll run out, right now, and tell Jeb he'd better get to bed if he has to be up before four," exclaimed Mr. Brewster, starting for the bedroom over the barn where he knew Jeb would be.

"And we had better go to bed, too, so we can be up and have breakfast out of the way before the horses are brought to the door," suggested Mrs. Brewster, leading the way to the front door to look at the night sky.

"Why, it isn't eight o'clock," complained Barbara.

"No, but even that leaves us less than eight hours' sleep. After such exciting days as we have been through, we need a good full night's rest," replied Anne.

"Chances are Nolla and I won't close an eye! What, with gold mines, and John, and the Latimer boys, and Ken Evans coming to town—and claim-jumpers, and everything!" laughed Polly.

"You mean that young stranger we met at Oak Creek?" asked Barbara, frigidly.

"Yes,—the one who looked so pleasant but forlorn," said Eleanor, sympathetically.

"His name was Kenneth Evans, you know, Bob," explained Polly, innocently.

Eleanor and Anne exchanged glances and smiled, for they understood that Barbara meant to be condemnatory in her manner; but Polly, in her very guilelessness, countered the city girl's disparagement.

"It's too bad we couldn't have had him come home with us," added Eleanor, teasingly, to Barbara.

"Dear me, Nolla! By the time I get you back to Chicago you will need a complete training in social behavior again!" declared Barbara, frowning at her younger sister.

But her remark merely called forth a merry laugh from the light-hearted girl. Mrs. Brewster then started the usual preparations for bed, and the group followed her example.

For the benefit of any one who has not been fortunate enough to become acquainted with our western friends, in the first book of this series, we will introduce you while the girls are soundly sleeping.

Polly Brewster, a girl just past fourteen, was a true type of the honest, ambitious ranchers of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Her home, the extensive farm in the crater of an extinct volcano, was called Pebbly Pit because of the giant cliffs of colored stones guarding the entrance trail. This ranch was about eleven miles from Oak Creek, the mining settlement and railroad station for about a thousand inhabitants, where all shopping had to be done. The town was much like other rough, half-civilized western settlements, consisting of a post office, a bank, the sheriff's office, and several saloons. A general store was maintained in connection with the post office, and here one must buy anything needed for house or farm. The Brewsters, being affluent ranchers, ordered their clothing, house-furnishings, and many tools or luxuries by mail, from illustrated catalogues. But the rough road from the ranch to the town post office, being hard going in a heavy ranch-wagon, often caused the Brewsters to forego a mail order on cosmopolitan stores rather than drive in and cart the goods home from Oak Creek.

Polly had just completed her grammar course at the little Bear Forks' school-house where Anne Stewart had taught two years previous to this summer. Polly had never been elsewhere than at Oak Creek and now she yearned to attend High School in Denver.

Anne Stewart lived in Denver, and for the past year had been tutoring Eleanor Maynard, while the girl and her older sister Barbara boarded with Mrs. Stewart. The Maynard girls were from Chicago, but Eleanor, who was fourteen, was very delicate, so the doctor had recommended a high altitude for her.

Anne Stewart was helping her brother Paul through a college in Chicago, and during her visit to him, at the end of his first year, she met his friends—John Brewster who was Polly's older brother; Tom Latimer a promising young engineer from New York; and Pete Maynard who was a brother to Eleanor and Barbara. It was through this means that the Maynards heard of the Stewarts' home in Denver, and anxiously begged Anne to take the two girls into her home circle. As the salary offered for this privilege was so munificent, the young teacher eagerly accepted, and then found her youngest charge a lovable and merry girl.

The two Chicago girls had returned home for a few months, but Eleanor could not stand the high winds and stubborn climate of Chicago, so the doctor again ordered her to spend a summer in the mountains of Colorado. In distraction, Mr. Maynard begged Anne Stewart to arrange everything, and thus it was that these two society girls came, with Anne, to board with Polly's family at Pebbly Pit ranch.

The Brewsters were considered very wealthy in land and cattle, to say nothing of the Rainbow Cliffs, for which a New York financier had offered them half a million dollars for part interest in mining them. But Sam Brewster could afford to refuse such destruction to his beautiful estate. Polly had never had city-made clothing, nor had she the slightest idea of city-ways, until the Maynard girls' advent to Pebbly Pit. But she had had years of thrilling experiences to her credit—experiences with wild-life of all kinds, of mountain-climbing, of adventures of other sorts, to say nothing about knowledge of farming and domestic animals. This outdoor life gave her abundant health, strength, and the beauty of a fine complexion, clear eyes, luxuriant glossy hair, and a graceful well-formed figure that was all the more attractive because of the charms her adolescence promised.

That very day had been spent in Oak Creek in filing the claim to Montresor's Mine, and just as the party started for home, they had met the young stranger, Kenneth Evans, who sought Carew's Surveying Camp, which was known to be located near Yellow Jacket Pass. The youth was directed how to find Jake, the driver of Carew's wagon, and then he was invited to visit Pebbly Pit, on Sunday.

As Polly and Eleanor had predicted, they were so excited over the events that promised such thrills on the morrow, that they slept little that night, but tossed and talked most of the time. However, when the call sounded for them all to awake and dress for the mountain trip, it found that these two girls were fast asleep and loath to get up.

"Good gracious, Anne! My wrist watch says it's four o'clock! You don't suppose we have to get up at this awful hour?" complained Barbara, rubbing her eyes.

Anne was already up and hurriedly dressing. "Any one who is not ready to start when the man brings the horses around to the door, remains behind, you know."

That brought Polly and Eleanor out of bed with a hop, as there was only a wooden partition between the two rooms, and Anne's words were plainly heard by them.

"If there was the least thing to do if I stayed here, I'd not go again for anything. But I should die of ennui if I had to be entertained by Sary for three whole days," grumbled Barbara.

The very idea of Sary, the "house helper," entertaining Barbara, for whom she felt such scorn, caused mirth in the adjoining room.

Eleanor called out: "More than likely Sary feels as glad to know that you're going, as we would be to have you stay behind."

"Come, come, Bob! You must get up and dress!" now urged Anne, as she finished her dressing and turned to leave the room.

The purple gleams of the western dawn shot the heavens of blue and gold, as Jeb brought the sturdy horses from the barn. He had given careful attention to the trappings and shoes of the various mounts, and finding each one in splendid condition, started for the house.

An unusual hubbub came from the living-room where baskets of food and outfits were waiting. The moment Jeb was hailed, however, the noisy girls ran out to look over their horses.

"Why, Jeb! Isn't Noddy going this time?" asked Polly.

"Not ef you-all want her to keep any breath in her skin. Ain't she eena-most done up from that other trip?" retorted Jeb, who was the "general-man" on the ranch. Having been with the Brewsters since he was a boy of twelve, he felt that he was one of the family and he treated Polly as if she were a younger sister.

"Never mind Noddy, this time, Polly, but let Jeb jump into the saddle and start off. He'll never reach Mike's cabin if you keep on arguing about the burros," said Mrs. Brewster, coming out to call them to breakfast.

Jeb had gone on to secure the company of Rattle-Snake Mike, and Mr. Brewster sat impatiently on his horse, waiting to guide the party of women, when all but Barbara were ready; then she came out while still munching her tardy breakfast.

As the riders passed the Rainbow Cliffs, the rays of the rising sun gilded their peaks, and the girls exclaimed at the beauty of the stones as they reflected the myriad colors of a rainbow. Then on down through the Devil's Causeway and out on the Sand Trail, rode the adventurers, until they saw Jeb and Mike riding to meet them.

"Mike says we-all ain't the fust ones to start up Grizzly Slide, this mornin'," said Jeb, the moment he was within hearing.

"U-um! Plenty fool go by!" grunted Mike.

Mike was an entirely new type to the city girls, and they studied him with interest. He was a swarthy-looking Indian; perhaps, as Mr. Brewster said, because he smoked himself brown. He always rode his famous Indian pony and carried an evil-looking gun, besides the revolvers in his belt. Another weapon he had, as evil but not quite so fatal to others as the gun—and that was his old pipe, as black as the Asiatic plague.

Mike was a descendant of a famous Chieftain, so he seldom noticed the miners or common natives about Oak Creek, but he considered himself an equal of educated people like the Brewsters. Hence his willingness to act as guide for this party, after he had refused tempting offers from the "scorned" early that morning.

"Now we'll turn off at the Forks and ride fast to meet Simms and his party," advised Mr. Brewster, when they reached the place where the trails forked.

"Mike says there's the old Indian Trail up the mountain, that cuts off half the distance to the Slide," called Jeb, from the front.

"Him bad trail—no like Top Notch," warned the Indian.

"Whereabouts will we hit it, Mike?" asked Mr. Brewster.

"Onny Mike say—him secret Indian Trail," explained the red-man, ever faithful to his ancestors.

"Well, will we pass Pine Tree where we are to meet Simms and the sheriff?" added Mrs. Brewster.

"Na! him run away from Pine Tree. But him save half-day riding."

Mr. Brewster silently considered this possibility for a few moments, then turned to his wife, and said: "Mary, it seems most important just now for us to get to the cave before others reach it, as we must stake out additional claims adjoining the mine, in order to protect the rights of the girls. Of course, we must have Mike show us his secret trail, and I will go to escort the girls, but you and Jeb might ride on to Pine Tree to meet Simms' party. Then ride with them up along Top Notch Trail. We will all meet at Four Mile Blaze."

"I was about to suggest the same plan, Sam; but I won't need Jeb with me. I'm so used to this road that I am perfectly safe. It is the Trail that will be hazardous to a lone rider, when once the outlaws hear of this strike. But I will have Mr. Simms and the other men with me, so everything will be safe and all right," replied Mrs. Brewster.

After a hasty good-by, Mrs. Brewster rode away, and the others in the party followed after Mike who led up a hitherto unknown trail to Grizzly Slide. It was so over-grown that no one but an Indian could ever find a way through; however, Mike was an adept in this line.

"I have been wondering if this could have been the trail Mr. Montresor discovered the day he approached his gold mine from the valley," said Polly, as she followed close at Mike's heels.

"You may have hit the nail on the head, Poll. It always has been a question whether Montresor was quite sane, because he insisted that he rode up a strange trail that was over-grown with jungle before he came upon the ravine that held his gold mine," added Mr. Brewster.

"Humph! Him good old scout," came from Mike.

"I'm glad to hear you say so, Mike, because I liked him so much!" sighed Polly, and tears filled her eyes at the memory of her old friend.

"Patsy good scout, too. Solly dem dead," Mike added.

Conversation now became impossible, as Mike rode far in advance for some reason best known to himself, and the trail was so steep and rough that it took each rider all his attention to keep in the saddle. However, the flora and fauna were so interesting that the girls endured many a jar and jolt for the sake of seeing them.

Reaching Four Mile Blaze they found they had saved over half the distance it would have been to ride up over Top Notch Trail; and this pleased Mr. Brewster tremendously. He had just turned in his saddle to call out to the girls behind him when Mike held up a warning hand.

Every one looked at him to see what he had discovered. He grunted unpleasantly, and slid from his horse. He sprawled out on the ground and placed his ear close to the earth. Every one sat still, waiting to hear the report, or cause, of this unusual behavior.

The Indian listened attentively for a time, then got up and examined the trail along Top Notch, as far back as the blazed tree. There he placed his ear to the ground again, and listened for a longer time than at first. Then he got up slowly and crept about examining the bushes, the broken twigs, rocks, and even the grass.

The girls watched him with intense interest, as Polly had told them of the wonderful scouting instinct Mike possessed, and now they were going to have it demonstrated to them. Having satisfied himself, Mike came over to Mr. Brewster and announced, abruptly:

"Tree miner gone aleddy—two tenderfut comin'."

"Three up there already! By the Great Horned Spoon! how did they do it?" cried Sam Brewster, aghast at the idea that perhaps they would have trouble when they reached Polly's mine.

"Maybe the three gone on ahead have no idea that we found gold up there. Maybe they are after pelts, or some other thing," said Anne Stewart.

Mike grinned complacently, for he had spoken.

"How do you know those three are miners, Mike?" asked Polly.

The Indian pointed to the ground where an imprint of a miner's boot was plainly seen. Only the miners at Oak Creek wore such spiked heels, the ranchers and other citizens being satisfied with heavy leather soles. The foot-print pointed towards the Slide—not away from it.

"That's only one, Mike, and you said there were three!" exclaimed Anne, triumphantly.

"Tree hoss go by—see." Mike pointed out three different kinds of horse-shoe imprints.

"One hoss carry pack an' go lame. Two hoss all light."

"How do you know he is lame—and maybe he isn't packed," Eleanor said.

Mike sniffed derisively, and pointed at the lighter impression of one hind foot. Then he showed his admiring audience how a slight rip in a flour-sack allowed the contents to trickle down upon the ground at each limp the lame horse gave.

Mike now said to Mr. Brewster: "Dem go slow—lame hoss no go fas', mebbe jus' ahead."

"If we ride on we can catch up with them!" eagerly exclaimed Anne.

Mike shook his head and lifted a finger for silence. Then the girls heard a faint clip-clop of hoof-beats on the rocky trail leading along Top Notch.

"Two tenderfut 'mos' catch up. We-all wait an' talkee," suggested Mike, settling himself in his saddle to await the riders.

"Mike's right, because they will only follow us and find out where our claim is located, if we start on now," added Polly.

Mr. Brewster shook his head. "Ah reckon you-all talk sense but Ah would offer an amendment to your plan: to have Polly and Anne take Jeb for an escort and ride on at once. Let the horses have their head and get to the cave as soon as you can. Hold the fort until we-all join you. We-all will see these two men and find out what they are after."

"Daddy, you must remember a grizzly bear lives in that cave. He may have been injured but he may not have died, the other night. I have my small rifle but Anne hasn't any weapon at all. As for Jeb—he's great on the farm, but for this work, huh! Then there are those three miners who are up ahead: they wouldn't hesitate to put two mere girls out of their way, if we interfered with their staking our mine or jumping our claims," said Polly.

Mike smiled and expressed his opinion. "Miss'r Brooser wait wid two ten'erfut, an' Mike go wid leedle leddies. Ef cabe hab trouble of grizzle er miner, Mike shoot."

"Good! And Ah'll wait for Simms and the others, and then come after you-all," agreed Mr. Brewster.

"I won't go with Mike if there is any danger at the cave. I didn't come to the Rockies to be killed!" declared Barbara.

"Daddy, you must keep Eleanor and Barbara here with you and Jeb, and wait for mother and the sheriff's men. Anne and I will go with Mike and see that our rights are protected," now said Polly.

"I have as much right to go with you, Polly, as Anne has. Why must I remain here with Bob?" demanded Eleanor.

"I know that, Nolla, but three of us will be too many—especially as Anne and you have no firearms. I may need Anne to help me load but you can't even do that. So it will be far better for us all if you remain here. Mike will not have to bother over so many of us, then," explained Polly.

"But everything may be safe at the cave, and all this worry about fighting may be a farce," argued Eleanor.

"In that case Mike will leave us safely there and come back to guide you-all to us. Once we are safe on that ledge with a pile of dry wood in front of the entrance to the cave, we can defy the whole country."

"All right! Hurry away and get on to that ledge before any more rascals steal a march on you. But be sure to send Mike back for us, the moment Anne and you arrive there and find everything is all right," replied Eleanor.

So Mike spurred his broncho along the trail, while Polly and Anne rode after him. Soon they disappeared around the bend where giant pines formed a wall on either side of the narrow going.