that was blazing and crackling in a narrow gulch far away in the Rocky
Mountains, days and days travel from civilization.

The circumstances that had brought them there were also very strange and
unusual. Desmond Dare was the son of a widow who owned a small farm in
New York State. There had been a mortgage on this farm which was about
to be foreclosed when Desmond, a brave, vigorous lad, sold his only
possession, a valuable colt, and determined to enter a walking match for
the prize. He was on his way to the city where the match was to take
place when in a belt of woods he heard a cry for help. He ran in the
direction whence the cry came and found three tramps assailing a fourth
man. The vigorous youth sprang to the rescue and drove the three tramps
off, and was later persuaded by the man he had rescued to go with him to
a rock cavern. There the lad beheld a very beautiful girl of about
fourteen whose history was enveloped in a dark mystery; he also learned
that the man he had rescued was known as the wizard tramp. The latter
was a very strange and peculiar character, a victim of the rum habit,
which had brought him away down until he became a tramp of the most
pronounced type. This man, however, was really a very shrewd fellow,
well educated, not only in book learning, but in the ways of the world,
and seeing that Desmond had resolved to take a desperate chance, the
tramp volunteered to land him a winner; he succeeded in so doing. The
champion of the walking match carried his money to his mother, the tramp
went upon an extended spree and spent his share. Afterward the tramp and
Desmond Dare started on the road together. The girl had been placed with
Mrs. Dare on the farm, and the man and boy proceeded West afoot,
determined to locate a gold mine. The former discovered each day some
new quality, and held forth to Desmond that some day he would make a
very startling revelation. The youth had no idea as to the character of
the revelation, but knowing that the tramp, named Brooks, was a very