"Now do you lie down," Dave said. "I will keep watch at the mouth. I
don't think there is any danger; still, we may as well begin as we shall
have to go on."

"Well, call me up in a couple of hours, then," Zeke said; "it will begin
to get light in about four, and as soon as it does we will cover up the
tracks."

With the first dawn of light the three miners, taking their blankets,
went down to the mouth of the Canyon. The boys accompanied them to watch
their operations. It was only in the sand and gravel swept down by the
floods from the gorge that any footmarks could be seen; these were first
leveled, and then with the blankets the surface of the sand was
carefully swept so as to erase all signs of disturbance. Before the sun
was up the operation was completed, twenty or thirty yards up the Canyon.

"That is enough for the present," Dave said; "we are safe from anyone
passing. Now, let us have a look round up above."

"They must have been awful careless if they were surprised in here,"
Zeke said; "half a dozen men ought to hold this place against a hull
tribe of redskins."

"That is so," Boston Joe agreed, "but the greasers are mighty bad
watchmen, and no doubt they thought they were safe in here. That Indian
village could not have been over on the hill opposite then, or it would
have been put down on the map."

"Like enough they had been followed," Dave said. "If a redskin had
caught sight of them, he might have followed on their trail for weeks,