thing to do first?"

"See if we can get water, Dave. If we were shut up here without water
they would have us in twelve hours, so we have got to get enough for
ourselves and the horses to drink if we can, even if we have to fetch up
what we want for the gravel. When we have got water, the next job will
be to make a cradle; there are plenty of trees here, and we have got our
hatchets, and we have brought the zinc screens, so we have got
everything we want. I don't say we mightn't pick up a lot in nuggets.
Still, I have got a dozen already, making, I should say, over an ounce
between them. Still, the others is the real thing to depend on."

"And there is another thing, Dave," Zeke put in; "we must have a watch.
We had intended that, but we thought we should have only one place to
watch; now we have found this track up the hill we have two."

"That is so, Dave, though it is pretty hard on us having two out of five
idle. Still, we have got a lesson there," Boston said, pointing to the
spot where they had found the skeletons.

"Aye, aye, it has got to be done," Dave said. "Well, lads, will you take
the watch to-day, one above and one at the mouth, and we will set to
work at the water hole?"

"We will toss up which goes up the hill again, Dick. You spin. Heads;
tails it is."

"Then I will choose the mouth here. You go up to the mouth's head."

"Don't you be walking about when you get to the top," Dave said. "Find