CHAPTER VI

IN THE SADDLE

"How far away are those mountains?" asked Tom, gazing in their
direction as they walked to the corral the next day.

"About forty miles," replied Bill. "They are called the 'Lost
Lode' hills, because there is said to be a rich silver mine in them
somewhere that the Spaniards worked hundreds of years ago. Just
where it is, though, no one has ever been able to discover."

"Wouldn't it be great if we could find it?" exclaimed Larry
eagerly. "Do you suppose your father would let us go and try?
Have you ever been over to the hills?"

"Lots of times on hunting trips. But we never explored them very
much. The trouble is no one knows whether the mine is on this side
or the other."

"But haven't they searched for it?" queried Tom, to whose mind a
silver mine suggested unlimited wealth.

"Lots of men have tried, but no one who has gone to find it has
ever been seen again," returned Bill. "They say the mine is
haunted by the ghosts of the old Spaniards who discovered it and
that they kill any one who goes near it."

At the suggestion of phantom Spaniards guarding the mine and