father."

"Steady, boy, steady," returned the ranchman. "Those men are flesh
and blood, don't worry about that. Who they are I don't know.
Probably some hunters like ourselves."

"That couldn't be the way to the mine, could it?" hazarded Larry,
whose eagerness to discover a silver mine had received new impetus.
"Can't we go there to-morrow and find out?"

"We'll see when to-morrow comes," declared Mr. Wilder. "But
there's no occasion to get excited. The mountains are full of men
hunting and prospecting all the time. Come on, we'll camp under
that big tree up there to the right. Whoever gets there first will
be boss of the camp."

The challenge for a race, with the honor of being in command of the
hunt as the prize, served to take the boys' thoughts from the
mysterious men on the trail as nothing else could, and quickly they
leaped their ponies forward.

The spot selected by the ranchman for their night's bivouac was
about a quarter of a mile away and in the opposite direction from
the cliffs.

Yelling like young Indians, the boys urged their jaded ponies to
greater efforts.

Tom and Horace, being lighter than the others, had not tried their
mounts so much, and rapidly they drew ahead.