II. A STORY IS TOLD AND A PROMISE MADE
III. IN WHICH WILLIS IS HONORED
IV. WILLIS BECOMES INTERESTED IN GOLD MINES
V. A PLAN IS EVOLVED
VI. A STAGE ROAD JOURNEY
VII. A WILDERNESS CAMP
VIII. THE SECOND DAY OUT
IX. THE THIRD DAY OUT
X. A GLIMPSE OF BUFFALO ROOST
XI. A STRANGE TURN OF FATE
XII. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MINE
XIII. SLEEPY SMITH HAS AN EXPERIENCE
XIV. THE OPENED DOOR
XV. IN WHICH FATE TAKES A HAND




CHAPTER I

Willis Thornton Displays His Pluck


Train No. 6 on the D. & P.W., two hours late at Limon, was rushing and
jolting along over its rickety roadbed. The rain fell in torrents, the
heavy peals of thunder seemed about to tear the car to pieces, the black
and threatening clouds blotted out the landscape, and the passengers
could hear nothing but the roar of the thunder and the rattle of the
train. The brakeman, shaking the water from his hat as he passed through
the aisle, dropped something about it being a "mighty tough day for