assessment work pretty quick. Suppose some one should stumble onto it?"

"Well, we've got to take the chance," said Pete. "And the chance of some
one stumbling on our find by blind luck, like we did, isn't a drop in the
bucket to the chance that we'll be followed if we try to slip away while
these fellows are worked up with the fever. Seventy-five thousand round
dollars to one canceled stamp that some one has his eye glued on us
through a telescope right this very now! I wouldn't bet the postage stamp
on it, at that odds. No, sir! Right now things shape up hotter than the
seven low places in hell.

"If we go to the mine now--or soon--we'll never get back. After we show
them the place--_adiós el mundo_!"

"Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird," Mitchell
quoted soberly. "So you think that after a while, when their enthusiasm
dies down, we can give them the slip?"

"Sure! It's our only chance."

"Couldn't we make a get-away at night?"

"It is what they are hoping for. They'd follow our tracks. No, sir! We do
nothing. We notice nothing, we suspect nothing, and we have nothing to
hide."

"You want to remember that our location notice will be running out pretty
soon."

"We'll have to risk it. Not so much of a risk, either. Cobre is the last