car enjoying his old black pipe, which was his delight and solace
and Miss Prescott's particular abomination. Among Peter's other
peculiarities, acquired in a long and solitary life, was a habit he
had of sometimes making, his remarks in verse. He entered the car
just as the conversation we have recorded was in progress.

"Soon, my good friends, o'er the desert, so bold, we all shall be
flying with excellent gold."

A general laugh from the young folks greeted him, and Roy struck in
with:

"That's if we don't fall to the earth from the sky, and land up in a
smash on the white alkali."

The merriment that greeted this was cut short by the raucous voices
of the trainmen.

"Blue Creek! Blue Creek!"

Instantly the liveliest bustle prevailed. Belongings of all sorts
were hastily bundled together. So intent, in fact, was our party on
its preparations for its plunge into the unknown that not one of
them noticed two men who stood watching them intently from the
opposite end of the car.

"So we've run the old fox into the ground," remarked one of them, a
tall, heavily built fellow with a crop of short, reddish hair that
bristled like the remnants of an old tooth brush. He was clean-shaven
and had a weak, cruel mouth and a pair of narrow little eyes, through