to--to--find silver in that ore. But once you've got it there--you're
all right for tons of it."
"You shall have it," said the now excited Mexican. "You shall have it of
us,--the four! You shall come to our camp and shall melt it,--and show
the silver, and--enough! Come!" and in his feverishness he clutched the
hand of his companion as if to lead him forth at once.
"What are you going to do with your mule?" said the stranger.
"True, Holy Mother,--what, indeed?"
"Look yer," said the stranger, with a grim smile, "she won't stray far,
I'll be bound. I've an extra pack mule above here; you can ride on her,
and lead me into camp, and to-morrow come back for your beast."
Poor honest Concho's heart sickened at the prospect of leaving behind
the tired servant he had objurgated so strongly a moment before, but
the love of gold was uppermost. "I will come back to thee, little
one, to-morrow, a rich man. Meanwhile, wait thou here, patient
one,--Adios!--thou smallest of mules,--Adios!"
And, seizing the stranger's hand, he clambered up the rocky ledge until
they reached the summit. Then the stranger turned and gave one sweep of
his malevolent eye over the valley.
Wherefore, in after years, when their story was related, with the
devotion of true Catholic pioneers, they named the mountain "La Canada
de la Visitacion del Diablo," "The Gulch of the Visitation of the
Devil," the same being now the boundary lines of one of the famous
Mexican land grants.
CHAPTER II
WHO FOUND IT
Concho was so impatient to reach the camp and deliver his good news to
his companions that more than once the stranger was obliged to command
him to slacken his pace. "Is it not enough, you infernal Greaser, that
you lame your own mule, but you must try your hand on mine? Or am I to
put Jinny down among the expenses?" he added with a grin and a slight
lifting of his baleful eyelid.
When they had ridden a mile along the ridge, they began to descend again
toward the valley. Vegetation now sparingly bordered the trail, clumps
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