"Well, there is plenty of time between this and spring, and we will have time to talk that over afterward. Now, about this grub-staking business. There are lots of fellows who come out here who haven't got the money to enable them to go prospecting, and what do they do but hunt up some fellow who is willing to buck against a hole in the ground, and get their provisions and tools of him. He gets half of what they make. The men stay out there until they have eaten up all their provisions and then come in; and if they have had good luck, so much the better. But if they have wasted their time in looking for gold where there wasn't any to be found, why, so much the worse; that man is just so much out of pocket.

"Well, along in '90 Pete and me struck this very town, and we flew so light that we couldn't hardly stay on the ground. We didn't have enough to buy our next meal with; but we struck a gang whom we knew, and headed along with them for the gold country. Of course we had nothing, but we managed to strike a grub-stake and went prospecting up there behind Dutch Flat. We lit into that rock and dirt, working like beavers, but the sign didn't come right. It looked well enough at the start, but it did not pan out much. We stuck to it for nearly three months, and then concluded that we had better go down and get another grub-stake and strike in somewhere else. So I stayed up there alone, and Pete went down and brought up the man that employed us. He looked at the hole, liked the looks of it, and wanted us to go farther; but Pete and I couldn't see it in that light. One word brought on another, and he offered us three hundred dollars for the hole."

"For the hole!" exclaimed Julian. "And there was not a sign of gold about it?"

"Now, hold on till I tell you," returned Banta. "There was a little sign of gold about it, but there was not enough to pay Pete and me for digging. We snapped him up quicker'n a flash, and what does that man do? He went down to Dutch Flat, brought up his tools, and set in to working the hole, and before he had gone two feet farther he struck the richest vein you ever clapped your eyes on. He took sixty thousand dollars out of it. Now, some of you fellows talk about hard luck. If any of you can beat that story, I'll give you what little I made on Dutch Flat this summer."

"That _was_ hard luck, I must say," said Julian. "And you lacked only two feet of being rich?"

"Only just two feet," returned Banta, "We might have been running around now with two n.i.g.g.e.rs to drive the team--one dressed as a coachman and the other as a footman. Pete didn't get over pulling his hair for a month after that."

"But we are going to stake ourselves next summer," said Julian. "If we lose, it will come out of our own pockets. Have you been anywhere near this mine that we are going to work?"

"What do you think of that, Pete?" exclaimed Banta. "He wants to know if we have been near his mine. Not much! I'll bet there are two hundred miners on Dutch Flat this minute, and not one of them has ever seen that mine. They have heard about it, they know there is plenty of gold up there, but n.o.body has ever been near it. The last two that went up there came away so badly frightened that they packed up and left the country so quick that you could not see them for the dust they kicked up along the trail. They saw something down there in the pit, and it took all the pluck out of them."

"What did they see?" asked Julian.

"Well, perhaps I was a little too fast in saying that they saw something," said Banta. "They heard something, and that was as good as though they had seen it. It first began with a scurrying on the ground, as if somebody was hurrying over it. Where it came from n.o.body knew; it seemed to fill the air all around them. Before they had time to get frightened at this there was a shriek that made it appear as if the pit was full of unearthly spirits, and then all was still; but the fellows had heard enough. The man down below yelled to his partner to pull him up, and when he found himself safe on top he laid down on the ground and swore he would never go down there again. Oh, you boys have something to face, if you are going up there!"

"Could not the sound they heard have been occasioned by bats that had been disturbed while trying to take a rest?" asked Julian. "He had a light, of course."

"Bats!" exclaimed Banta, with deep disgust; "it was a great deal larger than bats. And he could have seen them if he had a light, could he not?"

"And, besides, bats don't shriek that way," said a miner who had not spoken before. "There used to be a miner who was working that pit along with Winkleman----"

"You hold your yawp," exclaimed Banta, fiercely; "I am telling the boys nothing but facts. I want them to know just what they have to face. I don't go into any of this c.o.c.k-and-bull story about a dead miner. If that man died up there, and was buried, he's there yet, and he can't come out to work in the pit any more."

"What about him?" asked Julian. "We want to know everything connected with the mine, then we will be prepared for anything."

"But this thing is not connected with the mine," said Banta; "it is some sort of a story the miners have, and there is not a word of truth in it. They tell about a miner being seen there by everyone who goes down, and when you try to get up to him, he is not there. He goes farther and farther away every time you approach him."

"We have heard that story before," said Julian, with a smile; "Mr. Fay knows all about it."

"Then of course you don't believe it. I have told you the truth about the mine, and now you can go up with me next spring or stay away, just as you have a mind to."

"Oh, we will go with you," said Julian. "I never was interested in any property yet that I was afraid to work just on account of some things you could not see. When we bid you good-bye at Dutch Flat we shall know what there is in that mine before we come back."

"I like your pluck," said Banta; and the look of admiration he bestowed upon Julian more than confirmed his words. "If you live up to that, I hope you will get some gold."

"They say that gold is plenty up there," said another miner. "They say it is lying around under your feet."

"And you never went there to get it!" exclaimed Julian with surprise.

"It isn't as thick as that," said Banta. "Probably every bucketful you send up to be washed will yield you from ten to fifty dollars. You will get rich at that rate."

"Well, I guess we have troubled you long enough," said Julian, rising to his feet. "We are really obliged to you, Mr. Banta, for offering to take charge of us, although we are nothing but tenderfeet. There are no Indians out there, are there?"

"Indians!--no; and if there were some on the warpath, we have miners enough up there to make them hunt their holes."

"I am glad of that; we don't want anything to do with those savages, after what we have read about them. We will see you again, Mr. Banta."

"Do so, and the next time I will tell you what things you want to buy, to make your enterprise successful. Good-morning."

"There's two boys that have gone plumb crazy," said one of the miners, after the door had closed upon Julian and Jack. "I wonder how they got that mine, in the first place?"

"The boys are bound to get gold there, if they can stick it out," said another. "One of the men who came down from there showed me a piece of metal as big as a marble, which he had picked up on the bottom of that pit; but the trouble is, can they stick it out?"

"I believe _they_ will," said Banta, settling down in his chair once more. "That boy who did most of the talking is one who has plenty of 'sand' to see him through. After they get fairly settled, I believe I'll go up and see how they are getting along."

"Then you will go without me," said Pete; "I am as close to that mine as I want to be."

"Well, Jack," said Julian, as he b.u.t.toned his coat, "what do you think of our mine? Shall we go up and try it? The miners all think there is gold up there."

"We will have plenty of time to talk about that between this time and spring," returned Jack. "Mr. Haberstro may come up before we get ready to start, and demand his money."

"I have no fears on that score," replied Julian. "Did not the lawyer say that he did not look for that? But, Jack, I really believe you are afraid of that mine."

"You need not be. When we get up there, and get things fixed, I will be the first to go into it."

"All right. I'll stand back and let you. Now, Jack, what are we going to do this winter? We can't sit around all the time without something to occupy our minds."

"I have been thinking about that. Let us call on Mr. Fay, and see what he says."

Julian thought this a piece of advice worth acting upon, and they bent their steps toward Mr. Fay's office, where they found him seated, as before, with his feet on the desk in front of him. When he saw who his visitors were, he jumped up hastily and seized each of them by the arm with a firm grip.

"Oh, boys, you surely haven't made up your minds to go up to that mine next spring, have you?" he asked, almost in a whisper.

"Why, yes, sir," said Julian, somewhat surprised by the man's actions.

"I reckon it is ours, and we want to see what gold is to be found in it."

"But think of the ghosts you will have to contend with," said Mr. Fay.

"You will hear scurrying of feet--What was that?" he continued, looking toward a distant part of his office and pulling the boys around in front of him. "I am certain there is a ghost there."

Julian and Jack began to see into the matter now. The man was so full of his fun that he could not keep it in under any circ.u.mstances, and it had come to the surface when he saw the boys come into his office.

Perhaps a lingering smile around his mouth had something to do with it.

"I don't believe you heard any ghost there," said Julian; "they are so busy up there at the mine that they have no time to come down here to trouble you."

"All right, boys; sit down. What did Banta say the spirits looked like?"

Julian replied that he could not tell, for he had not seen them; and with this as an introduction he went on and repeated the miner's conversation as nearly as he could recall it. Mr. Fay listened, highly amused, and when Julian ceased speaking he said,

"If you can see them, what's the use of your being afraid? And as for that phantom miner, that happened a long ways from here. I ought to be kicked for trying to frighten you."

"It will take something more than that to scare us out," said Julian.

"Now, Mr. Fay, we want to ask your advice."

"I am ready to give it. Do you want to invest some property in a gold-mine?"