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PROWLERS IN CAMP
257

there,—not the opening your uncle made, but another, made by the slide."

"It won't do any harm to look down there. While we are here I am going to look in every spot I can reach."

"Sure thing!" cried Phil. "But say, if we are going to climb around these rocks all day to-morrow I am going to bed and get a good night's rest."

"I guess we all need a rest, so we'll turn in at once," answered Roger.

Their camp was located between the rocks and not far from the trail by which they had come to the vicinity. The horses were tethered at a point where a patch of coarse undergrowth gave them something to nibble at. The animals were of no use to them, now they were in the district where the lost mine was supposed to be located.

It was a little after nine o'clock when the boys turned in, and a few minutes later the two old miners followed them. So far they had not deemed it necessary to have a guard, for none of their enemies nor wild beasts had come to annoy them.

Roger and Phil were soon sound asleep, and it was not long before their snoring told that Abe Blower and Tom Dillon were likewise in the land of dreams. But Dave, for some reason he could