“Is it mornin’?” asked Bickford drowsily.

“I should say it was.  Everybody is up and eating breakfast.  We must prepare to set out on our journey.”

“Then it is time—­we are rich,” said Joshua, with sudden remembrance.  “Do you know, Joe, I hain’t got used to the thought yet.  I had actually forgotten it.”

“The sight of the nugget will bring it to mind.”

“That’s so.”

Bickford felt for the nugget, without a suspicion that the search would be in vain.

Of course he did not find it.

“Joe, you are trying to play a trick on me,” he said.  “You’ve taken the nugget.”

“What!” exclaimed Joe, starting.  “Is it missing?”

“Yes, and you know all about it.  Where have you put it, Joe?”

“On my honor, Joshua, I haven’t touched it,” said Joe seriously.  “Where did you place it?”

“Under my head—­the last thing before I lay down.”

“Are you positive of it?”

“Certain, sure.”

“Then,” said Joe, a little pale, “it must have been taken during the night.”

“Who would take it?”

“Let us find Hogan,” said Joe, with instinctive suspicion.  “Who has seen Hogan?”

Hogan’s claim was in sight, but he was not at work.  Neither was he taking breakfast.

“I’ll bet the skunk has grabbed the nugget and cleared out,” exclaimed Bickford, in a tone of conviction.

“Did you hear or see anything of him during the night?”

“No—­I slept too sound.”

“Is anything else taken?” asked Joe.   “The bag of dust------”

“Is safe.  It’s only the nugget that’s gone.”

The loss was quickly noised about the camp.  Such an incident was of common interest.  Miners lived so much in common—­their property was necessarily left so unguarded—­that theft was something more than misdemeanor or light offense.  Stern was the justice which overtook the thief in those days.  It was necessary, perhaps, for it was a primitive state of society, and the code which in established communities was a safeguard did not extend its protection here.

Suspicion fell upon Hogan at once.  No one of the miners remembered to have seen him since rising.

“Did any one see him last night?” asked Joe.

Kellogg answered.

“I saw him near your tent,” he said.  “I did not think anything of it.  Perhaps if I had been less sleepy I should have been more likely to suspect that his design was not a good one.”

“About what hour was this?”

“It must have been between ten and eleven o’clock.”

“We did not go to sleep at once.  Mr. Bickford and I were talking over our plans.”

“I wish I’d been awake when the skunk come round,” said Bickford.  “I’d have grabbed him so he’d thought an old grizzly’d got hold of him.”

“Did you notice anything in his manner that led you to think he intended robbery?” asked Kellogg.