They found the injured man sitting up in bed, his great yellow beard gleaming like gold.  His head was bandaged but even the pallor induced by the accident had not materially altered the ruddy glow of his thick coat of tan.

“So these are the boys who saved me,” he said, extending a big, gnarled hand.  “Shake, pardners.  The doc here tells me if I’d laid much longer out there in the sun, there might hev been a first-class funeral fer Zeb Cummings.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” said Jack easily.  “I’m only glad that we came along when we did.”

“Well, you sure acted different from them other varmints,” said Zeb with deep conviction.  “The doc tole me all about it.”

His face suddenly grew grave as he changed the subject.

“Did you find anything on the ground thereabouts after I got knocked out?” he asked.

“What sort of a thing?” asked Jack.

“Oh, nothing that looked very valuable.  Jes’ a little lead roll with a bottle full of what looked like black sand in it.”

“Got it right here,” said Jack, producing the bottle which the professor had given back to him.

“Glory be!” exclaimed Zeb Cummings, as he took the lead-wrapped vial as though it was something precious.  “I was afeard that if anyone found it they might hev thrown it away, bein’ as it don’t look as if it amounted ter anything much.”

“Is it valuable?” asked Jack, who could not restrain his curiosity.

“That’s jes’ what I don’t rightly know,” rejoined Zeb.  “I reckon I’d better tell yer how I come ter git it an’ then you kin judge fer yourselves.”

“We’d like to hear,” said Jack, who had felt all along that there was some mystery about the yellow-bearded giant.

“All right!  Sit down and I’ll tell yer ther yarn.  But say, who is yer friend?  No offense meant, ye understand.”

“This is Professor Jerushah Jenks,” said Jack.

“What, the guy that knows all about rocks and such like?” burst out the miner.

“I believe I have achieved some small fame in that line,” said the professor.

“Wa’al if this don’t beat pay dirt I’m a Piute,” exclaimed the miner.  “Give us your hand, Professor.  I was on my way ter see you when that thar buzz wagon busted me higher nor a turkey buzzard.”

“On your way to see me?” echoed the professor in amazed tones.

“Yes, siree bob, that very identical thing,” was the bronzed miner’s reply.

“But I don’t quite understand.  You see I——­”

“That’s all right, Professor.  We’ll git down ter pay dirt direc’ly,” said the miner.  “You know of the Scientific Society in Bosting, of course?”

“I am a member of that body, sir,” was the dignified reply of the little man.

“Well, they giv’ me your name.  Said you was the biggest bug on rocks, minerals and sich in the country and so I sets out to pay a call on you.”

“But you were many miles from where I live,” said the professor.  “The railroad, or the trolley——­”