‘It’s there,’ he announced triumphantly.

Howard was thinking of the view from the cliff and failed to grasp the other’s meaning.

‘What’s there?’ he asked.

‘Gold, man!’ cried Longstreet.  ’Gold!  Didn’t I say it was as simple as A B C to find gold here?  Well, I’ve done it!’

‘Oh, gold.’  And even yet Howard’s interest was not greatly intrigued.  ‘I see.’

Longstreet stared at him wonderingly.  And then, suddenly, Howard came to earth.  Why, the thing, if true, was wonderful, glorious!  With all his heart he hoped it was true; for Longstreet’s dear old sake, for Helen’s.  He studied the map.

’That would be right over yonder?  About half a mile from here?  In Dry Gulch?’

’Precisely.  And it has been there since the time Dry Gulch was not dry but filled with rushing waters.  It has been there for any man to find who was not a fool or blind.  It rather looks,’ and he chuckled, ’as though it had been waiting since the Pliocene age for me.’

‘You are sure?  You haven’t just stumbled upon a little pocket——­’

Longstreet snorted.

‘I am going into the nearest fair-sized town right away,’ he said emphatically, ’to get men and implements to begin a moderate development.  It is a gold mine, my dear young sir—­nothing else or less.  Here; look at this.’

It was a handful of bits of quartz, brought up into the light from the depths of a sagging pocket.  The quartz indicated high-grade ore; it was streaked and pitted with soft yellow gold.

‘By the Lord, you’ve got it!’ cried Howard.  He wrung Longstreet’s hand warmly.  ‘Good for you.  You’ve got the thing you came for!’

‘One of the things,’ Longstreet corrected him with twinkling eyes.

‘And the other?’

’Another gold mine!  As our young friend Barbee puts it, I’m all loaded for bear this trip, partner!’

‘And you haven’t told Miss Helen?  Or Carr?’

’Never a word.  And for two very excellent reasons:  Imprimis, they both were poking fun at me last night; Helen said that I couldn’t find gold if it were in a minted twenty-dollar gold piece in my own pocket.  Now I am having my revenge on them; I’ll show them! Secundo:  Next week comes Helen’s birthday.  I am going to give her a little surprise.  A gold mine for a birthday present isn’t bad, is it?’

Howard sat down to talk matters over, and since there was still coffee and some bits of toast left he changed his mind about breakfast and ate and drank while he listened to Longstreet.  The university man had made certain of the value of his discovery only last evening; it had happened that Carr was staying over with them and therefore, while he and Helen chatted about a great deal of nothing at all, Longstreet had ample time to think matters over.  To-day he meant to go into Big Run and on into the county seat, which he had learned was but a few miles further on and was a sizable town.  There he would take on a small crew of men and what tools and implements and powder would be needed for uncovering his ledge and there he would attend to the necessary papers, the proving up on his claim, matters upon which he was somewhat hazy.  The following day he would return and begin work.