"Dear me!" sighed Eleanor. "That boy makes me think of civilization again."  
Her companions laughed at her expression, and Polly said: "He's awfully¹ nice, isn't he?"
 
"Yes, but not half as nice as Jim Latimer," added Eleanor. "Oh, I think he is. Jim just takes everything for granted, whether you agree with him or not," rejoined Polly.
 
"Jim Latimer is only a child! Now his brother Tom is what I should call wonderful! Not only handsome, but desirable, as well," remarked Barbara, with more spirit than she usually showed in the younger girls' conversation.
 
Eleanor smiled knowingly, and said: "If Tom was poverty stricken, maybe you wouldn't find him so desirable."
 
"Why would any one care for a poverty-stricken friend?" asked Barbara, wonderingly. But Anne hurriedly changed the subject.
 
"How long do you think it might take, before John gets that message,
Mr. Brewster?"
"Oh, he ought to be within hailing distance of his camp and he'd get the wire when he went for meals, or to sleep. Allowing until morning for it to reach him, and another day for him to pack up and travel, he ought to be in Oak Creek³ the day after to-morrow."
 
Every one but Simms watched Anne's face to see her blush, or smile joyously⁴, but Simms was not aware of any tender feelings on the part of the pretty teacher for John Brewster, so he abruptly⁵ suggested a plan.
 
"Ah wouldn't wait around the ranch⁶ for John's coming, Sam. If the women folks are going up to Top Notch⁷ Trail with us, all well and good, but waiting about until John and the engineer gets home will be risky⁸ business for the claim. Before to-morrow, every thief in Oak Creek, and for miles around, will be wise to that gold vein⁹, and most of them will want to sneak¹⁰ up there and try to jump the claim."
 
"Oh, no, we won't postpone¹¹ going up there to guard the spot!" explained Anne, anxiously. "I was wondering how long it would take that expert engineer to arrive on the ground and render a reliable verdict about the mine."
 
Eleanor tittered. "Sure! That is all. Anne never dreamed that John
Brewster might accompany the expert!"
"That will do from you, Nolla!" came reprovingly from Anne. But the girls all laughed at her annoyance¹².
 
Having concluded all the business necessary in connection with filing and signing papers, and arranging details about the trip back to the mine on the following day, the ranch party said good-by to Mr. Simms, and started on the long ride to Pebbly¹³ Pit.
 
The sole subject of conversation between the elder Brewsters and Barbara was the gold mine and the possibilities of it. The engrossing¹⁴ thought that kept Anne so quiet was the unexpected and imminent¹⁵ visit of John to Pebbly Pit. But the topic that now enthused Polly and Eleanor was the arrival of Kenneth Evans, and his acquaintance with Jim Latimer, the pleasant young man who had spent a Sunday at the ranch just before the city girls had arrived.
 
"I wish those boys could join our party up to the cave," remarked
Eleanor to Polly, as they rode behind the others along the road to
Pebbly Pit.
"So do I. But they are camping too far from us, for that. We are almost directly opposite their camp site, using Oak Creek as a central point. But the Government Survey plans will work them along to Yellow Jacket Pass, and from that point, along the wilderness¹⁷, until they reach Buffalo¹⁸ Park and the Top Notch Trail where we were the other day. But they won't reach that part of the work until late this season," explained Polly.
 
"Tom Latimer brought his younger brother Jim to see us in Chicago, when Jim was on his way west, but I never thought he would be so near me, this summer, as to be able to see him. Had I dreamed of such being the case, I would have paid more attention to him at the time. I said to myself, at that visit, 'Oh, we'll never meet again, so why waste time over him?'"
 
Polly laughed at Eleanor's frank confession¹⁹, and added: "Well, when Tom wrote mother that his little brother would be near enough to Pebbly Pit to permit him to ride over now and then for a visit, we sent word, at once, for Carew to give him Sundays off to come and have dinner with us. But he has only been over once. Now that this friend is in camp with him, maybe he'll come oftener."
 
"If John would only bring Tom with him, wouldn't it be fine!" planned
Eleanor. "Anne would have her choice, John. Bob would be supremely²⁰
happy if she could flirt²¹ with Tom for a time, and you and I would have
Jim and Ken² Evans."
Polly glanced at Eleanor in surprise, and said: "Why, Nolla! I wouldn't like that at all. It will be lots more fun if we all go about together for a good time. But John is coming to see about the mine—not to enjoy himself."
 
"You don't think, do you, that having Anne Stewart right in reach, that he's going to spend all his time working that mine? He's going to divide time so that more than half of it will be given to Anne. Then he'll work double-quick on the mine business to catch up on his work," was Eleanor's precocious²² statement.
 
Polly said nothing to this, as she had much food for thought given her in Eleanor's words. Rather than pursue a subject that roused her jealousy²³ because of her brother John, she spurred her horse to gallop²⁴ forward to join the others of the party.
 
"Father, what did you say in your telegram to John?" asked Polly, when she slowed up beside Sam Brewster.
 
"Simms and I had to be careful what we said, so no one on the wire would get wise as to our real meaning, so I wrote out: 'Fine party on at the ranch. Big doings that Tom and you must be in on. Also bring your friend who came with you the time we talked about mining Rainbow Cliffs. Do not delay but start immediately, as the girls have the time of their lives set down for day after to-morrow. Don't write or wire, but come on receiving this message.' You see, that was the only way I could think of to get John off without letting others in on the secret. Every one in these parts knows the city girls are with us, and they'll not wonder at our having the boys come home for a visit."
 
When Sam Brewster concluded his explanation, Anne was smiling happily, and Barbara lifted her head a bit higher as she said: "How nice it will be to see Tom Latimer again, his company so much!"
 
Eleanor could not deny herself the mean little satisfaction in saying: "Yes, Bob met him once, at our house, and tried to meet him several times after that, at various social gatherings²⁶ in Chicago."
 
But Polly pinched her friend's arm for silence, as the two horses crowded close together to pass on a narrow ledge²⁷ of the trail that ran up to the Cliffs.
 
"If Tom comes with John, and that expert engineer comes, too, mother, I don't see where we are going to put them up."
 
"We were planning that as we rode along, just now," said Mrs. Brewster. "I think we can put up cot-beds, temporarily, in the loft²⁸ over the first barn, where father keeps his account books and other business papers. Or we can pitch the large tent under the trees over by the terrace, and they can camp there. It will be far more comfortable, in either place, than they will have up on Top Notch, or what they have been having in the movable camp with the engineers, all this summer."
 
"Finding sleeping quarters for the boys is the least of our worries now," laughed Sam Brewster. "Keeping off claim-jumpers and guarding the cave from miners who would steal the gold as fast as they could pick it, or blow it out of the rock, is more concern for us than any other problem, at present."
 
"Well, we won't lack for excitement if all you fear is justly founded, eh?" laughed Eleanor, plainly showing how thoroughly²⁹ she was enjoying the experience and its promised thrills.
 
"Even a westerner, immune to thrills, would have a few entirely³⁰ new ones in this experience," chuckled³¹ Mr. Brewster. "But let a few city gals³² like you three, and a quiet little mouse like Polly, jump right into such a game as this promises to be, and there will be nothing left for you to thrill over, after that, in everyday life."
 
"If only Jim Latimer and Ken Evans could be at the ranch to go with us when we start for the cave," said Eleanor for the second time. This time her remark caused Mr. Brewster to think.
 
Then he said: "It is queer how that boy resembled our old friend Montresor. If we only knew what part of the East Montresor came from. I have always said he was not traveling under his own name, but probably was using a family name to hide behind."
 
"Yes, and that may explain the reason we never had any reply to our widely circulated advertisements for his relatives," added Mrs. Brewster.
 
"If Montresor really was related to this young man, father, he surely would have said something when Mr. Simms mentioned the resemblance, and asked the stranger if he knew of a relative being in Colorado," said Polly.
 
"Montresor had white hair, it is true, but that did not say that he was an old man. He was prematurely³³ wrinkled from worry and hardships, but he was not much more than forty, I should say," ventured Mr. Brewster.
 
"What are you leading up to, Sam?" asked Mrs. Brewster.
 
"I was just thinking, aloud, that Montresor could have had a son as old, or as young, as this Kenneth Evans. If he had gone to the Klondike, as we believed, the boy would have been too young to remember his dad very distinctly. Who knows what drove Old Montresor away from home, to seek adventure or gold so far north as in the Klondike? He and his wife may have separated through some misunderstanding such as that letter would lead us to infer, and his eastern relatives may have kept all facts or news of him from this boy. The poor man's pride and determination to prove himself innocent of some wrong kept him from communicating with his people; we know that from his own letter. So I would not be greatly surprised if we eventually learn that Kenneth Evans is really a son of Montresor's."
 
"Oh, Mr. Brewster! Isn't that exactly what I said to you before, when you hushed me up!" declared Eleanor, delighted over her romantic vision.
 
"I hushed you up because you went on weaving stuff that dreams are made of—not because you hinted that this youth might be Montresor's son," corrected Sam Brewster.
 
The others laughed at Eleanor, and as they rode past the Cliffs, now glimmering³⁴ faintly in the rays of the new moon rising over the edge of the old crater³⁵, Polly said with a sigh:
 
"Thank goodness, we are almost home in time for supper."
 
The materialistic³⁶ craving³⁷ in Polly for a good meal was so different from Eleanor's dreams of romance for her friend that the two elder Brewsters felt relieved to hear the exclamation³⁸. Soon afterwards, the riders drew rein³⁹ at the porch where Jeb was awaiting the return of the party.
 
"Wall, did you-all find out if the mine was the same as Old Man
Montresor's claim?" asked Jeb, eagerly, as they dismounted.
"What's that, Jeb?" asked Sam Brewster, frowningly.
 
"Why, Sary says you-all went to Oak Crick to file papers and make sure that Montresor's claim is the same mine like Polly discovered up on the Trail. Ain't it so?" wondered Jeb, curiously⁴⁰.
 
The two elder Brewsters exchanged glances, and the girls had to laugh at having been completely fooled by clever Sary Dodd. Then Mr. Brewster thought best to make a clean breast of the entire matter.
 
"Well, we were not sure when we left Pebbly Pit, this morning, whether this claim was good or not. So we did not say a word about it to either Sary or you, but she must have overheard us speaking about it, last night."
 
"Yeh—that's what she said to me. She had to wait so long fer you-all to come to supper, last night, that she coulden' help hearin' what was said. She says it will be a grand day fer her and me when you-all get this mine goin'. Sary figgers that you-all won't stay in Oak Crick, ner on a ranch, once you have all this money; 'cause Polly'll make you-all go to some fine city to live," explained Jeb, innocently.
 
"Huh! Is that so!" sneered⁴¹ Sam Brewster, angrily.
 
Jeb was gathering²⁵ up the reins⁴² of the horses as he spoke⁴³, and now he turned to wonder at his master's tone. Mrs. Brewster was about to say something conciliatory, when Sary rushed out of the side door.
 ............