"Treasure and all?" exclaimed Frank.
"Yes, if there is a treasure there," laughed Billy. "I don't believe there is. Lots of people have had a try for it, but they never found anything.
"It seems that some years ago an old prospector came into town, saying he had struck it rich. He said he had discovered a treasure on Golden Peak; but whether it was gold, silver, or precious stones, no one ever found out, for, before he could tell he went crazy. For years he wandered about trying to relocate the treasure, if there was any, but that was all, except for the queer stories he told. So you see the thing simmers down to this:
"My uncle has a good title to every bit of land in the irrigation valley save Golden Peak. He owns all around it. The title to Golden Peak is in dispute and my uncle is sure that he has a moral if not a legal claim to that. If he can prove this one signature a forgery he will be all right. And he may be without that. But, at the same time, there is a certain document, of which, if the other fellows got possession, they could use against us, and stop the work."
"And who's got this document?" asked Andy.
"I have," said Billy quietly. "Here it is," and going to a tattered Latin dictionary he pulled from between the pages a folded paper.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Frank. "I shouldn't think that was a very safe place to keep it, with that dangerous man about."
"The simplest place is the best," declared the Western lad. "I carried it about with me, and was nearly robbed of it. Then I decided to hide it here."
"Good idea," said Andy. "Nobody would think of looking in a Latin dictionary unless he had to."
"You wouldn't, anyhow," chimed in his brother.