"Here I am, Ted," cried Stella, and in a moment she saw his face outlined above her in the opening of the hole.
"How the deuce did you get there?" he asked.
"Oh, I just dropped in to take a look around, and what do you think I found? I've found gold by the bushel. Ted, this is the mother lode."
Ben, Carl, and Clay were with Ted, and soon Bud and Kit, who had heard the shots, came hurrying back.
When they heard what had happened they were much surprised.
"But this cannot be the place. Where is the sycamore tree Singing Bird said was a landmark?" said Ted.
They had pulled Stella out of the hole, and now she pointed to the big, old stump.
"That is what's left of it," she said. "If I hadn't that hunch to sit down here, we wouldn't have found the mother lode in a blue moon."
As they were speaking they heard a sound behind them, and turned to see Running Bear. He had crept up to them so silently that not one of them had heard him until he was a step away.
"Ugh!" he grunted. "White boy go away. This my country."