CHAPTER XXIX
A FORTUNE IN NUGGETS
Mark continued to look at the nugget with great interest. It was the largest find made in that territory and his joy knew no bounds.
"Perhaps there are more of them," he told himself. "If so, our fortunes are made."
At last he placed the nugget on one side of the cavern and felt down in the hole for what was left of the candle. It was only a tiny mite, and before he could do more than take a second look at the hole it went out, leaving nothing but a patch of grease behind.
"Never mind, we can come up to-morrow and investigate," said Mark to himself. "But I'd better take that nugget with me."
He walked outside once more and placed the nugget near a fallen tree. Then he set up a stick at one side of the opening and another stick on the opposite side, that he might mark the locality. This done, he took a good look around, to fix "the lay of the land" in his head.
"I mustn't lose this spot as Jacobs lost his mine," he told himself. He referred to a Jew named Moses Jacobs, who told a story of finding a wonderfully rich mine and then losing it. This mine was relocated some years later and proved to be of good value, but poor Jacobs never got anything out of it.
As Mark's gaze swept the horizon he started, for up on the mountain-side he discerned two men, both looking down upon him. They were the two rascally Mexicans, he felt sure, for each wore the bright-colored cloak and the wide-brimmed, sharp-pointed hat which Si and Maybe Dixon had described.