"My chum and I," was the reply, "started out to seek our fortunes. We got to Katalla and couldn't get a thing to do. Sam—his name is Sam White—insisted on remaining in town, but I made a break for the country."
"How long since you've had anything to eat?" asked Sandy.
"About twenty-four hours," was the reply.
"Well, come on in, then, and we'll feed you up."
"Of course I'll go, now that I know that you are running the camp," replied the boy. "I suppose I should have gone in anyway, directly, for just as I came up I heard the man knocking at the door. I was still afraid I'd get kicked out if I put in an appearance at any miner's cabin and asked for food, but I should have risked it."
"I didn't know that miners did such things," Sandy observed.
"Some of them do, and some of them don't," replied the boy.
"You haven't given us your name yet," suggested Will.
"Ed Hannon," was the reply.
"Well come on in the cabin, Ed Hannon," laughed Sandy, "and we'll fill you up, but you mustn't say a word about having seen that miner, and if he talks to you about the route by which you approached the cabin lie like a thief! Which way did he come from, anyway?"