Natachee answered:
“We have work to do first. Listen—you are not safe for a day, once you show yourself again. The Lizard has talked too much as I told you he would. Your disappearance set everybody to wondering, then to questioning and guessing. You can only save yourself and Marta by leaving the country before the sheriff learns that you are here and before Sonora Jack can carry out his plan, whatever it is. Doctor Burton will have everything arranged. To-morrow you will go.”
“But—but”—stammered Hugh—“I have no money. There is not gold enough to buy even my own way out of the country, much less to take Marta with me.”
The Indian laughed.
“I told them you had struck the rich pocket that you have been working so hard to find. Bob and Thad loaned me those burros there to bring down the gold. The Pardners will cash your gold as if they had found it in their own little mine. Doctor Burton and I planned it all. He will advance money for your immediate needs until your own gold is in the bank.”
“But I tell you I have no gold.”
“You forget,” returned the Indian calmly, “the Mine with the Iron Door.”
When it was dark, Natachee said:
“Come, we must not lose an hour.”
Taking one of the burros with a number of ore sacks which he had brought from the Pardners, the Indian led the way down into the gulch where he put Hugh’s pick on the packsaddle. Then tying the cloth over the white man’s eyes and placing one end of the rope in his hand, he went on; Hugh, in turn, leading the burro. When they arrived near the entrance to the mine, they left the pack animal and went into the tunnel.