The few who had remained faithful to their employer during his exile were not forgotten. The major and his boys showed them every kindness and attention in their power, and among all those who had claims upon their gratitude and esteem none commanded a larger share than Silas Roper, the guide.
AN IDEA AND A FORTUNE.
By Owen Hacket.
WITH their backs toward Placer Notch two young men of about twenty-one, burdened with prospectors’ kits, came silently down the trail. The well-worn way ran beside the murky stream that for the twenty-five years had run through the sluices of the Placer Notch Mining Company’s claim, which, singularly, included in their four acres the only paying claims that had ever been staked in McGowan’s Pass.
As the young prospectors neared Sol Brunt’s supply depot at the foot of the pass, the latter broke the silence and said moodily: