“Say, Carlos, where are the men that were here?” he stammered, as plainly as he could speak.
“They have just ridden over that hill out of sight,” I replied. “Is anything up?”
“There’s no chance for them to come back?”
“Of course not. They are gone.”
“There isn’t any of their party loafing around ready to come back and see what we have found, is there?”
“Why, Tom,” I exclaimed, “have you found the pocket-book?”
“Come in here,” said Tom, seizing me by the arm and dragging me into the ranch. “Now, there’s the pocket-book—— Well, it isn’t in plain sight, but it is so near it that you will think those men ought to have discovered it. See here!”
Tom seized a stick which one of the men had used and began poking around in the ashes that covered the hearthstone. No one had thought of moving that stone, for it was so large that the sticks which supported the chimney came down on each side of it; but the dirt under the edges of it had been thrown out, until it was found that there was nothing there. The ashes which concealed it were those that had been left there from the last fire Mr. Davenport had made, when he didn’t feel like going out of doors, and there was scarcely enough of them to cover a quarter of a dollar, let alone a good-sized pocket-book; but Tom knew right where to go, and with the second prod he brought out the pocket-book—the identical mate to the one that was now in camp. Mr. Davenport had concealed it there on the morning after Coyote Bill had made an effort to steal it, and had forgotten where he put it. The one that contained the receipts he had placed under his pillow, and when we got ready to start in the morning,—we packed up in something of a hurry, you will understand,—he had taken that one with him! I was profoundly astonished. I jumped forward and picked up the pocket-book, giving it a slap or two in my hands to clear it of the ashes that clung to it, and opened it.
“I tell you my luck hasn’t gone back on me yet,” said Tom, who was overjoyed at his discovery.
“Why, Tom, how did you find it?” I asked. I couldn’t think of anything else to say.