“But this is the end—I’m going to give up now!”
“It’s too bad,” said Rick, nursing his bruised arm tenderly. “I thought we’d find something. What are you going to do now, Uncle Tod?”
“Oh, give up and go back east, I reckon. I’ve got other mines in different parts of the country, but I wanted this to pan out well for Sam’s sake. It’s the only one he has an interest in. But it wasn’t to be, I guess. I’m sorry I brought you boys out on such a wild-goose chase!”
“Oh, we don’t mind,” Rick hastened to say.
“I guess not!” cried Chot. “We’ve had packs of fun!”
“And we’ll have more,” suggested Rick. “We don’t have to go back right away; do we?”
“No, I reckon not,” his uncle said. “Might as well stay and have a little vacation while you’re here. And maybe Sam and I will prospect around a bit. Might happen to hit on some nuggets or pockets that would pay us for our grub, anyhow. We’ll stay a while. But now I’m going to head back for camp.”
“Through the tunnel?” asked Rick.
“No, we can go back along this side valley trail. Looks like a fairly good one though I haven’t traveled it myself. Well, it’s too bad, but I’ve got to give up!”
With a sigh, Uncle Tod led the way from this second opening of the mysterious tunnel, back toward his camp. And as Rick followed him there came into the lad’s mind an idea that, eventually, was responsible for the solution of the mystery of Lost River; all of which will be related in due time.