“Oh, look at the Old Lady of the Mountain!” yelled Stacy. “Yes, she’s got a kid on either side of her. Ha, ha, ha!” he laughed.
“Elfreda!” Grace gripped the arm of her companion. “‘Lost River—Grandma and the Children—Three Peaks dead east.’ Look! There are the peaks. The sun is at the meridian. Oh, Elfreda!”
“And look—the yellow sands of Lost River. Oh, Grace! If it should be only a dream I’d faint, after all I have been through to get here. See! The old lady’s face is black as ink, just as that poor, unhappy old prospector said it was.”
“Children, do you know where you are?” called Captain Gray, none of the party having heard the exclamations of Grace and Elfreda.
“Yes, Tom Gray. I am sitting on my gold mine,” answered Miss Briggs, trying to control her voice and keep her elation out of it.
“Why, Elfreda! I thought you did not want a gold mine—that you wished to hear nothing more about the hateful subject,” chided Grace.
“I think I—I have the fever, and—” confessed Elfreda.
“You are in fact sitting on your gold mine. When I learned that Lost River was at the feet of Grandma and the Children, with Three Peaks dead east, I recognized the description instantly, for I had been here, and was impressed with the odd formations to be seen here,” said Captain Gray. “You will recall the words of the old prospector in the diary and on the sheet on which you wrote down what he told you. I was here trying to locate the headquarters of the Murrays, and, for your information, we are less than half a mile from the lair of the Guerrillas of the Cascades—the Murrays. Such is the irony of fate,” added Tom.
“Gold! Hooray!” yelled Stacy, tossing his hat into the air. “I hope it doesn’t turn out to be iron.”
“Please don’t get excited,” admonished Grace. “We are not certain that there is any gold here.”