"I will at once solve the mystery, for I had hoped never to behold a human face here other than Lucas Langley's and my own," and the gold-hunter walked away in the direction of the firelight which had so startled him.
He went cautiously, for he knew well the danger if he was discovered, and the builders of the camp-fire proved to be foes.
He knew the locality well, and that he could approach within a hundred yards of the fire, and discover just what there was to be seen.
Arriving within an eighth of a mile of the spot he halted, laid aside his game and rifle, and then moved forward from rock to rock, tree to tree, armed only with his revolvers.
He now saw that there were three fires, two near together and one a couple of hundred feet apart and off to itself.
The scene of the camp was a small cañon near his old home and on the trail leading to it. There was gold in the cañon, for he had discovered it there and taken some away, while he had marked it as his claim, it having been already staked as one of the finds and claims of the real Andrew Seldon.
In truth, there were a dozen such claims in the Grand Cañon found by Andrew Seldon, all of them paying finds.
Having reached a point within a hundred yards of the camp-fires, Seldon leaned over a rock and began to survey the scene.
The three fires were burning brightly, and beyond the light fell upon a number of horses corralled in the cañon, where there was grass and water. There were brush shelters near, three in number, and about the fires in front of them were gathered a number of men.
Counting them, Andrew Seldon found that there were eight in sight.