aptain Skinner and his miners were quickly at the head of the ravine again, but the gold ledge stopped them all as if it had been a high fence.
"Cap," said the man called Bill, "of course them two fellers lit onto this mine. They couldn't ha' helped it. But they haven't done a stroke of work on it. Reckon we kin set up marks of our own."
"Twon't pay."
"We can't leave a claim like this."
Every man of the party was of the same opinion, and Captain Skinner said: "Go ahead, boys. Only I can tell you one thing—we're going to move out of this, through that western gap, before daylight to-morrow morning. We're too near those red-skins down there to suit me. There's no telling how many there may be of them."
The men sprang to their work with a will. The first thing they did was to set up a "discovery monument" right in the middle of the ledge, at the head of the chasm.
Large flat stones were laid down, others carefully set upon them, and so up and up, until a pretty well shaped four-sided pyramid had been made, six feet square and as many high.
Then two more, nearly as large, were set up at the ends of the ledge, where the gold vein disappeared in the high cliffs. Seven strong men can do a great deal in a short time when they are in a hurry and all understand exactly what to do.
"Now we'll go for supper, and send out the rest."
"Must have a shaft begun and a blast fired."