And truly it seemed so.
CHAPTER XXI
FALSE SECURITY
Only those, probably very few of you, who have ever taken part in a gold rush can understand and appreciate the wild excitement that prevailed when the flashing lights revealed the rock of the cave to be seamed and studded with yellow veins and patches. It aroused even the most lethargic of the cowboys. And, truth to tell, none of them were very strongly of that type. They were accustomed to live amid excitement of one kind or another, and this was but a new sort.
"Gold! Gold!" was the exulting murmur on all sides.
"There's enough here to make us all rich!" cried Yellin' Kid, his loud voice echoing through the cavern.
"No more ridin' fence for me!" cried Snake.
"Me, I'm going to have one of them pianos that plays itself!" declared Billee, whose soul, hitherto, had been obliged to get its feast of music from a mouth organ.
"And look where them hombres have been takin' out our gold!" exclaimed Yellin' Kid as he flashed his light on a wall where, unmistakably, excavating had been going on. There were signs of new digging in the rock and dirt of the cave's sides and the ground beneath showed a litter of debris.
"You ought to make 'em pay for all they took out!" declared Snake to
Bud.