The Golden Canyon Contents: The Golden Canyon; The Stone Chest

and to enter upon a discussion as to the future w

he first ship back as soon as y

y pounds between us; that will last for some time. I should think we could get a passage back without having to pay on this side for it, and i

heir charges are here, but I expect his bill will be a pretty long one. You had better tell him to-day that we

helping me you are going to have any trouble about doctors? We have got a tidy lot at present amongst us, and what is ours is your

ong the hills; for one might just as well be lying in an oven as here. If you will tell us where you and your mates are working, we might find our way there

t; but we are going on a long expedition, which may last months, and from which, as like as not, we shall never come back again. However, we can easy enough take you with us for a bi

be another fortnight before Dick is strong enough to travel, it isn't fair on you; and perhaps you might be able to introdu

ys be on the lookout for an enemy, and one will know that any moment, night or day, one may hear the war yell of the Indians. We are going into the heart of Arizona, to places where not hal

going to look for some

me came together. My mates and me were coming down from the hills when we heard a shot fired in a wood ahead of us. I

greasers?"

lau

look at the man in the road; he wur a greaser too. He had been shot dead. 'I wonder what they shot him for?' says I. 'Maybe it is a private quarrel; maybe he had struck it rich, and has got a lot of gold in his belt. We may as well look; it is no use leaving it for that skunk that bolted to come back for.' He had got about twenty ounces in his belt, and we shifted it

ailure. We may just as well search him all over; it may be he has got a plan of the place somew

and we might have been accused of the chap's murder; so I shoved it into the inside pocket of my shirt, and we went on. We looked at it that night; there was several marks on it and names, on

en out by myself, which I did not often do, for we in general went about together, and was going back along that street, and was pretty nigh home, when someone said in Spanish, 'That is the fellow,' and then five men jumped out with knives in their hands. I had just time to whip out my six-shooter and fire once. One fellow went down, but at the same moment I got a clip across my wrist with a knife, and down went the pistol. Then I got a slice across the head, and another on the shoulder, and down I went. Two of them threw themselves on me, and

w it was that that fellow fell, for

ng time to strike with it again, had sent the second staggering over the group

he ground-yours, the two fellows you shot

any row about

ory that we had been attacked might not have been believed, but as it was certain a young ship's officer would n