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226 it. You can do as you like with that. But, back in the main canyon, under a slide of dirt, there is water for Chico Mesa, electricity, thorough-bred cattle, alfalfa, improvements of all kinds. I want you to help me dig it out. It's going to be harder work than digging postholes, but the pay is special and the object is worthwhile. What do you say?"

Sheridan knew that in talking to the three riders he had brought with him he was ultimately addressing all the outfit at Circle S. He knew that his project had been one of the chief topics of conversation at the ranch and he fancied that it was generally approved of. Now he could see that he had quickened the imagination of the men, made them see something beyond the mere uncovering of gold, promised them an actual share in the development of the mesa that appealed to them, demolished the idea that they were only laborers and that the bulk of the treasure was not to pass through their hands. It was, in a way, an acid test of his men's belief and friendship in him, and they responded, after their own fashion.

"It goes," said one of the cowboys for the rest. "Lead us to it, Boss."

"One man will stay in camp here at the mouth of the ravine," he said. "The rest of us will be in plain sight, working, unless we have to tunnel in. You three will take it in turns to stay here and let us know if any one happens along. All right, let's make a start."

He said nothing of Hollister, buried beneath slabs of rock, halfway up the cliffs of Bonanza Canyon. It