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 Mestizo digging-for treasure.—Hopes and misfortunes of Lope Cluca.—Unexpected discovery.—Robbery planned.—The diamond recovered.—Proceedings of contrabandistas.

sim was setting gorgeously over the arid rocks and plains of the mining district lying between Jesus-Maria and Chihuahua, in the far north of Mexico—casting, even in its decline, an intense light and burning heat over the scene around—when a young man rose from the sandy earth at the bottom of a small cliff, in the shade of which he had been resting, and taking up a pick-axe, prepared to enlarge a cavity he had formed in the ground, before the evening should overtake him. He had begun his operations on this spot at an early hour in the morning, and had worked on till the heat at noon became so