It must be apparent to all that some time previous to the discovery of "Old Ninety-Nine's" cave and Mills's desire to purchase Point Wawanda, ostensibly for the purpose of erecting on it a sanitarium, the latter had, with a notorious mining expert, secretly prospected on the mining claim and also discovered the cave. His was the knife that had dug free gold from the pocket commented on by Hernando and theirs the hands which had chipped the rocks disclosing the untold richness of the mine. The veritable chest described by Benny Depuy was found under a heap of rocks which appeared to have been washed over it. It, too, seemed to have petrified. The hinges and bindings had been eaten away by rust and the lid simply slid off disclosing, as Benny had said, "Heaps upon heaps of gold, silver and precious stones."
Like vultures, the two gloated over their
