who might share the superstitions of the original owners as to penalties concerning its disturbance. Lyman and his two partners, known only to the Foursome as "Dave" and "Lem," were not the type to be easily scared off. And, of late years, the country had all been more or less settled. There were few spots, not absolutely in the Great American Desert, where the hardy colonist had not started his alfalfa patch. Even the desert had been invaded and mighty reservoirs built to catch the storm waters of its fastnesses. Was the danger still so real in nineteen hundred and nineteen as it had been in 'seventy-nine?
To his surprise, Healy, to whom Lyman had vouchsafed the least of the information, seemed the most imbued with the certainty of the treasure-trove and its conditions being as Lyman had stated them. And Healy was not of an enthusiastic nature. Lefty Larkin, admittedly knowing little of the West as yet, imagining much of it to be thick-set with cactus, Gila monsters, grizzly bears, rattlesnakes, and scalping Indians, had little to say. The gleam of gold was in his eyes and he kept his thoughts to himself.
The friction between Stone and Healy was still existent. Stone had insisted upon burying the Bible and the letters from the "war-bag" with Lyman, unread. He had quarrelled with Healy over the disposition of a photograph that Healy had found among the correspondence, the picture of a girl, more than just pretty, but with her youthful beauty
