“All right, Bob, I will take your advice. You may consider the trade made. I will take your deed for the copper locations and give you a check to-morrow for $10,000 on the First National Bank at Denver, or I will arrange to get you the coin from the bank here if you desire it.” “Your check is good enough for me, Mr. Morning.” “Very well. Then you can go to the San Xavier reservation early in the morning and make a bargain with the Papagoes for three months. Obtain forty good men and agree to furnish them with rations and pay them $1.25 a day. They have ponies, I suppose, and can take their squaws along if they choose. It will make them more contented to stay. You might contract with them also to furnish enough cattle to supply themselves with fresh meat. They can drive them along, and there is now plenty of grass in the ravines. Don’t let them come to Tuscon, for I don’t wish the people here to know what I am doing. The Indians can strike across from San Xavier by Fort Lowell and meet us, or wait for us at the mouth of the Rillito. You can return here as soon as you start them, and we will buy teams and load them with supplies, and drive them out ourselves. We will do all the blacksmith work and blasting ourselves. And, Bob, keep your own counsel strictly about everything. I have reasons for secrecy which I will explain to you later.” “All right, Mr. Morning. I don’t clearly see what you are driving at. It’s a queer way to open a copper mine, but you are the captain, and I’ve known you a long time, and whatever you say goes with Bob Steel.” It was three o’clock the next afternoon before Steel returned from San Xavier. He was well known to the Papagoes, having often purchased grain and animals from them for mining companies with which he had been connected as superintendent. His mission was successful, and Manuel Pacheco, a leader among the Indians, had agreed to have the necessary force at the place designated on the third “sun up.” Tuscon, although not a mining town, is a commercial center for a dozen mining camps, and there was nothing in the outfitting of a party of miners calculated to attract especial notice. Two wagons and twelve mules were purchased, with all needed supplies, and Morning and Steel drove away to their destination, where they met the Indians and proceeded to the old copper-camp. After supper Morning opened the conversation which he had determined to have with Steel.