“I hope it will prove to be, but I am positive it will not. Will you carry out instructions, McGowan?” “Certainly! I’d be a fool if I didn’t. I can’t afford to lose forty thousand dollars’ worth of bullion. But you’re wrong about Bernritter.” “Why, Bernritter has been stealing you blind for the last two weeks!” “Can you prove that?” “I wouldn’t make such an assertion if I couldn’t prove it. Didn’t you tell me that you and Bernritter have been in the mill almost every night since you have been missing gold?” “Yes.” “And that you watched the body of the mill while Bernritter kept behind the battery-boxes?” “That was the way of it.” “Nomad,” said the scout, “dump those war-bags here, in front of McGowan.” The war-bags were brought and emptied of their contents. “Amalgam!” cried McGowan, starting back with one of the silver balls in his hand. “Exactly,” returned the scout; “amalgam taken from the Three-ply Mine. It was stored in an abandoned shaft, not far from here and close to the Black Cañon trail.” “But--but how was it taken?” gulped McGowan. The scout took from under his coat two sets of copper wires. From each set of wires dangled flat pieces of copper. “You see these contrivances?” the scout asked, striking a match to afford McGowan a better view of the wires and the dangling pieces of copper. “Bernritter strung those in the battery-boxes, and the copper pieces captured all your best gold before it ever reached the mill-plates. At the proper time the wires were removed from the boxes, replaced with others, and the amalgam cleaned from the copper pieces at Bernritter’s leisure, or at Jacobs’. The stolen amalgam was then conveyed to that old shaft and stored away until it could be marketed. I found those wires,” the scout added, “under the pile of amalgam balls, in the deserted shaft.” McGowan was thunderstruck at the case made out by Buffalo Bill. Then, as he realized how audaciously he had been robbed, his anger began to mount. “By thunder,” he cried, smiting his hands fiercely together, “I’ll have the scalps of the men who did this, no matter who they are! Buffalo Bill, you have done great work! In one night you have unraveled a mystery that has bothered the life out of me for two weeks. I’ll remember you for this.” “You’ll have to thank my two pards, Nick Nomad and Little Cayuse,” said the scout, “for what has been accomplished. They have done the bulk of the work so far. But,” he broke off abruptly, pointing to the glimmer of dawn in the east, “morning is coming, and Nomad, the baron, and I must get into that powder-house. Cayuse,” and the scout turned to the boy, “you will take charge of the horses. We can’t take them into the camp, for Bernritter or Jacobs would see them, and suspect something. Keep them out here in the hills. We’ll help you carry the amalgam to the camp, McGowan,” he finished, facing the mine-owner, “and when you get it there, see that you stow it away where Bernritter won’t see it.”