A short time later the boys again found themselves in the decayed mining camp, with its numerous wrecks of buildings, in which no man had laid his head for more than a score of years, perhaps twice that. Filled with curiosity, the three boys started making the rounds. "Might as well see everything there is while we have the chance," Lanky told his mates. "'Tisn't every day you can run across such a thrilling sight as this. See the bats whirr out of that old shack, will you? Must have picked it for a place to hang their tired old bodies, after swinging around the circle all night long." When the lads peeped cautiously in through the opening which a rotten door, hanging by its last rusty hinge, faded to shut entirely, it was indeed a sight worth impressing on their minds. "Gee whiz!" barked Lanky, his eyes opening unusually wide. "See the ugly things dangling there from every rafter, will you?" "Is _that_ the way bats sleep, hanging by their toes with their heads downward?" exclaimed Paul, intensely interested. "What strange things you often see when you haven't got a gun. I'll know now what they mean when they say a fellow has 'bats in his belfry'!" "Let's have a peep-in at that old hotel," Lanky Wallace suggested. "That may have sheltered more millionaires--in their mind's eye--than ever any up-to-the-latest in New York City could claim." "Second the motion," quickly added Paul. "Lead me to it," Frank laughed, "for I was just going to put it up to both of you." "Come on then," cried Lanky. Led by the tall boy, the three of them were speedily inside the abandoned building, possibly once the pride of Gold Fork; but with now not a shadow of its former grandeur remaining in its skeleton walls, and the shaky stairs leading to unseen upper regions. "Huh! a peach of a place this would be for us to camp out in," Lanky remarked, as they started to look things over. "Wow! I hope you don't try it," Paul cried out. "I'm dead certain it's just swarming with rats!" "Say," demanded Lanky disdainfully, "what could the sillies find to live on all these years since any meal was served in this dining room?" "Ask me something easy, Lanky," urged Paul. "But I'm sure there are rats in plenty around, for I saw one--a monster, too, if as thin as a rail--when I said what I did." "All I hope then," continued Lanky, with a shrug, "is that the varmints don't swarm around our grub and clean us out. We'd have to live off the country then, and eat all sorts of queer dishes--grizzly bear steaks, coyote chops, prairie-dog stews, and such delicacies." "Let up, Lanky," urged Frank. "You know Paul's a bit squeamish about his stomach, and you'll get him off his feed. Listen! What was that?" "Sounded like a horse neighing," said Lanky, looking startled. "I hear hoofs beating the rocks!" Frank ejaculated. "And I'd judge it was a right big bunch of nags, to boot! We can't pass out of that door because they're coming from that direction and heading right this way!"