After breakfast the man who had been addressed as Sid came to where the captives were, in the smaller cave. "If you boys will promise not to try to escape," he said, "I'll let you out for a breath of fresh air." "You mean not try to escape at all?" asked Jack. "That's what," Sid replied. "Then we'll stay here," announced Jack. "We're going to get away just as soon as possible, and the longer you keep us here the worse it will be for you." "My, but you have a quick temper," remarked Sid, not unkindly. "Well, I think I'll take a chance. You'll get sick if we keep you cooped up, and that isn't what we want. You can go out, but I warn you the first time you try to make a break for liberty you may get shot. Some of the men are pretty quick with a gun." "We'll go out, but we don't promise," Jack replied, as following Sid, he and Nat left the cave. Once outside the boys found there was little chance of getting away. There were half a dozen men about, all armed, and the camp was surrounded by a natural wall of high rock, which to any one crawling over presented difficulties that would delay him long enough to permit of capture. The entrance to the camp was guarded by a man with a rifle. But, what astonished the boys more than the appearance of the stronghold, was the work at which the men were engaged. This seemed to be mining, but of a kind the boys had heard very little about, though it is more or less common in the west. A man was directing a stream of water, from a big pipe against the side of a gravelly bank, and the dirt and fluid that washed down ran into a big sluiceway. This was formed of boards, there being a bottom and two sides. The top was open, but was braced with numerous cross pieces. The sluiceway was about four feet wide and three feet deep, and there was a great quantity of water flowing through it. Part of the sluiceway was wider and more shallow, and this part had, nailed across the bottom, narrow strips of wood, in the shape of cleats. They were placed to catch the heavier dirt, containing the gold, as it flowed down in the water. As the boys watched the stream was turned off, and men took from the cleats quantities of mingled muck and gravel, which they proceeded to "wash" to extract the gold. The boys were so interested in this that they forgot the plight they were in, and, almost, their desire to escape. They looked at the miners with their pans, as the men swirled them around to cause the water and dirt to flow over the edge and the gold to remain. "Is it goin' to pay?" Jack heard one miner ask of another of the gang. "Don't look so," was the reply. "Yet they say there's a fortune locked up in that hill. An old hermit showed Sid the place, but it's been most a year since we repaired this old sluiceway which was here before we came and begun washing, and not more than enough to pay expenses have we had out of it. I'm gettin' tired." "Maybe there's better luck ahead." "How do you mean?"