"While the little wretch was struggling to prevent my putting him in the kettle, I lost a watch charm, a gold nugget, that I wouldn't part with for ten--no, nor for twenty--thousand dollars. "Did you see any one near me who might have picked it up, unnoticed in the excitement?" The question was asked quietly, with no unusual emphasis. But it was loaded! By it the great bandit sought to learn whether or not the banker's son was the person who had uttered the exclamation as his beard was pulled from his face. Its answer would tell if the call of young Rozier was an act of friendliness or of hostility. The unsuspecting lad, however, accepted it at its face value, responding: "There was no one near you but Mr. Sloan and myself. If I had seen it, I should have called your attention to it. Probably it was trampled in the dirt." As he heard the admission, Jesse's eyes grew steely. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that his caller had discovered his disguise. Yet it was necessary to learn the plans and purpose of the banker before acting. The battle of wits was on! Instinctively the occupants of the tent realized that the apparently harmless question and answer had changed their relations. Not clever enough to understand that his guns had been spiked, the banker's son, considering it an unhoped-for opportunity, prattled on: "I suppose it was associated with some of your early diggings." Unwilling to commit himself, the bandit-chieftain made no comment, an omission, the youth decided, that showed his reluctance to speak about his mines and the more eagerly he determined to make him. "I hear you have some very valuable mines," he continued, apparently ignoring "Howard's" silence. "Who told you?" demanded Jesse. "Oh, it's common talk. They say you're on your way to New York to raise funds to buy others. If you don't mind my saying so, I think you, or your--friends, ought to be more close mouthed. Still, for my part I'm glad you weren't. I've some money to invest and I want to talk about going in with you." The ice broken, young Rozier no longer found difficulty in playing his part and rattled on glibly. "I asked father about it and he said he would consider it if he could be convinced that they were good mines. You know there are so many swindling schemes," he added maliciously. Had he been older or more accustomed to reading men, he would have understood from the expression in the bandit-chieftain's eyes that he had overshot his mark. But in the blind confidence of his youth, he rushed out the questions uppermost in his mind. "Of course, Mr. Howard, father doesn't mean that your mines aren't all right. What he wants to know is where they are. "Have you any map of them or, rather, as of course you have one to show in New York, will you let me take it and show it to father?