"You can see for yourself, can't you? First you fall into a family that owns no end of wealth in jeweled cliffs, and now you fall into a gold mine," replied Anne. "But Nolla owns half of this mine, and I'm not so sure but you and Bob come in for your share!" The other girls stared at Polly's generosity, as they had never thought of holding any interest in the mine. "Anyway, nobody owns it yet! It legally belongs to the first one who files a claim, so what we must do is to hurry back to Oak Creek and register the mine," said Barbara, businesslike. "My! Gold has brought Bob's brains uppermost!" teased Eleanor. "Who knows but this claim has been staked years ago!" said Anne, meaningly. Polly and Eleanor exchanged glances. But Barbara wondered. "What do you mean?" asked she. "Well, look out in front: there's a ledge cleft in the side of the mountain wall. Between it and the other lower ledge is a canyon that might be the one Montresor found on his up-climb. Yonder the slope meets the chasm and above is the steep sides leading to Top Notch Trail. Could not the land-slide have buried this wall and then a great wash-out have cleared it again? If we only had a gushing mountain stream pouring from the cliff-side the setting would be complete!" Barbara gasped, but Polly clapped her hands. "Nolla, that's it! The subterranean stream we found in there. Some big upheaval changed its outlet, or maybe this gold vein runs clean through and Montresor's claim is staked opposite this side--just where the river pours out. We must look over that side to-morrow." The two younger girls then told of the pit and the river and all agreed that it might be the stream found by the prospector before the landslide covered his claim. CHAPTER XV MONTRESOR'S CLAIM is JUSTIFIED Polly turned to place the nuggets in the pannier and almost collided with Noddy. "Hello, darling! What do you want--eh?" said she, patting the burro's head. Noddy continued to gaze wistfully at her mistress and Polly said: "Anne, did you feed the burros and horses?" "Yes, just as you told me to." "And make the beds?" "Yes, everything." Then Noddy ambled over to a pan of dirty snow water, in which the explorers had washed their blackened faces. She would have to drink it, if her mistress couldn't understand what she needed! "Oh, you Noddy! Is _that_ what you want?" laughed Polly, taking the pan and running out to the ledge to fill it with clean snow. This she brought back and melted to provide drink for the burro. "Did your thoughtless foster-mother forget a drink for her little Noddy!" crooned Polly, placing the pan for the thirsty burro. "After all that hard climbing and 'first-aid,' too!" The other girls laughed at the wise little burro and her doting mistress, but Polly turned and said: "It's lucky Noddy reminded me! We must water the horses well to-night if we want them in good shape for to-morrow."