"Durned if I don't!" and Ham leaped for the trunk of the tree, followed by every other man in the company, except Pedro, who, together with Mrs. Dickson, remained below. "Not too many on the limb at a time," cautioned Rex, who had succeeded in reaching the third limb first. "It might break," and he began working his way along it, closely followed by Dill. In a couple of minutes he had reached the opening in the wall of rock, a jagged hole some four or five feet in diameter, into which the sturdy limb had thrust itself in such a manner that its branches completely concealed all signs of the opening from below. "Great! This is great!" Rex exclaimed, as he pushed his way through the branches into the hole. In a few minutes more all were through the hole, and were standing on a narrow shelf of rock, looking down into a deep, narrow gulch, whose bottom was considerably below the level of the bottom of Lot's Canyon. "By gum! if we ain't struck th' right spot at last!" and Ham stared in astonishment up the gulch to where it made a bend, like a crook at the elbow in a man's bent arm. "Thar's th' Golden Elbow," and he pointed to the bend; "an' this shore must be Crooked Arm Gulch. Wal, this is what I call luck! Hurra!" and he swung his hat around his head and yelled at the very top of his strong lungs; and every man there joined with him in the yell; and the rocky walls of the narrow gulch echoed and reechoed the sound, until it seemed as if a hundred men were shouting their joyous yells of triumph. "Too bad it is so late in the day that we must put off exploring the gulch until to-morrow," Mr. Conroyal lamented, when the excitement had somewhat quieted down. "Oh, dad, just let us see if the cave is really there!" begged Thure. "Impossible. See how swiftly the dark shadows of night are gathering. We must hasten back to Lot's Canyon at once. In fifteen minutes it will be too dark to see our way plainly. Come on, everybody. I reckon the Little Woman is some curious to know what has been happening up here," and, smiling happily, he started back toward the opening, followed by all the others. When they again reached the ground at the bottom of the Big Tree, they found Mrs. Dickson alone. She said that Pedro had asked permission to go back to where the grizzly bear had been filled to get a chunk of bear steak for their supper, and had hurried off, taking one of their rifles with him, as soon as she had said yes. She was nearly wild with joy, when told of the find they had made, and vowed that she would go with them in the morning, when they started out to look for the Cave of Gold, in spite of the seemingly dangerous climb along the big limb of the Big Tree. Half an hour later Pedro returned with a big chunk of bear meat, which was soon roasting on wooden spits placed around the blazing camp-fire.