"I wish we could hear from our dads and the boys," Iola said, as the two girls swung gently back and forth. "It seems like a long time now since Thure and Bud left us; and we haven't heard a word from them since they went away; and so many things might have happened to them. Why, they may already have found the Cave of Gold, and right at this moment they may be picking up gold nuggets by the basketful!" and her dark eyes sparkled at the thought. "Yes, it has been a long time since we heard from the mines," answered Ruth; "and our mothers are beginning to worry, more than they let us know. They are afraid that the hunt for the Cave of Gold will get them into some kind of trouble with the men who murdered the old miner for the skin map, and then failed to get it. And--and not to hear a word from them, when so many things might happen, is terrible worrying. Oh, I do hope they find that Cave of Gold, and get enough gold to make us rich all the rest of our lives!" and her face brightened. "That is the way it would come out in a story book; and I can't see why it can't happen that way in real life, just this once. I dreamt, only last night, that they came back with a string of horses a mile long and all of them loaded down with gold. And--and," and her face flushed a little, "Thure brought me a nugget as big as my head, and a necklace of nuggets that reached to the ground, when he threw it around my neck. Oh, if something like that would only happen in real life!" and she laughed merrily at her own extravagant conceit. "And I dreamt--" and then Iola stopped abruptly. A faint halloo, coming from far-off, at this moment had reached the ears of both girls, and brought them out of the hammock in one jump, and turned their two pairs of eyes to staring excitedly across the level of the valley in front of the house. A mile away they saw two horsemen, swinging their hats around their heads and hallooing loudly, riding excitedly toward the house; and back of them came a long train of horses and men. For a minute the two girls stood, as if turned to stone, staring with widening eyes at those two horsemen, at the train of horses and men behind them; and then, with a yell that made their mothers jump from the chairs where they were sitting in the cool of the house and rush to the door, they leaped off the porch and ran toward the two horsemen. "It's Thure and Bud! It's dad and the rest!" they shouted, as they ran. In a few minutes the racing boys--for the two horsemen were Thure and Bud--and the running girls met. The boys jumped from their saddles, and, the next instant, they were in the arms of the girls.