But Chet called after him: “Do think better of it, and go to see my father.” Then he let Hero have his impatient head and he and his chum went on their way. That which rose out of this advice of Chet’s to the Indian lad could scarcely be foreseen by either of the boys; but it was of much importance. The chums rode on, soon leaving the last of the scattered cabins behind them. They met timber wagons from the hills, but nothing else for the next hour. The lumbermen looked curiously at the chums’ weapons, for their guns were too heavy for an ordinary hunting expedition. “What you goin’ out after?” one timberman drawled. “Grizzlies—or is there an Injun uprisin’?” “We expect to bag a brace of humming-birds,” Dig told him gravely. “Have you seen any?” “No; but I’ve heard ’em snorin’, sound asleep, in the tops of some of them cottonwoods,” was the reply. “But, say! They ain’t been a trace of Ole Ephraim in these hills, since Methuselah was put inter trousers.” “Ole Ephraim” was the nickname the old-time hunters and trappers gave to the grizzly bear. “Nor I didn’t know of any redskins goin’ on the warpath. Has Blacksnake’s band of dog soldiers broke loose from the reservation?” pursued the man cheerfully. “Say! ’tain’t old Scarface and his fam’bly begun crow-hoppin’—has they? If so, we sure will have a tumble mas-a-cree.” “That’s all right,” laughed Chet. “We’re going to bag all the game in the territory—you see.” “Leave me a mess o’ Molly Cottontails,” said the timberman, driving on. “I ain’t had a rabbit with fixin’s yet this season.” “And I shouldn’t think he’d want it,” grumbled Dig, as they left the man behind. “Who wants to eat rabbit this time o’ year? I told you how it would be if we took these heavy guns, Chet. Folks will rig us to death. Huh! Buffalo! A fat chance!” Chet only laughed at him. He had a deal more faith in the existence of the buffalo band that had been reported as roaming upon the plains, across which the trail to Grub Stake lay. CHAPTER X—MR. HAVENS HAS A VISITOR Mr. Havens and his wife had bidden the chums good-bye when they rode away from the house on the outskirts of Silver Run and watched them as they cantered off down the road. Chet’s mother secretly feared something might befall her boy on his mission to Grub Stake; while Mr. Havens was only proud that he had a son whom he could trust in such an emergency. When Mrs. Havens had retired to the house her husband sank comfortably back into his chair and relit his pipe. It was then he espied the stranger in the black slouch hat coming up the street. Silver Run was not such a large town that the owner of the Silent Sue mine did not know most of its regular inhabitants, either by name or sight. This fellow he never remembered having seen before.