The old man was evidently disconcerted and angry at being found, while the boy was utterly dumfounded. "Wait a minute, Job; I'll go home with you," said Malden, as he took out the queerest charge Job had ever seen in a gun--a load of gold dust, which he carefully rammed down the barrel, then, bidding Job look out, fired into the rock. "Why, what are you doing that for?" stammered the boy. "Oh, salting the mine, just so it will keep," laughed Andrew Malden--a strange, hoarse laugh. "But mind, Job, nobody needs to know I did it. The mine will keep better if they don't." As they passed out, Job noticed that the wall of the mine glittered in a way he had never seen before. What did it all mean? He dared ask no more questions of Andrew Malden. Almost in silence they climbed down the old trail, edged across the bridge, and strode with a steady pace up the long six miles over the Point to their home. "What's 'salting a mine,' Tony?" asked Job of the black hostler one day a week after. "Doan' know, Marse Job, unless it's doctoring the critter so you can make somebody believe it's worth a million, when it ain't worth a rabbit's hind foot. Tony's up to better bizness than salting mines." "Who owns the Cove Mine, Tony?" "Why, Marse Malden, I 'spec," said the surprised negro. That evening Job looked at his guardian with a queer feeling as they sat down to supper, and that night he heard gun-shots in his dreams, and awoke with a shiver and waited for something to happen. He was conscious of impending trouble. Something was wrong. * * * * * It had been a hard winter in Grizzly county, and throughout the whole country, for that matter; a hard winter, following a fatal summer which closed with crops a failure on the plains, the stunted grain fields uncut, and the whole country paralyzed. The cities were full of men out of work. The demand for lumber had fallen off, and the Pine Mountain Mill was idle over half the time. The pessimism that filled the air had reached Andrew Malden, and he sat by the fire all winter nursing it. If he could sell the Cove Mine--but what was there to sell? And he gave it up as a futile project. Then there came news of a rich strike of gold in Shasta county, and a little later in the far south the deserts of the Mojave were found to glitter. A perfect epidemic of mining excitement followed. The most unthought-of places, the old deserted mines, were found to be bonanzas. Andy caught the fever. He tramped all over the Pine Tree Ranch prospecting, but gave up in despair. Then he thought once more of the Cove Mine. He made many a secret trip there. Then he ordered a box of gold dust from the Yellow Jacket and stole down to the Cove again and again, till discovered by Job.