Soon Old Sunshine’s practiced eye told him that he was reaching a richer rock than before. Near the foot of the bank he was gradually uncovering a broad band of dull yellow. He knew what that meant,--one of the richest veins he had ever seen in his half-century of gold-mining. Another man would have dropped his pick and called the other miners to witness his discovery. But not a word from Old Sunshine. It was three o’clock. He began to wield the pick-axe higher up the bank. The material there was soft or “rotten rock,” and at four o’clock he had his rich find at the base of the cliff completely hidden from sight with the worthless rock which he had loosened from above. “I promised the Colonel I’d quit at four o’clock,” he said to the boss who passed just then. “I suppose I must keep my word.” “Aye, aye, that’s all right, Old Sunshine; perfectly right. You’ve had a scorcher here to-day,” replied the boss, without a suspicion of the wealth which lay near him. Old Sunshine never gave him a hint of his find. Then began the weary climb out of the gorge. This was the point at which Old Sunshine most realized that he was well on the down-hill side of life. He could still do a fair day’s work, but he could not, as formerly, do a day’s work and still have a large reserve of strength left over. He climbed awhile, and then sat down to rest. Then he climbed again. Occasionally a serpent made way for him, shaking his rattles, more as a warning than a threat. He reached his own cabin at last. “What brings you home so early?” asked his wife. “The Colonel made me promise to quit early. He don’t like to have me work. He says he would take care of us and I guess he would, but I don’t like to let him. Please get me a lunch and then I must go down and see the Colonel.” “What? Walk six miles to-night?” “Yes, I can do it; it may make a big difference to the Colonel. After he went home I struck a rich vein, and I want him to know it as soon as possible. The other miners do not know it. Do not tell them. I think the vein runs off across the old ‘Dead Open and Shut’ claim. The Colonel can buy that claim for a few thousand dollars now, but after this strike gets noised abroad he may not be able to buy it at all. If I can give the Colonel warning so he can buy the Dead Open and Shut claim cheap, and if he makes a good thing out of it, then I can accept a pension from him, not as charity, but as my just due. Don’t expect me till morning. Good night.” Luckily for the old man his journey was almost all down hill. The whole country thereabouts was a desert for the want of water. In those small sections where irrigation had been employed the land was very productive.