“But how are we going to get this gold out, now that the mine is flooded?” asked Mr. Bosworth.
“Huh,” grinned Jimmie, “guess we can unflood it. I could do it myself with a good big shovel.”
“I presume the Indians will change the course of the outlet as soon as they find some willing to market the gold for them,” suggested Ned.
“We have not the least intention in the world of robbing the Indians of all the wealth,” Mr. Bosworth declared. “On the contrary, we’ll get the gold out and give them a fair share of the proceeds of the mine. After dinner, we’ll go up and negotiate with them.”
“I hope you’ll send me back to New York immediately,” pleaded Gilroy, turning to his employer.
“We’ll all be going out directly,” was the reply.
“Now, look here!” Jimmie declared. “We came in here for a vacation, and we’ve been mixed up with half-breeds, and Indians, and bears, and old Franciscan missions, built underground, and pots of gold at the rainbow’s end, and a thousand other things that haven’t given us much joy. Now I propose that we stay here and have our visit to the mountains out after all this mess is cleared up.”
“I’ve got a bum arm,” Harry exclaimed, “but I vote for staying in the hills a month. If I can’t climb trees and send Boy Scout signals floating over the mountain tops,” he added with a laugh, “I can sit here and broil bear steaks and have all the fun in the world seeing you boys eating them. That will be fun enough for me!”
“Besides,” he went on with an amusing grin, “I want to stay here long enough to make the personal acquaintance of that flag on the cliff—the flag of Spain, without any yellow in it, that stands for a billion of yellow metal not far away!”
“The flag on the cliff?” repeated Mr. Bosworth.
“Sure,” replied Jimmie. “There has been a stone flag waving on the cliff over the old mine for two or three hundred years. It isn’t much of a flag to look at, but it represents the kingdom of Spain, crown and all, and the old Indians loved it because they knew of the treasure it guarded.”
“Then our first visit,” Mr. Bosworth declared, “shall be to the flag on the cliff!”
“My idea of a pleasant afternoon,” Ned said, as they arose from a sumptuous camp dinner, “is to get off alone into the mountains. Mr. Bosworth seems inclined to go with you boys for a view of the flag on the cliff,” he went on, “and so I’ll leave you to your own amusement while I go and get acquainted with the mountains.”