hero's invitation, and during the next twenty-four hours stowed away
enough provisions to last an ordinary man for half a week.




CHAPTER XXV

THE MAN FROM PIKE COUNTY

Four days later Joe and his Yankee friend, mounted on mustangs, were
riding through a canon a hundred miles from San Francisco. It was
late in the afternoon, and the tall trees shaded the path on which
they were traveling. The air was unusually chilly and after the heat
of midday they felt it.

"I don't feel like campin' out to-night," said Bickford. "It's too
cool."

"I don't think we shall find any hotels about here," said Joe.

"Don't look like it. I'd like to be back in Pumpkin Hollow just for
to-night. How fur is it to the mines, do you calc'late?"

"We are probably about half-way. We ought to reach the Yuba River
inside of a week."

Here Mr. Bickford's mustang deliberately stopped and began to survey
the scenery calmly.