144 Dreaming Bob 



whiskey-flask, but I did not, and with a 

 slight show of disappointment he accepted 

 the solid food I offered. 



While we were eating, we heard voices 

 near by, and I made a motion to keep quiet, 

 to which he silently assented. Two men 

 passed near us, but without discovering our 

 whereabouts. When within hearing one 

 was talking earnestly, narrating a recent ad- 

 venture. " My dog treed something," he 

 said, "and I couldn't call him off, so I left my 

 work and went over. The cur was diggin' a 

 hole where there'd been a big tree standin* 

 once, and I went up to see what he'd got. 

 He'd struck a root, I thought, but, lookin* 

 down, I saw a piece of board and an iron on 

 it ; and, lookin' closer, it showed it was a 

 box that had been buried." 



" No !" exclaimed his companion, stopping 

 in the path and looking at his friend. 



" You bet ; and I tackled the job quick, 

 seein' some one might come and git it out. 

 It was all rusty and rotten and filled with a 

 mess o' stuff I couldn't make out, and a big 

 double handful of money." 



" Gold ?" said the other man, interrupting 

 the narrator. 



