Higbie had been dreaming about the marvelous cement for months; and now, against his better judgment, he had gone off and "taken the chances" on my keeping secure a mine worth a million undiscovered cement veins.

They had not been followed this time.

His riding out of town in broad daylight was such a common-place thing to do that it had not attracted any attention.

He said they prosecuted their search in the fastnesses of the mountains during nine days, without success; they could not find the cement.

Then a ghastly fear came over him that something might have happened to prevent the doing of the necessary work to hold the blind lead (though indeed he thought such a thing hardly possible), and forthwith he started home with all speed.