"Ze white wolf guard ze cave well," remarked Pierre, sententiously.
"Oh, I'm not thinking of trying to run away. You know I would never break my word. But what the dickens am I to do all day long?"
"What do you say? Suppose we go to ze riffle and wash out some gold."
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Dick eagerly. "That's not a bad suggestion. But Don Manuel won't mind?"
"He will be very pleased--he has no use for ze gold."
"Long ago she would have killed you if you had gone zere. But not now. She very old, and all her people are dead."
"And the white wolf? That confounded beast won't interfere?"
"No, no. Ze white wolf stay near Guadalupe all ze time."
"Then, by jove, it's a bully idea," cried Dick. "It gets me all right. We'll turn miners, Pierre, and we'll have a rare old sack of nuggets to divide when the time comes for me to go free. I'll be better off in the end than if I were holding down my old job at the rancho," he laughed gaily.
"I will find ze spades and ze pans to wash ze gravel. When shall we begin?"
"Well, wait now," replied Dick, glancing reflectively at the roll of drawings. "I've got to send these plans away. I want you to get them at once into the hands of my friend, Lieutenant Chester Munson. He will know how to forward them to their proper destination."
"I venture to make one little suggestion. Why not ask ze young lady to take ze plans to your friend?"
"Miss Merle Farnsworth?" asked Dick in surprise. "But how am I to do that?"
"I will promise to arrange a meeting--zat is, if you are not afraid of Mr. Thurston and his men."
"Afraid!" shouted Dick. "You give me the chance to see Merle again, and old Ben Thurston and all his sleuths may go to blazes."
"Zen I will arrange, and I zink it will please ze young lady very much to have ze honor of taking care of ze plans."
"You mean it will be a mighty honor for the plans to be in her care, Pierre. But I know she will gladly do me this service. How and when can I see her?"
"Be ready tomorrow morning by ten o'clock. I will take you to a quiet place among ze old oak trees."
"Pierre, you're a regular brick," cried Dick, as he slapped the old Frenchman on the shoulder in the exuberance of his delight.
The following morning they started out for the trysting place. Dick without demur submitted to the usual precautions. He was blindfolded before mounting his pony in the great central domed cavern and it was not until a couple of hours later, after a veritable switchback ride up and down and round about in a bewildering maze, that he was permitted to remove the bandage. Dismounting, he found himself in the heart of a great oak forest, in what precise locality he could not tell, for there was nothing in sight but endless vistas of tree trunks under their thick canopy of green leaves.