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Yet as it did happen, there must be some rhyme or reason to the whole thing. It may be that some one can offer some helpful information to a problem that just should not exist in these times of enlightenment.

   To begin with, if we had not been reading an article in a magazine telling us about the great value of guano (bat droppings in old caves) that have accumulated over a great number of years, we would have continued to wend our merry way through life without ever having a

thing to worry 'bout.

   But having read the article and as we were at the time living near a small town called Manten in Tehama County, California, we thought that that would be a good country to explore for a possible find of this kind. After talking it over for some time and as we had plenty of time just then, we decided to take a little trip up the country just back of us. As we were almost at the foot of Mount Lassen, that seemed the best place to conduct our little prospecting tour. So collecting a light camping outfit, together with a couple of pup tents to sleep in, we started out on what we expected to be a three-or-four-day jaunt up the mountain.

   I guess we covered about ten or twelve miles on the third day and it was fast approaching time to begin to look for a place to spend the night, and the thought was not very amusing and it had turned a little colder and we were well over seven thousand feet above sea level.

   We soon found a sheltered place beneath a large outcrop of rock and set about making a camp. As I was always the cook and Joe the chore boy, I began getting things ready to fix us some grub and Joe began digging around for some dead scrub bush to burn. I had things all ready and looked around for Joe and his firewood. But I could see no sign of him. I began calling to him and he soon came into sight from around the very rock where we were making our camp. And I knew he was