Part 14 (1/2)

”It is,” Tom agreed, taking the specimen.

”Does the vein run with the top of the ridge?” demanded Harry eagerly.

”It runs a little more to eastward, from this point, I think,”

Tom made answer. ”But let us walk along, in three parallel lines, and see who finds the best indications.”

By noon all three were fairly tired out by the steep climbing over the rocky ground. Each had as many specimens as he could carry. The result of the exploration had tended to confirm Tom's notion as to where the vein lay.

”Now, let's see about where we'd stake the claim,” Tom proposed.

”Of course, we want to get the best rock obtainable. We don't want to leave the best part of this slope for some one else to stake out. It seems to me that the claim ought to start up by that blasted tree. What do you say, Jim?”

”Well, I don't like to make mistakes where you young gentleman are concerned,” Ferrers answered, taking off his felt hat and scratching his head. ”You see, it isn't my claim.”

”The d.i.c.kens it isn't!” Reade retorted.

”Why, you---you gentlemen didn't plan to take me in, did you,”

asked Ferrers, opening his eyes very wide in his amazement over the idea. ”You see I---I can't contribute my share of the brains, along with a pair like you,” continued the guide. ”Look at you two---engineers already! Then look at me---more'n twice as old as either of you, and yet I'm only a cook.”

”You're an honest man, aren't you, Jim?” demanded Reade.

”Why, there's some folks who say I am,” Ferrers slowly admitted.

”And we're among those who believe that way,” Tom continued.

”Now, Jim, you're with us, and you've every right to be a partner if we find anything worth taking up in the mine line.”

”But there ain't no sense in it,” protested the guide, his voice shaking with emotion. ”You don't need me.”

”We need a man of your kind, Jim,” Tom rejoined, resting a very friendly hand on the guide's shoulder. ”Listen to me. Hazelton and I are engineers first of all. We'd sooner be engineers than kings. Now, the lure of gold is all well enough, and we're human enough to like money. Yet a really big engineering chance would take us away from a gold mine almost any day in the year. Eh, Harry!”

”I'm afraid it would,” confirmed Hazelton.

”If we left a paying mine, Jim, what would we want?” Tom continued.

”We'd want an honest partner, wouldn't we---one whom we could leave for six months or a year and still be able to depend on getting our share of the profits of the mine. You've gambled in the past, Jim, but you stopped that years ago. Now you're honest and safe. Do you begin to see, Jim Ferrers, where you come in? Another point. How old do you take us to be?”

”Well, you're more than twenty-one, each of you,” replied Ferrers.

”Not quite, as yet,” Tom answered. ”So, you see, in order to take out a claim we'd need a guardian, and one whom we could depend upon not to rob us. Jim, if we're to take up a mine we must have a third man in with us. Do you know a man anywhere who'd use us more honestly than you would?”

”I don't,” exclaimed Jim Ferrers. ”At the same time, gentlemen, I know your kind well enough. Both of you talk of fighting as though you dreaded it, but I'll tell you, gentlemen, that I wouldn't _dare_ to try any nasty tricks on either of you.”

”We understand each other, then,” Tom nodded. ”Now, then, let us try to make up our minds just where we would want to stake off this claim if the gold a.s.says as well as it looks.”

At the beginning Tom and Harry built a little pile of stones.

Then, by mere pacing they laid off what they judged to be the fifteen hundred feet of length which the government allows to a single mining claim.

”We can attend to the proper width later,” suggested Tom. ”Now, what do you say if we make for camp at once. I'm not hungry; still, I think I could eat my half of a baked ox.”

The instant that the trio reached camp, Jim Ferrers, with an unwonted mist in his eyes, began to juggle the cooking utensils. Tom busied himself with building the best fire that he could under the chamber of the a.s.saying furnace, while Harry Hazelton, rolling up his sleeves, began to demonstrate his muscle by pulverizing little piles of ore in a hand-mill.