Part 24 (2/2)
”We'll have to kill a few men before we can get Gage off that ridge, though,” Hazelton predicted.
”It's gold, I tell you, Harry. When the gold-craze gets into a fellow's blood nothing but gold can cure it. We won't kill any one, and we'll hope not to be killed ourselves. But that claim was our discovery, and now the way is clear for us to own that strip of Nevada dirt. Gold, Harry, old chum---gold!”
Then they fell to writing. Harry did the pen work while Reade dictated rapidly.
If Engineer Tom Reade had been briefly excited he did not betray the fact when he stepped outside the tent.
”Horses saddled, Mr. Reade,” announced Ferrers. ”I s'pose you're going to take some of the boys over with us, in case Gage tries to put up any shooting bluff?”
”Yes,” nodded Tom. ”But don't take with us any fellow who is hot-blooded enough to do any real shooting.”
”It'll take real shooting to get Gage's crew off that ridge,”
Ferrers warned the young engineer. ”All men get gold crazy when they find their feet on a claim. Dolph Gage will fight while he has breath left. Don't try to go over there, sir, if you're not satisfied to have a little shooting done at need.”
”We're going over,” declared Tom, the lines about his mouth tightening, ”and we're going to take the claim for our own, as long as we have the legal right to do so. But I hope there won't have to be any gun-powder burned. Killing belongs only to one line of business---war!”
CHAPTER XII
NEW OWNERS FILE A CLAIM
Dolph Gage, after his richly deserved battering of the day before, presented a sorry-looking sight as he stood near the notice of his claim location.
In his right hand he gripped the only rifle there now was in his outfit, the one brought back by the man who had been to Dugout.
Jim Ferrers, rifle resting across the front of his saddle, rode at the head of the Reade-Hazelton party as that outfit reached the edge of the claim.
On either side of the guide, just to the rear, rode Tom and Harry.
Behind them tramped four men armed with rides, the other two men carrying a board, stakes and a hammer.
”The first man who sets foot on this claim dies!” shouted Dolph Gage hoa.r.s.ely.
”Same thing for any man who raises a rifle against us,” Ferrers called back. ”Gage, I want only a good excuse for taking one honest shot at you!”
The moment was tense with danger. Heedless of the black looks of Dolph, Tom dug his heels into his pony's flanks, moving forward at a trot.
”Gage,” called the young engineer, steadily, ”I think you have been in wrong often enough. This time I am sure that you will want to keep on the right side.”
”You keep on the right side by staying off the claim!” Gage ordered, but at that instant Reade rode over the boundary.
For an instant no man could guess who would fire the first shot.
Gage was angry and desperate enough to fire and take great chances.
Had he fired at that moment there was no doubt that he would have been killed at the next breath.
Something stuck in Gage's throat. He did not raise his rifle, but instead he growled:
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