ness of the ridge claim.

"It's gold, Harry---gold!" he exclaimed, hoarsely, in his chum's
ear. "It's gold enough to last us through life if we work it
hard from the start."

"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 hoarsely.

"Same thing for any man who raises a rifle against us," Ferrers
called bac