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 assays 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 assaying furnace, while Harry Hazelton, rolling up his
sleeves, began to demonstrate his muscle by pulverizing little
piles of ore in a hand-mill.

"Be careful not to mix the lots, Harry," advised Tom, glancing
over from his station by the furnace.

"Thanks for the caution," smiled Hazelton. "But I have just enough
intelligence left to understand the value of knowing