likewise.

"You are going West from here?"

Bruce answered shortly:

"On the first train."

Sprudell lowered his lids that Bruce should not see the satisfaction in
his eyes.

"Good luck to you, and once more, congratulations on your safe return."

Bruce reluctantly took the hand he offered, wondering why it was that
Sprudell repelled him so.

"Good-bye," he answered indifferently, as he turned to go.

Abe Cone in his comparatively short career had done many impulsive and
ill-considered things but he never committed a worse _faux pas_ than
when he dashed unannounced into Sprudell's office, at this moment,
dragging an out-of-town customer by the arm.

"Excuse me for intrudin'," he apologized breathlessly, "but my friend
here, Mr. Herman Florsheim--shake hands with Mr. Sprudell, Herman--wants
to catch a train and he's interested in what I been tellin' him of that
placer ground you stumbled on this fall. He's got friends in that
country and wanted to know just where it is. I remember you said
something about Ore City bein' the nearest post-office, but what
railroad is it on? If we need any outside money, why, Herman here--"

Bruce's hand was on the door-knob, but he lingered, ignoring the most
urgent invitation to go that he ever had seen in any face.

"I'm busy, Abe," Sprudell said so sharply that his old friend stared.
"You _are_ intruding. You should have sent your name."

Bruce closed the door which he had partially opened and came back.

"Don't mind me," he said slowly, looking at Sprudell. "I'd like to hear
about that placer--the one you stumbled on last fall."

"We'll come another time," Abe said, crestfallen.

Bruce turned to him:

"No, don't go. I've just come from Ore City and I may be able to tell
your friend something that he wants to know. Where _is_ your placer
ground, Sprudell?"

Sprudell sat down in his office chair, toying with a desk-fixture, while
Bruce shoved both hands in his trousers' pockets and waited for him to
speak.

"Burt," he said finally, "I regret this unpleasantness, but the fact is
you did not comply with the law--you have never recorded and you are
located out."

"So you've taken advantage of the information with which I trusted you
to jump my ground?" Bruce's eyes blazed into Sprudell's.

"The heirs could not be found, you were given up for dead, and in any
event I've not exceeded my rights."

"You have no rights upon that ground!" Bruce answered hotly, "My
loc