of curiosity, cast in his
direction. He was tall, strong, young, bearded, with a roving, humorous
bold eye.

The last word was spoken. A rather bewildered-looking jury filed out.
Ensued a wait. The jury came back. It could not agree; it wanted
information. Both lawyers supplied it in abundance. The foreman, who
happened to be next the rail against which the newcomer was leaning,
cast on him a quizzical eye.

"Stranger," said he, "mout you be able to make head er tail of all that
air?"

The other shook his head.

"I'm plumb distracted to know what to do; and dear knows we all want to
git shet of this job. Thar's a badger fight----"

"Where is this claim, anyway?"

"Right adown the road. Location notice is on the first white oak you
come to. Cain't miss her."

"If I were you," said the stranger after a pause, "I'd just declare the
claim vacant. Then neither side would win."

At this moment the jury rose to retire again. The stranger unobtrusively
gained the attention of the clerk and from him begged a sheet of paper.
On this he wrote rapidly, then folded it, and moved to the outer door,
against the jamb of which he took his position. After another and
shorter wait, the jury returned.

"Have you agreed on your verdict, gentlemen?" inquired the judge.

"We have," replied the lank foreman. "We award that the claim belongs to
neither and be declared vacant."

At the words the stranger in the doorway disappeared. Two minutes later
the advance guard of the rush that had comprehended the true meaning of
the verdict found the white oak tree in possession of a competent
individual with a Colt's revolving pistol and a humorous eye.

"My location notice, gentlemen," he said, calling attention to a paper
freshly attached by wooden pegs.

"Honey-bug claim'," they read, "'John Gates'," and the usual
phraseology.

"But this is a swindle, an outrage!" cried one of the erstwhile owners.

"If so it was perpetrated by your own courts," said Gates, crisply. "I
am within my rights, and I propose to defend them."

Thus John Gates and his wife, now strong and hearty, became members of
this community. His intention had been to proceed to Sacramento. An
incident stopped him here.

The Honey-bug claim might or might not be a good placer mine--time would
show--but it was certainly a wonderful location. Below the sloping bench
on which it stood the country fell away into the brown heat haze of the
lowlands, a curtain that cou