ocate
him with a forty-foot microscope. Gee!" He chuckled, and turned again
to contemplate his companion, much as he would a newly discovered
wonder of the world.

But poor Scipio was really becoming distressed. He hoped, merely
because the other forced him to hope, by his own evident sincerity.
But the charge of shrewdness, of conspiring to keep a secret he had
never possessed, worried him.

"I take my oath I don't know a thing, Bill," he declared earnestly. "I
sure don't. You've got to believe me, because I can't say more. I seen
my claim days back, an' I hadn't a color. I ain't seen it since.
That's fact."

It was strange to see how readily the disbelief died out of the
other's face. It was almost magical. It was as though his previous
expression had been nothing but acting and his fresh attitude the
result of studied preparation.

"Well, Zip," he said seriously, almost dejectedly, "if you put it that
way, I sure got to b'lieve you. But it's queer. It sure is. There's
folks ready to swear ther's rich gold on your claim, an' I'll tell you
right here I come along to git in on it. Y'see, I'm a bizness man, an'
I don't figger to git a crop o' weeds growin' around my feet. I sez to
myself, I sez, directly I heerd tell, 'Here's Zip with an elegant
patch o' pay dirt, an' here am I with a wad of bills handy, which I'd
sure like to turn over some.' Then I sez--I want you to understand
jest how I thought--I sez,'Mebbe I've kind o' bin useful to Zip.
Helped him out some, when he was fixed awkward.' You see, it ain't my
way to do things for nothing. An' I do allow I bin useful to you.
Well, I thought o' these things, so I come along right smart to get in
on the plum. Sez I, 'Zip, bein' under obligation to me some, mebbe
he'll let me buy ha'f share in his claim,' me handin' him a thousand
dollars. It 'ud be a spot cash deal, an' me puttin' in a feller to
work--an' see things right fer me--why, I guess there'd be no chance
o' you gettin' gay--an' fakin' the output. See? I don't guess you're
on the crook, but in bizness a feller don't take chances. Y'see I'm
pretty bright when it gits to bizness, an', anyway, I don't stand fer
no play o' that kind. Get me?"

The gambler's manner was wholly severe as he explained his proposition,
and impressed his views of business. Scipio listened without the
slightest umbrage. He saw nothing wrong, nothing unfriendly in the
precautions the other had intended to take. As a matter of fact, th