outrunning his discretion.

"Ah, you buttin' in again," sneered Bill. "Guess you know right, too.
Ther' ain't."

It was curious to glance down at the double row of faces lining the
table and note the perplexity which suddenly gathered on them. Bill
saw it and enjoyed it. It suited his mood. Finally the heavy-faced
prospector blurted out the question that was in everybody's mind, yet
which the others dared not ask.

"You--you bought Zip's claim?" he asked incredulously.

"Ha'f of it. Me an' Zip's partners. You got anything to say?"

Bill's words rapped out with biting force, and Sandy, knowing the man,
waited, solemn-eyed. Just for one moment astonishment held his
audience breathless. Then some one sniggered, and it became the cue
for an instantaneous and general guffaw of derision. Every face was
wreathed in a broad grin. The humor of this thing was too much. Zip's
claim! Bill, the keen, unscrupulous gambler, had fallen for Zip's
mud-hole on the banks of Suffering Creek!

Bill waited. The laugh was what he needed, so he waited till it died
out. As it did so he kicked back his chair and stood up, his tall
figure and hard face a picture of cold challenge.

"You're that merry, folks," he said, his teeth clipping each word,
"that maybe some o' you got something to say. I'd like to hear it.
No?" as he waited. But no one seemed anxious to comment. "Joe Brand
kind o' seems fond o' buttin' in--mebbe he'll oblige."

But the young miner was not to be drawn. Bill shrugged his lean
shoulders, his fierce eyes alight with a dangerous fire.

"Wal," he went on, "I don't guess I ken make folks talk if they don't
notion it. But I want to say right here I bought ha'f o' Zip's claim
fer good dollars, an' I'm goin' to pay Sandy Joyce a tiptop wage fer
workin' my share. An'"--he paused and glanced swiftly and defiantly at
the faces which were no longer smiling--"an' I want to say I bought
the richest lay-out in this bum camp. Any feller who ain't o' the same
opinion ken git right up on to his hind legs an' call me a 'liar'--an'
I'm jest yearnin' fer some feller to git around an' call me that. Jest
turn it over in your fool heads. You don't need to hurry any. Ther's
days an' days to come, an' at any time I'll be glad fer all o' you to
come along an' tell me I'm--a liar."

He paused, his fierce eyes gleaming. He felt good. His outburst had
relieved his pent feelings. It was a safety-valve which had worked
satisfactorily at the righ