was cleaned and now you can all go to
blazes!"

He shook hands with the friendly barkeeper, told him to keep the change,
and fought his way out to the street. The crowd of boomers, still
refusing to be insulted, trooped shamelessly along in his wake; and when
he unpacked his mule and took out two heavy, heavy ore-sacks even Judson
Eells cast aside his dignity. He had looked on from afar, standing in
front of the plate-glass window which had "Willie Meena Mining Company"
across it; but at a signal from Lynch, who had been acting as his
lookout, he came running to demand his rights. The acquisition of The
Wunpost and The Willie Meena properties had by no means satisfied his
lust; and since this one crazy prospector--who of all men he had
grubstaked seemed the only one who could find a mine--had for the third
time come in with rich ore, he felt no compunctions about claiming his
share.

"Where'd you get that ore?" he demanded of Wunpost as the crowd opened
up before him and Wunpost glanced at him fleeringly.

"I stole it!" he said and went on sorting out specimens which he stuffed
into his well-worn overalls.

"I asked you _where_!" returned Eells, drawing his lip up sternly,
and Wunpost turned to the crowd.

"You see?" he jeered, "I told you he was crooked. He wants to go and
steal some himself." He laughed, long and loud, and some there were who
joined in with him, for Eells was not without his enemies. To be sure he
had built the bank, and established his offices in Blackwater when he
might have started a new town at the mine; but no moneylender was ever
universally popular and Eells was ruthless in exacting his usury. But on
the other hand he had brought a world of money in to town, for the
Willie Meena had paid from the first; and it was his pay-roll and the
wealth which had followed in his wake that had made the camp what it
was; so no one laughed as long or as loud as John C. Calhoun and he
hunched his shoulders and quit.

"Never you mind where I stole it!" he said to Eells, "I stole it, and
that's enough. Is there anything in your contract that gives you a cut
on everything I _steal_?"

"Why--why, no," replied Eells, "but that isn't the point--I asked you
where you got it. If it's stolen, that's one thing, but if you've
located another mine----"

"I haven't!" put in Wunpost, "you've broke me of that. The only way I
can keep anything now is to steal it. Because, no matter what it is, if
I come by it hone