mptuously and picked up the two big sacks while the
citizens of Blackwater sneered back at him.

"Aw, bull!" scoffed one, "you ain't got no gold! And if you have, by
grab, you stole it. What about the Stinging Lizard?"

"Well, _what_ about it?" retorted Wunpost, giving his bags to the
Express agent, "----put down the value on that at seven thousand
dollars." This last was aside to the inquiring Express agent, but the
crowd heard it and burst out hooting.

"Seven thousands _cents_!" yelled a voice; "you never _saw_
seven thousand dollars! You're a bull-shover and your mine was salted!"

"Sure it was salted!" agreed Wunpost, laughing exultantly, "but you
Blackwater stiffs will bite at anything. Did _I_ ever claim it was
a mine? I'm a bull-shover, am I? Well, when did I ever come here and try
to sell somebody a mine? No; I came into town with some Sockdolager ore,
and you dastards all tried to get me drunk; and I finally made a deal
with the barkeep at The Mint to show him the place for a thousand dollar
bill. Well, didn't I show him the place--and didn't he come back more
than satisfied with his pockets bursting out with the gold? _He_
never had no kick--I met him in Los Angeles and he told me he had sold
the rock for thirteen hundred dollars to a jeweler. But say, my friends,
don't you think I knew where he would go to get that thousand dollar
bill? Do you think I was so drunk I expected a barkeeper to have
thousand dollar bills in his pocket? No; I knowed who he would go to,
and Eells gave him the bill and a pocket full of Boston beans; but he
lost them on the road, so I brought him down Jail Canyon and old-scout
Lynch here, he followed my tracks!

"Wasn't that wonderful, now? He followed our tracks back and he found
the Stinging Lizard Mine--and then, of course, he jumped it! That's his
job, when he ain't licking old Judson Eells' boots or framing up some
crooked deal with Flappum; and then he went back and told Eells. And
then Eells--you know him--being as he'd stole the mine from me, like all
crooks he thought it was valuable. Was it up to me then to go to Mr.
Eells and tell him that the mine was salted? Would _you_ have done
it--would _anybody_? Well, he thought he had me cinched, and I sold
out for twenty thousand dollars. And now, my friend, you said a moment
ago that I'd never _seen_ seven thousand dollars. All right, I say
_you_ never did! But just, by grab, to show you who's four-flushing
I'll put you out