"Nor yet me," said the other.

"Nor me neither," said the big fellow. "If it's going to be peace and
work, man and man, so much the better; but if it's war over the gold, we
shall have to fight. What's mine is mine, or ourn; and it'll go awkward
for them as meddles with me. I'm a nasty-tempered dog if any one tries
to take my bone away; aren't I, my sons?"

The two men addressed bent their heads back and burst into a roar of
laughter.

"Hark at him," said the man spoken to as Tommy. "Don't you believe him,
my lads. He's a great big soft-roed pilchard; that's what he is. Eh,
Dick Humphreys?"

"Yes; like a great big gal," assented the other.

"Oh, am I?" said the big fellow. "You don't know, my sons. But I say,
though," he continued, tapping the snow with his knuckles, "then for
aught we know them three blacks is buried alive just under where we're
sitting?"

"I'm afraid so."

"'Fraid? What are you 'fraid on?"

"It is a horrible death," said Abel, with a shudder.

"Well, yes, I suppose it is," said the Cornishman thoughtfully. "I say,
we ought to get digging to find 'em, oughtn't we?"

"We are not sure they are there," said Dallas.

"Of course you are not," continued the miner, "and I don't believe they
are. You see, your mate here took us for 'em. I believe Natur' made a
mistake and buried you two instead of them. If they are down below I
haven't heard no signs of them, and they must be dead. Why, it would
take us a couple of years to clear all this stuff away, and we mightn't
find 'em then. I say, though, what about your tackle?"

"Our sledges? They're buried deep down here."

"We shall have to get them out, then. You two won't be able to get
along without your traps."

Soon after an inspection of the position was made; one of the men
descended into the hole they had dug close up to the rock wall, and he
returned to give his opinion that by devoting a day to the task the
shaft could be so enlarged that they could drive a branch down straight
to the spot, and save the stores and tools, even if they could not get
the sledges out whole.

It took two days, though, during which no fresh comers appeared, the
report of the snow-fall having stopped further progress. At the end of
the above time, pretty well everything was saved by the help of the
miner and his companions, who gallantly stood by them.

"Oh, we've got plenty of time," said their leader, "and if these sort o'
games are going