ill less was there any essay of companionship or
sympathy in the manner of Steptoe as he suddenly rapped on the table
with his knuckles.

"Gentlemen," he said, with a certain deliberation of utterance, as if
he enjoyed his own coarse directness, "I reckon you all have a sort of
general idea what you were picked up for, or you wouldn't be here.
But you may or may not know that for the present you are honest,
hard-working miners,--the backbone of the State of Californy,--and that
you have formed yourselves into a company called the 'Blue Jay,'
and you've settled yourselves on the Bar below Heavy Tree Hill, on a
deserted claim of the Marshall Brothers, not half a mile from where
the big strike was made five years ago. That's what you ARE, gentlemen;
that's what you'll continue TO BE until the job's finished; and," he
added, with a sudden dominance that they all felt, "the man who forgets
it will have to reckon with me. Now," he continued, resuming his
former ironical manner, "now, what are the cold facts of the case? The
Marshalls worked this claim ever since '49, and never got anything out
of it; then they dropped off or died out, leaving only one brother, Tom
Marshall, to work what was left of it. Well, a few days ago HE found
indications of a big lead in the rock, and instead of rushin' out and
yellin' like an honest man, and callin' in the boys to drink, he sneaks
off to 'Frisco, and goes to the bank to get 'em to take a hand in it.
Well, you know, when Jim Stacy takes a hand in anything, IT'S BOTH
HANDS, and the bank wouldn't see it until he promised to guarantee
possession of the whole abandoned claim,--'dips, spurs, and
angles,'--and let them work the whole thing, which the d----d fool DID,
and the bank agreed to send an expert down there to-morrow to report.
But while he was away some one on our side, who was an expert also, got
wind of it, and made an examination all by himself, and found it was a
vein sure enough and a big thing, and some one else on our side found
out, too, all that Marshall had promised the bank and what the bank
had promised him. Now, gentlemen, when the bank sends down that expert
to-morrow I expect that he will find YOU IN POSSESSION of every part of
the deserted claim except the spot where Tom is still working."

"And what good is that to us?" asked one of the men contemptuously.

"Good?" repeated Steptoe harshly. "Well, if you're not as d----d a fool
as Marshall, you'll see that if he ha