gray hairs, in spite of his memories of those former failures, he
had to confess to himself that he knew nothing, absolutely nothing of
sharpers and their methods. They could not fleece him again in precisely
the way they had done so before; but how could he guess at the tricks
they had in reserve? Eight years out of a man's life ought surely to
teach him caution as thoroughly as twelve. Yet he walked into the Eagle
Ridge trap as confidently as he had into the Antelope Gap. He had made
it twelve years. What was to prevent his making it sixteen? There is no
fear like that of the absolutely unknown. You cannot forestall that; you
must depend upon your own self-confidence. Self-confidence was just what
Peter did not possess.

Then in a flash he saw what he should have done. It was all so
ridiculously simple--a mere question of division of labour. He, Peter,
knew prospecting, but did not understand business. Back in his old
Vermont home were a dozen honest men who knew business, but understood
nothing of prospecting. Nothing would have been easier than to have
combined these qualities and lacks. If Peter had returned quietly to his
people, concealing his discoveries from the men of Beaver Dam, he could
have returned in three weeks' time equipped for his negotiations. Now it
was too late. The minute his back was turned they would jump his claims.
Peter's mind worked slowly. If he had felt himself less driven by the
sight of those gray hairs, he might have come in time to another
idea--that of wiring or writing East for a partner, pending whose
arrival he could merely hold possession of the claims. As it was, the
terror and misgiving, having obtained entry, rapidly usurped the
dominion of his thoughts. He could see nothing before him but the
inevitable and dread bargaining with unknown powers of dishonesty,
nothing behind him but the mistake of starting the "boom."

As the morning wore away he went out into the hills to look about him.
The men were all busily enough engaged in chipping out the shallow
troughs of their "discoveries," piling supporting rocks about their
corner and side stakes, or tacking up laboriously composed mining
"notices." They paid scant attention to the man who passed them a
hundred yards away. Peter visited his own four claims. On one he found a
small group anxiously examining the indications of the lead. He did not
join it. The parting words flung after him at the saloon came to his
mind. "Look out f