at each other. Yet his first concern was for them, his first
instinct paternal and protecting. He ran his eyes quickly over them;
they were all there and apparently in their usual condition. "Anything
wrong with the claim?" he suggested.

Without looking at him the Right Bower rose, leaned against the open
door with his hands behind him and his face towards the landscape, and
said, apparently to the distant prospect: "The claim's played out, the
partnership's played out, and the sooner we skedaddle out of this the
better. If," he added, turning to the Old Man, "if YOU want to stay, if
you want to do Chinaman's work at Chinaman's wages, if you want to hang
on to the charity of the traders at the Crossing, you can do it, and
enjoy the prospects and the Noah's doves alone. But we're calculatin' to
step out of it."

"But I haven't said I wanted to do it ALONE," protested the Old Man with
a gesture of bewilderment.

"If these are your general ideas of the partnership," continued the
Right Bower, clinging to the established hypothesis of the other
partners for support, "it ain't ours, and the only way we can prove it
is to stop the foolishness right here. We calculated to dissolve the
partnership and strike out for ourselves elsewhere. You're no longer
responsible for us, nor we for you. And we reckon it's the square thing
to leave you the claim and the cabin, and all it contains. To prevent
any trouble with the traders, we've drawn up a paper here--"

"With a bonus of fifty thousand dollars each down, and the rest to be
settled on my children," interrupted the Old Man, with a half-uneasy
laugh. "Of course. But--" he stopped suddenly, the blood dropped from
his fresh cheek, and he again glanced quickly round the group. "I don't
think--I--I quite sabe, boys," he added, with a slight tremor of voice
and lip. "If it's a conundrum, ask me an easier one."

Any lingering doubt he might have had of their meaning was dispelled by
the Judge. "It's about the softest thing you kin drop into, Old Man,"
he said confidentially; "if I hadn't promised the other boys to go with
them, and if I didn't need the best medical advice in Sacramento for my
lungs, I'd just enjoy staying with you."

"It gives a sorter freedom to a young fellow like you, Old Man, like
goin' into the world on your own capital, that every Californian boy
hasn't got," said Union Mills, patronizingly.

"Of course it's rather hard papers on us, you know, givin' up
ev