ging out two rifles. I turned the broncho's
head up the trail, but Tom interposed.

"'I 'low,' he said, 'that ye'll hev ter leave yer horse-critter right
hyar; thar ain't much of er trail up the mount'n.'

"I wasn't particularly anxious to get separated from my horse, and that
cabin was just about the last place I would have chosen to leave him;
but there was no help for it, and as I would have to dismount anyway to
get into the timber, I slipped out of the saddle and put the hobbles on.
But when we came to start, the two men wanted me to go first. I balked
at that. I told them that I wasn't in the habit of walking up a mountain
trail in front of two men with guns, and that they would have to go
first and show the way. They grumbled, but, seeing that I meant it, they
turned and silently walked up the mountainside ahead of me.

"They stopped at an old prospect shaft that was filled to the brim with
water, and wanted me to come close to the hole and look at it, telling
me some cock-and-bull story about it, and calling my attention to some
supposed outcrop of rich ore that could be seen under the water. But I
refused flatly to go a step nearer than I then was, telling them that I
wished to get to those ties immediately.

"At an old cabin they halted again, and Tom wanted to know which was
'the best shot in the bunch.' I was not in favor of trying guns or
anything of that sort, especially when there seemed no reason for it,
knowing how easy it would be for a shot to go wide, and so I urged them
to lead on to the ties. But Tom insisted upon shooting, and though his
brother did not seem quite to follow the other's plans, still he chimed
in with him, and the only thing I could do was to agree with what grace
I could. But I decided to make this a pretext for disposing of some of
their superfluous ammunition.

"Pulling my six-shooter, I told Jim to put an old sardine can, that was
lying on the ground near by, on the stump of a tree about twenty-five or
thirty yards distant. Then I told him to lean his rifle against the
cabin while placing the can on the tree. This he did. I stepped over to
the cabin and took the gun as though to look after it. Then I walked
over to where Tom stood, telling him to blaze away at the can on the
tree. While he was doing so I slipped the cartridges out of Jim's gun
and put them in my pocket.

"By the time that Tom had fired three shots Jim came up and I told the
former to hand over the rifle an