ked out and ready to take to town."

"Any visitors?" I asked.

"Not a soul, as yet. But we'll have them soon enough; there's no doubt
about that. If our guess is right--that the Lawrenceburg people meant to
cover this hillside in their later locations--we'll hear from Bart
Blackwell before we are many hours older."

"Blackwell is the superintendent you spoke of when we were coming up last
night?"

"The same. I don't know why he hasn't been here before this time. They
must surely hear the blasting."

We had our visitor that afternoon, while Barrett and I were working in
the hole and Gifford was sleeping. Luckily for us, Barrett never for a
single moment lost sight of the need for secrecy. We were drilling when
Blackwell's shadow fell across the mouth of the pit, but we had taken the
precaution to cover the gold-bearing vein with spalls and chippings of
the porphyry, and to see to it that none of the gold-bearing material
showed in the small dump at the pit mouth.

Blackwell was a short man but heavy-set, with a curly black beard and
eyes that were curiously heavy-lidded. As he leaned over the windlass
and looked down upon us he reminded me of one of the fairy-tale ogres.

"Hello, Bob," he said, speaking to Barrett, whom he knew. "Quit the
banking business, have you?"

"Taking a bit of a lay-off," Barrett returned easily. "We all have to
get out and dig in the ground, sooner or later."

Blackwell laughed good-naturedly.

"You'll get enough of it up here before you've gone very far," he
predicted. "Just the same, you might have come by the office and asked
permission before you began to work off your digging fit on Lawrenceburg
property."

"We're not on Lawrenceburg," said Barrett cheerfully.

"Oh, yes, you are," was the equally cheerful rejoinder. "Our ground runs
pretty well up to the head of the gulch. I'm not trying to run you off,
you know. If you feel like digging a well, it's all right: it amuses
you, and it doesn't hurt us any."

Barrett pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the hole.

"Let's get this thing straight, Blackwell," he argued. "You've got three
claims in this gulch, but we are not on any one of them. Look at your
maps when you go back to the office."

"I know the maps well enough. We cover everything up to the head of the
gulch, just as I say, joining with the original Lawrenceburg locations on
the other side of the spur." Then, suddenly: "Who's your friend?"

Ba