“That’s why I brought you gen’l’men out,” says the mackinaw man.  “I was afraid to trust my senses—­thought I was gettin’ wheels in my head.”

“Lord! look at the gold!”

They took about a dollar and twenty cents out of that pan.

“Now see here, you gen’l’men jest lay low about this strike.”  His anxiety seemed intense.  They reassured him.  “I don’t suppose you mind our taking up a claim apiece next you,” pleaded the Boy, “since the law don’t allow you to stake more’n one.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” said the mackinaw man, with an air of princely generosity.  “And I don’t mind if you like to let in a few of your particular pals, if you’ll agree to help me organise a district.  An’ I’ll do the recordin’ fur ye.”

Really, this mackinaw man was a trump.  The Colonel took twenty-five dollars out of a roll of bills and handed it to him.

“What’s this fur?”

“For bringing us out—­for giving us the tip.  I’d make it more, but till I get to Dawson—­”

“Oh!” laughed the mackinaw man, “that’s all right,” and indifferently he tucked the bills into his baggy trousers.

The Colonel felt keenly the inadequacy of giving a man twenty-five dollars who had just introduced him to hundreds of thousands—­and who sat on the edge of his own gold-mine—­but it was only “on account.”

The Colonel staked No. 1 Above the Discovery, and the Boy was in the act of staking No. 1 Below when—­

“No, no,” says that kind mackinaw man, “the heavier gold will be found further up the gulch—­stake No. 2 Above”; and he told them natural facts about placer-mining that no after expert knowledge could ever better.  But he was not as happy as a man should be who has just struck pay.

“Fact is, it’s kind of upsettin’ to find it so rich here.”

“Give you leave to upset me that way all day.”

“Y’ see, I bought another claim over yonder where I done a lot o’ work last summer and fall.  Built a cabin and put up a sluice.  I got to be up there soon as the ice goes out.  Don’t see how I got time to do my assessment here too.  Wish I was twins.”

“Why don’t you sell this?”

“Guess I’ll have to part with a share in it.”  He sighed and looked lovingly into the hole.  “Minin’s an awful gamble,” he said, as though admonishing Si McGinty; “but we know there’s gold just there.”

The Colonel and the Boy looked at their claims and felt the pinch of uncertainty.  “What do you want for a share in your claim, Mr. McGinty?”

“Oh, well, as I say, I’ll let it go reasonable to a feller who’d do the assessment, on account o’ my having that other property.  Say three thousand dollars.”

The Colonel shook his head.  “Why, it’s dirt-cheap!  Two men can take a hundred and fifty dollars a day out of that claim without outside help.  And properly worked, the summer ought to show forty thousand dollars.”