“Who are the kids?”

“Friends of mine—­trustworthy.”

Jim rearranged Bennington’s coverings and lit a pipe.  “Tell us about it,” said he.

“There isn’t much to tell.  I knew I had to do something, so I just held them up and made them get down the shaft.  I didn’t know what I was going to do next, but I was glad to have them out of the way to get time to think.”

“Who plugged you?” inquired Fay, motioning with the mouthpiece of his pipe toward the wounded shoulder.

“That was Arthur.  He had a little gun in his coat pocket and he shot from inside the pocket.  I’d made them drop all the guns they had, I thought.”

“Did you take a crack at him then?” asked Fay, interested.

“Oh, no.  I just covered him and made him shell out.  As a matter of fact I don’t believe any one of them knew I was hit.”

Fay smoked on in silence, glancing from time to time with satisfaction at the youth opposite.  During the passage of these events the day had not far advanced.  The shadow of Harney had not yet reached out to the edge of the hills.

“Hullo!  The kids!” said Fay suddenly.

Two pedestrians emerged from the lower gulch and bent their steps toward the camp.  As they came nearer, Bennington, with a gasp of surprise, recognised the Leslies.

The sprightly youths were dressed just alike, in knickerbockers and Norfolk jackets of dark brown plaid, and small college caps to match—­an outfit which Bennington had always believed would attract too vivid attention in this country.  As they came nearer he saw that the jackets were fitted with pockets of great size.  In the pockets were sketch books and bulging articles.  They caught sight of the two figures on the ore heap simultaneously.

“Behold our attentive host!” cried Jeems.  “He is now in the act of receiving us with all honour!”

Bennington’s face fairly shone with pleasure at the encounter.  “Hullo fellows!  Hullo there!” he cried out delightedly again and again, and rose slowly to his feet.  This disclosed the fact of his injury, and the brothers ran forward, with real sympathy and concern expressed on their lively countenances.  There ensued a rapid fire of questions and answers.  The Leslies proved to be already familiar with the details of the attempt to jump the claims, and understood at once Fay’s brief account of the present situation, over which they rejoiced in the well-known Leslie fashion.  They exploded in genuine admiration of Bennington’s adventure, and praised that young man enthusiastically.  Bennington could feel, even before this, that he stood on a different footing than formerly with these self-reliant young men.  They treated him as familiarly as ever, but with a new respect.  The truth is, their astuteness in reading character, which is as essentially an attribute of the artistic temperament in black and white as in words and phrases, had shown them already that their old acquaintance had grown from boy to man since last they had met.  They knew this even before they learned of its manifestation.  So astounding was the change that they gave it credit, perhaps, for being more thorough than it was.  After the situation had been made plain, Bennington reverted to the unexpectedness of their appearance.