“I won’t do it!” declared Zurich bluntly.  “And—­damn you—­you shan’t do it!  He’s a dangerous old bow-legged person, and I wish he was farther.  And I must admit that I am myself most undesirous for any personal bickering with him.  To hear Jim Scarboro relate it, old Pete is one wiz with a six-gun.  All the same, I’ll not let him be shot from ambush.  He’s too good for that.  I draw the line there.  I’m not exactly afraid of the little old wasp, either, when it comes down to cases; but I have great respect for him.  I’ll never agree to meet him on a tight rope over Niagara and make him turn back; and if I have any trouble with him he’s got to bring it to me.  You have no monopoly of prudence.”

“There it is, you see!” Something Dewing spread out his fine hands.  “You made no allowance for my loyalty and I made none for your scruples.  As a result, Mr. Johnson has established a stalemate, held a parley, and bought off our warriors.  They’ve been taken in on the copper find, on some small sharing, while we, in quite another sense of the word, are simply taken in.  Such,” observed Mr. Dewing philosophically, “is the result of inopportune virtues.”

“Bosh!  I told you all along,” said Anderson heavily, “that there’s no mineral in the Gavilan.  I’ve been over every foot of it—­and I’m a miner.  We get no news because no man makes haste to announce his folly.  You’ll see!”

“Creede and Cripple Creek had been prospected over and over again before they struck it there,” objected Zurich.

“Silver and gold!” retorted Eric scornfully.  “This is copper.  Copper advertises.  No, sir!  I’ll tell you what’s happened.  There’s been no battle, and no treachery, and no mine found.  We’ve been trapped.  That Gavilan location was a fake, stuck up to draw our fire.  We’ve tipped our hand.  Mr. Johnson can now examine the plans of mice or men that your combined sagacities have so obligingly placed face upward before him, and decide his policies at his leisure.  If I were in his shoes, this is what I would be at:  I’d tell my wondrous tale to big money.  And then I would employ very many stranger men accustomed to arms; and when I went after that mine, I would place under guard any reasonable and obliging travelers I met, and establish a graveyard for the headstrong.  And that’s what Johnson will do.  He’ll go to the Coast for capital, at the same time sendin’ young Stanley back to his native East on the same errand.”

“You may be right,” said Zurich, somewhat staggered.  “If you are, their find must be a second Verde or Cananea, or they would never have taken a precaution so extraordinary as a false location.  What on earth can have happened to rouse their suspicions to that extent?”