“You see, Posey,” said Jake, “me and Hooker—­Hooker was my chum—­had been scratchin’ and washin’ for about seven or eight dollars a day down there to McCracken’s Bend, till we got disgusted, and we made up our minds that if we couldn’t make more’n that we might as well give up and strike for the States.  But just then who should come along but little Bill Skinner, bound all so fast for up the gulch?  Bill had been prospectin’ around all summer on his own hook, but hadn’t struck nothin’ yet, and was so much worse off than we was that Hooker and me concluded to stay by a while longer.  A day or two afore, we found out, little Bill had run across a Digger somewhere that had told him—­the Lord knows how, for I never see a Digger that, could talk English more’n a mule,—­but this Digger told little Bill that up the gulch there was rich diggin’s.  And so Bill was on the rampage to get there.  Of course me and Hooker we didn’t take no stock in that yarn, and little Bill went off alone.

“A couple of months after that me and Hooker see we’d got to do something pretty quick or starve, and so we made up our minds to prospect a little.  We headed up the gulch, but without ever thinkin’ of little Bill, and as indications was good, we kept on in the same direction for a couple of days.  It was on the third day out, and we’d got about twenty miles from the Bend, and hadn’t struck nothin’ yet to bet on, when all of a sudden Hooker yells out, ’Holy Moses, Jake! look-a there!’ and what do you s’pose we see?

“About as fur as from here to that mule there, leanin’ ag’in a tree, sot little Bill Skinner—­what was left of him, I mean, for he was as dead as a dornick.  And what do you s’pose he was a-settin’ on?  A nugget of the pure metal worth forty thousand dollars!  Yes, sir!  We could see in a minute how it was.  Bill had found this nugget, and bein’ weak for want of grub, of course he couldn’t carry it.  So he had sot down on it to guard it.  And there he sot and sot.  He dassent go to sleep for fear somebody’d hook it, and he couldn’t leave it to get any grub for the same reason.  We could see he’d browsed ’round on the bushes as fur as he could reach, but that couldn’t keep him alive long, and so there he’d sot and sot till finally he’d pegged out.

“And that’s what’s the matter with Posey.  I wakes up in the night and sees him a-settin’ thar by that wagon, and says I to myself, ’Thar sets Posey on his nugget!’ And one of these fine mornin’s we’ll find nothin’ but Posey’s bones a-settin’ there, and his buttons and such like.”

About this time, as they were now nearing the region where danger from Indian raids was apprehended, Savage’s company and another party hailing from Illinois joined forces for mutual protection, and all proceeded thenceforward under Savage’s direction.  Accompanying this Illinois party was a woman going out to the diggings to join her husband, who was prospering, and had sent for her to come on.  The two women thereafter keeping constantly together, Posey felt his responsibility so far lightened that he occasionally indulged himself in a “square” night’s sleep, while Dora and her new-found friend slumbered beneath his ample wagon-cover.