to the constant motion of his nervous jaws; and Brown, twenty years his junior, was a young, sandy-haired giant, limited of speech, of movement, of thought, with freckled cheeks and a downy little moustache of decidedly red hue.  They had been laboriously deciphering a letter of considerable length and peculiar illegibility, and the slow but irascible Stutter had been swearing in disjointed syllables, his blue eyes glaring angrily across the gully, where numerous moving figures, conspicuous in blue and red shirts, were plainly visible about the shaft-hole of the “Independence,” the next claim below them on the ledge.  Yet for the moment neither man spoke otherwise.  Finally, shifting uneasily, yet with mind evidently made up for definite action, Hicks broke the prolonged silence.

“I was thinkin’ it over, Stutter, all the way hoofin’ it out yere,” he said, chewing continually on his tobacco, “but sorter reckoned ez how yer ought ter see the writin’ furst, considerin’ ez how you’re a full partner in this yere claim.  It sorter strikes me thet the lawyer hes give us the straight tip all right, an’ thar ’s no other way fer gittin’ the cinch on them ornary fellers over thar,” and the speaker waved his hand toward the distant figures.  “Yer see, it’s this yere way, Stutter.  You an’ I could swar, of course, thet the damned cusses hed changed the stakes on us more ‘n onct, an’ thar ’s no doubt in our two minds but what they ‘re a-followin’ out our ore-lead right now, afore we kin git down ter it.  Hell! of course they are—­they got the fust start, an’ the men, an’ the money back of ’em.  We ain’t got a darn thing but our own muscle, an’ the rights of it, which latter don’t amount ter two bumps on a log.  Fer about three weeks we ’ve been watchin’ them measly skunks take out our mineral, an’ for one I ’m a-goin’ ter quit.  I never did knuckle down ter thet sort, an’ I ’m too old now ter begin.  The lawyer says ez how we ain’t got no legal proof, an’ I reckon it’s so.  But I ’m damned if I don’t git some.  Thar ain’t a minin’ engineer in San Juan that ’ll come up yere fer us.  Them fellers hes got ’em all on the hip; but I reckon, if we hunt long ’nough, we kin find some feller in Colorado with nerve ’nough to tackle this yere job, an’ I ‘m a-goin’ out gunnin’ for jist that man.”

He got to his feet, his obstinate old eyes wandering across the gully, and the younger man watched him with slow curiosity.

“How f-f-far you g-g-going, Bill?” he burst forth stutteringly.

“Denver, if I need to,” was the elder’s resolute, response.  “I ’ll tell ye what I ‘m a-goin’ ter do, Stutter.  I ‘m a-goin’ ter draw out every blamed cent we ’ve got in the bank down at San Juan.  ’T ain’t much of a pile, but I reckon it’s got ter do the business.  Then I ’ll strike out an’ hunt till I find a minin’ engineer thet ’s got a soul of his own, an’ grit ’nough behind it ter root out the facts.  I ’ve been a-prospecttn’ through these