He put the two halves into a frying-pan and placed the latter on the front lid of the hot stove.  Then the three men, with distended, questing nostrils, waited in silence.  Slowly an unmistakable odor began to drift through the room.  Wild Water forbore to speak, and Shorty remained dumb despite conviction.

“Throw it out,” Smoke cried, gasping.

“What’s the good?” asked Wild Water.  “We’ve got to sample the rest.”

“Not in this cabin.”  Smoke coughed and conquered a qualm.  “Chop them open, and we can test by looking at them.  Throw it out, Shorty—­ Throw it out!  Phew!  And leave the door open!”

Box after box was opened; egg after egg, chosen at random, was chopped in two; and every egg carried the same message of hopeless, irremediable decay.

“I won’t ask you to eat ’em, Shorty,” Wild Water jeered, “an’ if you don’t mind, I can’t get outa here too quick.  My contract called for good eggs.  If you’ll loan me a sled an’ team I’ll haul them good ones away before they get contaminated.”

Smoke helped in loading the sled.  Shorty sat at the table, the cards laid before him for solitaire.

“Say, how long you been holdin’ that corner?” was Wild Water’s parting gibe.

Smoke made no reply, and, with one glance at his absorbed partner, proceeded to fling the soap boxes out into the snow.

“Say, Shorty, how much did you say you paid for that three thousand?” Smoke queried gently.

“Eight dollars.  Go ’way.  Don’t talk to me.  I can figger as well as you.  We lose seventeen thousan’ on the flutter, if anybody should ride up on a dog-sled an’ ask you.  I figgered that out while waitin’ for the first egg to smell.”

Smoke pondered a few minutes, then again broke silence.  “Say, Shorty.  Forty thousand dollars gold weighs two hundred pounds.  Wild Water borrowed our sled and team to haul away his eggs.  He came up the hill without a sled.  Those two sacks of dust in his coat pockets weighed about twenty pounds each.  The understanding was cash on delivery.  He brought enough dust to pay for the good eggs.  He never expected to pay for those three thousand.  He knew they were bad.  Now how did he know they were bad?  What do you make of it, anyway?”

Shorty gathered the cards, started to shuffle a new deal, then paused.  “Huh!  That ain’t nothin’.  A child could answer it.  We lose seventeen thousan’.  Wild Water wins seventeen thousan’.  Them eggs of Gautereaux’s was Wild Water’s all the time.  Anything else you’re curious to know?”

“Yes.  Why in the name of common sense didn’t you find out whether those eggs were good before you paid for them?”

“Just as easy as the first question.  Wild Water swung the bunco game timed to seconds.  I hadn’t no time to examine them eggs.  I had to hustle to get ’em here for delivery.  An’ now, Smoke, lemme ask you one civil question.  What did you say was the party’s name that put this egg corner idea into your head?”