care of ourselves.' The old man's eyes swept over them approvingly. 'I do not doubt it, given fair play,' he agreed, 'but this is the toughest town of the many I have known. You are strangers here; is there any way I can help you?'
'We got in this afternoon an' we're wonderin' where we can bed down,' Mason explained.
'The settlement is choke-full--new-comers will have to build shelter or camp out. Fortunately 1 can offer you a roof, though little else. My hut is larger than a single man needs,and there is a small corral at the rear---you have horses, of course?'
'We left them at the livery,' Sudden said. 'Couldn't get along without the broncs.'
'I know,' the old man smiled. 'Almost the last thing a cowboy parts with--except his life. Well, what do you say?'
'We're mighty obliged,' Sudden told him, adding awkwardly, 'We ain't exactly broke, yu understand.'
'I'm not offering you charity--you will have to keep yourselves, no light task in Deadwood. The room is of no use to me. I ought perhaps to point out that you will be living with one who is poorly regarded.'
'Popularity never appealed to me,' Sudden assured him, a tinge of bitterness in his tone. 'We'll go yu, Mister ?'
'You may call me 'Jacob',' their new friend supplemented. 'Deadwood dubbed me a Jew, and, for reasons of my own, I have not refuted it, though 1 am not a member of that persecuted race.' At his suggestion they collected the horses and made their way to the far end of the settlement. Jacob's dwelling proved to be the last of the buildings, standing some two hundred yards from the others.
It was a log cabin, strongly but roughly put together, and consisted of three rooms. A table and two stools comprised the furniture of the one at their disposal. Their host apologized for the absence of beds.
'Don't say a word,' Mason grinned. 'We got blankets an' fetched our own fleas.' Having turned their horses into the poled enclosure at the back of the cabin, they sallied forth to the nearest store for supplies. The prices they had to pay made them open their eyes.
'Hell, Jim, we don't want no gold-mine, let's open a store?' Gerry suggested.
'What with--an axe?' Sudden queried. 'Allasame, livin' is goin' to come high in this neck o' the woods; yu'll have to hobble yore appetite.'
'My appetite? What about your'n?' Gerry cried indignantly.
'I'm a pore eater,' Sudden told him.
'My Gawd! then I must be damn near starvation point. C'mon, let's see if the liquor is cheaper.' He led the way to one of the saloons, pushed back the swing-door, and swaggered in--modesty on such occasions is not a cowboy virtue. It was a garish place, bedecked with gaudy gilt mirrors and crudely painted but sufficlently daring pictures. A polished bar, with an array of bottles and glasses occupied the back of the room, and there were tables and stools.
The table they chose commanded a good view of both bar and entrance. 'They's a han'some lot, I don't believe,' Gerry commented.
'Yu weren't expectin' angels, were yu? Talkin' o' them, there's Snowy.'
'Huh! Yu won't find no wings sproutin' on his back.' The prospector, who was alone, came up and greeted them shrilly. 'Hello, boys, been lookin' for you. Take a smile.' When the drinks had been procured, he sat down, beamed upon them, and asked, 'Where you stayin'?' Sudden told him they had secured a lodging but gave no ,particulars other than the position.
'Yo're lucky,' the old man remarked. 'Most o' them that come in with us'll be sleepin' under the sky an' if it storms quick--as it can in these parts--they'll have a pore time.' '
'Yu an' yo're niece fixed up all right?' Mason inquired.
'You better believe we are,' Snowy chuckled. 'Paul had it all arranged. He's a clever fella--he don't deny it himself. We're roomin' at the best private house in the town, owned by Miss Lesurge.'
'His wife?' Gerry cried.
'Miss Lesurge, I said,' Snowy repeated. 'His sister an' a fine lady, I'm tellin' you. Say, ain't this one hell of a township?. Takes me back mighty near thirty year. Well, gotta go. Stay around, boys, an' watch my smoke. Don't tell Paul I seen you. Savvy?' He bustled away, leaving both his companions frowning, but for different reasons; Sudden in perplexity, Mason in anger.
'Damn funny,' the former reflected aloud.
His friend snorted. 'Yu got a twisted sense o' humour if yu see anythin' amusin' in a nice girl like that bein' at the mercy of a crook,' he said savagely.
'She's with her uncle.'
'An addle-pated soak.'
'Also Miss Lesurge.' Gerry's report did not flatter the lady.
They procured a meal at an eating-house and Sudden soon became aware that, for some reason, he was attracting attention; men stared at him and looked away at once when hecaught them in the act. He remarked on the fact to his companion.
'Anythin' the matter with my face?' Gerry studied it. 'Nothin' more than usual,' he pronounced. 'O' course, these folks ain't used to it like I am.' The voice of young Welder checked the inevitable retort.
'Hi, cowboys, how're you makin' it?' he greeted. He laughed foolishly, lighted a cigarette after several attempts and, as he turned to go, added, 'Saw Lesurge armin' Miss Ducane up the street a while back; they made a han'some couple.' That night when, rolled in their blankets, they were lying on their beds of spruced boughs, Sudden was aware of smothered explosions of mirth from the other side of the room.
'What's the joke, yu jackass?' he inquired.
There was no answer, but the merriment increased. 'They made a han'some couple,' the puncher said softly. The laughter ceased instantly, and Sudden grinned in to the gloom, turned over and went to sleep.
Chapter VI
In a little gully, the banks of which were studded with pine and spruce trees, a black-bearded, red-shirted miner was busily digging, whistling a merry tune the while. This ceased suddenly and he looked up with a scowl as the visitors--whose approach he had not heard--pulled up. When he saw the two cowboys, however, his expression at once became amiable. Sudden, whose quick eye had noted the change and caught the swift glance at the rifle leaning against a bush, concluded that the man had mistaken them for redskins.
'Mornin', friend?' he said. 'We ain't aimin' to nose in, but not bein' much up to this gold-gettin' game we thought watchin' yu might give us a pointer.' The man now saw the pick, shovel and pan tied to the cantles of their saddles, unaccustomed burdens to which their mounts had at first offered spirited objections. He grinned understandingly.
'New chums, huh?' he replied. 'Well, there's nothin' to it, if the dust is around, any fool c'n find it; if it ain't, the cleverest can't. Washin' the dirt is me tricky bit; must be a lot o' waste thataway.' He threw a spadeful of the sandy soil into his pan, nearly filled it with water from a rill which was only a few yards distant, and squatting down began to stir the mixture slowly with one hand, at each revolution deftly flicking a small quantity of the muddy liquid out of the vessel. He continued the process until only a little of the water remained, poured this carefully away, and eagerly scanned the bottom of the pan. His expression when he looked up was one of chagrin.
'Not even `colour',' he said, thus intimating that his experiment had produced no sign of the precious metal. 'Well, gents, that's the way of it, but I'm advisin' you not to fool about with thisyer gully--she's no good.' Wishing him better luck, they rode on, and when they had lost sight of him, Sudden said, 'Watch out for g likely place an' we'll try for some nuggets.'
'But that hombre said it was a bum place,' Gerry protested. 'Shore he did,' Sudden smiled. 'But he didn't slam that pan down an' was careful to put it where we couldn't get a peep at it. I'll bet he's workin' like sixty this moment.' The spot they selected was a short way up one wall of the gully, a sandy space shaded by trees and shrubs, with a tiny rivulet of clear water passing through it. For hours they dug and washed but not one speck of yellow rewarded their efforts and at length Gerry dropped the pan and glared round balefully at the holes which now disfigured the little plateau.
'Coupla perishin' good gophers we are, I'm tellin' yu,' he said. 'We oughta dig two big ones, crawl in, an' pull 'em in after us. That jasper was right.'
'Shucks, a fella don't allus get his cow first flip o' the rope,' Sudden consoled, his gaze on the silver streak of water sliding and jumping down the bank a few yards away. 'Ever hear of a 'flume'?'
