even in the short time that they had been absent the gulch had improved—for now on gregory point stood the preacher's church. however, they might not stop to congratulate him and to explain why they had not helped. all this fuss and furor in gregory diggin's seemed small business to anybody who knew just where not merely one pound a day but several pounds a day were to be made easy.

"if harry hasn't come we'll sell to the ike crowd, anyway," declared terry.

"he told us to—he said we might, if we needed it. then one of us can rustle back to that other gulch and the other can stay for harry," planned george.

"somebody's there, all right. the chimney's smoking."

"must be harry getting breakfast."

"jiminy christmas, though!" cried terry, as now they neared the cabin. "what's going on? looks as if he'd brought in my dad and your dad, and they're working the claims!"

sure enough: the sluice had been moved and slanted in another direction, water was pouring from the lower end again, and two figures were busy beside it, with spade and pick.

"well, they won't want to work it long, when they know what we know," vaunted george.

the two figures were engaged across from the cabin, shoveling and pecking, stooped over, and apparently did not notice the jenny outfit. so the home-comers aimed straight for the cabin, and were just about to whoop to surprise harry, when harry stepped out. but no, not harry!

it was pine knot ike! he emptied a dish-pan of water, and surveyed terry, george, jenny and shep. they stopped short and surveyed him.

"say! what are you doing in that cabin?" accused terry, so much astounded that his voice cracked on him.

"those aren't our dads, either, over there," whispered george.

"i air livin' hyar, i reckon, but 'tain't your cabin," replied ike, calmly, and chewing his tobacco.

"i'd like to know why it isn't our cabin, and our land, too!" retorted terry.

"'cause you moved off an' we moved on. when one party doesn't develop a prospect, an' doesn't record it, an' quits, an' another party takes it up an' perceeds to develop, i reckon fust party loses out," drawled ike.

"but it is recorded. we recorded it before we left. and the only reason we didn't develop it was because you took our water," furiously answered terry. "and we didn't move off. we went away for a day or two, that is all."

"that's right," blustered george. "i heard him tell the recorder. and you'd better move off, yourselves, or we'll have you put off!"

pine knot ike squirted a prodigious stream of filthy tobacco juice.

"waal, now, the books don't show," he asserted. "we're hyar, with our improvements, workin' a claim that looked to be abandoned, an' i reckon that'll count. we take our water off an' what's your prospect wuth to you, anyhow?"

"he's a big bully," whispered george.

"we want to sell, though," reminded terry. ike seemed to be giving them the opportunity. so—"it's worth more than nothing, just the same," he replied. "that's our cabin and our sluice and our ground. you needn't think you can come over and jump things this way. we've got plenty of friends right in this gulch, and down at denver, too."

"reckon that sort o' talk doesn't amount to much. possession air nine points o' the law, young feller," sneered ike. "i air a man o' peace, but when anybody says 'fight,' i can riz on my hind legs as quick as ary b'ar."

"you won't amount to much, either," accused terry, with sudden thought, "after i tell people how you got that injun head and how you shot your own barrel full of holes, and how you skedaddled out of that tent in auraria and how harry made you dance at manhattan last summer!"

pine knot ike stared and glared and ruminated.

"mebbe you know somethin' an' mebbe you don't," he admitted. "but i air a man o' peace an' so air my pardners. to save hard feelin's, an' argufyin', how'll you sell what you call your rights in this hyar property, dust paid down on the spot?"

"we'll sell for a hundred dollars," offered terry.

"whar's your pardner—that lame feller?"

"he'll be here; but he told me i could sell. didn't he, george?"

"yes, he did. i heard him. he said to sell if we wanted to," confirmed george.

"whoop-ee!" summoned ike, to the two men at the sluice. they dropped their tools and crossed over. one was the giant, before encountered. with an occasional side glance at george and terry, they and ike consulted together in low tones for a minute or so. ike disappeared into the cabin, came out and, advancing a few steps, tossed a limp buckskin bag at terry.

"thar's your hundred dollars in dust," he said, "'cordin' to agreement. you stick your name an' your pardner's on a bill o' sale, an' that other boy'll be witness, an' no hard feelin's."

"how do we know this is $100?" challenged terry, suspicious, and resolved upon being businesslike. one hundred dollars they had to have. but what luck!

"take it to some scales and weigh it, and have it certified to, fust, then," rapped the giant. "you won't find us gone when you come back. we're hyar to stay."

that sounded like a fair proposition.

"we can get it weighed at a store," prompted terry to george. "come on."

"quick work, boy!" praised george, as with shep and with jenny (who had been waiting to be unpacked) faithfully shambling after, they hastened for the nearest store. "one of us can skip out with it for dutchman's gulch and close our deal there, and the other can stay for harry. wish he'd turn up."

"there he is now! see? good!"

"where? he sure is! riding horseback! and my dad and your dad and virgie and duke! he's got duke!"

"yes, and sol! that other man's sol judy!" cried terry, rejoicing. "they've all come in! bully for them! we can all go to dutchman's gulch—work our claim and find others—just pile up the dust! hi-oh! hurrah!"

they shouted and waved, and cut down farther into the gulch to head off harry's party, now filing up as if for the cabin.

"hello!"

"hello yourselves!"

"hello, dad! hello, sol!"

there was a great shaking of hands all around.

"where you going? how's duke? hello, duke!"

"going to our mines, of course," answered mr. stanton.

"where are you going?" demanded harry. "what's jenny packed for?"

"we're going out," informed george. "we've made the biggest strike you ever heard of—pounds a day—in another place, and we've bought tons of pay dirt for only $100, and we've sold the golden prize to the ike crowd, and we're going to that other place just as quick as we can get there, and so are you, all of you, too!"

"sold that other property? what for?" chorused the men.

"to pay for the new one. we hustled back on purpose. just got in, and now all we have to do is weigh ike's dust to make sure he isn't cheating us, and give him a bill of sale, and then we'll show you the other place. george and harry and i have six hundred feet already, but there'll be more, and anyway we can all work," bubbled terry.

"how do you know what's in those other diggin's?" queried sol.

"because we saw it! we washed out over ten dollars in two pans, and the german we bought from has sacks full!" proclaimed george. "regular sacks full!"

"he's the lightning express german," added terry. "harry knows him. he's there all by himself. he wants us to watch his diggin's while he takes his gold out and comes back. that's why he sold so cheap."

"great cæsar!" murmured harry. "sacks full? thought we'd bought all his sacks and he'd turned home?"

"so he had, but he changed his mind. and he's struck it rich, rich!"

"where are those new diggin's? have you got any of the dust with you that you say you washed out?" invited sol.

"they're over near tarryall or grab-all, in the south park; only about fifty miles," answered terry.

"and here's our dust, too," proffered george.

sol opened the little sack and fingered the contents.

"gold!" he snorted. "yes, fool's gold. that's nothing but iron pyrites—'tisn't worth a cent a ton! don't you know the difference between gold and iron pyrites yet? thought you were miners."

"but it's from the german's diggin's," stammered terry—for george appeared staggered out of his wits. "he said it was gold and he's got sacks full, right in his wagon."

sol laughed.

"sacks full, eh? did anybody ever see gold dust by the gunny sack full? he's the same crazy german who was washing fool's gold from the platte, i reckon—thought he had the real stuff and wouldn't believe otherwise. i met him, myself, when he was traveling on in for fear somebody'd rob him."

"oh!" groaned george. "we thought——"

"have you closed the sale of that property yonder? haven't given a transfer yet, have you?" sharply demanded terry's father.

"n-no; we've got the money, though. we were going to weigh it. they're waiting—they're there, working."

"who?"

"ike and two other men. we found 'em there when we came back."

"by ginger! jumped it, did they?" ejaculated sol. "looks like we were just in time." he spurred on, harry after.

"you boys don't go a step farther," ordered mr. richards. "you come along with us. lucky you didn't give any bill of sale, or we might have serious trouble."

"but harry told us we might sell," faltered terry.

"harry didn't know, either. why, there are thousands of dollars in those claims, according to sol. the ike crowd know, all right. where you're to blame is for having gone off on a wild-goose chase and left the claims and then been bamboozled by such nonsense as sacks full of iron pyrites. gold dust is soft and dull; pyrites are hard and bright."

"what makes you think the golden prize is so rich, though?" stammered terry, as he and george tried to keep up with the horses.

"the golden prize is liable to be a fortune, but we're banking on that other claim, the one you gave to virgie. she happened to show sol the piece of rock she brought down, and he says it's the best kind of gold quartz—fairly oozing."

"and not float, either. it's from a surface lode close at hand," put in mr. stanton.

"aw, shucks!" sheepishly said terry to george. "guess we weren't so smart as we thought we were. now pine knot ike's there and maybe we can't get him off."

"well, he may assert you abandoned the claims, but sol knows all the mining laws and we've got right on our side," consoled his father.

when they arrived at the spot, sol and the pine knot ike party were hotly arguing.