is," exclaimed Tom,
who had a pair of binoculars at his eyes. "Gage, Eb and Josh
are crowding around the new arrival. Take the glasses, Harry.
Note how excited they are about something."

"Gage is stamping about and looking wild," Harry reported. "He
looks as though, for two cents, he'd tear his hair out. And Eb
has thrown his hat on the ground and is stamping on it. I wonder
what the trouble can be?"

Two hours later Jim Ferrers rode into camp at the head of his
new outfit. He had the two-mule team and wagon, and seven men,
all miners and armed. Two of the men rode the ponies that Reade
had instructed Jim to buy.

"Jim," called Tom, as he ran toward their mining party, "have
you any idea what's wrong with the Gage crowd?"

"I've a small notion," grinned the guide. "The man who was sent
over couldn't file their claim to the ridge."

"Couldn't file it! Why not?"

"Because every man in that crowd has exhausted his mineral land
privileges taking up claims elsewhere."

"Why, then, man alive!" gasped Tom, halting, a look of wonder
on his face, and then a grin of realization, "if they can't file
the claim to that strip, why can't we!"

"We can, if we're quick enough," Ferrers answered. "I tried to
file the claim while I was over in Dugout, but the clerk at the
mining claim office said he 'lowed that we'd have to have our
declaration tacked up on the ridge first of all."

"That'll take us a blessed short time," muttered Reade. "Harry
and I have all the particulars we need for writing out the notice
of claim. Get some breakfast on the jump, Jim, and we'll hustle
over there."

"I had my breakfast before I rode in here," errors answered, his
eyes shining. "I'd a-missed my guess, Mr. Reade, if you hadn't
been ready for prompt action."

"Then there's no reason, Jim, under mining customs, why we shouldn't
ride over there and stake out that claim?"

"Not a reason on earth, Mr. Reade, except that Gage will probably
put up a big fight."

"Let him!" added Tom, in a lower voice. "Take it from me, Jim
Ferrers, that claim on the ridge yonder is worth all kinds of
fight. Here, get the horses saddled again, while Harry and I
write our notice in record-breaking time for legible penmanship."

Tom's eyes were gleaming in a way that they had not done in months.
For, despite his former apparent indifference to the trick Gage
had played on them, Tom Reade would have staked his professional
reputation on the rich