ein thirty inches
thick and it runs,--it runs str-r-aight through the Canaan
Tigmores,--sometimes sinking many feet from the surface,--but always
there,--I am vair' sure of that,--str-r-aight through the Canaan
Tigmores----" The old man's breath began to jerk with a sick, sobbing
sound.

"Well,"--Steering was not so unaccustomed a miner by now but what the
sight there in the Gulch had its effect upon him,--"Well," he said
gingerly, "if you are right, Uncle Bernique, if the face doesn't cut
blind, why, Mr. Crittenton Madeira and old Grierson have a good thing,
haven't they?"

"Urg-h-h!" Old Bernique made a gnashing sound and leaned his head
listeningly. The thud of the stream-drill reached them faintly from its
place afar in the Canaan Tigmores. "They come fas'!" he said mournfully.

"Wisht I wuz aouter this," interrupted Piney, shivering.

"I have been track' thees mother lode,"--began old Bernique again, his
feverish gaze again seeking out Bruce,--"I think,"--he stopped and fell
to musing,--"What you gawn do, Mistaire Steering," he queried suddenly,
with his weary old head twisted to one side, "what you gawn do about
thees?"

"Lord, Uncle Bernique, I can't do anything. You might do something for
yourself. You might sell your rights of discovery, might not you?"

"Non! Non! There is othaire thing,--there is a most good
possibilitee,--thees mother lode, Mistaire Steering, it come out,--I
think it come out somewhere, eh?--Mistaire Steering, have you got leetle
mawney?"

"That's exactly how much, Uncle Bernique, a little."

"Mistaire Steering, eef you got leetle mawney to buy leetle land, I
think I know good land to buy."

"I have told you all along to consider my money your money, Uncle
Bernique."

"We must be vair' quiet about all thees, Mistaire Steering,--Piney, you
compr-r-ehend that we tr-r-us' you, as I have always tr-r-us' you,
absolutement! We must be vair' quiet. Thees leetle piece land run down
close to the rivaire, below Poetical, at those Sowfoot Crossing, and eet
ees not vair' good land for the farming----"

Thud! Thud! The old man caught his temples with both hands. "I am 'most
craze' by that steam-drill," he whispered. "Eet come so close to our
secret. Let us get away. That sound cr-r-aze me. Found! Found! Vair'
large lode, Mistaire Steering.--Sacre! The sound of that steam-drill is
to me the most worse thing. That lode run through and come out by the
rivaire, eef I am not mistake', Mistaire