very good word," assented the gambler, unmoved. "It was the part of
prudence to let our valiant friends and servants pull these chestnuts
from the fire, as aforetime. To become the corpse of a copper king is a
prospect that holds no attractions for me."

"But why--why on earth--did you insist on employing men you now distrust?
you bewilder me, Dewing," declared Zurich. "What's the idea--to swindle
yourself?"

"You will do me the justice to remember," observed Dewing with a
thin-lipped smile, "that I urged upon you, repeatedly and most strongly,
as a desirable preliminary to our operations, to remove Mr. Peter Johnson
from this unsatisfactory world without any formal declaration of war."

"I won't do it!" declared Zurich bluntly. "And--damn you--you shan't do
it! He's a dangerous old bow-legged person, and I wish he was farther. And
I must admit that I am myself most undesirous for any personal bickering
with him. To hear Jim Scarboro relate it, old Pete is one wiz with a
six-gun. All the same, I'll not let him be shot from ambush. He's too
good for that. I draw the line there. I'm not exactly afraid of the
little old wasp, either, when it comes down to cases; but I have great
respect for him. I'll never agree to meet him on a tight rope over
Niagara and make him turn back; and if I have any trouble with him he's
got to bring it to me. You have no monopoly of prudence."

"There it is, you see!" Something Dewing spread out his fine hands. "You
made no allowance for my loyalty and I made none for your scruples. As a
result, Mr. Johnson has established a stalemate, held a parley, and
bought off our warriors. They've been taken in on the copper find, on
some small sharing, while we, in quite another sense of the word, are
simply taken in. Such," observed Mr. Dewing philosophically, "is the
result of inopportune virtues."

"Bosh! I told you all along," said Anderson heavily, "that there's no
mineral in the Gavilan. I've been over every foot of it--and I'm a miner.
We get no news because no man makes haste to announce his folly. You'll
see!"

"Creede and Cripple Creek had been prospected over and over again before
they struck it there," objected Zurich.

"Silver and gold!" retorted Eric scornfully. "This is copper. Copper
advertises. No, sir! I'll tell you what's happened. There's been no
battle, and no treachery, and no mine found. We've been trapped. That
Gavilan location was a fake, stuck up to draw our fire. We've