away his
slender chance for life.

"Do for him what you can; you seem to be a capable man, sir; you inspire
confidence in me," said the Governor, laying his hand appealingly on the
doctor's shoulder; "and if you can save him, I'll pay you twice what
this infernal claim was worth to you!"

"I've done all that can be done for him, without hope or expectation of
reward," said the doctor; "and I'll stick by him to the end, one way or
another. We can care for him here as long as this weather holds, just as
well as they could in a hospital."

"Well, as far as what this claim's worth goes," put in Ten-Gallon,
edging into the conversation, "you don't need to lose any sleep over
that."

"What do you mean?" demanded Slavens, turning upon him sharply.

Ten-Gallon stirred the dust with his toe, stooped and picked up an empty
revolver-cartridge.

"It ain't worth that!" said he, presenting it in the palm of his hand.

"I don't know what you're driving at," said the doctor, inclined to walk
away and leave him.

"I mean that Hun Shanklin queered all of you," said Ten-Gallon. "You had
the wrong figgers, and you filed on the wrong claim!"

Pressed for an explanation of how he knew, Ten-Gallon told them that he
had been Shanklin's partner at the beginning, and that Shanklin had
deceived and cheated both him and Boyle.

"Ah, then he did double-cross my son!" cried the Governor triumphantly,
seizing this vindication for the young man's deed with avid eagerness.

"He sure did," Ten-Gallon agreed; "and he done it right! I know all
about you"--nodding to the doctor--"and what happened to you back of
that tent in Comanche that night. Shanklin had it in for you ever since
you showed up his game the night that sucker feller was goin' to put
down that wad of money. He'd been layin' for you, one way and another,
for a couple of days or so. You walked right into his hand that night."

"I seemed to," admitted Slavens with bitter recollection.

"Shanklin knew about copper in these rocks over here----"

"So it's copper?" said Slavens, unable to restrain his words.

"Copper; that's what it is," nodded Ten-Gallon. "But it ain't on this
claim, and I'll show that in a minute, too. Hun had been writin' to
Jerry about it, tryin' to git up a company to pay him for what he knew,
so they could locate the man that drawed Number One there, see? Well,
Hun, he'd known about that copper a long time; he could go to it with
his eyes shut. So he got t